{"id":517,"date":"2017-01-19T13:44:13","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T13:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/fass\/?p=517"},"modified":"2017-01-19T13:44:14","modified_gmt":"2017-01-19T13:44:14","slug":"the-importance-of-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/fass\/philosophy\/517","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Balance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just over 2 weeks left of this term until we break for Christmas, the time has really flown by!<\/p>\n

The workload is definitely in full force now, and it’s evident across the whole uni. The library is busy with people from 9am to 5pm, \u00a0study areas are always buzzing with students; all of us working to make our deadlines. I myself have 2 essays to hand in by the beginning of the final week of term and though that may not sound like much, there is still a lot of work that has to go into it.<\/p>\n

In Continental Philosophy I am writing my essay on Nietzsche and his ideas about guilt- where it comes from, how our conscience is formed, and making a critique of this account. For Darwinism I am writing about Evolutionary Psychology and how the process of evolution can help us to understand human traits, characteristics\u00a0and behaviour.<\/p>\n

So much planning goes into Philosophy essays, especially at university level and it’s important to have a clear schedule of what you want to get done, and when you need to have it done for. It’s important to understand that everyone works in different ways<\/em>, and what seems to work for others may not necessarily work for you- so it’s good to try to really understand how you work best and finesse your technique to make it the best that it can be. This is how I personally find to be the best way to work for myself:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Choose my essay questions for each module. I find that doing this as soon as possible really helps. Sometimes that means choosing a question that appeals to me straight away, and other times this means waiting until I’ve had a few more lectures so I can make a more informed decision if I am not too sure. Having my essay questions picked out as early as I can allows me to start collecting my thoughts and making brief notes from the get-go.<\/li>\n
  2. Draw up an initial plan and line of argument. I do this by going through lecture and seminar notes that I have taken, as well as re-reading the primary readings set by the lecturer. This way I can form a basic framework to base my essay on.<\/li>\n
  3. Read, read, read.<\/em> After putting together an initial framework, I can then read with direction- making sure that what I am reading is relevant and allowing me to read critically in accordance with my argument, instead of ‘reading into the blue’. Also, doing reading outside the primary reading list really demonstrates your knowledge and passion for the subject to your lecturer, and so makes you essay unique and different from everyone else’s!<\/li>\n
  4. After reading for each of my essays and picking out quotes and ideas and making notes on them, I then create a more formal plan. This is where I will detail the structure I want my essay to follow by using subheadings, and write under each one what I will include in the section, in the order I want it to appear in the final draft.<\/li>\n
  5. The most important step: I talk to my lecturers<\/em>. I take my plan with me as a guide to follow for points of discussion and ask about the structure of my essay, and if I am generally going in the right direction to answer the question. Obviously there is only so much that the lecturers can say when helping you, but I always come away from talking to them with new ideas for my essay that I may have missed or not thought of initially. I then add these into my formal plan.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I then sit down to write my final drafts. Typically I do the 5 steps above in weeks 6 and 7 of the term, which leaves me with 2\u00a0weeks to write the final versions with everything ready and on-hand. (However, this can change based on how many essays I have to hand in at a given time).<\/p>\n

    This can seem like an extremely daunting task and this is where the importance of balance<\/strong> comes in. I’m human, I need time to take a break and not think about writing essays for a little while, so I make sure to follow a set schedule throughout the week. During the 2 weeks that I am writing the final drafts of my essays I usually head to campus at 9am, no matter what my timetable is and I work on my essays at the times of the day that I have no scheduled classes.<\/p>\n

    Of course, I take breaks- grab some food, perhaps meet up with a friend for half an hour, take a short walk etc. but I remain on campus until 6pm. This may seem like an unbearably long day, but there are more hours in the day than you sometimes realise! When I arrive home after 6pm, I know that I have done enough work on my essay for that day and so I can allow myself to do my readings for my seminars, or simply switch off, relax and not think about uni-related work for the evening. I also find that if I put the most effort I can into writing my essays during the week, that I am able to take Saturday evenings and Sunday off completely!<\/p>\n

    This is why it is important to have a schedule and remain balanced. University wouldn’t be an enjoyable experience if you were working at full speed 24\/7. Just this weekend I was able to take Sunday off and spend time with my family at a ‘Winter Wonderland’ park. I was able to see my younger sister and we had all sorts of Christmas-themed fun like: ice skating, a woodland walk, and enjoying an awesome hot chocolate! Everyone needs time to switch off and almost have a ‘reset’, that way you can return to work-mode and get things done more efficiently and effectively when you need to!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Just over 2 weeks left of this term until we break for Christmas, the time has really flown by! The workload is definitely in full force now, and it’s evident across the whole uni. The library is busy with people from 9am to 5pm, \u00a0study areas are always buzzing with students; all of us working […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":599,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[82,65,64,78,33,79,55],"class_list":["post-517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-philosophy","tag-advice","tag-essays","tag-lancaster","tag-philosophy","tag-student","tag-university","tag-university-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5DvUs-8l","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/599"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":518,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions\/518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}