Your Writing Coach

28/04/2018

Junot is one of my favourite living writers. His short sentences are aimed directly at the truth. Each word is balanced perfectly. Each full stop carries its own weight.

I never got any help, any kind of therapy. I never told anyone.

27/04/2018

After a short holiday from social media, and many hard tutoring sessions in the lead up to the April deadlines, I've been pulled back to the computer by something great: A message from a student telling me they found the podcast episode valuable.

Firstly, that is awesome. Secondly, it's so inspiring to hear that the content is doing what I hoped it would.

I'm still looking for more international students to share their experiences of studying in the UK with me. If you think you might be interested, have a listen to episode one, and get in touch.

Episode 1: In this episode I talk to Shufan. Shufan came to the UK to study Accounting and Management in the summer of 2017. After introducing her hometown and speaking about her education in Chin…

30/03/2018

An awesome first episode, exactly the kind of personal and practical conversation that I hoped to share 🌍 Take a listen @ https://yourwritingcoach.co.uk/podcast-faq/

WANT TO SHARE YOUR OWN STORY? KNOW SOMEBODY WHO MIGHT?

Get in touch or share this link with your friends, and let's get talking 🖐️

Cheers for all the support people,
Will

29/03/2018

I really couldn't have asked for a better conversation for my first episode. FOLLOW THE LINK AND LISTEN NOW https://yourwritingcoach.co.uk/podcast-faq/. I'd love to hear your feedback on this. Learnt such a huge amount from the process of creating episode 1, can't wait to keep the train rolling onwards. If you think any of your friends would be interested in the conversation, or perhaps even in taking part, do go ahead and hit that SHARE button now 🌍🌍🌍

INTERESTED IN HAVING A CONVERSATION YOURSELF? send me a message and we'll get talking.

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT PEOPLE
Will

21/03/2018

The snow has passed and episode one and two are now in the works. Great to see a real variety of people coming forward to share their story. If you'd like to have a 30-60 minute conversation with me (face-to-face/Skype) answering some questions and sharing some of your experiences of being an international student, just give me a message and get in touch.

Best,
Will

06/03/2018

An awesome experience recording episode 1 of 'The International Student' podcast today. Amazing to be starting something brand new, with a whole new set of skills to master. Just listening back to the recording and I think we have a really interesting conversation here. Stay locked for the release :)

02/03/2018

Want more information about getting involved in my Podcast project and sharing your story? I've just uploaded my full Podcast FAQ document to my website. Please do contact me if you have any other questions people. Happy Friday.

Best,
William

What’s the podcast about? The International Student Podcast is a free audio resource featuring informal discussions with international students, focusing on their experiences studying in the UK. I’…

28/02/2018

Super excited for all the positive responses this project has received so far. A big thanks to the students who have already contacted me for more details on sharing their story. First interviews have been scheduled for next week so everything is now in full motion. Looking for 5-8 more interviews to put in the diary, so if you're an international student currently studying in the UK, and you think you might be interested, give me a message for more details.

Thanks people,
Will

27/02/2018

In preparation for the deadlines of the spring term, this week I'm writing a short video about deadlines and how to, well, crush them.

Deadline buffers are certainly a pretty good start I think - marking our deadline in our calendar for the entire week prior to the hand in. A good start yes, but what other ways can we build our schedule for stress free success? I'm working on a few myself, and will get them to you soon.

Let me know if you have any specific ways you have used to prepare yourself.

A Hard Week Last week was hard. Four large deadlines landed within a four day period. The result was a week (and weekend) where I was forced to violate my

27/02/2018

Are you an international student currently studying in the UK?

Would you like to share some of your experiences with the students following behind you?

Do you live in Southampton or have access to Skype/Google - Hangouts?

If the answer is yes, yes and yes, I'm looking for your help. If you'd be interested in being one of the first students interviewed for my new 'International Students Podcast', and sharing those experiences of your travel/study/accommodation/lifestyle, give me a message and I can send you along all the details of how to get involved. I am arranging both individual and group (2-3) discussions, so if you like the idea yourself, or know someone who might be interested, spread the word.

26/02/2018

********* FOR DIRECT RESOURCE LINK 'SEE MORE' *********

Ever wondered what your hard-working professors get up to over the summer?

Well they MIGHT spend part of it creating free resources and handing them over to the 'terribly helpful' IT team to put online.

UNIVERSITY RESOURCE BANKS ARE GREAT. Institutions push huge amounts of time and money into bringing together these support systems for their students, and because they are created by faculty and academic support professionals we can approach them with a pretty-decent level of trust.

The University of Leicester's academic writing resource has a large and well ordered selection of materials (text/video/audio) to help you tackle your next writing project. From tips on planning to full dissertation guides with structural breakdowns, follow the link below and check it out.

22/02/2018

Are you struggling to find the best language to compare three data points? Perhaps, after reading your 10,000 word essay, your friend points out that you've used the word 'moreover' 56 times.

Whatever your struggle, The Manchester Academic Phrasebank could be the simple and direct approach to getting you through.

WHY DID I PICK IT?
- Ultra-practical
- Great tool for any stage of the writing process
- Well organised for super-quick use

WHAT IS IT? AND WHY'S IT USEFUL?
The Manchester Academic Phrasebank is a great resource if you're looking for ways to construct or improve your academic sentences. These phrases are writing templates for 1st class academic writing. They can be used as building blocks to form your writing projects, or in the editing stage to continue to improve the level of communication in your text.

HOW DO I USE IT?
The Phrasebank organises its sentence (and multi-sentence) templates into ‘GENERAL LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS’. So whether you are comparing two theories, signalling transition between ideas, being critical or explaining causality, you can quickly find the sentence construction that is going to work for you.

I've put this resource first because it comes perfectly in-line with my personal approach to the craft of writing. Building a good piece of text is like building a good solid chair, there's no need for magic, just practical advice, materials, and the right tools for the job.

http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/