Personal Blogs

 I’m an AI cynic. I’m fatigued by all the hype that implies that that AI will profoundly change everyone’s jobs. There is, of course, the truth that any new technologies always change what people do. With this view in mind, I have little doubt that the latest generation of AI tools will change some of the work that software engineers do. Being a cynical pragmatist, my own view is that there will be evolutionary change within software engineering, rather than a radical revolutionary one.

When it comes to software, it is people who have requirements. It is people that need software to be created or maintained. Whilst machines might be able to help, you need to express what needs to be done in the first place.

One of the key ideas in computing is, of course, abstraction. When your software starts to get too complicated and your problem becomes too hard to solve, you simplify what you’re doing by ‘going up an abstraction level’; you provide a higher level description the problem that you’re trying to solve, which becomes easier to manage. In doing so, you also provide your own vocabulary through which you can talk about software. In some respects, AI tools reflects an attempt to provide an engineer with tools that ‘go up a level’. Does it help us to solve our problems? It is a bit more complicated than that (which, of course, is an understatement). It with all these thoughts in mind that I’m sharing two interesting conference lectures on AI and software engineering.

The topic of AI and software engineering has found its way into TM113 Computing Fundamentals 2, where the slippery notion of ‘vibe coding’ is mentioned, and a recent update to TM354 Software Engineering.

Let’s have a listen to what Kent Beck has to say. Beck wrote a classic text eXtreme Programming explained, and a text all about Test Driven Development.

Kent Beck: Software Engineering in the Age of AI

Here is a link to Kent Beck’s lecture: Software Engineering in the Age of AI. It is possible to watch, and listen to it at double speed, and still follow it relatively easily. Beck compares AI tools that can work with code to Aladdin’s genie. I think it’s an analogy that works. You can ask ‘the genie’ for things, but what you get might not be exactly what you either want or need.

There is an especially interesting point that is made 19 minutes into the talk. Beck presents a helpful representation which depicts the relationship between ‘futures’ (what could be done in the future) and the ‘features’ that a software product is able to support or provide. Your software development might reach a point where there are so many ‘features’ it is no longer possible to make any further changes since everything will start to break. In other words, your software can become brittle. There is a link here to the concept and role of refectoring, which is the restructuring and reforming of software – but what refactoring decisions you make can only be directed by adopting a strategic approach.

Paraphrasing again, Beck also suggests that ‘with AI I can make a complete mess in a week’. Another phrase I noted down was that ‘there is a temptation to let it [AI tools] go straight ahead’. The engineers remain important. Understanding of software should remain the aim.

Beck’s talk is certainly worth a listen (on double speed). I really liked his reflection that examining software should be ‘a learning process, which throws off software as a side effect’.

Matt Pocock: Software Fundamentals Matter More Than Ever

In his talk Software Fundamentals Matter More Than Ever. Matt Pocock mentions the book The Pragmatic Programmer, which describes the concept of software entropy, which is the idea that software tends tend to move towards chaos as it maintained. This is the exact same point that Beck was making with his futures/features graph, but in slightly different terms. This leads to Pocock’s reflection that ‘bad code is the most expensive it’s ever been’. I also noted down the point that ‘AI in a good codebase does well’. The point here is that ‘good code matters’ to software engineers, and also the tools that software engineers may use.

Also reflecting Beck’s comment about the ability to get in a mess in a week, Pocock highlights that the ‘AI gene’ (Beck’s analogy, applied to Pocock’s talk) can produce too much code too quickly. Pocock returns to the ‘Pragmatic Programmer’ where this phenomenon can be thought of ‘outrunning your headlights’; the situation where everything gets too complicated to keep track of.

An important point about testing was made: testing is difficult, i.e what do you test and why? Unit testing enable the creation of feedback loops. The more testable your code, the better your feedback loop is. Reflections were made about the scale and size of modules, and the difference between ‘deep modules’ and ‘shallow modules’. This conception of the character of modules can also be connected with the notion of refactoring, and the making of architectural decisions.

Interestingly, Pocock explicitly references Beck, quoting from eXtreme Programming Explained, sharing the quotation ‘Invest in the design of the system every day’. The software engineer must make decisions on the strategic level, whatever magical AI tool they are using. They must be able to understand the big picture. They are the link between the real world of people and requirements, and the changing tool chains that build the software that solves real-world problems.

Reflections

There are interesting similarities between these talks. Pocock suggests that ‘AI coding tools are overhyped and powerful at the same time. Used well, they're extraordinary. Used badly, they'll bury you in spaghetti code faster than any human team could.’ This was the exactly same point that Beck was making.

Pocock talks about creating a shared language with an AI tool, and the AI ‘thinking’. I always cringe when I hear AI tools being referred to as ‘thinking’. The notion of the ‘shared language’ comes back to the importance of requirements, and abstractions; ideas that enable us to talk about whatever it is that software does for us. All this leads onto the slipperiness of language. Words such as ‘client’ might well be customers, but they also might be other people within a system, or even bits of software that does something for us.

References

Beck, K. (2003) Test-driven development: by example. 1st edition. Addison-Wesley.

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

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

Acknowledgements

Thanks to fellow TM354 module team member (and VLE blogger) Richard Walker who kindly sent me a link to the Matt Pocock talk. Really appreciated!

This is the second in a very short series of blog posts (there are only two of them) that share reflections on studying English Literature at the OU. In this more structured post, I share sets of related thoughts across a number of related themes.

Technology

I don’t think I could have succeeded without technology. In my previous post, I mentioned that I used revision cassettes to help me to prepare for my GCSEs. Those cassettes, and my Walkman were helpful bits of technology. Whilst studying English as an undergraduate, the most useful bit of technology (other than 'the book', of course), was my eBook reader. I used an Amazon Kindle Scribe (other devices from alternative suppliers are, of course, available).

The eBook reader allowed me to upload most of the set texts, along with pretty much all the module materials, which was available in ePub and PDF formats.  When I got down to writing my TMAs and EMAs, it was necessary to go through a lot of secondary readings. I would go to the library, search for resources, save resources as PDF files, and then send those resources to my eReader.

The eBook reader I’ve been using has some pretty useful tools. Like a pen and paper, I can underline and highlight sections. With any highlighted sections, it is possible to add a handwritten note (which I would ultimately find indecipherable). There was then a button that I would press that would collate all my annotations together into a set of pages that I could look through. If the eBook was an analogue of a paper book, the page numbers should ideally be the same. Interacting with the text in this way, and the creation of handwritten notes (albeit electronically) really helped to consolidate my understanding of each of the texts.

A neat feature is the vocabulary builder. If there’s a word that I didn’t know, I could select it, and a dictionary definition might appear. When this happens, the word is added to a vocabulary builder list. Looking through this can be quite interesting, since I remember the texts I’ve been reading from the words I didn’t recognise.

Another really useful feature is the search facility. I’ve lost count of the number of times when I have said to myself, ‘I’m sure this book had something about …, but where is it?’ Putting words into a search box enables you to interrogate your text directly. It can be useful when trying to find new connections too.

Depending on what you download, some eBooks can have accompanying audio book. I haven’t really used the feature where I can read, and listen to a well-produced audio book at the same time. What I have done, however, is listen to audiobooks on very long car journeys. You obviously miss huge chunks when you’re navigating through a series of complicated roundabouts, but somehow bits of what you hear does say with you when you get back to the text.

When it comes to writing (I’ll come onto assignments in a bit), I’ve made good use of the in-built Word spell and grammar checkers, which has often saved my blushes. I have almost completely avoided the use of AI, except for one use case, which is to ask it for suggestions about what other books might be good pairings with some of the module texts. After getting an answer, it is then, of course, up to me to find out whether or not is a sensible suggestion or not. Also, a machine can’t read the books for me, and it certainly can’t tell me what I should think (or feel) about them.

I can’t mention technology without mentioning the internet. I’ve mentioned the OU library, which is huge. I’ve found the OU library’s English collections really helpful; I’ve spent hours browsing it. There are also other really useful resources. For the set texts, a good place to look is Project Gutenberg, an online library of 75k eBooks. I’ve also found a lot of really useful resources on BBC Sounds. There are also innumerable podcasts out there. A personal favourite is Approaching Shakespeare by Emma Smith. (Have a listen to how she frames her lectures, and how she draws on secondary sources; they are really very impressive).

It is also worth mentioning the module website. The module calendar, where you can tick off individual weeks as you go is really helpful. It also pays to spend time exploring the resources section of every module website. This is where you can find the ePub version of your module materials.

A final note on technology is that it is important that you keep everything organised. When everything becomes electronic, everything can become easily lost. When using my eBook I make good use of categories, making sure that everything is given correct module codes. On your laptop, use directories to keep everything in its place.

Tutorials

Once upon a time, tutorials were face-to-face. Now, they all take place online, but there is one exception: an annual arts and humanities day school, which is a real pleasure to attend. I do feel that face-to-face tutorials would have been a lot better, since there is a very human need to discuss what we think about the books that we are reading. I feel that having opinions about texts, and being able to express those opinions represent an inherent part of studying English. In contrast, we may only hear the voice of single tutor within online tutorials, which is shame.

At the start of every module presentation, we are able to book onto a set of tutorials, or ‘learning events’, as they are sometimes called. Since I’m a geeky swot, I book myself onto all of them as soon as they are available. I remember once, a tutor said, ‘to thank you for attending my tutorial, I’m going to share a really useful tip that will help you with the forthcoming assessment’. Ever since, I’ve tried to attend every tutorial, in the hope of picking up useful hints and tips. Also, different tutors can, of course, present topics in different ways. A diversity of opinions, and a diversity in the way that those opinions are expressed can be really valuable when you’re beginning to form your own perspective.

