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The full title of this workshop was: The Mechanics of Good Writing in the Arts and Humanities. Although my English degree is now coming to an end, I thought I would go along to a programme wide lunchtime workshop about writing, which took place on 3 March 2026, facilitated by Cindy Benton. This was one of a series of workshops that I attended with the intention of picking up any potential useful tips. I’m really glad I went, since there were some very good tips to be gathered.

What follows are some notes I made, which I’m sharing with permission. When I use quotes, I’m either quoting directly from Cindy, or from the resource that she shared during her session. I would also like to add that the tips shared here may be useful to students who are studying subjects other than the humanities. These notes may also be especially useful for students studying the Computing and IT undergraduate project module, who have to submit a significant report during the end of their degree.

The workshop aim was to focus “on the skills needed to develop good academic writing at the sentence and paragraph level, including how to avoid common sentence structure errors, constructing effective paragraphs, signposting, and using an appropriate academic tone.” Cindy shared an interesting quote from Bourdieu and Passeron (1994); “academic languguage is no-one’s first language”, which I have since tracked down to the following source: Bourdieu, P., Passeron, J.C., & De Saint Martin, M. (1994). Academic discourse, linguistic misunderstanding, and professorial power. Stanford University Press.

I really like this quotation, since it reminds me of some related research that relates to the idea of academic literacies (ORO), that was published by a former OU colleague. From memory, the point is that you’re not just learning about something, you’re also writing about how that subject is discussed or expressed. Put another way, there are a bunch of these hidden rules that you need to figure out.

In computing modules, writing isn’t something that is foregrounded. Students are not typically expected to write essays. Students are, however, expected to write reports, and include short discussions within TMA submissions. Whatever the subject, writing is important.

If you’re a computing student, you might want to skip over the following section about the essay, and start on the section that highlights the importance of the introduction.

The essay

I understand an essay to be a formal piece of writing that is “structured, evidence based, balanced and formal”. It is something that “gives an opportunity to evidence understanding”.

We were asked a question: what makes a good essay?

I noted down three elements of a good essay: presentation, content, structure.

Presentation is important, since it helps the readability. Presentation can be helped by the use of correct use of language, appropriate use of paragraphs which have a clear structure, and correct referencing.

In terms of content, what you include should be relevant. You need to include evidence to support any claims you make and analyse any evidence that you share. Everything that you include should relate back to the essay question.

Turning to structure, there should be a clear introduction, a set of related paragraphs which uses signposts and transitional sentences to move between them, a clear conclusion, and a set of references.

There are things you should avoid: basic language errors (punctuation and word choice), overly personal language, contractions, colloquial language, emotive language, generalisations, and rhetorical questions. The point that we were implicitly returning to is that essays are formal and dispassionate.

Introductions

It is stating the obvious that essays and dissertations should contain introductions.

An introduction sets out the main points you are going to cover. It shares some context to outline what a piece of writing is all about. A rule of thumb is that an introduction should take up between 5 and 10% of a document.

During an introduction, offer a sketch of your conclusion. A practical suggestion is to avoid restating the essay question but instead aim to give an answer to your question. You may write what is called a thesis statement (which is a phrase I’ve not heard of before). A thesis statement should give your answer direction and focus. It should tell the reader about the topic and point out what will be discussed.

In an introduction to a report, you should say something about what you have done or what you have found out. You may also say something about why and how you have done what you have done, whilst also sharing some pointers to sections that follow.

Paragraphs

Each paragraph should share one main point before moving onto the next point. A paragraph should open with a sentence that relates to the thesis statement, or what the paragraph is going to cover. This opening sentence is called a topic sentence.

An effective paragraph has relevance (it has cohesion, which means that it addresses a single piont), it has unity and completeness (it develops a point fully before moving on), and coherence (sentences should flow from one to the other and organised in a logical order). An important point to remember is that if your paragraph contains detail that is not related to the aim of the paragraph, leave it out.

A well-known approach to working with paragraphs goes by the abbreviation PEEL: make a point, give evidence from your readings, explain how evidence relates to your point, and then add a linking sentence. Your linking sentence helps with flow and readability. It ensures a clear connection between everything that you have discussed, and can relate back to the question being answered. The explain bit is the analysis bit; it is the part of your paragraph that does a lot of the heavy lifting.

Reflecting on the application of PEEL, a bit of advice I was told by my own tutor was: “don’t end on a quote”. You need to explain what that quote it all about to your reader.

To conclude this section, a very practical tip was: if you’re struggling with you word count, as yourself whether every paragraph contributes to the overall argument. If not, then perhaps it could be cut.

Signposting

Signposts guides a reader through your argument, essay or report. They can show how points and paragraphs are connected together. They can work at different levels: within sections, at the start of paragraphs (to highlight the point that is going to be addressed), and within sentences. Sentence level signposting makes use of words such as however, alternatively, additionally (adding more ideas). Signposts can also be used within the conclusion, which can offer a reminder of where you got to at the end of the report or essay. They can also work within your conclusion to offer a reminder to the reader about the route they took to get to the end.

Conclusions

Reflecting the introduction, the conclusion to an essay should be anything between 5 to 10% of the total word count. The aim of the conclusion is to bring different threads together, which are expressed in the paragraphs. A conclusion should also show how your essay has addressed the question. and state points that have been identified or shared. Don’t introduce anything that is new. What is the main point or points. Don’t surprise your reader.

A set of questions to ask were shared. These are: is our conclusion related to our essay question? Is it based on evidence? Does it bring thread and points together? Does it avoid adding anything new?

Sentence level errors

The next bit was a quick summary of some small errors that could come up in your writing.

Run on sentences: put most simply, this is a sentence that has multiple parts (known as clauses) that would work better as multiple sentences, or joined together using punctuation and conjunctions (the word ‘and’).

Comma splices: This is where commas, rather than full stops, are used to connect entire sentences together. It can be solved be adding a full stop, or by using a semicolon. A semicolon is used to show that two separate sentences are closely related.

I find all this low level language stuff quite difficult, especially when terms such ‘clause’ and ‘conjunction’ are used. The following resource from the University of Waterloo, Run-on Sentences and Comma Splices offers some helpful guidance.

Another topic that was mentioned was the dreaded apostrophe. I have no shame in declaring that it took me a long time to properly figures this out, although it is inherently very simple. Essentially, the apostrophe relates to possession or ownership. This blog is Chris’s blog. It is my blog. The University of Sussex has a helpful page on The Apostrophe.

This resource is from a wider set of pages on the topic of punctuation, which is worth looking through.

Resources

The PowerPoint resource that accompanied the workshop contained a number of useful resources. I’ve pulled a number of them together and summarise them below:

• Essays (University of Hull): a detailed guide about essay writing. It also contains some useful video tutorials.
• Thesis statements (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): A handout that summarises what a thesis statement is, and what it can do for you. This is a page from a larger resource.
• Paragraph transitions (Las Positas College): A set of useful dos and don’ts (note the use of the apostrophe!)
• Punctuation (University of Sussex): The detailed resource that was mentioned earlier.
• Grammar and Punctuation (University of Bristol): A series of pages that you can dip in and out of, or go through a page at a time. It also contains a series of help quizzes.
• Writing Centre (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): A very thorough resource that covers a lot of topics.

And finally:

• OU Study Skills Booklets: always worth a look. Written in an accessible format.

Reflections

Even though I’m an experienced student who has been around the block a few times, this session reminded me that attending events, however familiar, still helps me to pick up new ideas. I came out of this session learning the terms: thesis statement, topic sentence, and comma splices. I still struggle with the idea of an argument when it comes to English essays, but I think I’m getting there.

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments are duly given to the Arts and Humanities team that set up this programme of workshops, and to Cindy Benton.

When I was about to start a task, I was proactively distracted by a really interesting and topical YouTube recommendation.

In week 20 of TM354 Software Engineering (which is an optional bit of study materials) students are encouraged to listen to a talk by Grady Booch about the topic of software architecture. 

The recommendation I was offered by YouTube was to listen to a talk from The Pragmatic Engineer by Grady entitled The third golden age of software engineering – thanks to AI which is slightly different to his earlier talk about architecture.

The post that was recommended to me is worth a listen (but it is pretty long!) Booch is known for his work on UML, which features heavily in TM354. Over the last couple of years (before I left X), I’ve been aware of Booch’s opinions about Generative AI. I’ve shared his cynicism about the hype that has been shared by the developers of GenAI systems.

It is worth looking at the bookmarked sections of the video. Each of his descriptions of the different ‘golden ages’ are interesting. In it, he highlights drivers and change. In fact, I really like how he introduces the origins of software engineering.

In his talk, he responds to an assertion from the CEO of Anthropic who suggests that AI can take over tasks that are carried out by software engineers in 12 months. Given that people (namely, software engineers) are able to know and understand the richness of the human contexts in which software exists, and be aware of the nuances that can be expressed within sets of non-functional requirements, I hold the view that this is nonsense. A general purpose generative AI tool cannot provide insight after speaking with a number of different stakeholders, and appreciate how begin to make changes to existing systems. Booch presents his response to Amodei’s assertion by adopting more scientific language, which is certainly worth listening to.

Some of the themes that run through his talk (in addition to AI) are that of abstraction, ethics, and change. He also offers some helpful suggestions about ‘new skills engineers will need to succeed’.

