Shortened Phrases

  A shortened phrase is an abbreviation of a group of words form a phrase or name that have been contracted for ease of writing. They are especially useful in essays and theses that repeat the same phrase or name many times. Understanding their correct usage can help avoid errors and confusion, and add to

Read more

Hyphens, En Dashes and Em Dashes

When and Where to Use Hyphens A hyphen is a small dash and this one is the most frequently used. It is the smallest of the three. It is mostly used to join words together. A simple example is joining two words before a noun, such as in the following examples. ‘John drove down a

Read more

How to Write an Introduction

Certainly, every essay must include an opening paragraph, and this is your introduction. It plays an important role in drawing the reader’s attention to what your essay will discuss. Writing the introduction can seem difficult because you might feel that you need to take a long time to sit and think about what initial word

Read more

What is a Topic Sentence?

The body of an essay includes many paragraphs that each discuss a new topic to substantiate the essay’s thesis statement (i.e. answer the essay question). Before you start writing a paragraph, it is important to have a topic sentence to unify the paragraph’s content and to ensure the paragraph discusses the topic coherently. A topic

Read more

Time Management and Motivation

When studying at school or university, you will normally be enrolled in more than one subject or course each semester. The busiest and most stressful time of a semester is when examinations and assignment deadlines are approaching, usually all at the same time! But you can easily reduce this stress or even avoid this situation

Read more

How to Write a Literature Review

A literature review is a secondary source conducted from the study of original or primary source and survey of books, scholarship articles, journals, theses, dissertations and other related resources. It is not researching on a topic but it is a review of others’ existing works or researches on the topic you are interested to do

Read more

How do I motivate myself to write my thesis?

The human brain is a funny thing. Even when we have a great reason to do something—a clean house, money, more free time, better health, greater knowledge—we somehow find ways to procrastinate and dawdle, preferring the easier but less preferable present to the more difficult but more rewarding future. Writing a thesis is much the

Read more

How to Analyse an Essay Question

In order to write an essay that answers the essay question effectively, you first must be able to analyse the essay question. Firstly, you should know the kind of essay you are expected to write. There are two main types of essays: explanatory essays and argumentative essays. An explanatory essay, as its name implies, is

Read more

Ten Ways to Improve Your Grades

  It is possible to improve your grades by self-editing your essay or assignment before you hand it in. Many students fail to look over their work once they have completed it, or they do not know what to look for. This means that students are handing in work that contains spelling mistakes, grammatical errors,

Read more

How to Choose Your Degree or Your Major

For students considering enrolling in a degree, trying to decide which degree is right for them can be extremely difficult. Similarly, for students in a general degree, like a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science, choosing a major can be very tough. Some people have known since they were kids what they wanted to

Read more