When you sign up to a tutorial, you often get sent a pack of resources; tutors often share either PDFs or copies of their PowerPoint files either before or after a scheduled tutorial. By the end of my last level 3 module, I counted up having downloaded 43 resources.

Assignments

Typically, the assignments start easy, and then get more difficult. I remember three broad types of essays or assignments that we had to complete. The first one was often about close reading. This is like a warmup that is also about skills development. We were then asked to complete a compare and contrast essay. I quite liked these, since you had to be creative to do them well. Finally, there is the thematic essay; the type where you have to make an argument about one thing or another. I didn’t like these, since they often needed a lot of figuring out. A big bit of figuring everything out relates to what your own position on what something means.

The texts

We’ve studied the joyful and the darkly tragic. We have wandered (like a cloud) over the pastoral, and then dived into wretched urban environments, populated by people struggling to get by. There were books that I have become to love (Rhys; Wharton), and others that I wanted to throw across the room (Smith; Woolf). We had texts that I recognised to be classics, and texts that were recent and entirely new to me. There were poems that revealed their secrets, and others that remained closed. Some texts talked to me, but others didn’t. Along the way, there were some delightful surprises, some of which I’ll share here in no particular order.

Firstly, there were the big classics that I had always known, but had never read. We were introduced to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, followed by Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd. We later studied Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. During our second level, we found our way to literary modernism and James Joyce’s Dubliners.

A significant surprise was Sam Selvon’s, Lonely Londoners; a novel that unexpectedly resonated with me. I immediately recognised many of the areas of the city that his characters inhabited. Over a decade earlier, I had returned to London to try to restart my life after it had been turned upside down. Selvon seemed to depict a fizz of excitement and opportunity; it was a feeling I recognised.

Keeping with London, there are a couple of other texts that are notable. Mayhew’s ethnography was an eye opener. This was conceptually linked with Dicken’s mammoth Bleak House, which I could only digest, in part, through an audiobook. I found Bleak House a curiosity, since it touched another aspect of my own biography. Its narratives were split between London and Lincolnshire; two places where I spend my time.

Lincolnshire is reflected by two other writers. George Elliot’s The Mill on the Floss depicts a version of Victorian Gainsborough. Although I tried to steer a course through my study that avoided poetry, a poem by Tennyson really resonated. His depiction of a spin-wash cycle of grief has really stuck with me.

I raised an eyebrow when I realised we were studying Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. My first response was ‘why are we studying a kid’s book?’ It wasn’t too long before I realised it was so much more than that. Found within one of Swift’s proto-sci-fi worlds was a description of something called The Engine (Wikipedia) that I found astonishing. Swift had written a satirical description of that can only be termed GenAI, or generative artificial intelligence. Replacing the environmental burden of electricity, he depicts lads turning handles. Could this be an unexpected allegory for the way in which AI uses creative labour?

Before we go to Swift’s proto-sci-fi, we were introduced to The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin. I used to be sci-fi fan when I was in my teens, but then I realised that life is pretty weird anyway, without adding furry aliens and space travel into the mix. The thing that I really liked about The Dispossessed was that it was less about futuristic technology and space, but more about politics and society. This text reminded me of something: how literature can be used to create new worlds, and ask questions about different ways we might live our lives.

Turning to a very different text, The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton was a glorious surprise. It took me a bit of time to get into her style of writing, but when I got there, I found myself in a mesmeric world inhabited by characters who were wonderfully awful. From The Custom of the Country, I sought out The Age of Innocence, which unexpectedly had me in tears.

During our second level, we found our way to Edmund Blunden and the war poets. I was initially perplexed by Blunden’s prose, finding it hard work, but rewarding. I was attracted to Blunden since I have a distant awareness that my grandfather served in the First World War. I don’t know any of the details, but I remember that my mother once mentioned he kept a diary, which has since been lost. Apparently, there a bleakly concise entry that read ‘over the top today’. There was a surprise in store that made me feel closer to the text. I received an email from a former OU colleague who said that he had lived next door to Blunden’s wife. I sometimes think of writers as being distant and ephemeral. This unexpected message felt like a nudge from the past to the present.

The thought of nudges from the past takes me to Shakespeare. I like Shakespeare. We studied a good number of plays: A Midsummer night’s dream, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, Othello, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and Hamlet. They’re all difficult, but thoroughly rewarding. What I really liked in the module what a supplement about Elizabethan rhetoric. To complement my studies, I was given a birthday gift of Stephen Greenblatt’s biography of Shakespeare, which was a thoroughly good read, and is certainly needs a second reading.

All this has led to an unexpected increasing obsession with early modern plays. A friend asked me why I was especially interested in early modern literature. After a bit of reflection, I now know the answer. In 16th and 17th century theatre, there is little in the way of special effects. There is no special lighting, sound amplification, or digital screens. There might be the rolling of cannon balls to simulate thunder, the creative use of costume, and the use of shutters and doors, but that is it. What provides special effects is, of course, language. The language has to do all the heavy lifting.

From the second level onwards, I started to feel haunted by a writer: Aphra Behn. We were first introduced to Behn in a level 2 module through Oroonoko, an early English novel. I had initially wanted to throw it across the room (with to join the texts by Smith and Woolf). I found it interesting, but really didn’t like it. I found it difficult, and hard work.

Behn’s name made an unexpected appearance when we were introduced to some gloriously filthy poetry. I found it curious that she had been both a novelist and a poet. After a bit of reading, I then realised that she had also been a successful playwright, which I found astonishing. It was at this point that my interest was thoroughly piqued. I did a bit more reading, and I continued to be surprised. Behn was a playwright, novelist, poet, and an international spy! Behn is, without question, ‘a bad ass’ (not my phrase, but one that is entirely appropriate).

During our studies we were sometimes encouraged to select our own texts. When studying restoration plays (from 1660) I asked my tutor whether I could choose Behn’s The Rover, her most popular play. It was a hard read. Not because of the language, but because of the themes. I realised that she was depicting (and lampooning) a 17th century version of toxic masculinity. My reading about Behn has continued. I found my way to a fascinating biography by Janet Todd, and I’m slowing working through her plays. They can be quite hard to follow on the page, since there’s a lot of dressing up and disguises. I want to see a biopic about her. Someone needs to write one.

Another writer that I really like is Jean Rhys, who wrote the enigmatic Good Morning, Midnight. I initially struggled with this text, but after three reads it thoroughly got under my skin. Reflecting on this, I seem to be attracted to texts that try to make sense of trauma.

When we had another free choice, I settled on Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell. I first read this novel when I was 17, just after finishing my GCSEs. After having studied Animal Farm, I was curious about what else Orwell had written. It was also quite curious re-reading a text 35 years after I had first read it. Reading with older (if not wiser eyes), there’s a whole lot more I was able to understand. There were bits of the plot I distantly recognised from my youth. It was unremittingly bleak. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Orwell’s book was one of the last that I read. In some ways, it reflected a fitting end; a return to where I started my studies of literature.

Penny dropping

I chose to study English Literature for some really simple reasons: I enjoy language, reading, and stories. When I arrived at the third level, I felt that I still wasn’t quite ‘getting’ the bigger picture. I sensed that I didn’t quite understand why English Literature was an important subject to me.

As I repeatedly read texts and write essays, the penny started to drop. It isn’t only about reading and stories. It is also about being able to express your understanding and your ideas clearly. English Literature is as much about writing as it is about reading. A key part of this is, of course, the notion of an argument – or, developing a point of view, which you then evidence using whatever literary text that you’re studying. Your own critical voice and your opinions being important.

Reflecting on assignment feedback, I shared the following words in an earlier blog post: “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.”

This links with another point that I picked up on a couple of years ago that now seems blindingly obvious; the view that ‘English’ is a radical subject. It is about challenging existing norms and conventions. It is also about figuring out identity and opinions. It is about making convincing and compelling arguments. This point reminds me of something a tutor said in an essay preparation tutorial. She said that the examiners want to see evidence of how we are thinking.

Put more simply, through all our study we begin to appreciate what it means to study English Literature from an academic perspective. We start to become familiar with the academic rules, or literacies, which take time to become familiar with. In doing so, we get better and reading, and get better at writing.

Disciplinary differences

My ‘home discipline’ is, of course, computing. In my day job I support the delivery of a software engineering module. It is worth pausing for a moment to reflect on the disciplinary differences (and similarities) between the literature and computing, and the differences in the teaching across the two faculties.

Looking at differences in a simplistic way, there is a strong strand of individualism in computing, evidenced through the concept of the personal computer. The role of capital also plays a role. Capital is needed build and design computers which, in turn, can (in theory) give us practical economic benefits. Computing is a topic or discipline where there are (currently) tangible jobs in software engineering, networking, cyber security and artificial intelligence. One of the reasons why I studied computing was that I imagined that I could get a job ‘using computers’, which would allow me to find a way to earn a way, to contribute to wider society.

English Literature is different. Whilst individual skills are, without a doubt, undeniably important, the texts that we study are shared communal artefacts. We study to perpetuate understanding of texts that others consider to be important. Our texts have ideas, stories and characters that contribute to a collective culture. Knowing about, and talking about texts enables culture to continue to be perpetuated and shared.

