Posts

A writing retreat experience.

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Hi there! Last week I went on a writing retreat. Now I have say this was not the kind of writing retreat you imagine that takes place in an idyllic countryside with good food, good wine and peaceful isolation, instead it was a 2 day programme that took place in a small conference room in central London - Glamorous!  Photo Via Unsplash During these 2 days we had a workshop where we learnt skills to do with editing, questions surrounding what was ‘good’ academic writing and how to overcome writers block. We also had 1-2-1 sessions with professional writers who read some of our work and have personalised advice we could take forward to improve our work, as well as some timed dedicated writing sessions. Here are some of the tips I found really useful during the sessions: Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash As writers we are responsible for carrying the reader through the text. Imagine someone approaches you and says “hey, I know it’s raining and it’s cold outside
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Reflecting on the first term.

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Hi! At the end of January 2020 I’ve now completed 4 months of my PhD and I thought this would be a great time to reflect on what it’s been like so far. I knew that starting a PhD would be a complete lifestyle change and so far out of my comfort zone that it was long lost in the horizon behind me. Knowing how difficult I find change I knew there would be an adjustment phase where I spent the first few months in the same state as Ross from Friends when he drank all the margaritas and kept telling everyone “I’M FINE”.   But I made it through and just like I predicted, I’m feeling a lot better. Although after speaking to a few different PhD students over the last few months I’ve come to the realisation that I may never feel completely settled or confident in everything I do here, I do feel like I’m starting to find my feet. Baby steps eh? Back to the start: day one Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash I suppose it is hard to prepare someone for the start o
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Introduction.

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Hi there!  I’m Erica and I thought I would introduce myself a little before getting into the swing of this blog. Photo by  Octavian Dan  on  Unsplash I’m currently a full-time PhD student at Loughborough University of London and am fully funded by Technē. My PhD is on the topic of spoken word poetry communities and their use of digital media (I’ll go more in depth into my topic at a later date when I’m not only 4 months into the PhD!). I began my PhD in October 2019 so at the time of writing this I’m still fairly new at it all. I’ve decided to start a blog for 3 reasons: 1.      Prior to starting my PhD I couldn’t find a lot of information online written from a student’s perspective about what a PhD would involve and what it would be like day to day. I’m hoping I’ll be able to document my journey here and potentially help some people who are in the same position I was. 2.      I’ve heard that starting a blog is a great way for academics to practice writ
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