If you’re a software engineering student, and have a free hour (which might be easier said than done), Booch’s talk is worth a listen. Some bits can get pretty dense in terms of detail, but don’t worry out that too much. Sometimes it is useful to listen for the gist, since it’s always possible to go over it again later.

As an aside, he also mentioned a website called Victorian Engineering Connections. Following his comment, I searched for George Boole, and watched a web of links appear on my screen.

To conclude, here’s a quote from Booch’s X account: “The story of computing is the story of humanity: this is a story of ambition, invention, creativity, vision, avarice, power, and serendipity, powered by a refusal to accept the limits of our bodies and our minds.” I really like that. After all, at the end of the day, software engineering is all about creating products and systems for people, by people.

3 January 2026

Happy new year!

My previous TMA result has finally come in. I’ve had a look through the comments, and they are helpful. The big takeaway point is to work harder to integrate everything together – secondary sources, the text that is the focus of the analysis, and my opinions about everything. Also, it is important to make my opinions clear – do I agree or disagree with other critics? All this is good academic practice which I was never formally taught in my study of computing. With this in mind, I do feel as if I’m getting some useful additional academic training from studying English.

I’m looking forward to the next TMA. Over the winter break, I had a short break of a couple of days. During that time, I managed to choose and then read three articles for next TMA. When I got back, I’ve had a go to summarise them for when the TMA 3 discussion forum opens. What I need to do is to go through my chosen set text with a fine toothed comb, whilst thinking about the main essay question.

I managed to get a bit of extra ‘study’ done first thing this morning. Whilst lying in bed, I listed to a podcast by Emma Smith, a fabulous Shakespeare scholar from Oxford University I thought there might be a connection between a topic she raised and the forthcoming EMA question. Without too much messing about, I managed to track down the source, which I’ve now sent to my Kindle.

My final action of this morning is to eyeball the TMA 4 question, which is due in April. I have two immediate thoughts. The first is that it appears to be quite open, i.e. for a couple of the options we get to choose our own texts (if we wish to do so). The second is that there’s a group of texts that I’ve not yet read. I need to restart reading Salih and then move onto Calvino, but I’m a bit intimidated by its length. I have, however, booked time off in leave for the beginning of March, so I might be okay.

5 January 2026

I tried to download a version of the Salih text, but it isn’t available on the Kindle, so I downloaded a copy of Cosmicomics. I have a paper version, but I don’t have it with me at the moment. I don’t like it. I’m nearly through the first 12 stories. I’m not, yet, at the point of wanting to throw it across the room (which I wanted to do with a Woolf text), but I’m not too far from it. I appreciate what it’s trying to do, but from my reading, I don’t think it works. It feels overly contrived. This is the extent of my literary analysis.

The TMA 3 wiki should open soon. I’ve asked my tutor a question, and has kindly responded. My next task is to read over what I’ve prepared and then post my text to the collaborative area. I then have a couple of weeks until I need to put my thoughts in order for the penultimate TMA. In the meantime, my day job is going to dominate.

This is my first day back. I think I need another holiday.

13 January 2026

My contribution to the collaborative literature review has been done. I’m quite pleased when what I managed to put together.

Over the last week or so I’ve been jumping around between different texts. I’ve abandoned Cosmicomics. I really don’t like it. This said, I have got part way through an audiobook version of Between the Acts, which isn’t as bad as I remembered. I got through a few chapters whilst on a long drive. I’ll try to start it again when I have another long drive in a couple of weeks.

After seeing a fabulous play, I was inspired to read Stuff Happens by Hare, another of our set texts. I tore through it in under a day and found it thoroughly enjoyable. Given all the current political insanity, it came across as being unexpectedly quaint.

I’ve just finished listening to a cluster tutorial that was about another drama, The Playboy of the Western World. The tutor was fabulous, and packed in a whole lot of detail that either had passed me by, or I hadn’t known about. I might well go back and give it another listen. We were also given a link to a video recording of the play which I’m going to watch. I’ve already listened to an audio recording of it, which I found through Drama Online, but I haven’t (yet) got the entire sense of the play. I’ll really know what is what when I get to see it at The National at the end of next month – I just wish that I had booked in to see it earlier.

My next steps: I’ve downloaded another secondary source – a paper about modernism, and The Aran Islands by Synge and have sent these to my Kindle. I’m going to take myself off to a coffee shop, get out my virtual highlighter, and perform the role of an English student. (I would enjoy it more if I wasn’t so stressed about editing and writing materials for my day job!)

14 January 2026

I’ve started the modernism paper, but I got distracted. I recently found a copy of Reading and Criticism by Raymond Williams, published in 1955. Williams is mentioned in the module materials.

I have about 3 chapters to go: a chapter on reading drama, a chapter on bringing criticism all together, and a chapter about the role of literature in society. I read one first thing this morning. I’m hoping to get another one read by the end of the day.

16 January 2026

I’ve been to a few more tutorials. I was at the guest lecture about Ford last night, and ended up getting a bit confused. A lot of words were used. Just when I think I’m ‘getting’ modernism, a whole bunch of other ideas about it are thrown my way. I now have the job of picking through them all, and figuring out how the relate to my chosen text.

I’ve downloaded a bunch of papers from a Cambridge Companion, and have downloaded a couple of papers recommended by students. What I’ve got to do now is to read (and understand) everything, which is a whole lot easier said than done.

I keep thinking about the final TMA. I would like to pair Rhys with another text. That text must have been published between the years of 1932 and 1946, but I have no idea which text to choose. I have, however, found two useful resources (albeit a resource that is also trying to sell us books). Both are lists from Penguin. The first is 20 books that defined the 1930s. The second is, perhaps unsurprisingly, Books that shaped the 1940s. There are quite a few I’ve not heard of, and there are quite a few that I fancy reading. I’m sure we’ll be offered quite a bit of guidance when it comes to TMA 4.

19 January 2026

I think I’ve decided what to pair the Rhys text with (spoiler alert: it isn’t Woolf). I’ve ordered a cheap second hand copy of my chosen text from a popular second hand marketplace. If I hate the text, I have a lot of time to choose something else. I hope to have a good look at it next week.

I’m continuing with my reading of criticism of The Playboy of the Western World. To try to make more sense of it, I managed to spend a couple of hours watching something called the Druid production. I watched it whilst reading the Project Gutenberg edition on my Kindle whilst making the occasional set of notes. I now have a lot more of a sense of the play. It is a curious piece. It is completely over the top, and patently ridiculous, but I quite like it.

I have two other things to do. Look up both Synge and modernism in two reference books I have at home. There’s also a tutorial about Synge this evening. I’ll then consolidate my secondary reading. I should be able to start writing either at the end of this week, or the start of next week.

Something else. My tutor has shared an additional resource which relates to modernism and a bit of the forthcoming TMA. I’ve downloaded it and have sent it to my Kindle.

There’s always more stuff to read.

22 January 2026

I’m very nearly ready to get stuck in with my essay. I thought I would have a good old go at it this morning. Before I got cracking, I noticed that a tutor had shared some slides from their Synge tutorial. I downloaded them, opened them, and had a quick browse through. I don’t (yet) think my critical eye is as refined as it could be. I need to sit down with the text, and the PowerPoint slides, and go through them both carefully.

Whilst on a break, I jumped ahead to a bit of the final TMA; I started to re-read the opening of Good morning, Midnight. I really like this text. In the same morning, I received delivery of a text that I think I might pair it with. I’ll have to see if it’ll work.

Here’s my plan: quickly review the additional resource (which I said I would do) that tutors have been sharing, eyeball all the critical articles I’ve downloaded, and then start to pick apart passages from Playboy.

27 January 2026

This TMA 3 essay is doing my head in. I’m finding it really slippery. I’ve finished making loads of notes, but I’m worried that in the process of trying to distil everything down, my chosen argument might be way too complicated. There is a simple reason for this: the more that I have read, the more I see the different ways that the play can be understood. I have some thoughts about the passages that I’ve chosen, but I feel I need to write them down to see if they may any sense. I’m at a point where I feel I need to get this done.

I also feel as if I’m at a similar point in the module as I was last year with A334 - feeling a bit tired and confused. I’ll be really glad when this one is out of the way. I’ve been a bit overwhelmed with all the sources I’ve tried to make sense of.

30 January 2026

My TMA has gone in. I think it is as best as it can be. It has gone in way early, simply because I need to manage my workload.

Last night I started to listen to the Rhys audio materials, which I really liked and finished listening to them this morning. I tried to find a recording of the BBC radio play that was mentioned. I wasn’t successful, but I did find a radio programme about Good Morning, Midnight by comedian Josie Long. Her episode of The Exploding Library is really worth a listen. I even found a few minutes to look in the library, and have already downloaded a couple of critical articles which might be useful later. My next step is to go back to re-reading Good Morning, Midnight.

On 10 December 2025, I attended a short online workshop to help OU Digital Technology Solutions (DTS) degree apprentices become familiar with what was required for their End Point Assessment (EPA).

What follows are a set of notes I’ve taken during the session which I’m sharing on the off chance they might be useful for any of the apprentices I’m supporting.  I’ve also taken a few moments to share my own practical tips, which I hope are helpful. I’ve written it as if I was speaking with an apprentice (which reflects the workshop).