Here lies the key (and very clumsily articulated) difference. Computing is often about what to do to master a machine. On the other hand, English is about helping to develop, reflect and maintain a cohesive culture, whilst at the same time giving us skills to constructively critique the cultural environment in which we inhabit. Computing allows us to do more, organise data, and to connect with others. Studying literature give us critical tools and skills to enable us to interrogate and imagine the consequences of the technologies that we create.

Faculty differences

Turning to differences between faculties, the School of Arts and Humanities ran a series of UK wide face-to-face events during my studies. I attended a couple of these, which were really enjoyable. No equivalent face-to-face events are run by Computing. Although I’ve highlighted the importance of face-to-face over the last few years, I’ve been singularly unsuccessful in raising interest. I’ll keep trying.

It was also interesting to see that the School of Arts and Humanities ran a series of study skills tutorials which helped students to transition between modules and levels of study. These made good use of something called a ‘subject site’. Could we do something similar in Computing? Perhaps. It all comes down to money, and will.

A really enjoyable ‘non-module’ series that I attended was called Poetry for Lunch, where a tutor facilitator to us through the work of a different poet every week. Some of the poets highlighted were featured in our modules, while others were completely new. We did a deep dive into close reading, which was very helpful, since practically every literature module began with a close reading exercise. I can’t remember the name of the tutor, but she was very good. I felt that these additional ‘glue’ tutorials really fostered a connection between the discipline, and the institution.

I also found it curious and interesting that I found myself in the minority in all tutorials; there were always more women attending than men, which is the exact opposite to what happens in Computing. The most striking imbalance was on one the Poetry for Lunch events. Out of 70 participants, 3 appeared to have male names; just over 4%. I later had a dig into the statistics, comparing English Literature and Computing, and whilst differences are clearly significant, they are not nearly as stark as illustrated in this single sample. In fact, the gender imbalance appears to be worse in Computing than it is in English Literature.

I’ll conclude this section by sharing some of the good things I noticed from the School of Arts and Humanities. There is a really useful variety of different types of materials. I don’t mean texts; I mean the effective use of audio and video, and pointers to online repositories and resources. Significantly, it was interesting that GenAI guidance prepared by the school for literature students was more comprehensive than what was initially produced for Computing students.

Bits missing?

Before formally studying English, I had some expectations about some of the texts and writers that we might be introduced to. I wondered whether we would be introduced to the works of Geoffrey Chaucer I have forever heard of his Canterbury Tales, and was looking forward to learning more. I seem to remember that he was mentioned briefly in the second level modules, but we didn’t spend any time studying any of his texts. We did, however, spend a bit of time studying Sir Gawain and the Green Knight which was of a similar era. I did like it, but I think I would have liked Chaucer more.

Another writer that I thought would study was John Milton. I remember that his work got a brief mention in the Shakespeare and his Contemporaries block of my penultimate module, but we didn’t do a deep dive into his work. I also wondered whether we would study the works of Joseph Conrad. In our studies Conrad was briefly mentioned alongside Ford Maddox Ford, but we never got stuck into his Heart of Darkness. It is, however, worth mentioning that both Milton and Conrad are required reading for all MA students.

Although we were introduced to the work of David Henry Thoreau (who I had never heard of before) I was expecting a few more American writers to make an appearance, such as Herman Melville and Henry James. James did, however, receive an honourable mention alongside the very memorable Edith Wharton. Jumping ahead in time, I was secretly looking forward to re-reading Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. Kerouac did make a brief appearance during one of the level 2 modules, not long after an introduction to the poet Langston Hughes. Moving further across time, I would have also liked to learn a bit more about James Baldwin. There is quite a list of American writers that I have heard about but have yet to read, such as F.Scott Fitzgerald (I have in my possession a yellowing Penguin paperback of The Great Gatsby which I’m definitely going to read), Ernest Hemmingway, Henry Miller and John Steinbeck. Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is edging towards the top on my To Be Read (TBR) pile. A notable characteristic of this list is that almost all of these writers are males, which is a point that I’ll come back to in a couple of paragraphs.

Turning to an entirely different continent, I was expecting to hear some Russian voices. I was expecting to learn about the novels of Fyodor Dostoevsky, stories and drama of Anton Chekov, (I have since discovered that Chekhov also features in the MA) and the trials endured by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn is especially significant, since he depicts the brutality of a dysfunctional and inhuman Russian regime. 

I really enjoyed studying the dramatists we were introduced to, but I did feel there was an opportunity to go further. Obviously, more Aphra Behn plays should be covered, but that is a personal preference. We did, however, study the Irish playwright John Millington Synge and his Playboy of the Western World which was glorious for all the wrong reasons. From Synge could have then been taken on a journey that might have taken in the works of Oscar Wilde, led us to the works of Bertolt Brecht and then into the baffling world of Samuel Beckett. I’ve struggled to understand Wating for Godot, but perhaps that is the point; in life, nothing much happens, and it is all ultimately confusing, absurd and pointless. In keeping Irish writers, I am thankful that we were not confused by James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Given the breadth and depth of the literary canon, and the necessity of considering a broader range of texts, the module teams have had to make practical decisions about which texts and authors are covered, and which are not. Balance across multiple dimensions is a necessity. The module chairs must have had to adjudicate over some really vigorous debates. Importantly, we were also given opportunities (within contraints) to read texts that were of interest to us. From my perspective, I really appreciated being introduced to the short stories of Jhumpa Lahiri and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Advice

Now that I’m at the end, what advice would I offer to anyone who is considering studying English Literature at the OU?

Here are my thoughts:

1. Don’t be afraid of technology. Make it your friend. Make it work for you. It enables you to do stuff. Ask for help and advice since technology can be difficult to get your head around.
2. Read ahead. I always tried to get a lot of reading done over the summer. Even if I didn’t know what I was reading, or why it was important, getting the feel for a text and its language, and what it contained was always helpful.
3. Go to as many tutorials as you can, even the ones that you think you don’t need to go to, or the ones that you think you won’t like. You can often be surprised. You are paying for them, so you might as well try to get your money’s worth.
4. Find resources that work for you. Listen to different podcasts. Read different articles. Go beyond the module materials. Spend time in the (virtual) university library.
5. Avoid AI. There are two reasons for this. The first is that assignments are asking you what you think about a text. You are infinitely more original than a machine can ever be. Your tutor wants to know what you think, not what you think you ought to think. Secondly, referencing the use of AI is a pain. Your time is better spent reading and writing than it is trying to figure out how to reference any AI tool you might have used.
6. Clever people can sometimes feel really stupid when they read something new for the very first time. Difficult texts can take time to understand. Smart people know this.
7. Writing is a process. Embrace the idea of multiple drafts. Edit aggressively. Cutting almost always improves the quality of what you have written.
8. Make notes using a pen and paper. It ‘goes in’ better. Underline stuff. Type out quotes that you find interesting. Make sure that your notes are organised. Use post-it notes.

Onwards

As I was approaching the end of my studies, I asked the question: ‘what next?’

I’ve already signed up for the MA, which I’m expecting to be both fascinating and difficult. We have already got down and dirty into Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. I’ve also started an A893 study blog.

Another question to ask is:  how am I going to use my new qualification? Since starting all my study, I’ve been properly introduced to a cross disciplinary topic which is called the Digital Humanities. The big idea is to harness computing technology to carry out research into humanities subjects. I’m coming at everything from a slightly different perspective, thinking about what a humanities subject, like English Literature might be able to tell us about aspects of computing, such as software engineering. How, for example, may stories and narrative help us to understand and think about the software products we use and create? I think I have found a new research project.

I must go. I have another TMA to get on with. Wish me luck!

Acknowledgements

I would like to personally thank all the tutors who I have met during my 6 years of study. Your tutorials, forum replies and patient feedback comments have all helped me to become a better student. In turn, my experience would have helped me to become a better tutor, staff tutor and module team member. Thanks are also extended to the module team members who have contributed to the following modules I have studied: A111, A112, A230, A233, A334, and A335.

It is possible that there will be a difference between your delivery FTE (the time that you spend tutoring modules), and your contracted FTE (all the time that you are paid for). This difference is often used by regular work activities, such as exam or EMA marking.

Before going further, it is useful to say something about FTE. Every tutor is contracted to a FTE figure, which then translates to salary. One day of work equates to a figure of 0.0038461 FTE. You can find out what your FTE figures are by reviewing your workload report, which you can find by accessing to your TutorHome page. For more information about your FTE and how it works, this accompanying blog may be useful:  Understanding your FTE.

If there is a difference that cannot be immediately filled with regular work activities, you can opt to carry out a number of additional tuition related activities (TRAs).

This article summarises some of the additional tuition related activities that you could carry out as a tutor. This list is, of course, by no means exhaustive.

 How you apply to carry out these activities does depend on what they are. Sometimes university staff will look at your skills audit to find people who have specific interests or skills.

You may be notified of many of these opportunities by email messages. You might also see them advertised on module forum posts. In other cases, you may be approached directly by a line manager, or a member of the university. In all cases, you should discuss additional work with your staff tutor (who is also known as your lead line manager), who has a responsibility of overseeing your work.

You can only carry out additional work if your FTE figure is 1.3 or under. If you are approached, you should remember you have agency. What this means is that you have the authority to decline to complete additional work tasks if you feel you are unable to complete them. You should, however, work closely with your line manager to ensure that your allocated FTE is spent during the course of a workload year.

