pixivmancer

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Did I daydream this, or was there a website for writers with like. A ridiculous quantity of descriptive aid. Like I remember clicking on " inside a cinema " or something like that. Then, BAM. Here's a list of smell and sounds. I can't remember it for the life of me, but if someone else can, help a bitch out <3

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How To Write a University-Level Essay in 9 Steps

I use this every time I write an essay! It helps me a lot, and since I started using it I haven’t gotten lower than an A on any of my papers! (minus one lol)

First things first, every prof and every teacher expects a different thing. The essay I’m using as an example is from my first year class and was around 1600 words — so not very long. It’s also not a research essay. The prof called it an exegetical essay, but don’t get it mixed up with Bible Exegesis. We studied the Odyssey and the Iliad for the semester and had to write on them and explain them. Despite this! The form of an outline will help literally every kind of essay. 

SO this isn’t exactly a how-to-write-an-essay post, but instead its more like how to make sure your essay is bomb as fuck. My first year prof forced us to do an outline for all of our essays (yes forced, we automatically failed if we didn’t hand it in along with our essays). At first it was annoying, I’m not going to lie, but once you get used to it, this sort of outline literally saves your life. What I like to do is make sure it’s detailed enough that all I need to do is erase all the spaces between the points, and explain my ideas a little bit more. To give an idea of how much I actually write after this, this outline is 900 words, and my final essay was 1600. It makes writing your essay go by a LOT faster, and makes sure you can easily see all your points laid out in front of you.

1. Find out what your topic is and what you want your thesis to generally be. I never write my thesis out right away, because when I write outlines I tend to change my mind on things a lot as I discover new topics. So I start out general and get more detailed later on. 

2. Write out your main points. In this essay I was explaining how Odysseus’ encounter with the Cyclops was the first step in a many step process to make him a stronger and more intelligent man so that he would be able to fight off the suiters when he arrived in Ithaca. Each of my main points is the part in the book that has to do with this idea. My main points are: Odysseus tells Alcinous the story of him and a cyclops, after the Trojan war. // After escaping, they set sail again and reach the land of the Cyclops // Odysseus comes to the realization that the Cyclops is not human, and therefore he cannot reason with the Cyclops as a human. At first glance none of these points have Anything to do with my thesis, but I chose parts in the book that show Odysseus’ growth. I go on to explain my ideas within each of the points. Another thing to help you is to make sure each of these can read like a sentence. So you should be able to read Point 1 2 and 3 consecutively and have it flow well. It will help you when you write your good copy.

3. Once you have your main points, create what I call “sub-points” in each of the main points. The number varies, as you can see in my example, but use as many as you need to make your point clear.When I was writing essays about Homer I usually stuck to explaining Odysseus’ actions, or the actions of other characters in this section. This year when I was writing philosophy papers I used this part to fully explain each of the ideas in my own words. Also you may be noticing a (P) beside some of the points, this is what I’ve sectioned off to be a paragraph. As you may notice the “main point” doesn’t have a P beside it; it is its own paragraph, but I use those as transition paragraphs to help my paper flow and to show the reader what I’m going to be talking about. It’s a grounding point. I usually opted for shorter paragraphs when writing about Homer because I broke things up by event; when writing philosophy papers my paragraphs are usually much longer. These points should tie back into your main idea for you paper. Each point should tie back into the one above it to create a nice flow, this will help orientate your reader but also make it a lot easier for you to write. 

4.Now is the time to explain each sub point. Explain why the point was important enough to be in your paper; I often chose to explain how it changed Odysseus’ actions or actions that he chose to do. I usually use this section as an opportunity to clarify my points and to look back at the section I’ve put the sub-point in to make sure it fits. It around this time that I switch things around

5. Give any further explanation you may need. Sometimes I find that I need to explain things just a little bit more. Or if I’m not 100% sure on my point yet, I use this section to write down my explanation rather than waiting to write it when I write my good copy.

6.After this I write my thesis out. I know this may seem like a late point in the essay to write a thesis, but like I said I find waiting helps me really settle down with what I want to get across. I tend to have a hard time finding my thesis before I’ve written out all my points

7.Then I write my Introduction and Conclusion. I don’t write these in the broken down way that I do for the rest of my essay. I write them in full to help ground myself

8. Finally, I delete all of the points and spaces to create a solid paragraph. I do it point by point to make sure each sentence is a complete sentence, and then make sure I add on any explanation or detail that may be missing. Once thats done I usually have a solid essay with just some missing “gaps”. I.e. I need to further explain my point. So I go in and fill in the gaps, add my explanations to tie it back into the thesis completely, and then I move onto the next paragraph. The third picture shows my sentences in my actual essay that I directly pulled from my outline (highlighted to match the outline), while the sentences that aren’t highlighted were the sentences written to fill in the gaps.

