5 Tips for the Dyslexic Reader

If you’re not familiar with dyslexia it can be simplified down to difficulties with reading and spelling, although this is reducing a very complex learning difficulty into a few words and by no means does the challenges it creates justice.

Rather surprisingly, about half the people on my degree were dyslexic, myself included. For context I did my undergraduate degree in creative and professional writing, so not the place you’d expect to find a bunch of dyslexic people.

As expected, a degree program with writing in the title also came with a lot of reading, something I know that many of us struggled with, but we made it though and even after we graduated many of us remain to be avid readers.

After many conversations with my peers about it, there are a few tips that have helped us that I can pass on in the hope of helping someone else with dyslexia with their reading journey.

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The Art of a Hot Drink

There’s something to be said about sitting back and having a hot drink. Making tea or coffee is something we do every day, often when we’re half asleep in the morning or in a rush on our lunch breaks between classes or work. It’s so rare we sit down and enjoy the process of making a hot drink.

Tonight (or should I say this morning seeing as it’s 1am at the time of writing this) I made myself some herbal tea and sat down at my desk to journal. Why I felt compelled to write was beyond me, but after half an hour of composing my thoughts and silencing my mind I sat back in my chair and reached for my drink.

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An Enchantment of Ravens – book review

It’s getting close to the end of the year and the completion of the Goodreads challenge, something I’m behind on at the moment. This means that these past few weeks have been full of speed reading (or as close to speed reading as a dyslexic student with an eye watering number of essays due can). One of the books I got my hands on to try to make up on my book count was An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Roderson.

An Enchantment of Ravens is a fantasy book that follows Isobel, a young master painter who has a particularly dangerous set of clients: the fair folk. In a world where craft is highly valued by fair folk and everything is paid for by enchantments, Isobel developed a sharp mind and polite mask that didn’t upset the fair folk she painted. Things take a turn for the worst when she paints her first royal fair one, Rook the autumn prince. After she painted him with human emotion endangering both the prince and herself, they travel to the autumn lands for Isobel to face trial for her crime. The book follows them as they form an alliance to survive, prompting forbidden emotions that endanger them even more.


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Tips for running a small business as a student

This academic year I’ve been juggling working towards my degree, writing for this blog and running my own small business… it’s been wild.

I haven’t had my business, HyperHoot, for all that long. I started selling my needle felted gifts earlier this year and I still have a lot to learn. But over these past few months as I’ve juggled my university work and my shop, I’ve come across a few tips that have helped me out and I’d like to share them with you guys. I know many students often think of ways to have their own ‘side hustle’ when they’re at university, so I help these six tips will help you out if you do decide to take the leap and start up your own business.

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