Essays: questions and Band 8 answers

Not as much as I used to, to be honest. Back when I was doing my degree, I was churning them out almost every fortnight. Nowadays, it is mostly just short reports for work, though I did have to write an extended piece for a professional training course last month.

For me, it is definitely the structuring stage. Coming up with random ideas is fairly easy, but organising them into a coherent argument takes ages. I usually spend hours staring at a blank screen trying to figure out how to transition smoothly between my main points.

Oh, on a laptop, without a doubt. My handwriting tends to get quite messy after a while, and my hand starts cramping up. Plus, using word-processing software makes it so much easier to edit drafts, shift paragraphs around, and fix spelling mistakes on the fly.

Not particularly, no. I used to dread getting history assignments because we were expected to memorise loads of dates and produce these rigid, five-paragraph essays. I much preferred subjects like science or maths where there was a clear-cut answer rather than pages of continuous prose.

It is a massive sense of relief, really. There is nothing quite like hitting the submit button after days of hard graft and proofreading. I usually celebrate by completely switching off for the evening and watching a film or grabbing a takeaway with my flatmate.