In the final post of 2018, we will take a look back on the Study Blog and the topics we wrote about this year. With our new team of bloggers, we are hoping to answer your burning questions in 2019 and perhaps surprise you with a few ideas of our own ?…
In January 2019, the Study Blog is celebrating its’ 5th birthday. Since early 2014 almost 65,000 readers from all around the world engaged with our blog with October and November traditionally being the most popular months. This is the time of a year when the thousands of our readers are starting their degree, settling in the new environment and facing new challenges.
This year, approximately 40% of the views were outside the UK with the USA, India, Philippines, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong SAR China, France, Spain and South Africa in top 10. The majority of you found us via search engines, such as Google, but also Facebook, Twitter, the University of Warwick website and WordPress Android App. Let’s not forget our academic colleagues at the University of Nottingham and the University of Leicester who also visited our blog.
You are probably asking yourself what all those people found so interesting to keep coming back. This year we wrote about time management skills, accessible study rooms for students with disabilities, using audiovisual sources, referencing, study buddies, boosting your CV, revision apps, the writer’s block, learning foreign languages, creating a study schedule, creating effective visual presentations, study apps, and two treats at the end – 6 things to do over Christmas if you are on campus and festive reading suggestions for all tastes. We also published a series of posts on studying abroad: Beyond the Campus Bubble, Thinking about studying abroad?, Tips for your study abroad year, What to do once you’re home from your study abroad year, Why should you study abroad?.
Our 5 most popular posts published in 2018 were:
- Things to do on Campus before you go home for the summer
- 5 ways NOT to revise
- How to kick-start your dissertation
- A Guide to Prioritising your Time
- Alternatives to a Summer Internship
Our 5 most popular posts published before 2018 were:
- 5 quotes about academic writing that might just be true… (November 2014)
- What do your revision notes say about you? (June 2014)
- Here’s how not to do your dissertation (October 2014)
- Top 10 tips to avoid plagiarism (February 2014)
- Get Familiar: Learning Grid Leamington (October 2017)
Obviously, the majority of our readers were focused on four areas of their academic life: organisation, avoiding plagiarism, how to do or not to do your dissertation, and revision. Surprisingly, some of you were more concerned about enjoying yourself and having a good time before going home for the summer, while others were thinking how to use that time of a year the best if they were not lucky enough to get an internship. Given the fact that many of Warwick’s students live in Leamington Spa, no wonder that they wanted to familiarise themselves with the Leamgrid, as the Learning Grid in Leamington is known.
What is truly shocking is the fact that even after four years our most popular post is the one about 5 quotes about academic writing that “might just be true”. Everybody loves inspirational quotes, right? But, academic writing quotes? What was so magical about that blog post that you keep reading it? Looking back at those quotes, one word crossed my mind…the one we all hate to think of, and even more to speak of…our worst enemy of all times…PROCRASTINATION.
Fortunately for us, this is a perfect time of a year to do just that – procrastinate a little bit, forget about hard work, relax and recharge. However, don’t forget to think about a new year’s resolutions and get ready for a new academic term.
Apart from hundreds of members of staff who supported you during this year in various ways, 28 Warwick’s employees and students contributed to the Study Blog putting their effort and sharing their experiences to make your time at the university more enjoyable and less challenging. As a new Blog editor, I would like to thank them all and encourage you, our dear readers, to comment our posts, get in touch with our authors and give us feedback which will help our new team of bloggers to make 2019 even more successful.