life & style // no. 16 theotherpress.ca

Essay essentials

> Three things students forget to do when writing an essay

Brittney MacDonald
Life & Style Editor

 

A reading break concludes, most
people have either just gone through,
or are still going through their mid-
terms. This could mean tests, projects,
presentations—but most of the time

it means you'll be writing an essay.

This is an important time, because
it is generally when your first major essay
is due. The first essay always serves as
a means of evaluating your teacher’s
grading style. Are they harsh? Do they
deduct marks for improper formatting?
You don’t know until you get everything
back and see what you did wrong, and by
then it’s just too late. And, unfortunately,
sometimes an instructor isn’t always
entirely forthcoming with comments or
reasoning behind the grades they give. So,
as someone with a lot of essay experience
under her belt, here are the top three
things I see essay writers forget to do.

First—and probably the most
important because it ensures absolute
clarity in regards to your thesis—
immediately after your introduction
paragraph, devote a paragraph to
definitions. What I mean by this is
that, depending on your topic, certain
words will pop up repeatedly. Things
like “intertextuality” or “gender” must
be defined if they are important in
understanding your thesis. These

definitions do not have to be official
ones, they can just by an explanation
of how you interpret the word, but it is
important that your reader understands
your exact use of the word, especially if it
is one with varying definitions based on
context or interpretation. If you do use
an exact definition from a specific text or
dictionary, then also remember to cite it.
Second, if you are overburdened
and running low on time it might bea
good idea to familiarize yourself with
citing videos. So many times I have
been peer-reviewing, and I can tell
that the student has watched a recap
or summary video, and then has gone
back and tried to link things they’ve
seen in the video to a textbook or online

Beauty on a budget:
Rimmel Magnif'eyes
Eyeshadow
Contouring Palette

> Fun but flawed

Lauren Kelly
Editor-in-Chief

 

immel has recently released a line

f 12-pot eyeshadow palettes called
Magnif'eyes. They previously had a series
of eight shadow palettes with the same
moniker. I’m far from an eyeshadow expert,
and often don't use more than my Naked
Basics 1 matte shadows, but I thought that
these palettes looked very promising.

The new palettes come in three colour
sets: Keep Calm and Wear Gold, London
Nudes Calling, and Grunge Glamour.

The first, unsurprisingly, contains more
gold and bronze-toned neutrals. Grunge
Glamour has a few lighter nudes, but

is mostly deeper, smokier colours. The
one I purchased was the London Nudes
Calling palette, which contains largely
pink and purple-toned colours.

I’ve been using this palette every day for
the past two weeks, and I’ve really enjoyed
it. The colours are fairly pigmented, I haven't
experienced much fall out, and most of the
shadows work nicely together. There are
a few light shimmer shades, a deep satiny
brown, and a deep purple with reddish
shimmer. However, my favourites are the

medium pinks, bronzes, and taupes, which
are the ones I often find myself using. The
last shade in the palette is a fantastically rich
rust colour, but it’s not as easy to use as the
rest. Still, 'm partial to it, and I try to work it
in when I'm feeling a bit more adventurous.
Most of these have a frostier, shimmery
finish, which I'm not used to working with,
but I find that they really make my eyes pop.
The palette’s biggest downfall is the fact
that it only contains one matte shade, and it’s
a light pinky-cream. This means that there is
no solid brown nude for blending, making it
a bit difficult for me to work with. There is a
nice deep brown with a bit of shimmer that
I've been able to use as an okay substitute,
but I feel like it would have been vastly
improved by making that shadow matte.
The shadows come ina long,
clear-lidded plastic palette. They also
come with two dual-ended sponge
brushes. There’s probably room fora
small eyeshadow brush if you remove
them, but mine are too thick to fit in.
The palette was released in Canada
at $14.99, which isn’t too pricey. However,
I would only recommend it to people who
like frostier shades. I really enjoy the colours,
but I'm not sure if they're for everyone. The
pink shades will be fun for spring, though!

 

article. Cut-out the middle man. Citing
videos is actually amazingly easy; it’s just
that most people aren't taught how to
do it in class so they assume they can't.
Check with your instructor first, but
most of the time, as long as the source
is legitimate, they'll be fine with it.

Third is a really easy one, but one that
people forget about. Consistency! This
is actually related to two very different
things. For the actual set up of your
essay, make sure that your formatting
is consistent and to the specifications
of your instructor. If a teacher gives you
specific guidelines as to what your essay
should look like, they will probably
deduct marks for improper formatting—
and even if they don’t, not following their

Image via Disney

instruction could put them in a bad mood
while they grade your work. Not good! The
second bit of consistency is making sure
your citation style remains consistent,
not only to the type of citation you use—
MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.—but also to
the version of that citation style. These
styles are constantly changing as they
become refined or updated, so, generally,
instructors are fairly understanding if you
use an outdated version that you're more
comfortable with. The asterisk on this is
that you should, and sometimes must,
remain consistent with that version.
Hopefully this handy-dandy list
gives you something to help you out the
next time you have a major paper due.
Good luck, and God speed, cadets!

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