Covering the work of another tutor

Sometimes cover tutors are needed. You may be asked to take over an existing tutor’s group, mark some of their assignments, or even run some of their tutorials. In each of these circumstances, there will be a FTE figure that can be applied to this work. Sometimes, the most efficient action is to take over a tutor’s entire presentation.

Additional professional development activities

Occasionally, the university will introduce new tools, technologies, or ways of working. In your tutor contract, there is a bit of your pay that is dedicated to ongoing staff development. Sometimes, changes that are introduced cannot be entirely covered by the staff development time that is budgeted for in your tutor contract. In these cases, you may be asked to carry out additional training, which will be accounted in terms of additional FTE time.

Critical reading

Whilst module teams are often closest to a discipline or subject, tutors are invariably closest to students. Module teams sometimes ask tutors for help with critical reading. The type of reading that is required will depend on module. Critical readers will be typically asked to complete a report, but may he also asked to speak with members of a module team. A critical reader may assess the effectiveness of the module materials, the extent to which a module satisfies specified learning outcomes, and whether there is a balance of different types of materials. Critical readers may be asked about adherence to QAA subject benchmarks, and whether the materials are appropriate and representative for a diverse body of students.

How many days of time allocated to critical reading will depend on the module, and the type of reading required.

Facilitating faculty, programme or school wide learning events

Some schools run learning events that take place between modules, or to provide support for groups of students who have a specialist interest that is relevant to a programme of study. A good example of this is a series of face-to-face study events that have been run by the Arts and Humanities department. During this day, tutors designed and facilitated events that appealed to a wide range of students. They also facilitated some useful study skills events, helping to raise awareness of library search skills, and essay writing skills.

Forum moderation

Most module website offers students a number of forum spaces. The module wide forum spaces are often moderated by experienced tutors, who are given a number of days of FTE time. This is often arranged by someone who is known as a curriculum manager, whose role is to act as an interface between the academic team and the bureaucracy of the university.

Module team contributions

Sometimes, tutors are called upon to make contributions to module teams. Examples of additional duties may include the occasional writing of module and assessment materials, such as TMAs and exams.

Monitoring

Tutors play an important role in monitoring the effectiveness of correspondence tuition. Every module has someone who takes on the responsibility of a ‘monitor in charge’. This is someone who takes the role of setting monitor levels, and the collation of monitoring reports, which are used within module result panel meetings. Monitoring is typically performed by tutors, but in some cases, the role of a monitor in charge can also be carried out by a tutor.

The responsibility of monitoring is often rotated amongst a group of tutors, since the act of monitoring the work of others can have a positive effect on our own correspondence tuition practice.

If monitoring is something that is of interest, a practical suggestion is to email your monitor, to express an interest.

Facilitating Professional development activities

On going professional development is an important and integral part of being a tutor. Curriculum changes, technology changes, and so can our ways of working. As tutors develop their own expertise and abilities, there are opportunities to share with others by contributing to professional development sessions. Tutors are, arguably, best placed to teach other tutors.

There are opportunities to contribute to online conferences and events that are run by the central university wide academic professional development team, as well as faculty specific groups such as the ByALsForALs community that is run by the STEM faculty.

Reflections

When you are first recruited it may be to a specific module, or group of modules. Over time, it is possible to build a richer portfolio of related tasks and activities.

A starting point is to know what your FTE is. It is then recommended that you make sure that your skills audit record is up to date. Staff tutors use the skills audit to find tutors to carry out tasks and activities that need to be completed.

When it comes to developing a portfolio of tutor work, a practical recommendation is to take the initiative. Do make the time to contact people. Make sure you get yourself known by colleagues within the school. It is okay to send email messages to express an interest in roles and tasks.

I started work as an OU degree apprenticeship Practice Tutor (PT) in October 2019. My reason for signing up was simple; I had a role where I was responsible for supporting staff tutors in the School of Computing and Communications, and some of those staff tutors were managing practice tutors. One only really understand something if you go ahead and do it. Seven years later, I’m finally stepping aide from the role of the practice tutor.

This blog shares a set of thoughts and reflections about the role. I begin with a very brief summary of the degree apprenticeship scheme and what practice tutor does. This is followed by some personal reflections about the good points, and the not so good points of the role. I then share some links to other blog posts, and blog categories that relate to the PT role. I then wrap everything up with some final reflections.

Before continuing, the PT role and apprenticeships that I describe relate to the degree apprentice scheme in England. There are separate (and different) schemes for Wales and Scotland.

Apprenticeships

A degree apprenticeship, as the name suggests, is where students study for a degree whilst working. In doing so, apprentices gain knowledge and practical experience that relates to their academic study. Employers of a certain size have to pay something called an apprenticeship levy to the government, which is a percentage of their overall salary costs. Although this is a indirect tax, employers can also get that money back (in an indirect way) by putting some employees through a degree apprenticeship scheme. The government, in turn, pays for the education of the apprentices.

To create a quasi-competitive marketplace, employers can choose which degree apprenticeship educator use. Sometimes employers might want to send their apprentices to a local university, or they might want to use a national provider like the OU, which can give apprentices a bit of flexibility in terms of how they study.

There are, of course, different apprenticeship for different subjects and specialisms. More information about what the OU provides is through the OU apprenticeships page. The apprenticeship schemes that are supported by a provider must conform to what is known as an apprenticeship standard, which is defined by a government body, Skills England. The standard that relates to computing apprentices is known by the title Digital and technology solutions professional (Skills England).

To pass a degree apprenticeship, apprentices must pass two elements: the academic bit (the degree bit), and the apprenticeship bit (the workplace bit). During the apprenticeship, evidence for both these bits must be collected. For the academic bit, this means assignment, exam resuls, and module scores. For the workplace bit, this means creating a detailed portfolio of evidence that shows how an apprentice has gained an understanding and mastery of knowledge, skills and behaviours that are defined within an apprenticeship standard.

Introducing the Practice Tutor

When meeting apprentices and their line managers for the first time, I introduce the practice tutor role as being ‘administrative glue’ between different organisations; there is the organisation in which the apprentice is employed, and there is the organisation that provides the degree level education. There is also the organisation (Skills England) which lays out the various requirements for the apprenticeship.

The primary aim of the practice tutor is to be a positive and helpful advocate for the apprentice, whilst also helping the apprentice and their line manager navigate a way through all the requirements. Since there are a lot of requirements, this isn’t a very easy task; there is a lot of detail to attend to.

A PT meets with an apprentice and their line manager four times a year, in a formal meeting that is known as a quarterly review (QR). During the QR, a practice tutor asks a lot of questions, such as: is the apprentice being given sufficient ‘off the job’ time for their important academic study? Also, is the apprentice being given appropriate opportunities within their employment to enable them to gather up evidence to show that they meet the knowledge, skills and behaviour (KSB) part of the apprenticeship standard.

To keep track of everything a digital tool, known as an ePortfolio, is used. An important PT responsibility is to make sure that the ePortfolio is being updated by the apprentice. Although they are given training and guidance about how to use it, a PT may be required to offer further help and guidance. A PT will certainly need to play a role in making sure that all the apprentice’s KSBs are evidenced in advance of an apprenticeship assessment, which I known as an end-point assessment.

To help with the QR meetings, there is a suggested agenda, which I’ve always done my best to follow. The most important question to ask is often the one at the start of a meeting; the one where you ask, ‘so, how are you getting along?’ This opening question leads to other questions, and discussions that enable the academic content of modules to be related to work-based activities.

Differences between the PT role and the AL role

The PT is different from the OU associate lecturer (AL) role. Here are what I understand to be the key differences:

• A PT must have a broad view of the curriculum that an apprentice is studying, whereas an AL may only be focussed on the specifics of an individual module.
• A PT must not only have an understanding of a degree programme that is studied, but also the degree apprenticeship standard.
• A PT will be interacting with a small number of apprentices (5 or 6), whereas an AL will typically have a group of 20 students (depending on the module).
• A PT will make use of different systems and tools than an AL. The PT will need to work with a complicated looking ePorfolio system, whereas the AL will need to work with module websites and eTMA systems.
• A PT will be working with an apprenticeship support team, whereas an AL will be working with different colleagues: a staff tutor, module team members, and other student support staff who are working in a student support team.
• A PT will have to take an active role in record keeping, whereas the AL may sometimes send referrals to a student support team, the main work is academic – the marking of assignment and running of tutorials, rather than administrative.
• A PT will have a lot of discussions with their apprentice. Unless expressly arranged, or occur during tutorials, an AL may only have relatively few conversations with their students. 

Good points

Here are the really positive points of being a PT:

• Being able to immediately make a difference to the apprentice during quarterly review meetings in terms of answering their questions, offering guidance, and reassurance.
• Being able to see directly and immediately how apprentice develop in confidence and ability during their course of their studies.
• Being able to gain insight into what happens within an industrial setting. This has been especially valuable, since I have been directly involved in teaching of some principles of software engineering. It has been really helpfu to reflect on what is taught, and what is done.
• The people. I’ve really enjoyed meeting with all the apprentices and line managers. I have actively looked forward to the quarterly review meetings.

