So you have survived the last few semesters or the last year of college? It’s time to start fresh again. What you did or how you did in spring is behind you. Now you have to focus on what’s ahead. It’s still the start of the semester and you can gather your thoughts and focus on being motivated for coming back to the campus again. There are a few things you should consider and keep in mind while starting the semester in fall.

Don’t Fall behind in Class

It’s the start of the semester so it’s a good thing to stay on track and complete each assignment on time. If you submit all the assignments and projects on time, there would be no reason for you to fall behind in class. None of us want to spend the holidays catching up on missed work or buried in textbooks.  So, make sure that you don’t fall behind in class because you don’t want to regret it when all your friends are having fun and you are busy with college work.  Organize and plan everything. Try to get most of the things done in your syllabus and ace the midterms to make sure the finals go great.

Cold Weather

We know how annoying it is to get out of bed when it’s really cold and chilly outside. But, it happens every year. You can’t just roll up in bed with Starbucks and expect to go through the semester without any struggle. Waking up in cold mornings and encountering freezing temperatures is indeed difficult. Grab a hot cup of coffee on your way to class and out on some warm clothes is the only way to deal with it. If you don’t pay attention now, things will really get warmer near the exam week and you will start to feel the chill. Also, you are not the only one who has to get up in the morning. If you really have a hard time getting up in the morning then exercise for a while before getting ready. It will help your muscles relax a bit.

Don’t miss classes

Absences happen but you have to be cautious about it. There are days when you are so bummed out and stressed that you want to relax and take a day off. However you are only allowed to have a few absences, before the teacher starts to notice your absence and drop a letter. There would be some days that will be really cold or you may have to take a day off due to some illness, then what? Save your absences foe the right time and the best time to make the most of them is in the end of the semester.

Harder Courses and Classes

If you are enrolled in a fall semester that can mean two things: either you are a freshman or you have been in college for a year or so. If you are new then things are quite different as compared to high school. There would be countless assignments, quizzes, projects and finally exams. It’s a lot to take in at once. If you are an old student, then you must be aware that courses get tough and you are required to invest more time in college work.

Either way you have to work hard to get through the semester with flying colors. Professors don’t always play around in college to cut you some slack. Set your priorities and focus on studies too.

End of the Semester

When the semester will come to an end, it will be around the holidays and you can’t just help but fall the victim of the festivities around you. At the same time, you are piled with hundreds of work and projects before the final exams. You may think that you will be able to manage but things get quite rough and it’s difficult to manage studies at that time. Don’t you want to spend time at home with family or close friends? So, just chill and relax! Make a proper plan to work things out so that you can enjoy the festival season.

These are some of the basic tips and ways that you should follow in order to maintain your grades and finish the semester like a pro!

We all go through that time when it comes down to surviving comprehensive writing exams. Once the studies for comprehensive exams are over, it gets worse. A lot of us fear writing so it seems like a terrifying idea. Here are a few tips that will help you in surviving comprehensive writing exam.

So there are things you must do before the exam and some during the exam. We have break down of the things you should do before and after the exam.

 Before the Exam

• Organize the notes

Organize the notes in a manner that explain everything to you. It should make sense and should be organized in the correct order. You can use color tags to relate the concepts, authors and themes together. Always make sure that the notes are on your finger tips to find the information quickly. The color tags will help you remember where the notes were written or stored. Let’s say you wrote a couple of concepts in the red color section. Think of all the key points that you remember jotting down in the red section. The label will help you find the information.

• Keep everything you need with you

When you sit for the exam, make sure you have everything. Keep all the writing tools, notes, water and snacks with you. These are some standard things that will be required to write the comprehensive exam. However, if you are writing from the comfort of your own home, create a comfortable spot in your room. Minimize the distractions as much as possible to keep your focus on writing only. If you work with music then update the playlist with your favorite songs. Keep tea, coffee or water at arm’s length to keep you alive.

During the exam

• Write down the Basic Terms, Dates, Concepts and Authors

This step is really important when you are writing without any notes. Before you look at the question, write all the relevant information to keep it at the top of your mind.

