Any one done a degree?

[Kapitan]

Good afternoon all

Has anyone done a degree? i am currently undertaking one but any advice would be handy specifically how to set out essays and study planning etc.

right now any help is appreciated i need to really plan out the coming year or two.

[captainadccdacaptain]

Im currently in associates for computer programming, ill be glad to help. You could PM me if you would like

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Kapitan

Good afternoon all

Has anyone done a degree? i am currently undertaking one but any advice would be handy specifically how to set out essays and study planning etc.

right now any help is appreciated i need to really plan out the coming year or two.

That's a pretty vague request.


What sort of degree are you going for?
Are you in a traditional school, night school, online?

[Kapitan]

Thanks for the replies

Basically I’m doing a distance learning course for logistics and transport I already am qualified in transport management but this is a separate and more advanced degree

What I’m looking for is how to plan time and also how to set out essays mainly I know o have to write up 300 and 10000 word essays so word management as well.

That’s what I’m looking for is the planning and how people set out their work plan the work and also how they set out their essays

[Platapus]

Well you are not going to like this advice and you probably won't follow it. I sure didn't and I have my doctorate. I wished I had followed this advice that so many well meaning people gave me. But I am not that type of person. To me, the only way is the hard way.

The key to academic writing is really dependent on using an outline. Academic writing is a formula. It is completely different from creative writing. Using outlines is not fun, and at first you may think it is a waste of time. But it truly isn't. Most paragraphs in your document will have the exact same structure such as:

- Transition from previous paragraph

- One and only one "point" that you are demonstrating. Trying to do too much in one paragraph is a common mistake.

- The information that supports the "point" of the paragraph

- An application of how this "point" is related to your overall hypothesis

- Transition to the next paragraph

The other common mistake is to start writing complete sentences. In academic writing, I found that writing complete sentences was one of the last things I ended up doing in my papers.

Take each part of this formula and for each individual paragraph, just write a word or two. Just enough for you to document your thought process. Do this for most of the paragraphs. Make sure that your flow through the paragraphs amply supports your hypothesis. This is the skeleton of your paper.

Then, once you are happy with the flow, go back and turn these words into more detailed phrases. Don't worry about grammar. You are just expanding on what you wrote. Do this for all the paragraphs. Now your skeleton has muscles and is starting to take form that is recognizable.

Once everything looks complete, then and only then do you take these phrases and turn them into grammatically correct full sentences.

You don't polish a piece of furniture while you are building it. The same applies to academic writing.

One of my many problems in academic writing was that I tended to start at page 1 and then continue through the document. Not. A. Good. Idea.

I found that once I understood academic writing that I wrote my papers from the middle out. The first and last paragraph/section/chapter were usually the last things that I wrote.

Way different from creative writing that I was more used to.

Key points of academic writing

- Rubric -- A document that tells how the faculty will be making your life miserable.

-- Learn it
-- Live it
-- Love it

- Style guide. Many schools require academic writing to follow a style. For my doctorate it was the APA. Your school may have a different one. Follow it. Beware that often schools, like mine, used a standard style.... but modified it. Yikes, that's not a standard then. Accept it and find out if there are any modifications that your school uses in regards to writing style manuals.

- You are not writing a mystery story. There should not be any big surprises.

- Follow the old military adage of

--- Tell them what you are going to tell them
--- Tell them
--- Tell them what you just told them.

- You are making an academic argument (you will learn about those). How you make this argument can be more important than the argument itself. coughcoughmystupiddissertationcoughcough

- Know the difference between a reader that is ignorant as opposed to stupid. In academic writing you are assuming that your reader is smart but ignorant about your topic. Assume nothing, explain everything.

- You will know when you are successful in academic writing when someone reads your paper and remarks "Well, duh, that just makes sense".

- Win the war. The overall goal of your studies is to get the hell out of that school, with your degree and never think of them again. Keep that in mind. Don't fight the school and don't fight the faculty.

Cooperate and graduate.

Take great pleasure that after you graduate they will still be stuck there.

By the way, according the United Nations International Committee on Making Student's Lives Miserable (UNICMSLM)

It is a matter of international law that anyone reviewing your paper MUST, under penalty of death, make changes. Just accept this.

