Research Writer Interview With Otto

My name is Otto and I am 25 years old. I am usually known as ‘Otti’ by people who know me. I have lived in a variety of places during my childhood; including London and Devon, where I attended a Community College for my GCSE and A-Level years. I am a healthy, personable and reliable person who has worked both within a team and independently. My past vacancies have included a retail assistant in a temporary book shop, a dry slope ski instructor and a university support worker, which is my current part-time job.

I have involved myself in a variety of hobbies and activities during my teenage years and time at University. History and drama have been a passion of mine ever since I was young and I have always been fascinated by the concepts that they present. During my GCSE and A-Level years I participated in Dartmoor’s Ten Tors challenge in 2008 (45 miles), 2009 and 2010 (55 miles). This love of hiking has also been influenced by my times as a child and is something I frequently do. I also have a great passion for skiing, body boarding and Ultimate Frisbee. I have played Ultimate for nearly five years and I was one of the co-founders and vice-chairman for my University’s Frisbee society. I held this position for the first two years from September 2010 to May 2012. Whilst I don’t play Frisbee full time currently, I still attend tournaments with both my past University team and the alumni team of our school. I am also incredibly passionate about creative writing and have written several stories and concepts which I have found intriguing.

Due to my passion for history, I decided to take it further for GCSE’s and A-Level. I achieved an A in history for my GCSE’s and a B for my A-levels. From there, I studied a single honours degree in History at the University of Winchester. This took place from September 2010 to June 2013. My year graduated in October 2013 with results being confirmed during the summer. During my time at Winchester I have studied an entire variety of modules, including core modules to help develop skills into historical research and studying of sources. As well as this, I studied various specialist modules including; East Asia 1900-present day, Europe after 1945, The Crusades, The Wars of the Roses and Supernatural and Witchcraft beliefs. In addition, my dissertation was focused on the political influences of four Arthurian texts from the medieval period and how political events during those times were echoed in the literature. One of my reasons for volunteering at the Holburne was to gain relevant experience in the historical sector as this was one of the pieces of advice I was given in order to pursue further education to the level of a master’s degree. This is something I am still determined to do in a few years time.

My history degree has helped me to improve and develop on my skills as a history enthusiast. This includes being able to achieve questions and goals with a clear, open-minded and analytical viewpoint. Aswell as this, my current job as a support worker has enabled me to help students write their essays in concise and clear ways. This includes structuring of paragraphs, referring back to the question and backing up points of view with quotes and evidence. In terms of other activities, I have researched areas of history that I have not studied or am interested in pursuing. I have put some of these articles on my blog and shared them through WordPress and Facebook. Whilst there are parts of history I haven’t studied in-depth before, I have the skills necessary to be able to research and understand the topics to be examined.