Not so good points

Here are some of the frustrations that go with being a PT:

• The administration and record keeping. There is quite a lot of it to do, and in my experience, a PT needs to regularly remind an apprentice they have to update the ePortfolio system. Although the wider apprenticeship team do try to highlight its importance, the PT must regularly monitor what apprentices upload to their ePortfolio.
• A PT doesn’t use the ePortfolio every day. This means that it can be sometimes difficult to navigate. Different providers use different tools, and some are better than others. The OU has used two different systems, and both have their idiosyncrasies. PTs need to have a tolerance for software systems that are ‘clunky’.
• PTs need to tolerate the bureaucracy that comes with an institution running an apprenticeship programme. Unlike other aspects of higher education, degree apprenticeship provision is subject to OfSted inspection, which is the same quality assessment framework applied in the school sector. This means that there is a necessity that an apprenticeship provider keeps a lot of records. From a practical perspective, this means that there is a requirement that practice tutors are observed every year.
• There is always change, and it is important that PTs take time to understand what changes occur. These might take the form of changes to apprenticeship standards (governments have a habit of meddling), changes to quarterly review agenda items, changes to end point (end of apprenticeship) assessments, changes to degree curriculum (there is a new suite of modules that will be starting), and changes to the operation of the ePorfolio tool and how it is used. Some of these changes can be particular disorientating. The apprenticeship team has an expectation that we’re on top of all of the detail, even though the PT is typically a part time role.

Skills required

The PT helps apprentices to develop knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs). Here are three KSBs which I feel are essential to practice tutors:

Knowledge: of a degree programme, or the requirements needed to satisfy an apprenticeship standard, and the ability of accumulate knowledge of how an employer works and what they do.

Skills: an ability to ask questions, and an ability to work with unfamiliar tools and systems, an ability to complete administrative tasks in a timely way (as otherwise, the apprenticeship team will be getting in touch to ask their own questions).

Behaviours: to adopt a friendly approach, and to be tolerant of bureaucracy.

Related blog posts

During my tenure as a PT, I’ve shared summarise of various training events that I’ve attended over the years. The following two blog tags offer a handy way to gain access to related posts:

• Apprenticeships
• Practice tuition

Reflections

I’m leaving the apprenticeship programme at an opportune moment, and a moment that feels right. An entire cohort of apprentices are just about to complete their degree apprenticeships. I’ll certainly try to attend their degree ceremony if I’m able to do so. I’m also leaving at a time when the curriculum is changing. A suite of new modules that are specially designed for apprentices begin from this October; staying on as a PT would mean that I would have to learn more about these new modules. Instead, I’m going to take my tutor time to tutor on a new level 1 module, which I’ve never done.

The PT role is very different to that of the AL role. I will not miss the necessary bureaucracy that comes with the role, but I will certainly miss regularly meeting the apprentices and their line managers who have been, without exception, a real pleasure to work with.

Over the summer, I managed to read a bunch of books. Most of them were related to the MA module that I’m about to start studying (A893), but there were a couple that related to my day job. The first was The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr, which I might blog about later. The second was a popular science (or popular engineering) book called The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder.

I must have been introduced to this text by a colleague. It describes the building of a Data General minicomputer, code named Eagle, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I didn’t know it at the time, but Kidder was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in non-fiction for his book. I can kind of see why.

There are a number of aspects of his text that have stuck with me. The first is that he clearly foregrounds character; the project to build a new machine catalyses the action. Although it does contain some interesting description of computer engineering, replete with explanatory similes, the engineering team is afforded richer descriptions. Just as the computer has its design flaws, the engineers have their character flaws – some of which are necessary and needed to get to the bottom of pernicious technical problems. The backstories of the engineers are expressed, along with an understanding of what motivates them.

It isn’t all good. Kidder highlights some of the negatives: long hours, burnouts, evidence of engineers damaging walls; people not getting along with each other - recriminations of what bits of a hardware design is to blame. In a memorable section, Kidder starts to interrogate the ethics of what they were all doing and building. After all, any technology can be used for good, or for ill – are the engineers concerned with how their machine might be used? Issues of diversity are mentioned, but very briefly. The cast of characters are mainly men, with the women engineers garnering only brief mentions. Importantly, Kidder reports that a woman in the office was subjected to harassment through technology, which is then investigated. Kidder also quotes engineers commenting on a competitor creating advertising materials that feature people from diverse backgrounds, with the implication that this was (at the time), a curiosity.

Although the text is clearly of its time, having been published in 1981, I do feel it has aged relatively well. What I like about it is that Kidder has attempted to capture the temporary and ephemeral. In my eyes, the text is a combination of a history book, an ethnography, and journalism. He also completes his story by telling us what happened to the main characters. After I got to the epilogue, I couldn’t help but look up what happened to Data General; it was a manufacturer that I was always vaguely aware of, but never knew much about. I alway had the impression they built mainframe rather than minicomputers.

Kidder’s book has some interesting similarities with Steven Levy’s Insanely Great, which describes the building of the Apple Macintosh computer, and the influence of Steve Jobs. In Kidder’s text, Tom Ward comes across as an infinitely more likeable (and technically able) character. The circumstances are also curiously similar: the Mac was developed in the shadow of Apple’s Lisa computer. In Data General, the Eagle was developed in the shadow of another computer development project.

Kidder’s text can, of course, be read alongside other histories computing, such as Fumbling the Future by Alexander and Smith, which is a history of the Xerox Alto computer, and the brilliant Fire in the Valley by Swaine and Freiberger, which examines personal computing history from a wider perspective. A text that ties history and computing together is one entitled Where Wizards Stay Up Late by Hafner. These are all worth reading.

There is always more to read. Next on my list is an article How a band of renegades designed the Alpha chip, by Katz, which is available in the OU library. I also have book entitled A Computer Called Leo in my To Be Read (TBR) pile, which offers a British perspective.

Kidder’s book reminds me of the importance of writing stuff down. I would like to read more of Kidder’s work. He has apparently written about the building of a house, friendships in elderly residential homes, and more.  I also would like to read a contemporary history about the development of the current generation of AI systems. I would like to learn more about the engineers who are working on these products. Perhaps there is a journalist somewhere working to capture their history right now. I only hope that, like Kidder, they are asked to reflect on the ethical implications of what they are building.

Kidder, T. (1981) The Soul of a New Machine. Allen Lane. ISBN 0 7139 1482 3.

10 June 2026

I finished reading Heart of Darkness, so I’ve moved onto reading The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. I initially struggled to understand what on earth was going on, but when I got going, the pages started to go by quite quickly. I’m nearly halfway through, and onto the third narrator. It’s a curious text.

I’ve put a bid in for the Norton Critical Edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost on a popular online auction site. I’ll see if I manage to get it.

14 June 2026

Not so much formal study but continued reading and informal browsing.

I’m aware that there is a theme of tragedy in the early part of the module which I’m really looking forward to. With this in mind, I had a quick look at the synopsis for Behn’s play Abdelazer (Wikipedia). There was a curious reference to an earlier play by Thomas Dekker, who I don’t know anything about.

To contrast this, I thought it would be interesting to think about the genre of comedy, and remembered there is a subgenre of the city comedy which I don’t know too much about (other than I know that Behn wrote a couple of plays that could be thought of in this genre). Dekker gets a mention in this summary, along with other playwrights: Jonson, Middleton, Heywood and Webster. I later realised that you have download the entire works of Dekker for practically next to nothing from a popular online book retailer.

There’s something else that is quite curious that I saw whilst browsing: the war of the theatres. A further click takes me to Project Gutenberg and a play by Ben Jonson.

I looked up Dekker on the BBC Sounds website. Nothing.

Do I have a topic for my MA? I have no idea.

I will trust the process.

15 June 2026

Following on from the previous entry, what follows is a set of links to various resources that look both useful and interesting.

There’s something called DraCor; a Drama Corpus. In a previous life, I worked alongside computational linguists and lexicographers, who used computers to analyse the use and change of language. DraCor can be analysed and interrogated. Interestingly, there does appear to be a recent conference by researchers who have started to study it.

Linked to DraCor is the EarlyPrint archive, which is also a corpus. Using it, you can download copies of early plays, which are saved in using the TEI-XML format. To convert TEI files into PDF files, you apparently need to use a tool called oXYgen. There must be a whole toolchain of tech tools that can be used to work with and manipulate TEI files. That might well be for another blog.

Onto a different type of resources: podcasts. I’ve been aware of Emma Smith’s podcasts about Shakespeare, but I was intrigued by a series called Not Shakespeare (Oxford University) . I’m gradually working though these, which are fascinating. Each podcast is very resource dense.

I’ve also found a series called The History of European Theatre which runs to a couple of hundred episodes. I’ve listened to only one episode so far. I would like to listen to every single one. The website contains a very impressive reading list. There’s also an app you can download.

This reminds me. I have another book on my shelves: A New Companion to Digital Humanities. I’ve started it, but I haven’t got very far.

I have a lot of listening (and reading) ahead of me.

19 June 2026

In my attempt to get ahead, I’ve finished reading The Moonstone. My concise critical evaluation is: ‘I quite liked it’.

I’ve started to read (and listen to) Milton’s Paradise Lost, which runs to 12 books, and ten hours of briskly read audio. I have a feeling that my concise critical evaluation might start with: ‘fancy; a lot of words’. I look forward to getting properly stuck in.

Yesterday I took delivery of a clutch of second hand books that I ordered after loosely deciding on my study pathway. Reflecting an earlier entry, I continue to be drawn to the early modern period.

24 June 2026

Whilst waiting for exam marking to arrive, I’ve managed to get up to book 8 of Paradise Lost. On a first reading (and listen), there are big chunks I don’t ‘get’ where I have no idea what is going on. For now, I’m just letting everything wash all over me.

