Tackling Essay Writing with Inspiration

Aimee started using Inspiration in 2012, when it was recommended as part of her DSA package during her studies for an Equine Management degree. Here, Aimee talks about her experience of using Inspiration to help with her studies and the struggles that she faces with dyslexia.

Why were you recommended Inspiration?

I have dyslexia, so the DSA assessor thought it would help me organise things as they came to me. I find because I am bombarded with thoughts, often I lose them as quickly as they come. So using Rapid Fire meant I could get them down as quickly as they came to me and I could always have that as my reference to remind me later. So it did help me remember things more. They were visually there for me, rather than just reading loads of text and being bewildered by it. I could actually put down things that were relevant rather than going back and forth. So when it came to writing assignments, I could have the Inspiration mind map on half my screen and then my essay, if I was writing it directly into a programme, on the other half. So I could use Inspiration to organise myself ready for the writing of the essay.

How easy was it for you to learn how to use Inspiration?

I just took my time and played around with it. Actually I found it quite easy to get the hang of it on my own and if you do get stuck, you can always use the help tab on there, then it’s so clear and easy to gauge what you need to do and how to get there. There's a lot of good resources to go along with it now as well.

How do you think Inspiration affected you at university?

I think it made me more confident to do things on my own. I think that having Inspiration there meant I could pinpoint important points from assignments more easily. And then if I was off track, I could go back to that Inspiration document and narrow down where I was meant to be, rather than wasting time on a very long piece of work. So, it did mean I was a lot more confident in my ability to write my essays without having to go and ask every two minutes, "am I on the right track?"

I found as I got more confident using Inspiration, that you can convert it into an essay format (Outline View). I found that unbelievably helpful because I would realise that I had actually got down quite a lot of information that had really helped start off my essay, so I could then convert it and continue from there.

Are there any Inspiration 10 updates that you find particularly useful?

One of the new features I like is changing the page colour and being able to set it as a default. I never have a white background, so I don't have to open it every time and set it again. Same as I can change the fonts and font size, and it can all be set as my default. So when I open it, it's there ready for me, which cuts down quite a lot of time.

If you would like to learn more about Inspiration 11, click here, and for more case studies like Aimee's, click here.

Inspiration is an approved product for the Disabled Student Allowance.