A professional discussion

The EPA is what is called a professional discussion. It is a formal assessment to determine your “occupational competence” but should also be considered as “a celebration of your apprenticeship journey”.  It is a conversation about all the experience and learning gained from your apprenticeship, drawing on evidence that have been uploaded to your ePortfolio. The evidence will, of course, demonstrates your meet all the knowledge skills and behaviours (KSBs) that all combine together to form the DTS standard.

The EPA is expected to take 60 minutes, and is likely to contain 4 key critical questions (which are related to themes). Each question is likely to lead to follow up questions. The first question is likely to be quite broad. A practical recommendation is to give clear examples that relates to the evidence that you have uploaded and the KSBs.

Your portfolio

The evidence that you upload to your ePortfolio must be your own evidence; it must relate to work-based activities that you have done yourself, and the learning that you have gained from that work.

Every piece of evidence that you add must relate to one or more of the standard’s KSBs. A practical recommendation is that every piece of evidence should ideally relate to a group of KSBs. Minimum of 6 piece of evidence, but typically about 10 pieces of evidence. Evidence could take the form of module assignments (tutor marked assessments), information about work based products, narrative summaries of work down (with screenshots), witness testimonies, and even video materials.

How do you make decisions about what to include into the ePortfolio? An important question to ask is “what is a particular piece of evidence trying to achieve?” Two accompany questions are: what does it show, and how does it relate to the KSBs? Also, does the piece of evidence have a clear filename and title? Is it well structured? Does it show clear evidence of learning and development having taken place?

To help everyone to prepare evidence, we were introduced to something called the STAR method, a simple framework that uses four words to encourage reflection. The words are: situation (what is the context in which something was done?), task (why was it needed?), action (what did you do?), and result (what was the outcome or impact?).

After a piece of evidence is submitted to the ePortfolio, your practice tutor reviews what has been submitted, and assigns it a grade. There are two possibilities: pass, or distinction. The criteria for each of these is described in the DTS standard. What typically distinguishes between a pass and a distinction is evidence of impact. One clear and direct way to evidence impact is though numbers. If you have made some fixes to software, how many users does this positively impact? If there have been some efficiency savings, what are these? Numbers represent a really powerful and concise way to evidence impact.

Useful tips

When it comes to preparing and writing evidence that you upload into your ePortfolio, it is important not to leave it to the very last minute. When you begin to contribute to your workplace, begin to evidence what you do and the impact you have, as soon as you can. When you get to your third year, you may well have forgotten about some of the good stuff that you have done in the first six months of your apprenticeship.

My own practical tip is: if you have difficulty writing or preparing evidence, do consider preparing a witness statement as a practical alternative. Speak with your line manager. Sometime your line manager will be able to offer a wider perspective about the work you are doing and the contributions you are making.

When it comes to your EPA, here are some simple and practical tips:

• Make sure you know the contents of your ePortfolio. You may be asked about anything you have uploaded.
• It is okay to have notes. Before your EPA, take a bit of time to prepare some notes to bring into your meeting. Write down examples of work that you are most proud of, and know how these examples relate to the KSBs.
• If you are asked a really difficult question, it is okay to pause for a few moments to allow you to collect your thoughts. Equally, it is okay to ask the assessor some clarifying questions. It is, after all, a conversation.
• Remember that you are approaching all this from a position of strength. You are the expert in your own ePortfolio and what you have done. The assessor is not there to trip you up; the assessor is there to be guided through a story of what you have achieved.

The project module

In my diary, this event was listed under the heading ‘TMXY476 workshop’. TMXY476 is the apprenticeship project module. The EPA is, of course, a professional discussion is about your entire apprenticeship full journey. By way of contrast, the project is a “deep dive” into skills, and has its own set of KSBs. Your project and work-based learning tutors will help you to work through these. During your project you may, of course, carry out some activities that can also evidence some of your apprenticeship KSBs.

Reflections

When I started as a practice tutor it took me quite a bit of time to understand what all the KSBs were all about. It is impossible to understand them all in one go. The only way to do it is to gradually chip away at it, and to understand different ways they can be related to what you do.

In the middle of all the work activities and the academic study, it is easy to forget about them, but it is important to keep clear sight of them. In one way or another, they should guide what you do, and also help you to relate the academic study to the industrial work. I think of them as a bridge between the two.

From my perspective, there are two significant take away points. The first is the question “what is a particular piece of evidence trying to achieve?” Clarity is important. It helps the discussion. Both the EPA and your ePortfolio are both about showing off, and celebrating what you do. The STAR framework looks like a really useful tool that can help with this.

Acknowledgements

The event was facilitated by Martin Rothwell and was attended by OU colleagues, and apprentices.  Words and phrases in quotes have been noted directly from Martin’s presentation. Many thanks to other OU colleagues in the apprenticeship team who may have contributed to this helpful workshop.

2 November 2025

I downloaded a version of The Mill on the Floss, and did some gardening. I read the text over the summer, and really enjoyed it, but I have a fragile memory (and understanding of the story). I found myself chuckling whilst wielding a pair of shears, probably looking like a madman.

This morning, I turned my attention to the first of the Eliot chapters, and had a listen to the final audio clip. There was an interesting chat between the block author and a couple of academics. Note to self: it contains topics that I might want to return to later on in the module.

It’s time for a bike ride.

11 November 2025

I have about ten hours to go with The Mill on the Floss. There was a chapter that I only vaguely recognised. This must have been a bit I read after having some wine; I recognised all the other chapters, events and characters. In fact, I’m quite enjoying listening to it all. It’s also interesting to see how Eliot is occasionally dropping pointers to foreshadow the ending. I might get it finished by this time next week if all goes to plan. I should certainly manage to get an hour in tomorrow.

I’ve now read three critical sources about the Tennyson poem that I’m going to focus on. They do vary in quality. One is quite long and goes into the text in quite a systematic way. The other one takes a thematic approach. The other one barely says anything. I think I know which critical source I’m going to use.

I’ve also been over bits of the poem again. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I really like it. It really speaks to me. I have an idea about how I’m going to take the essay question and make an argument about it, whilst also connecting back to something that a critic has said.

Something else: on 8 November 2025 I attended something called the Arts and Humanities Day School. They are taking place in different cities across the UK.

12 November 2025

I’m getting way ahead.

Just this morning I’ve had a good look at TMA 3. There are two bits to it: a collaborative bit, and an essay bit. I have a rough idea of what needs to be done. I have the two deadlines already in my diary: the interim deadline, and the main deadline. I think I’m going to like TMA 3.

As an aside, I think I would quite like to read a biography of Dryden. I think this interest comes from reading two other literary biographies: one of Behn, and another of Swift. Also, reading about Tennyson has led to an interest in Dryden. One biography I’ve noticed is John Dryden and his World by James Winn. I might add that to my Christmas list.

If anyone had told me ten years ago that I would be looking for biographies about Dryden, I would have thought they were on drugs.

16 November 2025

I have just under six hours of The Mill on the Floss to go. I’ll try to get through it by taking it to the gym, which I did with Bleak House. No doubt I’ll get lost and confused whilst using the elliptical machine. I’ll see.

Today I’m spending an hour to look for sources for TMA 3. Whilst I was in the area, I had a look through the Alexander Street audio library, to see if there was an audio version of Stuff Happens by David Hare. There wasn’t. I had a look on Audible, and that didn’t have anything either. There was, however, a book called Stuff Happens, which was a guide to decluttering your house, which wasn’t quite what I was looking for.

Whilst I was in the area of the Alexander Street library, I had a quick look to see whether there were any plays by Behn. None were listed. Not even The Rover. This said, I did find a recording of Playboy of the Western World by Synge, which will be really useful when it comes to TMA 3.

I’ve found four articles that look like they might relate to the TMA question. I’ve downloaded them and have made a note of their citations. I’ll leave the task for sending them all to my Kindle for another day.

19 November 2025

Two days, two tutorials. I’ve made notes.

The first one was about Tennyson and Clough. I kind of liked it. We went through one of his poems, looking at key lines, and the use of language. My focus drifted when we got to the Clough section.

The second one was about The Mill on the Floss. After a bit of talk about Eliot’s biography, our tutor took us to two fragments, where we then had a chat about the role of two of the main characters. We then had a quick chat about the ending, before starting to look at the different bits of the TMA question.

Over the next two days there are two more tutorials.

My next task? To try to find some more papers for TMA 3, and then to try to have a listen to the production of Playboy of the Western World. But before I get there, I’ve got to context switch and find my way back to Software Engineering.

21 November 2025

I missed a tutorial last night despite it being in my diary. There’s one tonight which more aligns with my TMA choice. Note to self: don’t forget it!

I did two things yesterday. I managed to listen to the audio version of The Playboy of the Western World, which was very good. I started to browse through the catalogue of other plays that were available, but thankfully I got distracted before I went in too deep.

The second thing was that I managed to find some papers that might be relevant to the TMA 3 question that is coming up. I know I’m getting way ahead of myself with this, but even if I end up using different papers when we get to the assessment, I roughly know where to look.

My next task is to send all those to my Kindle.

