End of module as assignment
Wilma had been preparing for her final assignment for her 5th year in Criminology at the Open University. The first step was to create an annotated bibliography for the materials she planned to use in her writing. She chose to focus on the broad topic of addictions and how they relate to learning disabilities. To support her argument, she needed to find four peer-reviewed articles and grey literature. Wilma’s next challenge was using the Open University library to locate relevant materials. Despite using keywords she thought would be helpful, the library consistently indicated that there were no relevant resources. Frustrated, she turned to Google Scholar and WorldCat Library, where she discovered valuable articles. She signed up for Academia to receive relevant journal articles directly. Additionally, as a member of the British Criminological Society, Wilma searched for articles that discussed addictions in individuals with learning disabilities. She verified these articles with the Open University library to ensure they were peer-reviewed and reliable. To expand her research, she consulted her tutor about using government websites as a source of grey literature. Wilma began organising her findings using Scolarcy software, which allowed her to break down the articles into manageable sections. She links up her Speechify to have articles read to her, and her favourite voice is Snoop Dogg. She entered all her material into the writing helper and added citation information to aid with referencing. Taking a different approach to her essay writing, she decided to write the body of the assignment first, saving the introduction and conclusion for last. Additionally, using Grammarly as a writing helper enhances her punctuation and improves her writing with the effective use of language. She also utilised Zotero software to assist with referencing. After receiving feedback from her tutor, Wilma felt disappointed in her performance; she had hoped to do better with the material she had chosen. Although she had selected appropriate content, she was at risk of veering into a medio-psychology direction. Her assignment focused on crime, harm, and the state, and she needed to demonstrate that the state had harmful effects on individuals with learning disabilities who struggle with addiction issues. It was disjointed and all over the place, but with the aid of her tutor’s support, she started piecing her argument together. She did point out to her tutor that one of the problems was not being able to spell, and the library was unsure of what she was looking up. She finally finished and added her citations to her assignment for Zotero. Referencing was always an issue, as Wilma was never sure about a healthy amount of referencing. She pressed the “Add bibliography” button in Zotero, and at the bottom of her assignment, all her references appeared in alphabetical order. Okay, it may be dodgy, but it was done. Time to zip it up and send it off for marking!
Marketing a book
Wilma has been working out how to market her book. One of the many sites which were set up was Kindle Direct Publishing. This is not dyslexia-friendly, and trying to work out all the information is “mission impossible”. Amazon originally set her up with a Facebook page and an Instagram account. One of the issues Wilma found with this was that Amazon would do all the advertising for her. However, Wilma did not have the money Amazon wanted for advertising. She started advertising on her business page and other social media accounts. Instagram is regularly overloaded with messages looking to promote her book on pages for a fee. It is overwhelming at times. However, she has had great reviews from people. One person returned, asking to read more of Wilma’s books; she had returned, saying it was her debut. They were surprised thinking she had written over 100 books. Well, it made Wilma’s day, and she smiled at such a lovely remark. She also wants to put her book through for the Kindle Storyteller Award. However, she has no idea what to do and keeps going around in circles. Wilma always loves it when a fellow dyslexic gets in touch to say they have purchased a copy. One of the many challenges Wilma faces is converting her book into an audiobook so that people can listen to the story. Amazon approached her about this very subject; she loved the idea until they sent through the price! “Crikey, I am a student and where am I going to get that sort of money?” She thought she had the answer, having gone through Booksagram-WC, which contacted her through Instagram. They gave Wilma multiple packages, and she decided to splash out on the premium package. They were going to write a post in the Guardian and the New York Times about her book. Do a podcast with Wilma and even advertise her book on a billboard in Times Square, New York City. This would be perfect, as the dates they gave her would coincide with when she was at the Neurodiversity show in Birmingham. They came back to her saying that their PayPal account had been hacked. However, they were still moving on with work, which she had paid for. She had checked out the PayPal account to discover it was in India. She became suspicious and replied; then they said they had given her a refund. No such thing had happened, and she reported this to her business account. The money had gone into their account. She replied that no refund had been received from them through PayPal. Now, Wilma understands cybercrime through her studies and will report it to the police; however, she does not have much hope, as she has learned that cybercrime is often investigated as a normal crime. She has watched plenty of scams on YouTube to know that there is a greater chance of catching a burglar. It just goes to show that even criminologists can be caught off guard. She is currently exploring ways to make her book available as an audiobook. It is a fabulous idea to become a bestseller on Amazon. However, this may still have to wait as she has other projects to prioritise. Marketing is a black hole that consistently requires funding.
#onlyfans
Wilma was looking forward to a bit of respite. A few months off studying would be blissful. She had seen that Professor David Wilson was touring and talking about his new book. Wilma and her friend had talked about seeing this famous criminologist for a while. Wilma and her friend had gone to the Playhouse to see a talk on “The psychology of serial killers”. This had raised many jokes about being a pair of “Lady Killers”. They joked about using chainsaws to chop up the bodies. At the same time, playing Richard Marx’s tune “Hazard” at full volume and then having bags of lime and a digger ready for a bit of gardening at 3 am! Nobody would suspect them, and everyone had a good laugh. They had decided to wait for new dates. Wilma was getting ready to buy the tickets for “A History of Modern Britain in 20 Murders” with David Wilson when disaster happened. Wilma’s bank account was hacked! She woke up on a Sunday morning to find a message from her bank stating that she had purchased something at 3 a.m. Wilma had been fast asleep at that time of the morning. She decided to check her bank app and found that she had three subscriptions to #OnlyFans. If they had picked something to do with cooking, it might have been different! Subscribed to sorted food, for instance, as she loves watching their YouTube channel, especially when they play “poker face”. However, the criminologist inside her was screaming, ‘Why? #onlyfans?’. As it was a Sunday and she had been visiting people, it was hard to contact her bank. As a person with dyslexia, remembering vital information seemed impossible. She went through the app, stating that she wanted the #onlyfans subscription flagged as fraudulent. She decided to visit the new banking hub, which had been established in her area. As it was new, it had a temporary setup with Wi-fi, so the person helping her had issues connecting her equipment. However, it was eventually sorted, and her account was refunded. At this point, they were giving Wilma advice on where to enter her card details. She did tell them that she was becoming a criminologist, but this seemed to be ignored. She is unsure how her account details were leaked, but wants everyone to be vigilant, as this is becoming increasingly common.