of a social historian
University can be a confusing place. As a student, so much is asked of you personally and much of the time you’re expected to find out what it is as well as how to do it! For those coming straight from school it can be a head-spinning time, the difference disguised by the fact of being still in education. Guiding students through that transition – personally, intellectually and in terms of developing key study skills – is one of the parts of my job I enjoy the most. Sometimes this is specific to studying History, others its generic to the way we work in the humanities and social sciences, but much of the time it’s pretty universal to all students.
The posts below all offer advice on topics ranging from university etiquette to how to approach assignments or more specific essay-writing advice. If you find these useful, you might also want to browse the ‘teaching reflections’ posts.
Students are often surprised when they hear the number of texts I would expect to see referenced in a university-level History essay. I’ve blogged before on how to go about finding the books and articles to use, but perhaps it’s worth saying that you won’t always need to do all that work for yourself. Yes, at …
There's no shortage of advice on how to tackle writing a tricky opening sentence. At least, not if you're a novelist, short story writer, journalist, or even a blogger. But what about for those writing essays? It's something we don't talk about very often because it seems somehow petty. It's not something that's likely to …
In my last post I gave a run down of the four different key types of texts you'll be asked to read as a History student, and some brief points on how to make sense of the things that don't fit into those categories. Next we turn to how to use understanding when reading for a university …