23 November 2025

I spent yesterday moving between different parts of the module, and carrying out different study tasks. After listening to a Tennyson and Clough tutorial (and making a bunch of notes), I then revisited my two sources with a more critical eye. This clarified what I’m going to do, and how I’m going to approach the assessment. I think I’ll go to one more tutorial, read through the question and the text we’re supposed to read again, and then get cracking with TMA 2, just so I can get it in before my own TMAs arrive. I have about a week.

I jumped forward a bit in the module materials, reading the chapter about Synge, and then starting the chapter about Ford. I then re-read the opening of the very sad story, which is The Good Soldier.

This morning my TMA 1 was returned. I’m pleased with the result. My tutor has given some useful points of criticism, but some of the comments do relate to points that I already made in the TMA. Maybe my willingness to criticise the tutor means that I’m now feeling a bit more confident in what I’m doing.

I am less confident in my understanding of what literary modernism is all about, other than disjointedness, and the slippery nature of language, which means it’s difficult to pin down meaning. There’s also something about the effect on the reader, but I haven’t really nailed that bit of understanding yet.

25 November 2025

Another tutorial last night. I picked up some useful tips. I think I’m just about pretty much ready to start. First thing this morning I read a paper that I’ll use when answering the essay question. I’ve highlighted a bunch of useful quotes. I’m going to get cracking this afternoon after a meeting about exam papers and assignments. I need to get it in by this time next week if I’m going to manage my workload.

During the tutorial, a fellow student mentioned something called the Poetry Foundation, which looks like a fabulous resource. After learning about this, I went down a poetry rabbit hole, and found my way to a Behn poem about her coterie called “our cabal”. My immediate question was: who are these people? My Kindle tells me that Behn’s biographer, Janet Todd, has some suggestions.

27 November 2025

I had a good go at my TMA 2 this morning, and I think I have broken the back of it. I began by re-reading the text, making a bunch of highlights, and then stirring the mess of notes that I had made. After a couple of hours of writing and rewriting, having a cup of tea, and going back to it, I had something that had a reasonable structure. I quite liked the assignment, since it really develops the practice of close reading a critical source, as well as close reading the text that relates to it. I do feel that we could have had something similar earlier on in the programme.

My next tasks will be to edit what I’ve done and to go through all the papers that I’ve downloaded in anticipation of TMA 3. There’s a risk that they might entirely inappropriate. The tutorials will help me figure that out.

28 November 2025

After a morning of proof reading and editing, my TMA 2 has gone in. This gives me back a bit of time to work on TM354 TMA marking when it comes in early next week.

I noticed that there were a couple of audiovisual resources that related to The Mill on the Floss that I hadn’t seen. I had a quick listen to these, and ticked of where I was in the module materials. I’m definitely ahead, and I would like to keep it that way.

A note to self: I must find the time to read through those papers that I’ve downloaded, and to read the second half of the Salih novel. This said, I think I need to start again to really understand what it is about, what what is going on.

I would argue that the project module provides four outputs:

1. It enables you to consolidate and further develop your skills and knowledge that have been gained from your study of previous modules.
2. It enables you to gain important and necessary academic credit that contributes to your degree.
3. It enables you to complete a specific named degree that is recognised by an industrial body: the British Computer Society.
4. It enables you to create an extensive and detailed project report that you can show to a potential employer.

This fourth point can be easily overlooked. When writing your report, imagine bringing it to a technical interview. Interviews are all about demonstrating your skills and abilities to someone who has a problem that needs to be solved. Your report should, of course, be written in such as way to showcase your skills, knowledge and what you have achieved.

If you have written your report with this in mind, there is no reason why you should not bring your end of project report to an interview. To efficiently share what you have done, one idea is to create an additional ‘presentation appendix’ that you can add to the end of your report. This could contain a very short series of PowerPoint slides, that have been designed so you are able to talk someone through your project.  Prepare for five minutes, no more. You can always go into more technical detail if you need to.

In addition to mentioning your project on your CV, if your project involves designing and building software, you might consider sharing your code through a GitHub repository. Not only can you include a link to the repository in your project work, perhaps as an appendix, but you could also share a link to your repository to your CV. The effect of this will be to highlight your professional skills.

When you are writing your project report, make sure you consider all your potential readers: your tutor, your examiner, and anyone else who might be interested in learning about your skills and abilities. Rather than thinking of the report as something that allow you to gain three of the academic outputs that come with studying a project module, think how you might present what you have done to a potential employer.

Careers support

The OU runs a career service. The service is funded through a portion of your student fees and is available for every student for up to three years after graduation.

As you work work on your project, begin to look at the different services that are offered by the university careers and employability service. Through the service, you can book in a one-to-one consultation with a careers advisor, access events about career planning, and internship and job vacancies.

Here is a short summary of some of the services offered by the careers service, taken directly from the opportunity hub website:

• Explore career pathways.
• Get help with qualification and career goals.
• Build your work experience.
• Develop skills for the workplace.
• Get help with job seeking applications.
• Explore further study.

A further resource that may be considered used is the Prospects website that provides information about further study, information about jobs, and further careers guidance.

Reflections

Very early on in my career, I found a vacancy through Prospects. I made and application, and was selected for interview. I made sure I took with my recently completed dissertation. I showed it to my interviewer.

I didn’t end up getting the job I had applied for, but I did end up getting a different opportunity (for which I am always grateful for). My dissertation showed what I was capable of doing, and it must have made an impression. Your project report has the potential to do the same.

A further reflection is that there is a lot of career related resources that are provided by the university. There is often a separation between the academic study, and the exploration of employability choices and options. It is really important that we find the time to explore the resources that are available. It is also useful to remember that we have access to the careers service for three years after graduation.

On 18 November 25, I attended a CPD session that had the title Compassionate Communication, facilitated by colleagues from the student communications hub. This was one of a number of professional development sessions that were run on the day for OU tutors.

The aim of the session was to define what was meant by compassionate communication and recognise its relevance, identify common barriers (to communication), and explore ways to overcome those barriers. Looking back after the session, I can see that it had a very specific and practical focus: how to use email effectively.

What follows are some notes (and thoughts) I drew from the session.

Definition

The session opened with a definition of what compassionate communication might be. I noted down the follow words: empathy, mindful (of different circumstances, and how your words come across), timely (each module has module calendar), clear and transparent (communicating clearly and offering explanations) and inclusive (be aware of the challenges that others face, and use of appropriate language).

We were then asked about the potential barriers to compassionate communication. I thought this was a very good question, and noted down the following: time, stress and burnout (of the sender), inaccessible communication style, misinterpretation of communications, and lack of training.

Practice

Moving to another part of the session, we were introduced to a simple exercise which focussed on a simple question: how might an email message make someone feel? We looked at a sample email message that had the aim of building trust, developing a sense of community, and to encourage contact. Another question was, of course, did it do these things? Also, what else could we add to improve it? What does ‘good email communication’ look like?

Here are some key points that I noted down:

• Clear intent and aim.
• Positive and encouraging tone.
• Acknowledgement of the individual.
• Timeliness of the communication.
• Clear setting of expectations.
• Use of plan English with an active voice rather than formal academic English.
• Providing clear sign posting to answers or resources.
• Consider the length of the communication; keep it short.
• Avoid idioms, dismissing concerns or feelings.
• Never include accusatory language (you haven’t done something).
• Do encourage seeking of support and further, mirror language used by the recipient.
• Show empathy.

My points

Thinking about all these points, I would like to add my own, in order of importance:

• If you find yourself writing a very long email with multiple points, consider whether a call would be more useful.
• If you feel you need to build trust or empathy, schedule a call. Email is good for sharing information. It is terrible for understanding the needs of others.
• When using email to book a time to have a call, offer a couple of alternatives, in order of preference. Also state how you would like to make that call. Is it through a plain old telephone system, through a Team video call, or through your Adobe Connect room. Choose what you prefer.
• After a call has taken place, follow up with a short email, offering thanks for their time, also sharing the key points from the conversation.
• When replying to an email, consider where a student is in their studies. Where are they likely to be in the module calendar?
• Consider what previous email communications has taken place previously.
• If your email contains more than one separate points, consider whether you need to send multiple emails. It is sometimes better to separate out issues into separate messages. Doing this allows you to talk about them during a call if you need to.
• If you have to write an email that is sensitive, or contains a lot of information, reflect on whether you need to send it right away. Sometimes it is a good idea to write your message, save it as a draft, and then send it later. Spending time to reflect on what you have written can be helpful.
• Choose a subject line that is helpful.
• Open and close emails in a clear and polite way.
• Avoid using Generative AI. It will just waste your time. You will spend more time reading and rewriting what it produces. Email messages produced using Gen AI tools often sound robotic.

Reflections

I am drawn to sessions about soft skills for a really simple reason: they are really important.

I was expecting something slightly different. I was expecting something about speaking more directly to others, perhaps when using the phone, using videoconferencing software, or speaking during tutorials. I wasn’t expecting it all to be all about email.

Email is a skill. I spend hours a day in my inbox. I’ve received loads of really long emails that contain very many complicated points. Out of all these points I’ve shared here, if I were to share only two of them, they would be: keep it short, and keep it simple.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Ellena White and Sara Bradley who facilitated the session. Some of the key points shared in the practice section of the blog have been paraphrased from their slides.

