5 tips to writing a great library based dissertation

Writing any type of dissertation can be a very daunting task and for me, I was absolutely terrified of the whole idea as I just felt that it was something that only really smart academics could achieve, so I had a battle with my mind before I had even started. Most dissertations require the student to conduct a research study and collect the data themselves, but for a social work degree, you can choose to either do the former or to undertake a library based dissertation which is what I chose to do.

Five lessons learned from being a mature student

Being nearly at the end of a full-time social work degree, I thought that I would share some advice from what I learnt during my experience, for anyone considering returning to study.

1) It is not too late!

I hear so many people say that they wish that they could have gone to uni, but it is too late for them now. It is never too late to invest in yourself and your future. Many people return to uni as mature students so you will not be alone, particularly if you are studying a subject like social work, where at least fifty percent of my year group were mature students. 

My uni journey as a mature student on a social work degree

For new readers, I will start from the beginning! So, I originally started a degree in social work in 2005. Unfortunately, I did not get to complete the degree as I became ill in the second year and I was later diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). After a long period of illness and many difficulties, I was finally well enough to return to the degree in 2014. As I had been away so long and so much had changed over the years, I was told that I would need to start from the beginning so I started year one again in September 2014.

Where I am now in life

Wow! It has been so long since I last posted on this blog! I honestly do not know where the time has gone. I have decided that it is time to get back to my blogging as I really enjoy it and I now have a little more time than I did so I will be posting more regularly.

So much has happened since my last posts so I will give a brief over-view of what has been going on and where I am now in life and then I will be sharing more information about these things in future posts.

January 2015

January has been a strange month as I have been quite unwell which has made it difficult to get going again after all of the Christmas festivities. 

It has been a month of planning ahead which is lots of fun. We have booked our summer holiday for July, a camping trip in May and a weekend in Yarmouth at Easter, along with a few fun days out along the way.

Year one - semester one - an update.

I have now finished my first semester at uni and have ten days off before it's time to go back and start semester two. It has been a manic few months but I did it all, just hope I pass! I was not sure if I should post about this as I am not sure how interesting people will find it, but then my blog has always been about my efforts to improve my life for myself and my family and this is a big part of that so here goes!

An update to finish off 2014!

Hello out there! I can not believe that it has been nearly four months since I last posted, returning to a full time degree has been a lot more hectic then I imagined. Life has certainly been busy but I feel like I am getting things under control and I am hoping to start posting much more regularly!