Hi all! This is the second half of my last post, with tips for being a student that you may not get in orientation. The last post was general expectations around courses; this one is some specific stuff like “what is a revision session?” that may not be explained upfront.

1. Essay titles have specific rules here. By which I mean, you aren’t supposed to come up with a unique or creative one, but rather the title is the question prompt that your essay is responding to. Sometimes you’re supposed to copy-paste it verbatim, sometimes you can shorten it if it’s a particularly long prompt, and on one psychology assignment I had, the prompt was open-ended enough that we were given a basic template and expected to fill in the key words based on which theoretical approach we took to which specific element of the social issue we were analyzing. This strict use of titles as topic/prompt indicators also means that assignment instructions may say something like, “If you wish to create your own title you must clear it with me by XYZ week.” This doesn’t mean they’re super concerned about the literal words in the title alone, but rather, it’s just the U.K. way of saying, “If you want to write about something not listed in the provided prompts, ask first.”
2. MHRA is the citation standard in some departments. Since I was an exchange student and not tied to one academic department like full-time U.K. students who don’t have gen ed requirements, each of the four modules (classes) I took was under a different department’s umbrella. Psychology and Linguistics used APA, but instead of MLA, the English and Languages & Cultures modules used Harvard and MHRA. (Before you look, the Purdue OWL doesn’t have a guide or sample paper for MHRA.) That said, my instructors in both those classes allowed exchange students to use MLA if that was what we were used to, so feel free to ask if you’re struggling with new citation formats.
3. You’re often expected to include a coversheet with your submissions. This sort of depends on the department — Linguistics doesn’t bother with coversheets anymore, for example, while Psychology seems to love them and English is “it’d be nice but it’s not required. However, because it seems to just be the norm in some departments, assignment instructions don’t always tell you if you’re meant to have one, so if you aren’t told either way, it’s probably good to ask the instructor.
4. “Revision” refers to your study notes, not an essay draft. I was confused for a while because I kept hearing about “revision sessions” but we don’t get second chances to resubmit work, so what were we revising after we’d submitted our coursework??  It turns out this refers to exam prep/study.  A “revision session” is your usual exam-prep class where the instructor goes over the expectations and rules and gives you advice on how to study for the exam. Revision as it’s referred to as an activity means exam study — literally speaking, organizing and revising your notes you’ve taken from the lectures and from independent reading, etc.

And that’s all I have, folks! If you’re going to Lancaster, best of luck with your studies!