• Read the Exam Carefully

This particular step is crucial if you have to choose the question. Underline the terms as you read the paper and make sure you understand all the things asked in the question. The key question usually lies in the end so read the whole thing.

As you read the question, think of a rough idea to answer each question. Take mental notes about the sources you will use, what theories and concepts would answer the question. It will help you fill gaps. You will be able to tell if you are missing something or all the concepts are allocated accordingly and how long can you spend in giving a response.

• Draft your Answers

Before you actually start writing, take some time to plan how you will answer the question. Sketch out an answer with arguments and thesis statements.

• Meta-Cognitive and Sign Posting

Now it’s time to draft your answers and the 5 paragraph structure will help you out. Start with an introduction paragraph and then write the rest of your answer. Use a lot of sign posting and try to be meta-cognitive in your answer. Take each paragraph to tell what every section will do and why. If your thoughts change slightly, go back and change it.

Use the first sentence as a mini introduction for each paragraph and tie it with the thesis statement and highlight what you are going to do in each paragraph. This entire plan acts as a road map to help you focus on a topic if you are running out of time.

Don’t lose hope on the amount of information out there on your topic. Literature research may seem like a lot of information that will make you drown in quicksand. Getting through this chunk of information is indeed a huge task but if you plan it, you can get rid of that problem, one bit at a time.

To help you get through all that information in small sizes, we have compiled an easy plan for you to follow.

Step 1: What do you want to find out?

Do you have a research question ready or are you looking for information to make your research question strong? Before you start reading all the relevant information, make up your mind about what you are researching for. If you are at the stage of exploring a topic or a subject, then state the purpose of your research as “understanding the basic ideas of topic ABC”. If you are looking for opposing theories on the effect of event A on event B, then write it down clearly.

Having a clear perspective and goal will help you find the right information at this step of the research. You will begin to notice that reading for different goals for your research will help you focus on various aspects of publication.

Step 2: How much time do you have on your hands?

You can spend the whole day or just 20 minutes on the entire paper. If you really want to manage your time in the best possible way, then give you work a structure. Plan the work by giving yourself deadlines.

Once you are aware how much time do you have on your hands, start planning. If you have a month for the entire research, take 1.5 weeks to go through the essentials, 1 week to explore the sidelines of your research and 1 week to write a literature review.

Step 3: Study the essentials

Identify the key publications of your study. A good way to start is to find an authentic and a detailed review paper or a report. Start the topic by chewing on the references on that paper or report.

To understand the basics of the new subject, you need to spend some time on it. Understand the basic equations and principles of that study. All this will require sitting down, noting down important points and slowly working your way through all the relevant material. The process will be similar to a student going through a difficult chapter of a textbook. You may find yourself spending too much time on the some papers. However, they will build the foundation of your research along with further readings.

Step 4: Speed through the Sidelines

Separate all the papers that you find interesting, give additional insights but are not relevant to the field of study. Note that these papers are not of lesser importance, you can’t skip the side information. You have to understand all the concepts spend less time in order to understand all the elements.

The key is to go through everything in a quick manner. It will be like speed-reading through everything. Train the eyes to look at a group of words rather than looking at a single word at a time.

Step 5: Archive what you read

Reading is important but finding that paper and looking for more information is a vital aspect in controlling the large chunk of information over the time.

You can keep a digital archive or archive hard copies. Arrange your document in such a way that you are able to find those papers even after three years.

Step 6: Keep an eye on the outcome

Don’t rely on information and results available when you first researching on a topic. What appeared to be the truth yesterday may not remain the same with today’s results. Develop a strategy to keep your research updated in order to maintain the best outcome. Subscribe to the publication updates of the relevant journals and set up RSS feed on relevant keywords.

Scholarly blogging is usually centered on the need of attracting new audiences through academics. Academic writers are told that they can do a better research and enhance the impact.

Blogs are a strong medium for public engagement. People argue that blogging is a part of academic writing. It is definitely not an add-on. Blogging is the landscape of academic writing. It has the same value as any other form of writing. Here are a few strong points that can improve your academics as well as your writing style.

