Knowing What Essay Writing Is on a Gut Level for Student Midwives

A Short Course

Essays - why are they so hard?

We rarely slow down and think about what the work we’re required to do actually means. Spending three years writing my new book ‘Becoming a Midwife - The Survival Guide For Passionate Student and Newly Qualified Midwives’ has helped me do a deep dive on the academic and practical bits of becoming a midwife. I'm also trying to live a bit more slowly (vestibular migraines and ambition are sometimes not a good mix) and this means I've had the opportunity to think even more deeply. I believe that essays writing is an art form. You need to summon a piece of work into existence using a series of judgement calls around what to include and at what level of detail. Most study guides won’t lead with this point. I think they’re concerned that you’ll forget the evidence if they talk about creativity. But though we should aim to be as objective as possible when writing academically, all knowledge is contestable and there is no certainty. This means what you’re attempting with an essay assignment is creativity, with all the psychological challenges that comes with it.

Writing an essay can feel like Spaghetti Junction. I'm the kind of person who ideally likes to read ten books before getting started on an essay and I feel prompted to go back and forth throughout the writing process. What I didn't realise then is this is a normal part of writing anything. It's difficult because you have to concentrate on two things simultaneously: you need to be involved with the details while still knowing how the piece as a whole is going. There's no way of doing that perfectly in your first draft but a lot of the game is in having the ability to cut the thing off and move on. Essentially, an essay is never finished, you just decide to add a conclusion and hand it in.

I swear that in my return to practice program I managed to write an essay in three days which did really well and a lot of what I needed to do to achieve that was put down the perfectionism.

Whatever your experience with essays, I'd love to think about that with you.

In this video short course I talk you through the most important insights I had while writing, and how to handle the art form : academia split.

I will definitely be sharing ideas to you get through an essay faster and get a better grade, because you do have job to do.

But I also want to examine the task of writing an essay and what it means for you as a midwife.

Course Modules Include

  •  Getting Started/Writer’s Block

  • Rabbit Holes/Research

  • Voice Notes and Other Tools

  • Research Appraisal

  • Finding a Structure

  • Tips from Students

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Try Knowing What Essay Writing Is on a Gut Level for Student Midwives for the first 3 teaching videos and if it’s not for you, that’s okay. Just email me and ask for a refund and I’ll honour it. (This hasn't happened so far but no worries if it’s not for you.)*

*You are responsible for unsubscribing when you’ve finished, though If there are special circumstances, of course, email me at once and we'll sort it!