we are going to write an essay and when
I say essay I mean yes I do not mean a
single word repeated a thousand times
hello there and welcome to a vlog which
is pretty crazy for me basically today I
am starting to write my final ever
university essay but I've been at Durham
University doing the English degree for
three years but I've also been in the
education system for 18 no 17 years 17
years and that is all ending in like a
week so I thought I'd document it
because this is my final ever essay and
then I have three exams and then it's
time to take my degree out the oven
because it's done so all that stands
between me and finishing my final essay
is 2,000 words and a whole lot of
research and probably a breakdown I
don't know it's all fun and games isn't
it the essay is for my American fiction
module that I study at university I'm
writing it on Sylvia Plath the bell jar
and John Dos Passos is John Dos Passos
Aziz is Manhattan Transfer it's worth
30% of that modules so like I really
don't want to mess that up so that's
what we're gonna do
that's what this videos gonna be welcome
on tonight's program ladies and
gentlemen we have something that's gonna
make you sick
[Music]
hey yeah so the first job of the day is
to do some research on the bell jar by
Sylvia Plath which is such an incredible
book and I'm really excited actually to
write an essay on it hello editing jack
here I'm just watching this back and I
can't believe I said I was excited to
write this essay at any point in time
Alexa play naive by the Kochs wait Alexa
stop I was saying that as a joke I
didn't even realize we've had an Alexa
well turns out my parents have an elixir
it's the issue that I'm facing at the
moment because of this this on virus
that's knocking about that basically
meant that I had to leave University in
quite a - I packed up the books I
thought I would need a bar I did leave a
fair few behind because I thought I
would be back there by now obviously I'm
not so that's been an issue so I'm
currently writing an essay on the bell
jar despite not having a copy of the
bell jar with me and I've been trying to
order one but it's literally sold out
everywhere yeah so that's um not great
I've got my trusty essay research record
which I bang on about all the time but
this is the last time I'll use it so
that's kind of bizarre I don't think
I've explained actually what I'm meant
to be doing this essay I mean do I even
know at this point I'm not even sure
myself basically it's like a comparative
essay so we were given a list of
quotations and extracts from books we've
studied this year and then we need to
pick one of those and then compare it to
an extract that we have found ourselves
from another book that we've read this
year and put those two extracts onto the
paper and compare and contrast them in a
two thousand word essay and discuss the
themes I guess that they bring up in the
context of American fiction so it's kind
of unlike any essay I've written before
during this degree so I'm very much
working it out as I go along
in the two extracts that I have chosen
there's basically themes of materialism
consumption in the American Dream New
York City suicide and including a
particular focus on clothing I'm
strutting slightly awful stuff out there
so I think you need to cast the net a
little bit wider on the Internet my dog
keeps barking you think you got problems
me then I'll search the Durham online
library for like my key
so I've got the bell jar and then I put
Platt as well because I don't want any
articles are just about bells jars bell
jars then open up all the tabs so that's
now my reading list and then we just
hope and pray really this is really hard
so I accidentally kind of sort of just
spent like two hours on tick-tock so now
I am back at my desk and we're gonna
read some more art schools I'm hoping I
can finish all of my Plath revision and
research tonight or revision research
and then get right thing tomorrow
evening maybe 2,000 words actually isn't
a lot especially when I've just done a
twelve thousand word dissertation so
hopefully I can do it all in one go
we'll see you know what Alexa play naive
by the gooks again but this time on full
blast sorry for the spoiler alert but
none of those things happened
[Music]
hello hi it's day two of writing my
final university essay and we need to
make some serious progress today I would
say the yesterday was productive but I
still feel kind of confused I am just
not yet a hundred percent confident on
this essay being a good one so hopefully
through doing my research on Manhattan
Transfer today and also going to try and
do some like general research and
reading and hopefully all of that
together will make an essay plan because
God knows we need one it's currently a
mid day because not because I slept on
midday like sometimes actually I had an
interview with The Telegraph this
morning which was super cool about a
project that I'm doing at the moment and
then I spent the rest of the time doing
some admin work that's not really true
I spent at least 20 minutes doing some
admin work and then I can't really
account for where the rest of the time
went but you know what sometimes it
really is like that but it's fine it's
fine because we're gonna make up for it
now
[Music]
oh hey me again just popping in to let
you know that today's video is sponsored
by Skillshare I'm so buzzing about this
Skillshare is an online learning
community with thousands of super
inspiring and unique courses for
creative and curious people you can
learn more about the things that
interest you and hone your craft or
explore brand new skills and get lost in
creativity as you may have gathered from
watching this video I'm about to
graduate University and that is a
terrifying prospect for me and one of my
main goals as I come to the end of my
degree is to really fall back in love
with creative writing the course I'm
currently doing is by Jung Lee who is an
incredibly talented writer and it's
called writing character driven short
stories what I love is that you can take
it totally at your own pace tip in and
out whenever it suits you and really
just enjoy the learning experience
there's also classes on productivity