On 8 November 2025 I wore my metaphorical student hat and went to one of the Arts and Humanities day school. There were a number of these happening across the UK; last year I went to the one hosted at Milton Keynes. This year, I went to the one that took place in the London School of Economics. 

What follows is a quick blog summary of the event, which might be of interest to other fellow arts and humanities students. There were a number of strands to the day: art history, creative writing, English literature, history, classical studies, religious studies and music. I firmly stuck to the English lit strand.

English Literature Study Skills

The first session was facilitated by Peter Lawson. Peter highlighted key documents and resources: the assessment guide, module guide, and the English Literature toolkit (which can be useful when preparing for the writing of TMAs). He took us through some of the key learning outcomes from the English Literature programme, highlighting the top level categories of knowledge and understanding, cognitive skills, key skills, and practical and/or professional skills.

Some key (and necessarily obvious) points that relate to the writing of assignments include: time, reading the question, reading the guidance notes, stick to the word count, reference correctly, and submit by the deadline.

Tips for planning an essay include, begin by taking notes (on set text and critical sources), plan before writing, and ‘always provide a logical argument and evidence to support your position’. An important point is that it is okay to disagree with critical sources. I’ve tried to get critics to ‘talk with each other’, whilst putting myself in the middle of the conversation, but I’m not quite there in being able to do this.

Other tips included: it is important to have a clear introductory paragraph, and consider applying PEAL, where each paragraph makes a point, shares evidence, does some analysis and evaluation, and then provides a linking sentence to the next paragraph. Do explain why you have chosen a particular quote. This relates to a point that a tutor shared with me, which was ‘don’t end a paragraph with a quote; explain why you have chosen it, rather than letting it stand on its own’.

There was a comment about the close reading assignments which begin every module. You might approach it thematically, or a line by line basis. Which makes me wonder about how good the assignment I have just recently submitted!

Write Now: Getting started on TMA writing

The next session was all about what to expect from a ‘write now workshop’. The session also shared some strategies and approaches to help with starting to write your TMA by applying a technique known as structured freewriting.

There was a short discussion about barriers; what gets in the way of our writing, and what strategies do we apply to overcome those barriers? Some tips that were shared included: plan your study time and writing, break down tasks, ‘ditch perfectionism’ which means ‘give yourself permission to write a rubbish bit of writing’, break the process down into different stages by separating out the process of writing and the process of evaluating.

Another point was: find a study buddy; someone who might be studying on a similar module who lives close to where you live (which can be difficult to achieve, especially since so much is done online).

You and your library team

This session was a recorded lecture that was shown in one of the LSE lecture theatres. It took us through a range of different resources that are available in the OU library, such as the Oxford English Dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB), both of which I have used in earlier literature assignments. A useful tip with the ODNB is that you can broaden your search for a particular name or author, to see who else might be associated with them.

Using Dickens as a case study, we were guided through a short sequence of primary and secondary sources. Primary sources may include the Bridgeman Image Collection, or Early English Books online (EBO). Secondary sources, namely, journal catalogues are available by going to the Selected Resources for your Study part of the library.

To conclude, the sessions offered by the library were highlighted which you can find by going to the ‘training and events’ heading. A notable example was the ‘using library search for your assessment’.

Five things to know about English Literature

In this fifty minute session, facilitated by Tim Hammond and Liz Ford, we were collectively politely provoked into answering five questions:

• What is literature and what does it do?
• What does literature look like?
• What does literature sound like?
• Can other disciplines help us to understand/enjoy literature?
• Is literature good for you?

Although I had been to a similar session before (where I had won an OU pencil in 2023, a prize for being arrogant, for presuming to be able to define ‘literature’ in a sentence) this session was a lot of fun. Each question yielded a lot of discussion. I didn’t offer any pithy definitions and didn’t win any pencils, which might reflect a change or refinement in my thinking over after five years of study. 

The future of reading

Earlier this year, I got chatting with a former English teacher (who had left the profession to take up stand-up comedy). He said something interesting, which was ‘the kids are not reading anymore’, which I found quite worrying. I had this conversation in the forefront of my mind during Shafquat Towheed’s presentation, which creatively explored ‘the future of reading’.

Two important quotes I made were ‘humans shape the way we interact with technology’ and ‘we will only use technologies if they remain useful to us’. We were given a reassuring reflection, that ‘the contemporary paperback is not dying’. A reason for this is that ‘books are persistently usable’ in the sense that what they contain can persist for a very long time. It was suggested that books can survive societal ‘extinction events’ and political upheaval.

Another quote I noted down was ‘the future of human centred reading is about us, not about technology’. The implication is that reading technologies come and go, but there will always be reading. I’m not sure whether I caught this word for word, but the following really resonated with me, the idea that books do ‘the heavy lifting that tell you who you are’, since ‘reading is about your own personal discovery’. Reading gives us immediate benefits. It allows us to have increased empathy, reduce anxiety, develop our sense of self, reduce isolation, increase our educational level of attainment, and others; I didn’t catch all of the points that Shaf shared. I learnt a new term that was related to all this: bibliotherapy. I also noted down the points that we read for emotional satisfaction, for pleasure, and for self-worth.

I’ve been working with technology, computers, my entire professional life. A book is the ultimate technology. I’ve seen different computing technologies come and go. The point was made that books are not going to go anywhere.

Reflections

When you’re studying at a distance face-to-face events are a ‘shot in the arm’ in terms of motivation. Students (like me) can pick up loads of useful hints and tips. Although a lot of the content was familiar, now that I’m coming to the end of my degree, the repetition and reinforcement was helpful. It also offers helpful reassurance too. It was also really nice to speak with other students, which is one of the benefits that is harder to quantify. I had some nice chats with a fellow student who is the admin of the module Facebook group, of which I’m a member. We face similar challenges of fitting study around life.

I really enjoyed Shaf’s presentation on the future of reading; it offered reassurance. I also picked up a few new practical pointers from the library session.

After the event, I did ask myself the question: why doesn’t the STEM faculty run events like these? It turns out that they do. Apparently, the Mathematics and Statistics school runs one for students, across all levels. I’ve also heard that Life, Health and Chemical Sciences runs one too. What about computing? I’ll ask some questions. Leave it with me.

Past events

I've been to a few of these events. Now that I'm on my final module, I've realised that this might have been the last one. It depends, of course, on whether I'll get through my final module. I'll do the best I can. 

Here are blog summaries of the previous events I've been to:

• Arts and Humanities Study Day 2024
• Arts and Humanities Day School 2023

Acknowledgements

Due acknowledgements are extended to all facilitators and everyone involved in the delivery of this day school. Thanks are also extended to the LSE team, who helped me to find my way to the right room.

Another day, another CPD session. In addition to being a tutor, I’m also what is called a practice tutor (PT), where I help to support the school’s apprenticeship programme. On 6 November 2025 I went along to a relatively short session about something called the tripartite apprenticeship meeting. It is called this, since it involves, perhaps unsurprisingly, three parties: the apprentice, their line manager, and the OU practice tutor.

What follows are some notes that reflects both the session, and the role of the practice tutor.

Session summary

During the initial meeting, there is an intention of sharing information about roles and responsibilities. It is an opportunity for the PT to gain an understanding of apprentice’s starting point, and to set initial targets. It is also an important opportunity to offer a useful summary of the apprenticeship programme to both the apprentice and their line manager. It is also important to introduce the Knowledge Skills and Behaviours (KSBs) which are integral to an apprenticeship standard.

All the other tripartite meetings will be progress meetings with a priority on making sure the apprentice feels supported. A key objective is to set discuss progress regarding existing objectives, set new objectives, and to address any issues that may have arisen. Like with the first meeting, an important focus is the KSBs, and finding practical ways to evidence their attainment.

During the session, we were asked to reflect on:

• What steps did we follow to prepare for our meeting?
• How did I manage the timing and organisation of the meeting?
• What was my approach to supporting goal setting (and how they relate to KSBs)?
• What might I do differently next time?

We didn’t really get to discuss our reflections in depth, but there was some sharing of views. One useful tip that I picked up was: do consider sending an apprentice example of goals in advance of a meeting.

We then moved onto the importance of goal setting, which use SMART goals. This is, of course, an abbreviation for: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. When it comes to measurable, this could relate to the completion of a certain number of TMAs by the next review, or uploading certain elements of evidence.

The Skills Scan was mentioned. This is a detailed questionnaire, which should be completed every 6 months, that is used to identify gaps in the apprentice’s KSBs. In turn, the results from the Skills Scan can be used to help to guide the creation of goals.

SMART goal targets can be short term, or long term. A short term goal might be as simple as completing a Skills Scan. A long term goal might be meeting career goals and necessary regulatory standards. They can also be skills based, certification based, professional development, time management, or even team working.

Reflections

I am really very familiar with the notion of SMART goals. By attending this session, I realised that I wasn’t applying the SMART framework as rigorously as I could have been. I found it helpful to think of them in terms of short-term and long-term goals.

In advance of a tripartite meeting, one of the things I always do is I carefully review all the records that I have about an apprentice. It takes me a bit of time: I look at where they are in the programme and what their most recent TMA scores have been. If available, I also have a look at a completed Skills Scan questionnaire that is available through the e-portfolio tool that we used. I also will look at any evidence that has been submitted, to determine whether there is anything I need to sign off. What I really need to do more of is to review the previous objectives that have been set.

