Have you ever received feedback on an academic paper that left you feeling more confused or self-conscious than confident? Whether it's a strong critique or an unexpected comment on what you thought you did right, navigating academic feedback can sometimes be challenging. However, keep in mind that everyone has received negative feedback at some point in their academic journey (or rather all throughout it). It is essential that you are open to it, for it helps to identify your strengths and weaknesses, define your writing goals, and, ultimately, reach your fullest potential. It informs you what might be holding your work back from excellence.

Whichever year you find yourself in, the importance of solid academic writing skills is key to your scholarly success. Whether you are feeling uneasy about entering your academic writing journey or need a refresher after the summer break, the Skills Centre and Boole Library are here to help. 

Hi, my name is Sabrina, and I’m a final-year BAM student of Art History and English. Whether you are continuing your course this year or setting foot on the campus for the first time, the beginning of the semester can feel a bit daunting. We just got ourselves through September, which often feels like a whirlwind when you are trying to organise your new classes and get settled into the busy university environment.

Hi, my name is Elliott and I’m one of the new postgrad tutors in the Skills Centre. I’m doing a Higher Diploma in Applied Psychology, and my undergraduate degree was in Social Science. I’ve learnt a lot (apart from course content) during my time so fair in UCC, and I’d like to share it. 

My name is Amy Louise, and I am a second year Applied Psychology student at UCC. Looking back, there are so many things that I wish I knew as a first year to make my introduction to university easier!

Are you in first year?

You  have received your exams results from semester one and have some constructive feedback regarding your academic writing style? Does this sound familiar?

My name is Charlotte and I am a CUBS student on the MSc Sustainable Development, Agri-food and Co-Operatives programme.

I'm Cian and I'm a PhD student in the School of History here in UCC. I've certainly been in college long enough to have picked up a few key points that I like to pass on when I can. I understand what it's like to feel overwhelmed by university life at times but I promise you with the right guidance and a bit of effort you are sure to succeed. In this little piece, I would like to give you the advice and techniques that I have picked up over five years and three degrees in university in order to hopefully give you a headstart in your academic career.

Hi, my name is Tadhg, and I’m doing my MA in Modernities in the School of English here in UCC. I’m also a Postgrad tutor here in the Skills Centre. The great thing about working here is that it’s student led, peer-to-peer learning, and the value of engaging with somebody who is right there in the trenches of academia with you is something not to be underestimated.

My name is Jordan and I am a Postgraduate Tutor at the University College Cork Skills Centre. I am a first year PhD student in Applied Linguistics, and I did my master's degree here also. As starting a PhD is a big life step that has a certain air of mystery around it, I'm here to tell you what life is really like as a PhD student at University College Cork during those first couple of weeks and what to expect. 

Hi, my name is Brian, I’m a Master’s student in Positive and Coaching Psychology at UCC. Having first started my journey here in UCC over 4 years ago, there are several nuggets of wisdom I picked up from others along the way which I would love to have given my 1st year self: 

My name is Anna, and I am currently doing a master’s in education. My undergraduate degree was a B.A in English and German. There are a couple of tips and resources I wish I had known about at the start of my undergraduate degree that would have made the transition into university much smoother! 

My name is Alison, and I’m a Master’s student in Applied Psychology in UCC. Reflecting back on my first year of college (and technically, I’ve been in first year twice, since I changed course!) I know now that I wasted a lot of time in first year on organisation and note-taking, simply because I didn’t know about the tools which would help me streamline this process. After 4 years of college, I now have a handy bank of knowledge about tools you can use to keep yourself and your notes organised – and you can implement these from the start! 

Here are some simple tips and tools available to all students to keep yourself and your notes and assignments on track: 

Whether we are returning to education after a long break, changing to a course we have an interest in but no experience of, or are coming straight from school to college, studying literature is by no means straight-forward. Whether you are a student who picked English as a last-minute choice from the pool of arts subjects or selected it out of genuine love of the subject, regardless it has a long-standing reputation as “the easy choice”. This is understandable when we consider the ways in which the leaving certificate is set out. While our teachers may have been enthusiastic and innovative, this system itself outlines exactly what answers they are looking for and the students are guided towards these literary interpretations. Ultimately, in our school days, we likely had a lot of help.  