I quite like it. It’s a beast of a book. Spending time with it is really emphasising the importance of story and fable.

29 June 2026

I’ve finally finished Paradise Lost. If anyone ever reads this, I really recommending reading it whilst listening to an audio book. Not only do you hear the rhythm of the language, it helps you to power through the mildest of distractions.

There’s a comment in the introduction of the Norton edition that begins to spell out the scale of the text: ‘Growing to understand Paradise Lost is a lifelong adventure. The same may be said of the rhythms’ (p.xvii). What I haven’t read is the multitude of footnotes the editor has left. I must, however, thank the previous owner of my book. Your light unreadable scribble has helped me to begin to understand some of the sections.

I reckon I understood about 60% of it. There are big chunks of it where I have no idea what is going on. I’m now curious about how the module materials are going to cover it.

Next up is Anita Desai’s The Complete Stories. I have no idea what I have in store, but my friend told me she has shortlisted for the booker prize a few times.

4 May 2026

When I submitted my EMA, the university assessment system threw a bit of a wobbler. After a few days of work, I logged in to check to see that the right version of my EMA had been saved in the EMA system. It had.

I still haven’t received my TMA 4 back yet. Any day now…

7 May 2026

I’ve received my TMA 4. I did well. I’m really pleased, since I really enjoyed writing it.

This evening I’ve attended another EMA preparation session. Having a bit of time away from the EMA has been helpful, since it has given me a bit of perspective. I do feel as if I need to rewrite some bits of my EMA. I’m unsure whether I need to adjust the main thrust of the question. I shall have to have a think. I think it is okay, but I need to view by writing with a more critical eye. I’ve really struggled with the necessary ambiguity of the question.

Everything comes down to this last assessment. If I ace it (which is unlikely) I get a first. Although I’m going to have a try, it is terribly unlikely that I’ll succeed.

In other news, I’m now formally registered for the MA. The reading list is very long. I need to get reading over the summer.

18 May 2026

I’ve been away from home for a couple of weeks. During that time, I had another idea about how to structure my EMA. This new idea would allow for a more dynamic compare and contrast structure, whilst at the same time emphasising some of the points that were highlighted in some of the later EMA preparation sessions. This morning, I sat down to do some editing, but I quickly realised that what I had was good enough. If I started to tear apart the structure of my paragraphs, I would lose something that was already there. I feel content with what I’ve written.

With my checklist added, and a small number of words deleted, and one typographical issue fixed, I’ve made another submission. I think I’m done with the final assessment of my degree.

27 May 2026

Tomorrow is the EMA cut off date. The day after that is the TM354 exam, the module that I’m supporting. I’m a bit nervous about both of these, to be honest. There’s nothing more to do, except worry.

Being a glutton for punishment, the first set text for my MA has arrived. The Norton Edition of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. I’ve flicked through the introduction, but haven’t got very far. Before going on holiday, I need to get the other couple of compulsory set texts. But all this is for another day.

To everyone who has been studying A335 with me: good luck everyone!

Software engineering – a modern approach by Marco Tulio Valente is a freely available textbook published in 2024.

I first learnt about this text after carrying out some internet searches, but then later discovered that colleagues had discovered it too. I soon realised that there were a range of different opinions about it. With these differences of opinions in mind, I decided to have a good look at it to form my own opinion.

I approached it with two questions in mind: could it potentially complement the existing TM354 Software Engineering module? Also, could it be a useful resource for either module teams or students, as we work on a new version of the module? In some respects, this review follows on from an earlier blog post about the SWEBOK v4.

I begin by having a look through each of the chapters. I then reflect on what its shortcomings are. I then wrap everything up with a set of closing reflections and share a personal conclusion.

The chapters

The text begins with a bit of history, highlighting the significance of the 1965 NATO conference. Before sharing a high level summary of what is contained within the text, it shares a high level objective, which is to ‘give an overview of the knowledge accumulated over the years in software engineering and, consequently, to shed light what is studied in this field’.

Chapter 2 takes us to the subject of software engineering processes, and immediately into the world of what is meant by agile. Before we got here, we were usefully reminded that there are different types of software product and this, may well, necessitate the adoption of different approaches. A discussion about agile manifesto leads to a discussion of eXtreme Programming, Scrum and Kanban.

Next up is a treatment of requirements. Functional and non-functional requirements get a mention, as do user stories and different forms of use case. It is interesting to see the inclusion of A/B testing within the requirements chapter, but as end users of sites like Amazon, we have been unwittingly subjected to these types of tests.

The chapter about models steps into a topic that is heavily featured in TM354, but will find its way into TM253 in one way or another. After a slight digression into formal methods we are introduced to the Unified Modelling Language (UML). Curiously, UML activity diagrams (which is often about requirements) appears after sequence diagrams. Contrasting with TM354, there is nothing about state diagrams.

The chapter about design principles offers a useful compendium of ideas and concepts. Some key ideas highlighted include conceptual integrity, information hiding, cohesion, and so on.  Whilst these design principles are useful, there is nothing about what design means, or how to do design. One section that I did like is the summary of the Law of Demeter, which isn’t done as well as it could be within TM354 (which is a further example about how the textbook addresses similar ideas). Also, like TM354, towards the end of the chapter, we are introduced to the idea of software complexity metrics.

Following the principles we have a detailed discussion about patterns. It presents a more detailed catalogue than what is given in TM354. Patterns takes us to the notion of architecture. This is the opposite way round to how TM354 introduces it. Ultimately, the order may well come down to pedagogic preference. In terms of software, I appreciated the introduction of the operating system design debate, which leads onto a discussion about monoliths and microservices, which is a topic that has recently found its way into the latest update of TM354.

Testing is introduced in terms of levels and scope, which are then expanded upon, beginning with unit testing. Related topics that are covered include test coverage, mocks (which is not covered in TM354), test-driven development, partitioning and boundary value analysis (which are covered in TM354). The next chapter on Refactoring is quite a practical. It shares some useful examples, and drawing on the terminology from the original Fowler text, offering a useful distilled summary.

The final two chapters, DevOps and GitHub can, to some degree, be read together. Both are important. The DevOps chapter begins with a nice summary. This leads to an introduction of the principles of the version control system (which is also addressed within TM113). Related terms, such as continuous integration and continuous delivery are introduced and explained (whilst also distinguishing between delivery and deployment). The chapter on Git introduces the key Git commands, and explains key concepts, such as merging, forking and branching.

The good points

What I like about the text is that it follows the SWEBOK relatively closely. If you know the SWEBOK, you will be able to recognise headings reflected in this book. It doesn’t just repeat a summarised version; it does add value. In addition to offering a useful bibliography, it also offers sets of questions, which are presented as exercises. The frequently asked questions sections in the chapters are helpful; they consolidate questions that students might ask during a class.

Another useful aspect to the text is that it provides numerous links to original sources or articles.

What is missing?

A few things are missing. As suggested earlier, there is a chapter on design principles, but little about the practice of design. Agile teams are mentioned, but there is also very little on how they should be formed or facilitated. This said, there are references to other resources that are helpful.

Turning to more technical elements, there isn’t much about software engineering economics, but there are references to practical techniques such as planning poker (which gets a very brief mention in TM354). I also feel that, given the importance of software security, the whole subject is underemphasised. Whilst the testing materials offers a useful high level summary, it lacks a reference to materials about Pen Testing.

From my perspective, there is no materials on the increasingly important subject of environmental computing. There should be something about energy and energy consumption, and how this might relate to software architecture. Another area that, in my opinion, ought to be covered in more depths is the subject of diversity and its important within teams.

Bearing in mind these points, a related area that is missing is the lack of consideration of the sociotechnical. It doesn’t, for example, consider the ways in which computing or information technology can be understood or situated within a human activity system. It could also be argued that the SWEBOK doesn’t do a great job of this either.

One thing I am grumpy about might be to do with the type of the text I’m using, which is the ePUB version. There isn’t an index, a glossary or a consolidated set of references, and an index about where those references are used. A further question to ask is: could I tolerate this? Possibly.

Reflections

No text is ever going to perfect and tick every single requirement box (even if we ever knew what those requirements were). Despite its gaps and shortcomings, I quite like this book. I especially like how readable it is. What it offers is a useful high level summary of many of the topics that are highlighted within the SWEBOK. I felt the section about DevOps was particularly helpful.

What I haven’t done is had a look through the resources that clearly accompany this book. There appears to be a lot: podcasts, slides, and code that can be found on GitHub. I also haven’t directly compared this text to others. Last year, I did have a quick look at a new book by Sethi, but I felt it wasn’t as clearly written as it could have been. Ian Sommerville’s text on Software Engineering remains highly regarded, but Sommerville has retired from teaching. In a field that appears to be changing quite rapidly, applicability is important.

I do feel it accidentally complements the current TM354 Software Engineering module surprisingly well. Will it complement the forthcoming TM113 and TM253 modules? I’m not sure; they are going to be quite different modules, but cover themes that are certainly highlighted by the text. As for TM363? We’ve still got to figure all that out.

Over the last few years, whilst preparing to study a new English module, I’ve scrutinised the reading list, and have compiled annotated versions (without permission from the various module teams, I must add) to help me to learn more about what I have coming up.

What follows is an annotated reading list for MA English literature part 1. Each text is referenced using the Harvard referencing format (rather than the format used on the OU website). Where possible, links to any digital alternatives that might be available.