9. Once that’s all done I send my essay to a friend and we face time while she edits mine. She reads it out loud to me and we stop when something sounds funny (and then we switch and I do the same for her). I high recommend peer-editing and making sure you read it out loud! Its how I catch 90% of my mistakes. 

And that’s it! Keep in mind that you should be gathering quotes, sources, or whatever BEFORE you write your outline, and it helps A LOT if you write in the sources in your outline so that you know where to put it in your essay!

[pixivmancer]

I am a(n):

⚪ Male

⚪ Female

🔘 Writer

Looking for

⚪ Boyfriend

⚪ Girlfriend

🔘 An incredibly specific word that I can't remember

[pixivmancer]

A research tip from a friendly neighborhood librarian! 

I want to introduce you to the wonderful world of subject librarians and Libguides. 

I’m sure it’s common knowledge that scholars and writers have academic specialties. The same is true for subject librarians! Most libraries use a tool called Libguides to amass and describe resources on a given topic, course, work, person, etc. (I use them for everything. All hail Libguides.) These resources can include: print and ebooks, databases, journals, full-text collections, films/video, leading scholars, data visualizations, recommended search terms, archival collections, digital collections, reliable web resources, oral histories, and professional organizations. 

So, consider that somewhere out there in the world, there may be a librarian with a subject specialty on the topic you’re writing on, and this librarian may have made a libguide for it. 

Are you writing about vampires? 

Duquesne University has a guide on Dracula

University of Northern Iowa: Monsters and Religion

Fontbonne University has a particularly good one on Monsters, Ghosts, and Mysteries

Washington University in St. Louis: a course guide on Monsters and Strangeness 

How about poverty? 

Michigan State: Poverty and Inequality with great recommended terms and links to datasets 

Notre Dame: a multimedia guide on Poverty Studies.

Do you need particular details about how medicine or hygiene was practiced in early 20th century America?

UNC Chapel Hill: Food and Nutrition through the 20th Century (with a whole section on race, gender, and class)

Brown University: Primary Sources for History of Health in the Americas

Duke University: Ad*Access, a digital collection of advertisements from the early 20th century, with a section on beauty and hygiene  

You can learn about Japanese Imperial maps, the American West, controlled vocabularies, Crimes against art and art forgeries, anti-Catholicism, East European and Eurasian vernacular languages, geology, vaudeville, home improvement and repairs, big data, death and dying, and conspiracy theories.

Because you’re searching library collections, you won’t have access to all the content in the guides, and there will probably be some link rot (dead links), but you can still request resources through your own library with interlibrary loan, or even request that your library purchase the resources! Even without the possibility of full-text access, libguides can give you the words, works, people, sites, and collections to improve your research.

Search [your topic] + libguide and see what you get!

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hey guys psa regarding hospital bills

don’t just pay it. do not automatically pay the hospital bill when you receive it. call your health insurance provider and POLITELY say, “excuse me, i just received a bill for $1200 for my hospital visit/ER visit/etc., is that the correct amount i’m supposed to pay?” because hospitals bill you before your health insurance and they will take your money no matter how the amount due may change based on your health insurance looking at it. 90% of the time, if your health insurance is in any way involved in the payment of that bill, you do not have to pay as much as the hospital is billing you for. call your health insurance provider first, and POLITELY request clarification, always remember that the person you are talking to is human and this is just their job, and then you will very likely find out you actually only owe $500.

don’t shout at anyone about it, don’t get mad, just understand that this is The Way Things Are right now and call your health insurance provider before paying the bill your hospital just sent you. there’s a chance the hospital bill might be correct, true, but call your health insurance provider.

