Welcome (back)!!

Hello everyone! I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year and are back feeling refreshed and 'full of beans'.... or, if you're a new student, welcome to my blog. This is where I'll post ideas and advice, good websites and suggested self-study. If you do not have a blog already, please try to set one up - it's really easy and, if you use it well, can be extremely useful. If you already have a blog - get posting!
This month I'm going to set 2 specific self-study tasks each week and I expect to see evidence that you have done these tasks, along with other self-study activities which reflect your specific needs/relate to your subject etc. Many of you did really excellent blogs last month - let's see if you can keep up the good work, or improve on what you did last time.
This month you will go through the process of writing an academic essay, from start to finish. We will look at correct ways to reference, how to avoid plagiarism, internet research strategies and essay structure, as well as academic language to help you improve your writing.
On the speaking side, there will be a lecture followed by a seminar - hopefully building on what you learnt from doing seminars last month - and, in the final week, you will give an individual presentation on the subject of your essay. Yes.. we're all going to be busy this month!