This list appears to be intimidating, but the module website offers a bit of guidance: “four of these set books are core texts that all students study. You'll also choose one of three strands of study in each block, with three texts in each strand, which means you'll study 13 of these set books in total.” Students choose different strands from each of the blocks, depending on interests and aspirations. The module materials offers a bit of guidance about the possible choices.

Core texts

Everyone is required to read the following:

Collins, W. (2019) The Moonstone. Oxford World’s Classics. Edited by F. O’Gorman.  ISBN 9780198819394.

Also available from Project Gutenberg: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins.

Conrad, J. (2016) Heart of Darkness. Norton Critical Edition (5th edition). Edited by Paul B. Armstrong. ISBN 9780393264869.

A version without accompanying critical essays is available from Project Gutenberg: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

Desai, A. (2018) The Complete Stories. Vintage Classics. ISBN 9781784706647

Milton, J. (2020) Paradise Lost. Norton Critical Edition (2nd edition). Edited by Gordon Teskey. ISBN 9780393617085.

As with the Conrad text, a version without accompanying critical essays is available from Project Gutenberg: Paradise Lost by John Milton.

When using Amazon to view information about the Norton Critical Editions you might be directed to a Kindle edition. This Kindle edition is different to the Norton editions and does not contain the accompanying essays, as the link might imply.

Block 1: Literature and the Popular

Strand 1: Books and Readers

Eliot, G. (2019) Middlemarch. Oxford World's Classics. Edited by David Carroll and David Russell. ISBN 9780198815518.

Available from Project Gutenberg: Middlemarch by George Eliot.

Gaskell, E. (2008) North and South. Oxford World's Classics. Edited by Angus Easson. ISBN 9780199537006.

Available from Project Gutenberg: North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell.

Hawthorne, N. (2008) Young Goodman Brown and Other Tales. Oxford Word’s Classics. Edited by Brian Harding. ISBN 9780199555154.

The story Young Goodman Brown can be found in Project Gutenberg: Mosses from an old manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  Other stories can be found in Twice-told tales. The story Ethan Brand can be found in Little Masterpieces.

Strand 2: Form and Genre

Aristotle (2013) Poetics. Oxford Word’s Classics. Edited by Antony Kenny. ISBN 9780199608362.

Available from Project Gutenberg: The Poetics of Aristotle.

Hughes, D.B. (2010) In a Lonely Place. Penguin Modern Classics. ISBN 9780141192314.

Shakespeare, W. (2008) The History of King Lear. Oxford Word’s Classics. Edited by Stanley Wells. ISBN 9780199535828.

Available from Project Gutenberg: King Lear by William Shakespeare along with a version of the complete works.

Strand 3: History and Context

Anonymous (1976) Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee (Dee Goong An): An Authentic Eighteenth-Century Detective Novel. Dover Publications Inc. Edited by Robert van Gulik. ISBN 9780486233376.

Poe, E. A. (2004) The Selected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Norton Critical Edition. Edited by G. R. Thompson. ISBN 9780393972856.

A significant number of eBooks are available on Project Gutenberg: Books by Poe, Edgar Allan.

Christie, A. (2010) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. HarperCollins.

Available from Project Gutenberg: The murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. 

The ISBN that was specified for the Christie novel unexpectedly refers to the Turkish edition which appears to be unobtainable. I have no idea whether this is deliberate or unintentional. Alternative versions are, of course, available.

Block 2: Literature and Revolution

Strand 1: Books and Readers

Gibson, W. (2011) Pattern Recognition. Penguin. ISBN 9780241953532.

von Goethe, J. W. (1989) The Sorrows of Young Werther. Penguin Classics. Translated by Michael Hulse. ISBN 9780140445039.

Available from Project Gutenberg: The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Since this is a translation, it is worth noting that this version is likely to be substantially different from the recommended text.

Strand 2: Form and Genre

Dickinson, E. (2016) Poems as She Preserved Them. Harvard University Press. Edited by Christine Miller. ISBN 9780674737969. 

Available from Project Gutenberg: Books by Dickinson, Emily.

Harrison, T. (2013) Selected Poems. Penguin. ISBN 9780241964842.

Strand 3: History and Context

James, C. L. R. (2012) Toussaint Louverture. The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History. A Play in Three Acts. Duke University Press. Edited by Christian Høgsbjerg. ISBN 9780822353140.

This is a critical edition. A related resource appears on Project Gutenberg: St. Domingo, its revolution and its hero, Toussaint Louverture.

Wordsworth, W. (1979) The Prelude: 1799, 1805, 1850. ISBN 9780393090710. Norton Critical Edition. Edited by M. H. Abrams and Stephen Gill.

A version of the Prelude is available in the following Project Gutenberg resource: The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 3 (of 8) by William Wordsworth. The Norton edition is likely to be significant since I understand from earlier studies that there were different editions of the text.

Godwin, W. (2009) Caleb Williams. Oxford World Classics. Edited by Pamela Clemit. ISBN 9780199232062.

Available from Project Gutenberg: Caleb Williams; Or, Things as They Are by William Godwin.

Block 3: Literature and the Global

Strand 1: Books and Readers

Barbusse, H. (2014) Under Fire. Penguin Modern Classics. ISBN 9780141393438.

Available from Project Gutenberg: Under Fire: The Story of a Squad by Henri Barbusse. This version may be different from the Penguin version, since the text is a translation.

Ngugi wa Thiong'o (2002) A Grain of Wheat. Penguin Modern Classics. ISBN 9780141186993.

Strand 2: Form and Genre

Chekhov, A. (2008) About Love and Other Stories. Translated from Russian by Rosamund Bartlett. Oxford World’s Classics. ISBN 9780199536689.

Available from Project Gutenberg: Love, and Other Stories by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. As with other texts, this version is likely to be different to the officially recommended version.

Levi, P. (2012) The Periodic Table. Penguin Essentials. ISBN 9780241956816.

Adichie, C. N. (2017) The Thing Around Your Neck. Fourth Estate. ISBN 9780007306213.

Strand 3: History and Context

Clare, J. (2008) Major Works. Edited by Eric Robinson, David Powell and Tom Paulin. Oxford World’s Classics. ISBN 9780199549795.

There appear to be three collections of Clare’s poetry available from Project Gutenberg, including an audio version, and Poems by John Clare.

Shamsie, K. (2018) Home Fire. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781408886793.

Reflections

The strands that are summarised above don’t appear to be complete. I’m not exactly sure why this is the case. Spenser is mentioned in the module preamble, but not within the reading list. I guess we’ll find out.

Over the summer, I’m going to try to get through the core texts, probably leaving the Collins text until the end of my holiday (since it’s quite a big one). I might also look into whether there’s an audio book version to keep me company on long drives.

When looking for low priced texts, I start with big online bookstore such as Worldofbooks, followed by eBay (where you can just copy/paste the ISBN number into the search bar), followed by Amazon. I think might Google the ISBN number, which then might take me to a publisher’s site.

Whilst I was an undergraduate, I sometimes used a combination of digital and paper texts. On a number of occasions, I’ve used both. When it comes to electronic texts, I’ve always found the Project Gutenberg texts particularly helpful. The printed Norton Critical Editions are also very helpful.

At a first glance, this reading list looks terrifying. It is also one that offers a diverse set of riches. I’m intrigued by the inclusion of a Gibson text. I was in my late teens when I first discovered Gibson’s most famous novel, Neuromancer, which I have since hauled between flats and houses, it’s pages now yellowed.

All the strands look interesting, but some look more interesting than others. I’m drawn to the Forms and Genre strand, but since I’m interested in early modern writing, I’m also attracted to the History and Context strand. This said, I really don’t like Wordsworth’s Prelude, having been introduced to it in a previous module. Which way will I jump? I think I’ll look to the preferred path, and figure it all out from there.

Acknowledgements

This reading list has been edited from the information that is available on the A893 module summary page.

What follows is a disclaimer: I have no connection with the module team, and it is entirely possible that this reading list may change at any point. Always rely on the recommendations from module teams and tutors, rather than anything that I say on any of my blogs.

8 April 2026

I’m back from an easter holiday which passed in a blur. During my break, I managed to read two of the texts that I will be basing my EMA on. I tried to give them both a second read, but I didn’t quite have enough time. I have about two thirds of the second text to go through. My tutor shared some practical advice about how much of the texts I should use; we can’t cover two books with the word count that we have to play with.

Whilst I was away, I also had a quick read of a few critical articles, and skim read Aspects of the Novel (Project Gutenberg) by Forster, which I uploaded to my Kindle. I need to sit down properly with this text, which I’m aware is pretty famous (I’ve heard that Zadie Smith is a fan). I’m also aware that I need to find a few more critical articles that relate to the texts that I’ve chosen. I think I’m going to add this point to my TODO list.

Before digging into the library again, I’m going to get my second text reread. I had better get my virtual highlighter out. I also need to do a final proofread and check of my TMA 4 submission, which I feel I’ve completely forgotten about.

9 April 2026

I’ve been procrastinating doing my day job for an hour by doing a bit of cheeky A335 study. I had a dig into the Gale Literature database to see if I can find some critical sources that relate to my chosen texts. It didn’t take me long to find a bunch of reviews, and an academic article. All in all, I found five articles (six, if I were to include an interview with an author, which is tacked onto one of the PDF files that I’ve downloaded).

