Escape and Start Living. @pale-past-blog - Tumblr Blog

08.03.15.

the day I got really excited to eat our newly bought peaches only to realize that my dad ate them all, but it’s ok because I have blueberries (ಠ◡ಠ) also I forgot to create a weekly goal page so that’s what I’ll be doing today ༼ ͒ ̶ ͒༽

365text

08.04.15.

update: physics is still making my head feel cloudy and fuzzy, but at least I have my oranges to power me through (◡‿◡✿)

motivastudy

17:45 // far too excited about my pre-university stationery haul

bellestudy

6/10/15 • just got home (love catching an early train!!!) and I’m reviewing lots of personality psych before dinner. Midterm exam approaching next week. 📝

quillpowr

When the caffeine is gone and you still have tons of review to do! SOS!

senseslost

My workspace featuring my awesome whiteboard (currently empty), 7 mugs with pens, my maths stuff, an amazing view and my favourite cat pillow.

studyspo

How I organise my essay notes

When I started uni and had to regularly write essays starting at 2,000 words using a variety of sources, I was forced to change the way I took notes. The system I use now has changed a lot over the last 4.5 years to accommodate the fact that my essays are now never any shorter than 4,000 words and can go beyond 10,000. So far, this is the method I’m happiest with.

Work out your sections

After some background reading, try to work out what each section of your essay will focus on - mine are pleasure with: men, other women, themselves, and in groups (the latter 2 may be put together in the same section as I may not be able to find enough information for them). Yes, I know the essay topic I’m doing is probably quite different from a lot of high school essays - one of the joys of postgrad study is that you can learn about some really weird and wonderful things.

Three is normally a nice number to divide up an essay by, but it’s all going to depend on your subject discipline and the essay itself.

Once you’ve decided on the sections, open up a spreadsheet and create a new sheet for each (you’ll see mine along the bottom). Doing this in a spreadsheet is easier than in a word document because it allows you to do this, which is helpful when the source you’re reading has arguments that fall into different sections - you can quickly click on the next one and start writing rather than having to scroll up and down to find each table.

The Table

Within each section sheet, lay out a table with the following:

Reference - this is where you put down the academic reference. Do it in the same style as you will in your essay and then you can just copy and paste it in

Notes - write the author’s views and arguments here

Comments - write your own comments here - do you disagree with the author? Has it reminded you to follow something up? Is there something important in this note that you need to remind yourself of?

Tags - just like you would on Tumblr, write the main subjects mentioned in that note so you can search for it at a later date when you come to structure your essay.

Section - this I normally fill in after I’ve collected all my notes and have decided on a structure for my essay. This goes into much more detail than the overall section headings, for example I might split the ‘Pleasure with men’ into: 1A In Marriage: The Matrona (general), 1B In Marriage: The Matrona (Martial’s attitudes), 2 Outside of marriage: Adultery with Men, 3 Unmarried Women etc, and then these numbers would go in the section column. Then writing my essay is simply a matter of ‘painting by numbers’ and picking out all of the 1As, making it flow into the 1B section etc.

Little Things

Highlighting cells - for me, that always means that this note contains an ancient source (which are vital to include in my subject).

[Square brackets] - my own thoughts, added into the Notes column for ease of reading. This ensures I don’t cite my own ideas as belonging to the author.

‘Single quote marks' - I’m paraphrasing the author, but am still close to their words (I’m probably tired or don’t fully gasp the concept just yet) - this reminds me that I need to rephrase it before I write it in my essay.

“Double quote marks” - direct quotation from the author.

EndNote - if your academic institution has access to it, use it! It makes putting together bibliographies a breeze and you can change the style from any of the hundreds of referencing styles to another with just a click of a button. My uni even has its own preferred referencing styles programmed in. I prefer the desktop version as it’s much more user friendly but the web-based one has the same functionality. You can even upload your PDFs in with their reference so it’s all in one neat place.

This might seem like overkill to some of you, but when I’ve got to write thousands of words based on 10, 20, + different books and articles, it’s a real time saver.

If you’ve got an essay to do, why not see if this method works for you for Shake It Up Saturdays?

aeqo

I reblogged this to my main ages ago, but only recently got a chance to try it with my first essay for this semester. This was the most organised, stress-free, well-researched essay I’ve ever written. Thanks so much for this tip, I’d never have thought of this by myself.

mystudystation

Tips and Tricks #27

This won’t work for everyone, but it should help

mystudystation

7th May ~ 15:52

Hiatus? What hiatus? Just posting these quickly as I’m having a lovely lovely afternoon studying at the V&A this afternoon with the official beginning of “study leave”. I’ve decided I’m going to start mixing up where I study after and around my school’s revision sessions, as it’s a good way to keep getting out and about whilst studying, and it’s actually easier for me than going home each time. I also would say that it is really important to keep seeking out new study stations where you will be able to work well - even if it’s just a nice local library, it will help you focus so much more and will help to keep you interested in your revision, which is so important in order for studying to work at all. Also my first exam was this morning and I feel sick just thinking about it! Aaahh

mystudystation

25th May ~ 13:57

Cracking on with some Add Maths as it’s one of my first exams after the holidays - realising that I really don’t understand a thing

zoekezia

more samples of my notecards for GCSE chemistry, biology and physics! :)

professionalprocaffeinator

12/8 - today’s tools

blackmessydesk

Since you guys asked me about my double column notes-taking method, here it is how it works. It’s very simple and easy to use when you want to repeat the subject before exams or when you have to study from a huge book text! :)