drawing marketing it's truly an awesome
platform and what better time to start
than right now
I've also got my eye on this iPhone and
filmmaking course which looks so
interesting that is right at the top of
my to-do list and to top it all off I am
so excited to let you know that the
first 1,000 people who sign up using the
link at the top line of my description
get two months totally free and then
after that it's just $10 per month to
explore your creativity to your heart's
content thank you so so so much to
Skillshare for sponsoring this video
back to me in the studio I won't lie to
you this is actually proving quite a lot
more difficult than I thought it was
getting to you there's actually not that
much literary criticism on Manhattan
transfer that's actually useful to the
study that I'm doing because of course
there isn't so I'm kind of just having
to work with what I've got I'm doing
quite a close study on a character who
is pretty minor
but then basically in this book like all
of the characters are kind of minor
there's lots of narratives all happening
at the same time but the main focal
point is Manhattan as a setting so I'm
kind of having to sift through quite a
lot of things to find not a lot but you
know what we've got to do it so it's
going to get done and the search
continues so
for the main conclusion of my research
is that I want to drop out of this
course is it too late to drop out of the
course with only a week left of it
maybe but this is just help okay so I've
stopped having a breakdown now basically
I was getting a bit overwhelmed so I
stopped myself I would read one more at
school and then have a break commit
myself nice coffee and somehow that
article was perfect it had some of the
Nisha's points which were exactly what I
needed and now it all just makes sense
so now I'm celebrating with an iced
coffee also can I just say I smashed
that it's one of those tick-tock iced
coffees because I am a for iced
coffee earned tick-tock that looks
absolutely dreamy oh my god that is
absolutely insane
[Music]
that's why today is another si day
hopefully the last one ever or at least
for a little while
if I ever get into a master scheme so I
asked my dad if you'd print out all of
my research so I mean just going over
that and making notes on it and coming
up with a complete essay plan I also
read back the rubric of the paper
because I was kind of like I don't
really know what I'm meant to be doing
and this would have been a really bad
time to realize that I've been doing the
whole thing wrong but thankfully it's
fine I've also made myself another one
of these
tik-tok coffees because apparently when
I decided I like something I have to
become absolutely obsessed with it so
cheers to that just so good there's some
ASMR for you I was also whisking it up
and I managed to get it all that my
t-shirt so whiskey business this coffee
thing what so welcome back hopefully
this will be the day that my essay gets
written but you never really know do you
why do I always forget to number the
freaking pages I make it's so much
harder for myself all the time back when
you were just we had dreams of love and
Amsterdam what hap - oh god damn you're
itself I've got coffee cake as well I'm
gonna be off my tits it's funny actually
because the essay that I'm writing is
kind of about binge and purge cycles in
the bell jar and consumption you know
what we love a cinematic parallel we
love when we become our arts right you
know you only the diet hero or live long
enough to become the villain by the way
my t-shirt says worst day ever because
it's an essay writing day okay so
welcome back it is the evening now and
in true jacket boots fashion it's the
night before the essay is due a round of
applause to everyone who predicted that
happen which is all of you well done but
you know what it's the last one we have
to do it just just for the memories the
culture and I'm
damn fool I finished going through all
of my research making notes it's all
well and good doing the research but
actually being able to think critically
and respond to it is just as important
if not more so I also have gone through
my two extracts and annotated them in a
lot of detail and then we're going to
write the damn thing so see you in two
thousand words time actually probably
see you in like 50 words time when I'm
panicking okay we're currently zero
words in but this is my final title for
all the times sake the optimal focus
playlist is on as is my social media
blocker why am I suddenly like it's the
end of an era it's so weird
I'm really putting off starting to write
it because I just feel so sick to the
pit of my stomach so I've been typing
for an hour now and I have written
276 words so not like deal I mean it's a
10th
it's a tenth of the essay however I'm
more concerned with the other nine
tenths which are missing it's like
Where's Wally at this point can you find
the missing parts of my essay I can find
the Wally it's gonna be a late one some
time has passed it's not midnight this
was the kind of time I had been aiming
to finish mmm I'm halfway
[Music]
pop date it's 2:00 a.m. and I have 2035
words there's just a few extra bits
which the word count is limiting me with
so I think what I'm going to do is leave
it now and to come back to in the
morning with a fresh head where I'm more
willing to like cut out the bits
and it's all this out sort out my
footnotes and my bibliography and then
submit okay I lied it's now 326 and now
I'm actually going to bed I did all my
referencing cuz I panicked
I then woke up the next morning and
submitted the essay here we go oh hey
well that's that I then submitted it two
hours earlier which is actually very
unlike me to get it done not five
minutes before the deadline is this
could this be character development I
mean on the last essay I will ever do it
maybe it's too little too late or maybe
it's my tuition fees well-spent
you can decide but I hope you enjoyed
this video if you did you can subscribe
for more from me and give it a big ol
thumbs up for now I feel Jack Edwards
thank you so so so much to Skillshare
for sponsoring this video and I will see
you next time but babe
[Music]
in case I don't see ya good afternoon
good evening and good night