I also feel that the objectives need to speak more directly to any gaps that I see, and also the characteristics of the degree apprenticeship programme.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the facilitators Jennifier Hillman and Kelly Guilfoy.

This post shares some resources that might be useful during the course of your project module. Some of what is presented here may be already familiar to you, having studied earlier modules.

What you will need will, of course, vary depending on your project. You will need to make choices about what you need. In your project report, you also need to say something about why you have chosen what you have chosen. Also, do remember, that what you find might be even more helpful than what is given here.

Diversity, Equality and Inclusion

In the UK, the Equality Act 2010 is an important piece of legislation, which defines a number of protected characteristics.

When it comes to computing projects, the W3C WAI WCAG is an important resource, especially if your software product makes use of web technologies.

Ethics

Software systems affect people and society. Requirements for software systems can come from people and society. Wherever there is people, there is also ethics. Computing professionals must behave in a way that is ethical. To help with the Legal, Social, Ethical and Professional Issues, the following sets of guidelines are considered to be helpful:

• BCS Code of Conduct
• ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
• Joint ACM/IEEE Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice

Gantt chart tools

As suggested in earlier posts, it is a good idea to create a Gantt chart for your project to create an overview of what you expect will happen and when

It is completely up to you how you create your Gantt chart. You might choose to create one using many of the different spreadsheet templates that are available. Alternatively, you could download a software package, such as Project Libre Desktop which is an alternative to the popular Microsoft Project package.

Another approach would be to use one of the many cloud-based Gantt tools that are available, such as GanttPro. These cloud-based products often offer a trial period, after which you have to pay a monthly fee.

Every tool has its own advantages and disadvantages and will have learning curve if you haven’t used one of these tools before.

Generative AI

GenAI can be considered to be a useful resource, but it must be used with caution. Every student has access to a Microsoft product called CoPilot. If AI is used in the creation of code that is used within a software solution, you must document what prompts have been submitted to which language model. If you use AI as a part of a solution to a wider problem, it is important and necessary to discuss the implications of its use, in terms of risks, ethics and bias.

University level guidance is available through this resource: Generative AI in learning, teaching and assessment at the OU. This provides a link to guidance for students. Guidelines for referencing the use of GenAI can be found, in part, on the CiteThemRight website.

Literature review

The literature review is, as suggested earlier, a summary of all your reading that has contributed to the development and completion of your project. Whatever you mention in your literature review rection should be used or applied in some way.

In addition to some of the skills resources that follow, the following resources may be useful:

An introduction to software development Open Learn Badged Open Course (BOC), which contains a very useful section, Finding and reading academic articles.

Srinivasan Keshav’s article entitled How to read a paper offers some practical guidance about how to read and analyse an academic article.

Project management resources

All the guidance you need to complete your project is presented within the module materials (and within this accompanying guide). There are, of course, other resources in the world that can offer some complementary guidance.

One such resource is the Project Management for IT-Related Projects: 3rd edition, published by the British Computer Society (BCS). You don’t need to buy this text, but you may be able to access parts of it through the OU Library.

Although this text is intended for industry professionals, it may be useful for your project. The guidance about project models reflects some of the advice shared in module materials.

Prototyping tools

There are different approaches to prototyping. One of the simplest and most useful tools is, of course, pencil and paper. It is acceptable to draw prototypes of your software product and share these within your project report. An earlier article, TM470 Considering prototyping offers a bit more guidance about the concept of prototyping.

If you wish to use a tool to help you with your prototyping, the following might be useful:

• Adobe XD (eXperience Design)
• Balsamiq
• Figma

If you wish to go beyond creating prototypes of user interfaces, you could use other tools to create prototype designs of your software system. One such tool is Visual Paradigm which can be useful with drawing of UML diagrams, and diagrams that describe cloud computing infrastructure. Other cloud-based drawing tools could, of course, be used.

Products such as Balsamiq and Visual Paradigm can be used with an academic licence.

Further academic guidance about prototyping can be found in the following text book:

Sharp, H., Rogers, Y. and Preece, J. (2023) Interaction design : beyond human-computer interaction. 6th edition. Milton: Wiley. 

Which is available through the OU Library. 

Risk assessment and management

Accompanying the description of the lifecycle model are two useful sections: risk assessment and risk management. Risk assessment concerns with considering what the risks to your project might be. Risk management concerns with approaches to deal with those risks. The risk assessment approach presented in the module is relatively simple. It considers risks in terms of impact and likelihood, which is sufficient for the needs of your project report.

Every project is, however, different in the ways that it need to take account of risk. Some wider issues that might be helpful includes the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. There is also ISO 27001, an international standards which concerns information security. Risks can be managed not just in terms of how technology is used, but also how human processes are applied.

Skills, writing and studying

The following links offer some useful practical guidance about writing and studying:

• OU study skills site
• Library help and support pages

Within the library pages, the following two pages are particularly helpful:

• Referencing and plagiarism
• Generative AI guidance

Do also refer to sections in this guide that refer to the writing of your project report and the appropriate uses of Generative AI.

Software development tools

Your choice of tools will depend, in part, on the characteristics of your project, and what skills you wish to develop. An important tool is the integrated development environment (IDE), which often integrates together a text editor, a debugger, and a way to run your software. IDEs can also be connected with version control software (to keep your software safe) and AI assistants, which help you with your learning. Historically, IDEs used to focus on a single programming language, such as Java or Python. Popular IDEs now work with multiple programming languages.

What follows is a useful summary of some popular IDEs:

Apache Netbeans. Netbeans primarily supports the Java programming language but can be used with other languages through extensions.

Eclipse. Eclipse is an enterprise level ‘cloud native’ IDE that supports a wide variety of languages.

IntelliJ. IntelliJ is a popular commercial IDE that was notable for its usability and functionality. A ‘dev toolkit’ pack is available for students.

Microsoft Visual Studio Code. Visual Studio Code is notably the most popular IDE. It can be used with multiple languages. VS Code is not to be confused with Microsoft Visual Studio, which is a different similarly named product.

PyCharm. PyCharm is a Python IDE from JetBrains who also have created IntelliJ. An alternative tool for Python developers is the Jupyter Notebook environment.

Software testing

A thorough project will move through an entire cycle of gathering requirements, implementing those requirements, through to carrying out of testing to make sure that requirements have been implemented correctly.

There are a number of tools that can help with the software testing (which is not to be confused with usability testing).

In terms of source code, there is a unit testing framework which is known as xJunit, where the ‘x’ refer to the initial of a programming language. The xUnit.net site relates to a unit testing framework that can be used with a number of different Microsoft .NET languages. JUnit.org if specifically concerned with unit testing of Java code. There is also PyUnit which concerns the testing of Python code.

Unit testing is testing that operates at a low level. Moving up a level, there are other tools, such as Cucumber. There are other tools out there, such as Selenium, but this takes us beyond the boundaries of a project, and towards testing at an industrial level.

An important point to remember is that the extent of testing that is necessary depends on what the impact of errors might be. Testing is guided by risk.

Version management

It is important to keep the software you create safe. The best way to do this is to use a version management system. The dominant tool used for version management is called Git. Git allows you to save your software into a safe repository called GitHub. The following introductory videos offer some useful explanations:

• Git Tutorial for Dummies
• How Git Works: Explained in 4 minutes

To begin to use Git, you must install the Git software on your local computer. If you are using Windows, you will install something called a ‘terminal’, MinTTY, which allows you to execute Git commands and upload your code to GitHub. There is also a graphical user interface version, but in terms of gaining practical experience, it is best to use the terminal (unless, of course, you manage to use Git as a part of your IDE).

By way of further information, the following resource is helpful: Ponuthorai, P.K. and Loeliger, J. (2022) Version Control with Git. 3rd edition. O’Reilly Media. Appendix A, History of Git, offers a lot of useful background information, which is worth a read.

Reflections

It is hoped this blog post offers some useful resources to complement what is shared within the module materials. Since your project is intended to be an individual project, I have not covered tools that support collaboration in an agile environment, such as Jira. Similarly, I have not shared resources that concerns covered cloud computing, since there is no need to consider deployment beyond your own personal computer, unless you decided this is an important element of your project.

A key point is that you must choose resources that you feel you need to use and apply within your project. You also should find the time to write about what these are. You should also say something about the skills you need to acquire to use or apply these resources.

A final note: none of the software products mentioned here are official university recommendations; these are personal opinions (which may, or may not, be useful).

I was recently asked whether I could recommend a text to complement TM354 Software Engineering.

What follows is a post that shares some thoughts about a number of textbooks that relate to software engineering. What is presented within the opening two sections do not share firm recommendation. Instead, consider them to be comments about some significant texts that I have become aware of. The set of all available texts is, of course, huge; there are loads of other texts (and other editions) that could have been written about. This post also contains a short summary of texts that are used in TM354. The ‘and finally…’ section shares a list of software engineering (related) books that I’ve found interesting.

Software engineering texts

Ravi, S. (2023) Software Engineering: Basic Principles and Best Practices. Cambridge University Press.

I’m mentioning this text since I’ve been asked to review it for a module team.