It’s all very well finding stuff, what I have to do next is to read them. To set me up, I’ve sent them all over to my Kindle, in anticipation for an evening cup of tea. I’m just hoping that the academic articles are not too theory heavy, since I’m travelling without my ‘heavy Norton book of literary theory’ as I call it.

Right: I have no choice. Back to my day job. I have an important deadline to work to.

10 April 2026

I have five days to turn something around, but before starting my day job this morning, I managed to read all the new articles that I submitted to my Kindle. I can probably work with the critical articles I have spotted, which is a relief. One of them turned out to be an abstract for an article that doesn’t appear to be in any digital libraries I can easily get hold of.

Whilst browsing through the papers that I’ve downloaded, I’ve realised I have a few more I need to read; articles about character, narrative, and so on; articles that I downloaded from a Cambridge Companion. I had hoped to read them whilst I was away. A final note to self is that I need to get back to reading the second text that I’m going to use.

Before doing anything further, I’m going to make a cup of tea.

14 April 2026

I’m struggling to find any time to carry out any of my study. It is nuisance having a day job!

This said, this afternoon I’ve managed to do a proofread of my TMA 4 submission. My conclusion: it reads better than expected. No changes. It has got a sensible structure and makes a series of reasonable points (in my humble opinion). I’m glad I got it in early.

My aim for the rest of this week (in terms of my study) is to finish reading all the remaining stories in the second text. Then it’s onto the process of making notes.

15 April 2026

I’m back onto the reading again. Before starting work, I had a rummage in an online library to try to find some critical sources about the short story. I couldn’t find anything that appealed, but what I did find was very useful. A feature of the Gales database allows you to download collections of critical articles that relate to the work of particular authors. After a bit of clicking on buttons, I managed to download two big PDF files that relate to the authors of my chosen texts. The thing is, they were too big to easily email to my Kindle, so I had to connect it via a USB port and manually transfer the files across.

I’ve now got even more reading to do. And I have still not found anything more general about the genre of the short story.

Another thing I did this morning was to reread the EMA question (which I’ve also transferred to my Kindle). I feel it’s a bit clearer than it was before.

16 April 2026

This morning, I read an article by Stuart Hall (who is formerly of this parish) about cultural identity, since I had noticed his work coming up time and time again. He’s a cracking writer, and made some really clear arguments. I then asked a question: are there any videos of Hall talking about what he had been writing about? I haven’t found a video that matches what he covers in his article, but I have found a video entitled Globalization and Diaspora (YouTube). He packs a lot in; it is certainly worth a listen (irrespective of whether you had an assessment to write).

My next actions will be to continue to read the critical sources that I’ve downloaded. It’ll then be time to begin to make notes, and to stir the pot, to see what structure emerges from whatever I’ve found to be interesting.

I haven’t quite decided on which bits of the texts I’m going to focus on. Hopefully I’ll have that sorted over the weekend.

17 April 2026

When I was driving yesterday, I had an idea. I had an idea about what argument I should use in my EMA. Whilst I was waiting at a set of traffic lights I made a quick note on the back of a receipt. I also think I know which stories I’m going to pick on. I just need to remember what their titles are, and begin to make notes about them.

Today has a mix of different bits of study. I began my day by reading criticism. I then got annoyed with my Kindle; I couldn’t annotate my big PDFs. To get round this, I found a new way to transfer big PDFs to my device. There’s something called the SendToKindle service, which takes an eternity, but it seems to set up the internal file structure in away that makes annotations and highlights possible.

I’m writing this whilst listening to a session called Poetry for Lunch, where the facilitator is talking about Keats. A couple of months back, I listened to an episode of In Our Time, which was very good. When I’m in London, I sometimes walk past a blue plaque dedicated to Keats, on St Thomas’s Street.

I would like to say that I’m going to be able to get back to the criticism tonight, but a bit of marking has landed which I’m going to try to turn around as quickly as I can.

22 April 2026

There’s the first of the EMA tutorials this evening.

I’m making fair progress with the making of notes, but I still have some way to go. Plus, there’s about five or so more articles I need to read through.

29 April 2026

Over the last few days, I’ve had a good old go to write my EMA. I’ve really struggled to understand the question and how to approach it. After a night away from it, I added a paragraph I wanted to add, gave it an edit, and the submitted it. I needed to get it done, since I’ve a load of ‘day job’ work to be getting on with.

I have mixed feelings about what I’ve written. This said, I don’t think I could have written anything that was different, and I feel as if I present a reasonably coherent argument. It’s an argument that, of course, draws on evidence from the text, and uses a good number of secondary readings. Whilst I was writing, I was surprised how quickly I used up the word count.

A curious thought is that I feel as if I should feel relieved since this is the last assignment for my entire degree. The thing is, the score that I get for this EMA is likely to affect my final degree classification. All this means it that I feel on edge; I feel anxious. I want to do well, but due to the inherent (and appropriate) ambiguity within the question, it’s hard to assess whether or not I’ve answered the question well enough. Following the guidance for the EMA, I’ve read pretty widely. I do wonder whether I’ve been reading beyond what was required for the assessment. I feel as if what I’ve submitted is okay, but I don’t know whether it is okay enough.

So, what next? I feel tired, and I could really do with a break. This final stretch has been quite hard graft, but good (and useful) graft.

8 March 2026

I’ve got pretty much a whole day to spend on the next assignment, which is due in about a month’s time. I’ve got a set of definitions to look up, a few articles to search for, and then I’ll begin to collate all the highlights and notes that I’ve scribbled on my Kindle. I’ll begin by having a look at the assignment guidance again.

I finished read William’s Orwell book yesterday. Essentially, it’s a book of criticism. Each chapter addresses a different theme or topic. It goes into Orwell’s progression as a writer, and discusses some commonalities in his novels of the 1930s which is useful. This has led to a couple of ideas that I’m going to add to my notes.

One other thing to do is to listen to a workshop that is all about writing an assignment, and preparing an argument. I’m going to try not to get distracted.

9 March 2026

I’m nearly through writing up all my ‘Kindle scribble’ notes into a Word document. My next step is to move towards digging out quotes from both text that I might want to use. It is gradually taking shape.

When I read the Rhys text over the summer, it immediately resonated me but I wasn’t quite sure why. I couldn’t quite get my head around its fractured narrative structure (if that is the right word to use), but I think I’ve figured out the reason for my emotional response. The narrator, Sasha, shares a devastating phrase that was said to her ex-husband. That phrase very closely resembles a phrase that was said to me by my ex-wife. The text reflects grief, and confusion. I’ve realised that reading Rhys is cathartic.

I’m going to read it for the third time. The more I read it, the more I ‘get’ it, and the more I like it. It’s just taken me a while to get there.

13 March 2026

I went to a really helpful tutorial about Calvino, Salih and Thomas last night. Although I’m not choosing the option to which the texts relate to, I thought I ought to go, just in case I choose one of the texts for the EMA. There was a lot of materials about the concept of metafiction and the metanarrative. Our tutor also threw in a few Greek words for good measure, such as diegesis, which I’ve never heard of before.

Over the last few days, I’ve been rereading the second text (also for the third time). I should be done by the end of today. Tomorrow, I hope to corral together a set of quotes from both texts, which should begin to form the backbone of my essay. If I can get a draft together by the end of next week, I’ll be happy. I feel as if I need to keep the momentum going.

I also tried to apply for the MA in English Lit, but it looks like I’ve got to finish my current qualification first.

15 March 2026

I’ve nearly finished making notes.

I’ve marked a couple of things I need to find out with the word TODO. There’s two points from each text, and a bunch of page references from some secondary reading that I need to pin down. My notes file is certainly going to end up being more than double the length of the essay, but I’m okay with that. I’ve got to know both texts backwards, and forward. I’ll probably add even more words to my notes file as I figure out what my argument is going to be. Hopefully all this preparation will make my writing easier.

After I’ve sorted out my couple of TODOs, I’ll re-read the guidance, and get cracking. I need to find space for the EMA reading, which I hope to do over the easter break.

18 March 2026

TMA 4 has gone in.

Everything came together unexpectedly well. I feel as if I’ve inadvertently uncovered a useful process: read the texts, read secondary sources whilst annotating them at the same time, return to the question, re-read the texts again, go for a few walks and cycle rides, type up a large set of quotes from all the sources, and stir over a couple of days.

This morning, I jumped ahead to read a short section about the digital texts that we have coming up towards the end of the module. This took me towards a collection of online literary texts. This immediately provoked a question: how accessible are these? I’ll leave this question hanging as I return to my day job.

24 March 2026

I’ve had a quick read of book 3, and I’ve been through all the audio/visual materials. I really liked the recording of Thomas reading a fragment of Under Milk Wood, and the video about verbatim theatre.

Although I have a lot of reading ahead of me, I’m now starting to consider the EMA. I quite like the topic, but I fear it’s going to take a bit of figuring out. Although I don’t digital texts, what I might do is have a quick browse the texts that were referenced in the last chapter of the book. I don’t like them since they age, they can appear clunky, and there are likely to be issues with their accessibility. It is as if the machine can be used to do some of the important imaginate work that the reader could be doing.

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 point), 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 your word count, ask whether every paragraph contributes to the overall argument. If not, then consider cutting it.

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. Present your 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: "are two (or more) sentences that could, and should, stand alone, but that have been spliced together without the proper punctuation or conjunctions" (the word ‘and’). (Thank you Cindy for that precise definition!)

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 (whose excellent suggestions for edits spared my grammatical blushes).

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.