My name is Loretta, and I work here in the Skills Centre as a Research Support Officer. Prior to that, I did my BA in New York, my MA in Limerick and my PhD in Film and Screen Media here at UCC, so I’ve been in the university environment for a while now! Thinking back on my experiences as we are about to start a new academic year, I want to share some of my thoughts on the value of your time at university, and making the most of it, as part of the Skills Centre’s “If I knew then what I know now”  series. I’ll break this into a few key pieces of advice below. 

Hi, my name is Conor, and I am a second year PhD student in UCCs Economics Department. If I knew then, what I know now is a platform which allows us, postgraduate students, to pass down the knowledge we have acquired during our time in UCC, with hopes of making your transition into third level education as smooth as possible. While incoming first years will undoubtedly benefit most from this type of blog, I guarantee even final year students will learn something from at least one of these (past or future) blog posts. 

Hi, my name is Conor, and I am a second year PhD student in UCC’s economics department. If I knew then, what I know now is a platform which allows us postgraduate students to pass down the knowledge we have acquired during our time in UCC, with hopes of making your transition into third level education as smooth as possible, and even teach existing students a thing or two.  

Hi, my name is Cláudia, I’m a first-year PhD student at Science Engineering Programme at UCC and Tyndall National Institute. Let me start by congratulating this amazing blog. I wish I had similar resources when I was coming into college, or even during my master. Having our peers sharing first-hand stories and pass on their experiences is a learning opportunity that might be useful one day. 

Hi, my name is Conor, and I am a second year PhD student in UCC’s economics department. If I knew then, what I know now is a platform which allows us postgraduate students to pass down the knowledge we have acquired during our time in UCC, with hopes of making your transition into third level education as smooth as possible. While incoming first years will undoubtedly benefit most from this type of blog, I guarantee even final year students will learn something from at least one of these (past or future) blog posts. 

Hi, my name is Conor, and I am a second year PhD student in UCC’s economics department. If I knew then, what I know now is a platform which allows us postgraduate students to pass down the knowledge we have acquired during our time in UCC, with hopes of making your transition into, and experience of, third level education as smooth and enjoyable as possible.  

This is Part 1 of a 2-part post giving my insights on what has worked for me when planning and starting assignments. This piece specifically focuses on the planning stages prior to reading or writing. 

Hi, my name is Conor, and I am a second year PhD student in UCC’s economics department. This is Part 2 of a 2-part post telling you what has worked for me when planning and starting assignments. This piece specifically focuses on starting assignments by sourcing and reading material, eventually working to translate your notes into coherent paragraphs. 

As an undergraduate, I paid little attention to the acknowledgment pages of the books I read for my degree. Back then, I did not know just how significant that easily turned acknowledgment page could or would be in any academic’s life. What I know now is to look for and to read the heartfelt thank you given by every author to their editors. If you have never experienced what it is to have someone edit your work, this Blog post is certainly for you.  

Arriving in university, it can almost feel like you’re thrown in the deep end with little guidance. Sure, orientation and introductory classes offer incredible support to new students, but sometimes it can still feel as if you are expected to know everything after the first week. Well, I’m here to tell you that is absolutely not true! While the college experience appears a world away from secondary school, gone is your rigidly structured timetable and study reminders, it is vital to remember there is always help available to those who ask.  

Hi, my name is Conor, and I am a second year PhD student in UCC’s economics department. If I knew then, what I know now is a platform which allows us postgraduate students to pass down the knowledge we have acquired during our time in UCC, with hopes of making your transition into third level education as smooth as possible. While incoming first years will undoubtedly benefit most from this type of blog, I guarantee even final year students will learn something from at least one of these (past or future) blog posts. 

The aim of this post is to combine topics that I think deserve mentioning, especially to incoming students, but don’t quite encompass a blog on their own. 

Hi there, My name is Maura, and I am a second-year PhD student in Medicine. Leanne has invited me to write today’s blog to tell you about two things I wished I had known earlier.

