• How to

    Kids and Conferences

    Carers returning from maternity leave or other career breaks often need to rebuild their networks, refresh their knowledge and reinvigorate their enthusiasm for their career. Conference attendance is a vital part of a professional career. But caring responsibilities can make it difficult or, at the least, financially very expensive to…

  • How to

    How to Write a Thesis

    Read, read, read. Find a subject that interests you and work with your supervisor to find a specific and under-researched topic. Writing a thesis is a gradual procedure. You chip away at a thesis, adding content as you plan, research, gather data and analyse results. Thesis structures differ, but generally…

  • How to

    How to Write a More Sophisticated Introduction

    In a recent article, ‘How to Write a Great Introduction: The Basics’, I provided a quick and simple outline of the two main things that an introduction must do in order to be considered a true introduction to an essay. In this article, I’d like to take you a step…

  • How to

    Outsourcing for Academics: Is it Worth it?

    ‘It’s 8.15 pm. I’m in bed, exhausted, with pain in all my joints and my ribs. I haven’t been this tired since 26 hours of active labour four years ago. In the last 48 hours, I’ve submitted a grant and a paper, reviewed three manuscripts, and travelled interstate for a…

  • Writing

    How To Write a Literature Review For a Dissertation

    For those who are not familiar with the term ‘literature review’, writing one may be a major challenge. They can be complex documents, and they have to follow set guidelines regarding structure, content and writing style. See below a brief explanation to help you write a literature review in case…

  • Symbols

    How to Use the Semicolon: The Soft Separator

    The semicolon is a punctuation mark that concurrently separates and joins; it links two clauses that could stand alone as separate sentences, but whose link to one another calls for something softer than a full stop. Case in point: the previous sentence. If you’d prefer to learn how to use semicolons by…