ESSAY WRITING TIPS!

For those that don't know, I graduated with a first in a Bachelor of Arts Interior Design degree. I weighed up my options and realised I wasn't quite ready to go into the big wide world just yet, plus I love education... so I decided to stay another year and complete a Masters in Interior Design. Both courses contained A LOT of essay writing!

Throughout my time at uni I realised how much I enjoy helping others learn so I have made becoming an interior designer lecturer my aim in life!

Since joining Instagram, I have come across interior design students who ask me questions like where to resource references, my opinion on their projects and reading through their essays. The aim of this blog is to share some tips I have learnt along the way, I don't want to fill you with overloaded information that you can find on google. I can assure you I do not know it all but I will try my hardest to help... so this blog post is to help anyone who needs a little bit of support while studying.

So you are studying interior design then you most probably consider yourself a creative person... writing an essay might not be your strongest assist so lets at least make this a bit exciting! Try to link your essay to your creative practice, for example, if you are studying senses in design, research into this for your essay. This will kill two birds with one stone! Supporting your creative practice and save yourself writing about something that has no reference to your studies.

Collect as much information as you can, the internet is great but you will gain a higher grade from books, documentaries, ted talks, journals, museums, DVD's etc. If you have got a book from the library and you can't find the time to read the whole book, skip to the references. I have found by doing this it saves a lot of time and I have usually found more in-depth information from smaller pieces of text.

Some university libraries keep previous essays, you never know somebody else may have written about the same subject you have chosen. Use Grammarly! This is a great way to check grammar, spelling, punctuation, word choice, and style mistakes in your writing.

Start as early as you can! We have all been there... leaving something to the last minute and then panicking! This piece of advice is one of the most important, collect information as soon as possible, this gives you time to digest research and start to plan what is important and what isn't. When collecting research, keep note of the resource! Many times I have gone back to my research and not been able to find the correct book/webpage/talk etc...

Taking a break... When writing an essay give yourself time to walk away. Revisiting work after a day or two will give your brain chance to evaluate what you have written. By doing this you will realise what works and what doesn't work and hopefully, you will gain new ideas.

Read your essay to others or let them read it themselves. Don't be afraid to ask your lecturer to give feedback... after all, that's why they are there!

I hope these little points help guys! If there is anything I haven't mentioned or you wish to know, please feel free to ask me! And I hope your essays are as pain-free as possible!

Love,