Blogs help in establishing a strong writing routine

The wisdom of creative and academic writing is helpful for making it a habit. Blogs can be finished in just one sitting as they are small. You can easily draft them in single self-contained pieces. Most book enthusiasts suggest that one should write every day. A blog can be written in a couple of days and gets published. Then comes the feedback and the cycle goes on. This cycle is a great motivation for continuing writing and making it an everyday routine.

Experiment with your writing voice

The academics write blogs in a very casual tone as compared to other publications. The blogs gives you the flexibility to try various approaches in different posts. You can use a different vocabulary, syntax and a different genre each time. The textual experiments will help you determine the kind of voice you want to adopt. It will support you developing a light style of writing to a more complex writing style.

Get to the Point with Blogs

A blog is a small piece of writing, not an essay. It is impossible to include a lot of ideas into one blog post. You can include multiple ideas into as much as 1000 words. A blog is the best platform to talk solely about one thing. Even if you are journal writer, blogging will teach you how to focus on one point only rather than firing up different ideas. Regardless of the fact that the academic writing style is quite professional than blogging, it is still a recipe for success.

Experiment with various writing styles

A blog can have more than one style of writing in every post. Some bloggers maintain the same writing style throughout their blog while others take a varied writing approach. There are no such rules in a blog so you are free to experiment with various forms of writing. A blogger can do anything with the blog, keeping the target audience in mind. You can include a description, instructions or a short review in the blog. It can also take a more literary form of writing such as a letter. You can also include images, slides and videos to make it even more interesting.

Academic Writing scares a lot of students and people even if they have good ideas to share. Others are told that they just have to write better without any help. Academic writing is not rocket science. It requires a set of skills and you can learn them easily to make your writing clean. Here are a few things that will help you aim for writing better papers and essays in the future.

Panic and Procrastinate If you are in a state of panic or procrastinate from fear then there is no point to continue writing. Sit back, take a break. It doesn’t have to be a long break; a short break would also suffice. Another 30 minutes of panic won’t help you get a better grade.  Make coffee, take a walk and deep breaths is far better option in such a situation.

Spine of the Essay Make a proper plan to write your essay. It should be a route through the topic. Thus, it is the spine of your essay. Make sure you do this step early, as it will help you decide what papers and books you must read and what you can ignore. A safe and simple spine is to focus on one thing at a time. It can be any of the main topics of your essay. Take that one idea or theory at a time and write everything that needs to be shared. The best option will be to take out topics, structure your arguments, and discuss all the material heading by heading. A spine of topics and ideas helps more than just describing the particular idea. It also highlights a lot of other important points as well. This can also help you explore through your content and analyze all the topics and measure their differences.

First Draft

Write the first draft of your essay for yourself to work out what you think is right. Make a second draft for the reader who has no clue what you want to share. Here are a few tips to make this process easy:

• Make a list of everyday tasks for writing your essay. Don’t go to other section or topics in between. If you are worried about missing an important point, make a note of it.
• Put the first draft away for a few days, change the font or swap it with a friend to get away from it.
• Write the second draft on the sense of distancing yourself from the first draft. Write it in such a way that a person who doesn’t know about this essay understands. The reader must stay with you throughout the spine.
• Finish it by going through slips and typos. Check all the references correctly and tidy up all the loose ends.

Read Aloud

Read your essay out loud to see if your brain understands the sense of your writing and ideas. Shape up its rhythm and sentences in a flow. You mind or tongue will trip if any sentence does not make sense. Reading aloud is your friends because you can catch typos, punctuation and gaps.
Writing your Conclusion

The conclusion is the general idea or the big idea of the entire essay. Write it in such a way that it emerges through different stages, but make sure that all the questions are answered. Don’t add a new idea in your conclusion even if you really want to do it. If you think it is absolutely necessary to add that idea, go to the body and fit it there.

Forming sentences

• Keep all the main phrases towards the beginning of each sentence. Don’t make the reader wait too long to figure out who did what.
• Don’t construct your sentences in passive voice even when you leave out “I”.
• Don’t use hidden metaphors. In some sentences, metaphors are hidden and they don’t make sense at all. They may be figurative words which are not metaphors completely but such words confuse the reader. Thus, it is better to avoid using hidden metaphors.