Uses of the appendix
I haven’t yet started to officially install an appendix into my essay, but as I have been writing (and writing and writing) I have been setting information and points aside which I had felt were important but not entirely necessary to the core work. Currently the end of my essay is filled with random paragraphs of information which I am undecided on whether or not to use. Adesola’s advice to me was to write the essay as if there wasn’t going to be an appendix at all - the core material should still read perfectly, without the reader necessarily having to skip to the appendix to discover your whole point. Essentially, think of the essay as a complete story, with the appendix there for the reader to chose to go to if they desire to learn a little more. It is an option for the reader, not a necessity.
Only 1000 words!... How can I condense my word count?...
Having learnt and discovered so much during this module, on of my biggest challenges is keeping my word count down. And I have been struggling to do this! So I asked for some advice and Adesola had some very helpful tips for us:
- Are you being apologetic? For example, instead of; “I don’t think I am fully optimising my uses of Web 2.0 and this is something which I would like to work on” you could say “I am working to optimise my use of Web 2.0.”
- Be punchy and confident - as you read the essay your discussion should be to-the-point.
- Try not to repeat ideas - repeating ideas, even if worded differently is a massive waste of words!
- Change the order of your essay - rearrange so that all your thoughts on one particular subject are all in one section. This way you will be able to see if you have repeated yourself and will be able to pull out the most important information which you wish to use.
- After 4 saves, save your file under a new name, that way you can keep reflecting back on old versions and decide which order you like best.
- If you are stuck in a loop - start a fresh!
Hope this helps anyone who couldn’t make it to the skype session but is still struggling to complete their essay. I know that my essay is about to go through some serious alterations!...
Finally I will just remind myself and everyone else of this - through every stage of writing this essay, keep asking yourself the question; “What has this got to do with my practice?” If we stick to this, hopefully we will all stay on track!