 First of all, spurred by another blog post, I wished I had new earlier about the scheduled send option in gmail/umail. With this function, you can write your emails and then have them send at a pre-set time allowing you to work on your emails at your convenience while still making sure you end up in the right email inbox at the right time. Want to increase your chance, that your lecturers is reading your email first, make sure the email hit his/her inbox around 9am, even though you might have already typed the email at 11pm the night before.

Coming to college from secondary school, it’s super easy to get swept away by college life and lecture schedules that are all over the place. Amongst all the distractions, it can be very hard to figure out when you work best, and what assignments to do when. Make sure you figure out what time of day you can concentrate best (for some that’s in the mornings, for some that’s at night, there’s no right or wrong here!). Use that as a guide to structure your days and carve out specific time slots that are allocated to college work. Not every day is the same in terms of productivity. But you will find that if you stick to your best working times, you get more done in less time and it will become a habit to get college work done!

As an undergraduate, I paid little attention to the acknowledgment pages of the books I read for my degree. Back then, I did not know just how significant that easily turned acknowledgment page could or would be in any academic’s life. What I know now is to look for and to read the heartfelt thank you given by every author to their editors. If you have never experienced what it is to have someone edit your work, this Blog post is certainly for you.

In my first year of university, I did not attend many lectures. In my naive view, the hard work had been completed. I had coasted through the leaving certificate with relatively little stress and by some miracle had received just enough points to get into the only course I had put down on my CAO. As a result, I believed the hard work was over.

I learned early on in college that you should never be afraid to ask people about something you’re not quite sure about, or that you need a little more information on. If you’re struggling with a module, a specific topic you just cannot wrap your head around, or you want to know about potential laboratory studentships (I’d recommend looking into one of these as in CK402 there is no set placement), or you just want to ask about potential post-graduate routes – never be afraid to find someone to ask. 

This blog is following on from last week’s topic How to critically appraise a paper. The main difference between critically appraising a paper and conducting a methodological quality assessment is that a critical appraisal usually involves the entire paper while a methodological quality assessment specifically focuses on the methods and results section. 

Welcome back to my blog post series, today’s topic is How to read a critically appraise a scientific paper (medical journal).

 Firstly, it is important to understand why we critically analyse papers. One of the main reasons is to determine if this paper is trustworthy. Are findings of this paper generalizable and applicable to a clinical or hospital setting?

As students, reading journal articles can be long and very time consuming. When the workload increases you may not have time to read entire articles. Here is where I can give you some tips and tricks about how to extract the relevant and important information from journal articles which will save you heaps of time during the busy study period.

Whether we are returning to education after a long break, changing to a course we have an interest in but no experience of, or are coming straight from school to college, studying literature is by no means straight-forward. Whether you are a student who picked English as a last-minute choice from the pool of arts subjects or selected it out of genuine love of the subject, regardless it has a long-standing reputation as “the easy choice”. This is understandable when we consider the ways in which the leaving certificate is set out. While our teachers may have been enthusiastic and innovative, this system itself outlines exactly what answers they are looking for and the students are guided towards these literary interpretations. Ultimately, in our school days, we likely had a lot of help.

My name is Triona. I am delighted to be taking part in the Skills Centre “If I knew then what I know now” initiative. This blog post is designed for all students; those transitioning into college from Secondary School, from their undergrad to a masters, those taking their first step into education as a mature student and all those returning to education after some time away!

My name is Leanne Ahern and I am delighted to be part of this new initiative by the Skills Centre entitled “If I knew then what I know now”. The aim of this initiative is to help new and returning students here at UCC to become familiar with the academic standards and protocols associated with third-level education. These blogs are aimed for all students including those transitioning from secondary school to first year of college, mature students returning to college, current students and masters students transitioning from an undergraduate degree. This blog series will cover a range of different topics which will be beneficial for students including how to read journal articles and develop new skills around academic writing.

Welcome back to the 'If I knew then what I know now' blog series, today’s topic is How to search for relevant journal articles. When searching for a journal article I would recommend using the UCC Library OneSearch. The reason for this is because some databases have a paywall and UCC might have access. If you do have any difficulty finding any article you can always ask the library staff for help (they are great).