It covers a lot of ground, and also covers many of the concepts that are studied in TM354. I particularly like the set of exercises that are shared at the end of every chapter. There is also a really useful appendix which describes a software engineering team project (which is especially useful for software engineering educators). I remember having to do a variation of one of these when I was an undergraduate. Ravi suggests the application of SCRUM, which is both an interesting and a practical choice.

The text opens with a definition of software engineering and the origins of the subject. It also introduces the challenge of requirements, the concept of software architecture, and then goes onto testing. It has a chapter on use cases which has a direct parallel with what is covered in TM354, and a chapter on testing, which offers a helpful summary of the topic.

There are some differences. There are a couple of chapters that address the topic of architecture. There is one chapter named ‘design and architecture’, and another named ‘architectural patterns’. These topics are treated differently in TM354 (I always struggle with book and document headings that contain the word ‘and’), as is the subject of software metrics, which is featured under the chapter of ‘quality metrics’. Significantly and importantly, Ravi emphases the importance of social responsibility in software engineering.

Whilst useful, it doesn’t directly complement TM354. It does, however, offer an alternative, more formal perspective. I do feel as if the people aspects in software engineering could have been given greater prominence. It also lacks a more thorough topics such as security and continual integration.

Pressman, R. & Maxm, B. R. (2019) Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach. McGraw Hill.

This review is going to exceptionally limited, since I don’t have access to the text! All I have access to is the table of contents. I did, however, once had a copy of an earlier issue, the European Edition which had been edited by Darrel Ince, who used to work at the OU some years ago. I do remember really liking it. I remember finding it more readable and understandable than the more familiar Sommerville text.

What immediate strikes me about the table of contents is that it is divided into significant parts. It’s useful to share the part titles: the software process, modeling, quality and security, managing software projects, and advanced topics. There is also an appendix about UML, and another about ‘data science for software engineers’. Architecture and design comes under the modeling part. Testing comes under the quality and security part (which makes sense), along with a chapter called ‘software security engineering’ and a chapter on software metrics. The important ‘people’ bit is also addressed in chapter 4: human aspects of software engineering.

Something slightly different

The something slightly different is an open source Software Engineering textbook by Marco Tulio Valente. This is an entire book that you can download for free. I had a quick look at three sections: the process chapter, the architecture chapter and the testing chapter.

The process chapter discusses the agile manifesto and the waterfall approach. In terms of agile, it digs into XP, Scrum, and Kanban before highlighting the spiral model and then mentioning the Rational Unified Process. Much of what is covered in the first block of TM354 is also covered in this chapter.

The architecture chapter begins in an interesting way by immediately turning to a debate about operating system design, and the question of what is best: a monolithic operating system, or an operating system that adopts a microkernel architecture. This is linked to a later discussion about the distinctions between monolithic and microservice architectures. It also discusses layered architecture, tiers, and model-view controllers (there is a corresponding chapter about design patterns). In terms of TM354, there is a link to some of the architectural themes that are covered in block 3 of the module materials.

The testing chapter begins with the familiar and important test pyramid, explaining the different between the different levels. Unit testing is dealt with in a helpful way, and this is complemented with the idea of code coverage. Terms that will be familiar to testers, such as mocks and stub are also addressed. Other themes include test driven development and acceptance testing. Testing is, perhaps, a bit of a weak point in TM354. The cross over with TM354 lies with the discussion of open-box (white-box) vs closed-box (black-box) testing, and testing testing techniques such as equivalence partitioning and boundary-value analysis. Testing is followed by chapters about Refactoring and DevOps.

Looking at TM354

There are a number of texts that are mentioned in TM354:

Robertson, J., Robertson, S. and Reed, A. (2025) Mastering the requirements process. Fourth edition. Addison-Wesley.

This text has been going for quite a while. Now in its fourth edition, it introduces what I understand to be some of the most important concepts that software engineering really need to understand. It is split into eight parts. Rather than going through each of these in turn, I’m going to enumerate some of the important topics that feature in its table of contents (which are, of course, linked to TM354): the importance of understanding the problem and the problem domain, the significance of stakeholders, the importance and usefulness of prototyping, using use cases and user stories, and using workshops to understand business use cases (BUCs) and their description using activity diagrams.

The text is, of course, linked to the Volere framework, which is described as ‘a framework for discovering, communicating, and managing requirements at all levels and in all environments’ (footnote 1, chapter 1). Within this framework there is the Volere shell, and a fit criterion which ‘means that your customer can tell you whether it is exactly what is needed’. This is, of course, linked to the software engineering concept of acceptance testing.

What I like about this text is its readability. It is informal without being too chatty. As an aside, an interview by Robertson and Robertson, SE Radio 188: Requirements in Agile Projects is featured in an early part of the module. It’s a useful interview. It’s worth a listen.

Fowler, M. (2018) UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language. 3rd ed. Pearson Education.

This text offers a practical and concise summary of the Unified Modelling Language (UML). This latest edition reflects understandings of which of the diagram forms have become more popular. It deemphasises the communication diagram, for example, reflecting that the sequence diagram is more popular (and, arguably, more understandable too).

It isn’t the most exciting of books. It is more useful as a reference which offers some clearly presented explanations.

Gamma, E. et al.(1995) Design patterns : elements of reusable object-oriented software. Addison-Wesley.

This text is considered to be a classic, and it is interesting to reflect that there haven’t been any updates, which is a testament to the thoroughness of this original catalogue of patterns. Since its publication, there have been the publication of further texts that draw on the idea of patterns. A text that complements this one is the Head First: Design Patterns text, which offers a lighter introduction to the subject.

A really good aspect of this book is that it contains simple code and useful diagrams that both express ideas that are quite complex. Other writers have taken the Design Patterns catalogue and have created implementation in certain languages, such as Java: Design Patterns: The Catalog of Java Examples.

This is one of those rare technical books that I can sit down and enjoy puzzling over. By assimilating and internalising the patterns, software engineers develop their skills of thinking about code, and how code can be used to solve problems.

Bass, L., Clements, P. and Kazman, R. (2022) Software Architecture in Practice, 4th Edition. Addison-Wesley Professional.

I really like this one since it offers some useful practical guidance. As the title suggests, it is less about software engineering, but more about a topic that is found within software engineering: software architecture. The TM354 module has been updated to use the latest issue. Some of the advice has been refined. Importantly and significantly, it does offer some pointers about sustainability.

It is worth mentioning that it has four parts: an introductory part, quality attributes, architectural solutions (where cloud computing solutions are discussed), scalable architecture practices, concluding with architecture and the organization (sic). Arguably, this text goes beyond what is covered in the others, but also expects readers to know about software engineering fundamentals, such as process models, requirements, and testing.

As mentioned in another blog, I’ve found a podcast which features Bass, which is quite good fun and worth a listen: Stories of Computer Science Past and Present (2014) (Hanselminutes.com). Bass talks about booting up a mainframe, punched card dust, and why it is useful to have two offices.

All of these texts are available through the O’Reilly Safari bookshelf, which you can find either by searching in the OU library.

And finally…

Here are some other textbooks that are pretty important if you’re interested in software engineering or software development.

Beck, K. and Andres, C. (2005) Extreme programming explained : embrace change. 2nd ed. Addison-Wesley.

 The first edition of this book opens with the words “the basic problem of software development is risk”. It then enumerates a big long list of reasons why software projects can go wrong. It later highlights four values of XP: communication, simplicity, feedback and courage. Essentially, these points all relate back to the first: communication.

When I was working in industry, what I took from this book was the use of pair programming, which could be found within the development strategy chapter. Doing pair programming relates directly to the principles of communication and courage. Working with a fellow software engineer on one screen at the same time was one of the best professional educational experiences I have ever had.

I bought this book at roughly the same time as another of Beck’s books: Test Driven Development. There is, of course, a link between agile development and effective unit testing.

Brooks, F.P. (1995) The mythical man-month : essays on software engineering. Anniversary Edition. Addison-Wesley.

There are not (yet) very many classic texts on software engineering, but this is certainly one of them. Brooks worked on the IBM System/360 mainframe operating system. His observation was simple, yet significant. Brooks’s Law is simply: “adding manpower to a late software project makes it later” (p.25). The reason being is that people have to talk with each other. Modern agile practices have teams that are of a limited size for a reason. The mythical man-month is quite a short book and is certainly worth spending a few hours reading.

Fowler, M. et al. (2012) Refactoring: improving the design of existing code. Addison-Wesley.

Like Design Patterns that I’ve mentioned earlier, this text was one that caused me to say the words ‘why didn’t I think of this and write this book?’ Refactoring shares a set of obvious tips and small changes that help to change the structure of your code. Connecting with other text, it helps to refine your craft of software development.

Raymond, E.S. (2001) The cathedral and the bazaar : musings on Linux and open source by an accidental revolutionary. 1st edition. O’Reilly.

You could argue that software always intersects with politics since people are involved with its use and creation. This text is a collection of related essays which discusses computing history, hacker culture, and open source software. In my edition of the text, there is the suggestion that the essay The Cathedral and the Bazaar ‘effectively overturns Brooks’s Law’, which is an interesting take, and one that I don’t entirely agree with. Raymond is, of course, deliberatively provocative.

Provocation aside, he does emphasise the importance of software engineering and craft, which is something that is unambiguously highlighted in The Pragmatic Programmer. He also shares a point that has always stuck with me, which is this: “Learn to write your native language well. Though it’s a common stereotype that programmers can’t write, a surprising number of hackers (including all the best ones I know of) are able writers”. He later encourages you to “develop your appreciation of puns and worldplay” (p.207).