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I have exactly one (1) lifehack for every adult thing and that is “admit your ignorance to customer service people”

no, seriously! I know how nothing in adult life works, but I have learned it by calling up the customer service division of whatever agency I am having a problem with and then just asking about whatever the problem is, emphasizing my complete lack of knowledge about the thing.

my actual literal script for these interactions: “Hi, my name is [name]. This is my problem: [problem]. I don’t know how [adult thing] works. could you explain how [adult thing] works?” it fucking works every time.

me: I keep getting conflicting information as to whether my therapist is covered by my health insurance. I don’t know anything about health insurance, so this is very confusing to me. could you explain why this might be happening? health insurance customer service: it’s because your normal health insurance is X company but your mental healthcare is subcontracted out to Y company, and Y covers your therapist but X doesn’t. just always bill Y when you go to your therapist and you’ll be fine.

me: I accidentally put the wrong date to pay my credit card off and I’m afraid it will post before I get paid. this is my first credit card so I don’t know what I’m doing. could you tell me when it will post? customer service person: it will send a message to your bank today, but your bank won’t respond to it until tomorrow when you get paid, so you’re fine. and even if it does bounce, the fee is only $25 and you qualify for a waiver.

me: I went to an urgent care place that said they’d take my health insurance, but now i have a big bill. I don’t know how billing works: can you explain why the amount is so much for such a routine trip? customer service person: it’s because you were out of network at the time. however, since your insurance hasn’t covered the cost of care, the urgent care people should refund you for the cost of the services you paid for. me: [gets actual check in mail for the $200 I spent on testing my pee]

I would not recommend this method for retail (for the love of god, do not tell a sleazy car dealer that you don’t know how cars work), and sure, sometimes you have to speak to the manager or threaten a credit card chargeback or whatever you need to do. but 99% of the time, speaking nicely and admitting to needing help has worked wonders for me, and means I don’t have to stew in terror over doing some adult thing Wrong.

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OH MY GOD whyyyy did no one tell me you’re supposed to send thank-yous after interviews?? Why would I do that???

“Thank you for this incredibly stressful 30 minutes that I have had to re-structure my entire day around and which will give me anxiety poos for the next 24 hours.”

I HATE ETIQUETTE IT’S THE MOST IMPOSSIBLE THING FOR ME TO LEARN WITHOUT SOMEONE DIRECTLY TELLING ME THIS SHIT

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Coming from a state champion baker:

If y’all use a decent box mix and use melted butter instead of vegetable oil, an extra egg, and milk instead of water, no one can tell the difference. I sure as hell can’t. 

Also, if you add a little almond extract to vanilla cake, or a little coffee to chocolate cake, it sends it through the roof. 

This concludes me attempting to be helpful. 

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This site is not only full of deliberate disinformation and hoaxes, it’s rife with anti-intellectualism. 

I encourage people to research anything that sounds fantastic and totally different than what they were taught - even in my posts.

If you see a blog post with startling information, do the CRAAP Test! (developed by Sarah Blakeslee and her team of librarians at California State University, Chico)

Currency:  What is the copyright, publication, or posting date? Does the date matter? Is the information outdated?

Relevance:  For what audience or level is the information written (general public, experts/scholars, etc.)?

Authority:  Who is the author, creator, or publisher of the source or what organization is responsible for the source? How do you know if the author is an expert on the topic (e.g examine the author’s credentials and/or organizational affiliation)?

Accuracy:  What indications do you see that the information is or is not well researched or provides sufficient evidence? What kind of language, imagery and/or tone is used (e.g. emotional, objective, professional, etc.)?

Purpose:  Why was this source written (e.g.to inform, teach, entertain, persuade)? How might the author’s affiliation affect the point of view, slant, or potential bias of the source?

More help:

The Ultimate Cheatsheet for Critical Thinking

Judging Source Quality

The Layperson’s Guide to Online Research

Media Bias/Fact Check Use the search feature to find the bias (left, right, center, and in-between) of any news source.

Snopes fact check

How to Spot Fake News from FactCheck.org

What is a “Good” Source? Determining the Validity of Evidence

Fake News and News Bias

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hey, so, i feel weird promoting this, but you know how the collective we of tumblr are always like, someone should write a cookbook that’s actually easy? i did the thing, just in time for gross summer heat/seasonal affective disorder, depending on the hemisphere, to kick in.

Cooking is terrible, and food is often a massive pain in the ass. Eating is sometimes ok, sometimes a giant drag, and somehow still a thing that you have to do multiple times a day, which seems enormously unfair. This book isn’t going to teach you how to cook, or turn you into the kind of person who hosts effortless dinner parties, or make you more attractive and popular and interesting. At best, it’s going to make it slightly more likely that you manage to eat something in the ten minutes between walking in the door and falling into the sweet embrace of the internet. I’m not joking—a lot of this can be done, start to finish, in ten to fifteen minutes. I resent thirty-minute meals because it feels like about twenty-eight minutes too long to spend on feeding myself. If you’re excited to get home from work and spend an hour cooking dinner, this isn’t the book for you. If you really value authenticity, this isn’t the book for you. If you literally only eat three foods and you’re happy like that, this isn’t the book for you. If you, like me, are tired and depressed and just need to get some food into your face once in a while, this is definitely the book for you. You should buy it. Maybe it’ll help.

anyhow, you can buy it for $5 on amazon (for kindle files) and gumroad (for a pdf and epub), and any money earned goes towards things like paying my rent and buying groceries.

i’m disabled and mentally ill and a single parent, and i’d love to be excited about food, but most of the time, it’s just an inconvenient thing i gotta do to stay alive. i wrote this for people who’re kinda like me. i hope that maybe it helps someone.

