Thursday 26th

Thursday night blog??? Well, I glass of vino has been consumed and the rain has stopped – we shouldn’t underestimate the effects of the weather on students’ ability to study and, hell, even to make it into college!


However, I’m really writing to praise the SWAP workshop thing at the beautifully located Craighouse Campus – I believe one Siegfried Sassoon once recuperated and reflected upon his contributions to the ‘glory of slaughter’. It was really good to break from routine, and have a day away from Stevenson. I realised I had been caught up a bit in the mounting pressure of the work load – half the teachers seem to have suddenly picked up on the fact that we’ve only got a month till Xmas, and have determined to chuck assignments at us, Arriba, abajo, al dentro, al centro!

Anyway, they gave me a cup o tea, which is always a winning start, and it was encouraging to see so many people, of a mature status, all eager to study! Then we heard a good talk on the ‘transitions’ we could expect on moving on up from college to uni. They’ll be a lot less contact time and no obligation to attend lectures, where up to 500 unknown faces may gather in a large, formal, impersonal environment. However, us mature students often WANT to attend because we have something to contribute. And we’re too old to deal with hangovers!

Loads of good advice regarding Note Taking was the 2nd workshop. Many lecturers post some of their notes online BEFORE the lecture, and, of course, you can always read up on the subject. I’d say note taking is a skill that I’ll develop with time, but I’m no too bad at the mo! It’s important to:

• Prepare beforehand
• Develop note taking style & strategy
• Think before you write
• Try to identify key points
• Review, reflect & possibly rewrite ASAP

We then experienced a real live lecture on Sectarianism in Scotland. Seemed interesting, but the lecturer was trying to squeeze a full lecture into 30 mins. So we just got some good stuff about Irish immigration, which we discussed and evaluated in groups before lunch.

A workshop on Academic Writing was next, which re-enforced some of the points we’d been given by Scott, and I knew from my IELTS in Cambridge tutoring. It was still good advice and during the talk... BING BANG BUMP!!

Why the arse was I so hell bent on writing so much for my Investigating Europe project?? I felt the need to write about Barça’s season in a manner that was fitting for the majesty of the triumph, and would show my literary talents to the full. Lovely. However, it’s probably more important to finish the project, and give myself time to do other stuff and have a wee pint!

The last workshop was probably the best! It concerned Reading, and led us into the ideas of being a Passive and Creative Reader....more on this later!

Ciao