Also accept that many of these changes will be stupid. It sucks.

There is a huge difference between a writer and an author.

A writer writes stuff where an author incorporates stupid changes made by other people. Academia prepares you to be an author.

Goal: Get your paper approved and get a good grade. Nothing else matters especially such things as facts and things.

I like to think of it as dogs walking past a tree. Everyone just has to leave their mark. They are not contributing anything, but just making sure that everyone knows they exist. It can get frustrating, but it is part of academia.

After a few papers, if you break the code on the formula, you will be able to knock out primo academic BS in your sleep.

[stork100]

Legendary advice Platapus, if I may say so Sir. I'm currently undergoing a thing called a 'Tertiary Preparation Program', which will get me entry into the film degree I want to get into. It's all about how to write and structure essays in the proper academic way etc. Everything you say is 100%. The assessment rubric is God for the academic student wanting to survive the trench warfare of tertiary education, or whatever you call it over there. Keeping your head down, complying and remembering what you're fighting for is what it's all about. Tough gig, for anyone with half a brain.

[Kapitan]

Wow thank you a lot platapus !!!

I’m looking to do my masters after and possibly a PHD if I don’t get my brain after all this 😂

[Platapus]

Friends don't let friends get PhDs.



It's too late for me. Save yourself. Better off getting multiple master's degrees that complement each other.

[Red October1984]

I'm 3/5 of the way through my Mining Engineering degree.

I haven't written anything.

I took literature, political science, etc. Never wrote a thing. If you become an engineer I guess they just assume you don't need to write, haha.

From a fellow student to another, good luck in all your studies!

[Kapitan]

I wouldn't mind doing a history one after this but i think i will pass and continue to do masters and then if i can a PHD, i got a long way to go but i know eventually i will get there!

Im in my 30's so my goal is by my late 30's to achieve atleast the masters if i dont do PHD

But thanks everyone for the help much appreciated

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Kenadar

I'm in grad school now, the future PhD.

You poor soul.



Don't worry, many people overcome grad school and go on to be happy productive members of society.



Thoughts and prayers.

[Commander Wallace]

Welcome to Sunsim , Kanadar. I hope you enjoy your time here. Good luck in your studies as well.

@Kapitan: Platapus gave really good advice and sound insight. I can only add that different disciplines require different approaches. For example, in the medical field, it's helpful to take what I call the " onion approach. " In the medical profession you have to study as if peeling an onion-many different layers. As an example, the Endocrine and Nervous system are so closely tied together, it's truly hard to separate them. I'm sure other disciplines are similar in their respective approaches.

On the other hand, considering the excellent narratives and stories on your visits to various ships and subs and visits to Chernobyl that you have posted here in Subsim, I think you have little to nothing to worry about regarding your studies. Your writing is detail oriented and your enthusiasm and passion for learning and all things nautical come through loud and clear.



I have no doubt you will do well in your endeavors, Blair. Trust your instincts, intelligence and abilities and I'm sure you will do just fine. To that I will add good luck and all the best.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Kenadar

... I've heard a lot of information from my classmates about going to the website papersowl.com and paying for a research paper. I don't know how I feel about it, because I understand that if I don't have time to do everything in time, I will have to go to them, but on the other hand, I want to write my own research paper. What's your advice, friends?

Don't buy papers and don't plagiarize.

The advent of the Internets Tubes has made it easy to plagiarize or buy papers... it also makes it easy to find out who is doing it. If you can find a site to buy a paper, your school probably already knows about it. The schools also use plagiarize detection software/sites where they can have your writing scanned.

The Frau used to be an adjunct professor at a small university. One of her students turned in a "suspicious" paper. It took her about 30 minutes to find the website where the student purchased the paper.

A large part about earning a degree has to do with integrity.

Please allow me to share my favorite quote about integrity.

If you have integrity, nothing else matters
If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters

Allen K Simpson quoted in Eyewitness to Power (2001) by David Gergen

[skidman]

If you have integrity, nothing else matters
If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters

Good one, thanks for sharing.

[nikimcbee]

Black belt master of obvious.




BA Russian.....queue laugh track now.