McConnell, S. (2004) Code Complete, 2nd Edition. Cisco Press.

I first discovered the first edition of Code Complete whilst browsing through the computing section of a bookshop towards the very end of the last century (I am no starting to feel quite old!) What struck me was that I recognised some of the paper that the text was referencing. What I was interested in was the practices of programming, and whether there was any empirical (experimental) evidence that related to good practice, such as naming, indentation, and so on. This text seemed to bring together a range of different articles together.

The second edition was published in 2004. I did once write a review of it for something called the Psychology of Programming Interest group, but I would rather not share a direct link to it, since my writing has really come on since 2005. This alternative resource https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Complete  (Wikipedia) offers a useful summary.

Thomas, D. and Hunt, A. (2020) The Pragmatic Programmer: Your Journey to Mastery. Second edition. Addison-Wesley.

I ordered this text when I was working in industry. Returning to it again, I see that the edition I have on my bookshelves contains 70 useful hints and tips. Looking after these again, I remember that I must have taken many of these tips to heart.

Three notable ones are:

1. invest Regularly in Your Knowledge Portfolio. I was regularly learning new things, and had a curiosity about different tools and languages. The evolution and change of software has never stopped.
2. Use the Power of Command Shells. I understood the point that was being made. Continually clicking on buttons to get things done can be annoying, and when you carry out a series of actions regularly, knowing how to automate some tasks and operations can save you time and aggravation.
3. Learn a Text Manipulation Language. When I was working as a developer, I had to work with a lot of web-based content, and that content had metadata, and sometimes that metadata would change. To make my life earlier, I learnt a language called Perl (which many would agree is a terrible language). If you don’t want to learn Perl (and I wouldn’t blame you), there are text manipulation libraries that are likely to work with your favourite language.

There are loads of other tips that resonate.

All these texts are also available through the Safari bookshelf available from the OU library.

Books on my ‘to read’ pile

My reading about computing has moved from the practices of programming, to the history of computing, touched on aspects of hacker culture, and have skirted onto studies of gaming culture. Through a novel about DevOps and car spares, I feel as if I’m returning to software engineering texts. There are always more books to read. Along with the Pressman text (if I can get hold of a copy), here are two other texts that are on my ‘to be read’ pile:

DeMarco, T. and Lister, T.R. (2013) Peopleware: productive projects and teams. 3rd edition. Addison-Wesley.

Software is, of course, made by people, for people. Agile practices are all about helping to get people to work together in a way that makes the work that needs to be done more visible to others. I was left a copy of DeMarco os Lister’s Peopleware by a colleague.

Hermans, F. and Skeet, J. (2021) The programmer’s brain : what every programmer needs to know about cognition. Manning Publications.

I came across this text after discovering an episode of software engineering radio: SE Radio 462: Felienne on the Programmers Brain. It ticks all ‘academic interests in programming boxes’.

Gogoll, J. and Zuber, N. (2026) Introduction to Ethical Software Development. Spring Nature. Available at: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-06195-9

A colleague shared a link to this open access book in a module team discussion. The conversations regarding software engineering and development, and ethics are becoming increasingly louder, and increasingly important. I've added a link to this text here, since I don't want to forget about it. Maybe I could write a review of it.

Although some of these books are available in the Safari bookshelf or could be downloaded, I do prefer to read ‘proper’ books (or eBooks) rather than reading through a portal. Rather than going to a large online book retailer, I tend to go to a second hand reseller, or even a popular online auction site to pick up second hand bargains.

Reflections

The original question I was asked what: ‘what textbook would I recommend to complement the OU’s existing software engineering module’. The general software engineering texts cover common topics, such as process models, the importance of requirements, design, architecture, and testing. They differ in what they emphasise.

TM354 is designed to be self-contained. Students studying this module shouldn’t need to go outside the module materials, but I hold the view that students studying software engineering should do so since knowing how to find access to resources and explanations is an important and necessary graduate skill.

Although some colleagues might disagree, I did quite like the clarity of writing in the open source text. It is quick and easy to access, and many of the topics featured in this text can also be found in TM354 – but do always refer to the module material.

A final note is to highlight the importance of something called the SWEBOK v4, the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (IEEE). This useful resource also offers a wealth of recommendations.

I recently noticed the following post made to an arts and humanities module forum. I'm sharing with permission, whilst also taking the liberty of lightly adjusting one of the sections, to share a bit more information that is specific to computing modules.

The guidance here is also especially applicable to students who are studying the project module. Knowing your way around the university’s virtual library and how to 'dig out papers' from the library is an important and essential skill.

Building stronger digital skills

Whether you’re an undergraduate student, researcher, or someone that uses technology for work, improving on digital literacy can open a new world of opportunities and options.

If you’re looking to become a more confident user of digital tools or improve your ability to critically evaluate information, Being digital pathways from the OU Library features over 35 activities designed to develop your digital literacy skills – from managing your digital identity to making the most of online networks.

Each chunk of learning should take no more than 10 minutes to complete, making it easy to fit Being digital activities into your schedule. Why not try…

Referencing your sources

Learn how to reference books, ejournals, module materials and websites with confidence. Each activity includes a quiz to test your understanding.

Communicating online

How can you ensure your interactions with others online are appropriate and effective? How do you write for different online spaces?

Effective searching

Learn how to focus your search effectively, avoid common searching pitfalls and ensure you retrieve the best information for your needs.

Exploring your information landscape

Introducing you to the world of information at your disposal, including the Open University online library and its wide range of resources.

The Selected resources for your study list is really helpful. If you are studying computing (or software engineering), I do recommend looking at the Computing collection.

The ACM Digital Library and the IEEE Xplore libraries are extensive. If you are studying software engineering, the following journals are particularly relevant:

• Communications of the ACM
• IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
• IEEE Software

Acknowledgements

The above post was shared on an A335 forum. Sharing with permission from tutor who shared the original version. The links were edited to work more directly with this blog.

1 September 2025

I managed to finish reading Thoreau’s Walking yesterday. I quite liked it. It did feel that it was an extension of Walden. There was less description of actual walking than I had expected but Thoreau did continue his enthusiastic description of squirrels, which was something I appreciated.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve discovered that there are quite a few really helpful resources on BBC Sounds. There is an episode of Free Thinking that covers the Mill on the Floss. There are also In Our Time episodes on Dickens as well as Calvino. After listening to the one about Calvino one night (whilst trying to get to sleep), I started the read the introduction to Cosmicomics. Since it was pretty long, and I wasn’t quite sure how much of that text we would be reading, I decided to put it to one side.

My last bit of reading yesterday was the very beginning of Season of Migration to the North (Wikipedia). I didn’t get very far. I read the introduction, which really piqued my interest, and then fell asleep on the sofa. That will teach me to listen to podcasts about Calvino in the very early hours of the morning.

My objective is to try to finish (or, restart) reading the Salih text this week.

11 September 2025

I’ve not read Salih yet, but I’ve packed the text for a trip to the midlands (along with Mayhew, and a book about stand-up comedy).

From the WhatApp group chat, I was reminded that the text of the assignments were available. I had a quick look to see what they are all about, after putting all the TMA cut-off dates in my diary, so I know what is going on. (I’ve entered them with the heading ‘A335 25J’ so I can find them using my calendar search function pretty easily.

TMA 1 looks a bit like a ‘warm up’, for which I’m thankful for. We have a three set texts to choose from. Although it’s too soon to decide about which way I’m going to jump (I’m going to attend as many tutorials as I can, since I’m a swot), I think I’ve rules one of the texts out.

I really like the look of TMA 2, and I appreciate its emphasis on the identification of critical sources, and how they relate to a question. Like with TMA 1, we have to make a choice – and they all look pretty difficult, if I’m being honest.  In a masochistic way, I’m ‘kind of’ looking forward to this one.

TMA 3 is all about collaboration and group work, which I know many students hate. There’s an interim cut-off date, and a period where we must work together with each other. I’ve put both of these in my diary. I’ve read through the question quickly, and it all sounds a bit involved, but I’m not going to worry. The harder bit looks to the second half, the essay.

The final TMA looks tricky, perhaps because it is quite a few months away. It’s longer than the other texts, and we’ve got to pick on two texts (and other than the Rhys text, I’m not too keen on it). It does like there’s a bit of flex in it, in the sense that one of the options permit a wider choice of texts beyond those that are suggested by the module team. This one might be interesting.

The EMA question looks suitably demanding (since the question is quite ‘searching’), and mentions some digital texts that we’ll cover towards the end of the module.  I’m sure it’ll make sense when we get to it.

I tried to book in to as many tutorials as I could, but they were not yet available. I’ll keep my eye on the WhatsApp group.

My final activity today was to review Generative AI Literacy for Arts and Humanities, which is located within the Arts and Humanities subject centre area, under the Study Skills Activities subheading. There is helpful section on referencing and academic conduct.  I really liked the flowchart which has a heading ‘is it safe to use ChatGPT for your task?’  From my own perspective, I’m going to avoid using any generative AI for a very simple reason: it make stuff up, and I’m going to have enough to read, and I could do without having to read computer generated nonsense.