It’s that time of year again. No, not summer holiday, I’m talking about the Event That Must Not Be Named—final examinations. Unlike the movies (where the combined team of brilliant-yet-good-looking scientists and equally attractive military commandos manages to save Earth at the last minute) there is no way to avoid finals, no matter how many scientists you hire.
Nuts & Blogs
Why Punctuation (Still) Matters
Punctuation has a bad reputation—right up there with politicians and green vegetables. Students often treat it as a complex science, with rules and logic beyond the ability of normal people to understand. Some think of it more like magic, governed by something unknowable or supernatural. Still others believe punctuation is related to manners or etiquette, the ‘proper’ way of writing (and sometimes mistakenly relate it to conventions in spoken English). People even try to argue that punctuation is unnecessary and writing can be read without it if carefully constructed.
The Write Purpose (or, adapting your writing to fit the purpose and the assignment)
At English Academics, we meet many students who are frustrated and struggling with writing. Sometimes these are assignments for a different discipline than the student usually studies and the expectations of the new field are confusing. This often happens after the student has begun to feel comfortable with academic writing in general and has decided to branch out and explore different departments at the university.
Tips and Techniques
Our how-to techniques on writing, researching, and studying - these resources will refresh and reinforce elements discussed in our mentoring sessions. We will be continually updating and adding-to this section’s contents; we also welcome your suggestions for new topics.
Hard Work and Helping Hands
This first blog marks the beginning of a big new adventure here at English Academics: the launch of our website, the start of our new business, and the first step in our commitment to help our clients navigate higher education. We’re excited, motivated, and a little bit scared. We know there is a lot of hard work ahead—for us and for our new students—but we’ve been there before and we know what to do.
How to Finish with Style
Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it.
Exams are looming. Labs, tests, fieldwork, not to mention all the readings you’ve got to do just to keep up with your regular classes! How do you begin to manage it all?
Here’s what you do whenever you’re given a task that seems huge or overwhelming: always work backward.