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THERE IS A FONT THAT IS DESIGNED TO MAKE U REMEMBER EVERYTHING

I don’t usually share a whole lot but THIS IS INCREDIBLE 

http://sansforgetica.rmit/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=Sans_Forgetica&utm_content=Launch_Video

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Are they attractive? No. Are they delicious? I have no idea because they’re still too hot. But they’re DONE.

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i just spent 20 minutes in the shower sobbing bc i’m scared of growing up and having to do things on my own i hate myself wtf i’m such a BABY

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I feel like I should make a post about this because it’s not something that’s very well-known, and that Americans in particular may need to know about given the uncertain state of our healthcare system at the moment. I’ve wanted to write this out for a while, It’s kind of a long post, so sorry about that!

If you have an emergency and have to go to the hospital, you’ll owe the hospital a lot of money. (I got into a car wreck and broke my ankle and my arm. My hospital bill was around $20,000)

You’ll also owe the ambulance provider, if you need one. (My ambulance bill was about $800)

You may get separate bills from the anesthesiologist or surgeon. (My anesthesiologist bill was $1,700)

You may need follow-up appointments. (My orthopedic surgeon billed me for the appointments and his surgery together and it was about $1,000)

You’ve also got to pay for medical equipment you need afterward, like crutches or a walking boot. (Mine cost about $75)

Altogether, I ended up with almost $24,000 in medical debt from one car accident. That’s a really scary number for someone like me who makes $10/hr at a 12 hour a week job.

I got my debt down to $1075 by making some phone calls and submitting some paperwork.

The first thing I did was contact the hospital. They don’t make it easy to find, but many hospitals (perhaps most hospitals?) have financial assistance programs for people who can’t afford medical bills. I don’t make a lot of money, and I have bills to pay, so they were able to help me. I called the billing department and asked if they had any assistance programs for low income people who can’t pay their bills. I had to call multiple times, and I got transferred in circles by people who didn’t know what I was talking about. Finally, I got an appointment with someone in “Eligibility Services” (I don’t know what other hospitals call it, if it’s something different). I had to bring my pay stubs and copies of all of my bills. When I got to the hospital for the appointment, nobody knew what I was talking about so I had to wander a little to find where I needed to go. I spoke with the guy in Eligibility Services, and I waited for a decision on how much of the bill they would forgive. A month later, I got a call telling me it was totally forgiven.

I did the same thing for my ambulance bill and my anesthesiologist, but the process was a LOT easier. I just had to mail some paperwork and it was totally forgiven.

I didn’t bother with the medical equipment suppliers, since the bills came from separate companies and I didn’t feel like going through the process twice for $75. I was assured at the hospital that they had similar programs for debt forgiveness, so I could have probably avoided paying that too.

The only thing I couldn’t get taken care of was the surgeon/follow-up appointment cost, but they were able to put me on a no-interest payment plan.

Medical debt is scary because it’s something that can come from stuff that’s already really scary. I didn’t need the burden of $24,000 in debt on top of trying to get around on a crutch with a broken arm (it’s not easy, believe me!).. but I can’t imagine what it would be like with a bigger debt or a more severe medical emergency. I see lots of people in even worse trouble than I was in, both financially and medically. Please know that there are options for you when that GoFundMe doesn’t do enough. Even if your income is higher than mine, it’s worth a shot even for partial debt forgiveness.

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XKCD’s excellent presentation on historical global temperature and anthropogenic global warming. 

[After setting your car on fire] “Listen, your car’s temperature has changed before.”

[pixivmancer]

GETTING A JOB CHEAT SHEET!!

perfect resume for someone with no experience

A+ advice on writing cv’s

a guide to writing your resume

how to get a job fast as hell

resume writing tips

jobs and careers masterpost

how to answer interview questions

career and employment masterpost

strong words to use on a resume

34 crucial tips for your next job interview 

how to write a cv

resume cheat sheet

how to write a cover letter

job hunting resources

Find a job in your field

7 questions you should ask at the end of every interview

how to get a job before you graduate

how to be good at interviews

other cheat sheets