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How to Start an Assignment
Last Updated: January 29, 2024 Fact Checked
This article was co-authored by Michelle Golden, PhD . Michelle Golden is an English teacher in Athens, Georgia. She received her MA in Language Arts Teacher Education in 2008 and received her PhD in English from Georgia State University in 2015. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 109,893 times.
Getting started on an assignment or homework can often times be the hardest step. Putting off the assignment can make the problem worse, reducing the time you have to complete the task and increasing stress. By learning how to get started and overcome the urge to procrastinate, you can get your assignments done on schedule and with less stress, opening up more free time.
Restructuring Your Assignment
- For example, you might research areas of a report that you find most interesting before moving on to other areas.
- If your math assignment has different types of questions, try doing those that you enjoy the most before moving on to the others.
- You might also try tackling smaller or easier tasks first so you can cross a few items off your list. Seeing that you've already made progress may help you feel motivated to continue.
- Promise yourself that you will meet your goal of working for five minutes on the assignment.
- Once you get started, you may find that you don't want to stop working. Otherwise, you can take a break and come back to the assignment, knowing you're at least five minutes closer to finishing than you were before.
- Try to set reasonable periods of time that you know you can meet. For example, you might set aside two hours on a Friday to dedicate to your assignment. If you don't have that much time all at once, try to carve out a few 20- or 30-minute blocks.
- You may or may not wish to continue working after your time limit has gone by.
- Have a realistic understanding of how fast you can write and plan your schedule accordingly.
- It can help to read the assignment as soon as you get it and then ask any questions you might have.
- If you're not sure if you understand the assignment, try rewriting it in your own words or explaining it to someone else. If you find you can't or have a lot of questions, you may need more information.
- You should have an overview of the assignment, understand the main task, and understand the technical and stylistic requirements.
- Look for important words in the instructions to understand the assignment. These words might include define, explain, compare, relate, or prove.
- Keep your audience in mind and write a paper that would best deliver information to them.
- Goals that are too big or not well defined can be difficult to start working towards.
- Smaller and well defined goals can seem easier to achieve than larger ones.
- For example, you could break a research paper down into several smaller tasks: 1) do preliminary research, 2) write an outline, 3) draft an introduction, 4) draft body paragraphs, 5) write conclusion, 6) revise. Each of these is much more do-able on its own.
Changing Your Focus
- You might want to go for a quick walk after working for a set amount of time.
- Try reading a website or book that you enjoy for a few minutes after working.
- Alternatively, try a quick burst of exercise before setting to work. Exercise releases feel-good chemicals called endorphins and can also help boost your memory. [8] X Research source
- Instead of dreading your work, focus on how good it will feel to make progress. You won't have it hanging over your head. You can actually enjoy the weekend instead of feeling guilty.
- Keeping your eye on long-term rewards can help you stay motivated to finish your assignment.
- Avoid moving your workspace constantly.
- Don't get lost on tangential research.
- Don't take constant breaks to get a snack.
- For every hour you waste procrastinating, you can limit how much television you watch that night.
- If you waste too much time procrastinating, you might deny yourself a favorite snack later on.
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- ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/solving-unsolvable-problems/201408/4-steps-stop-procrastinating
- ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/friendship-20/201405/the-surefire-first-step-stop-procrastinating
- ↑ http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/procrastination/
- ↑ https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/homework.html
- ↑ http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/understanding-assignments/
- ↑ https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/ab22ff64-3358-4387-9761-8c58878a6b84/resource/3ee38320-17e4-46f9-b24f-c95f9f345eb9/download/ipp7.pdf
- ↑ http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/07/how-exercise-can-help-us-learn/
- ↑ https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/happy-life.html
About This Article
To start an assignment, try working on the most enjoyable or easiest parts of the assignment first to get the ball rolling. Even if no part of the assignment seems enjoyable or easy, set a timer and try to make yourself work for at least 5 minutes, which is usually enough time to build momentum and overcome procrastination. You can also try breaking your assignment up into smaller, more manageable tasks and scheduling yourself regular breaks so it doesn't seem as overwhelming. To learn how to stay positive and avoid procrastination while working on your homework, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No
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How to Write a Perfect Assignment: Step-By-Step Guide
Table of contents
- 1 How to Structure an Assignment?
- 2.1 The research part
- 2.2 Planning your text
- 2.3 Writing major parts
- 3 Expert Tips for your Writing Assignment
- 4 Will I succeed with my assignments?
- 5 Conclusion
How to Structure an Assignment?
To cope with assignments, you should familiarize yourself with the tips on formatting and presenting assignments or any written paper, which are given below. It is worth paying attention to the content of the paper, making it structured and understandable so that ideas are not lost and thoughts do not refute each other.
If the topic is free or you can choose from the given list — be sure to choose the one you understand best. Especially if that could affect your semester score or scholarship. It is important to select an engaging title that is contextualized within your topic. A topic that should captivate you or at least give you a general sense of what is needed there. It’s easier to dwell upon what interests you, so the process goes faster.
To construct an assignment structure, use outlines. These are pieces of text that relate to your topic. It can be ideas, quotes, all your thoughts, or disparate arguments. Type in everything that you think about. Separate thoughts scattered across the sheets of Word will help in the next step.
Then it is time to form the text. At this stage, you have to form a coherent story from separate pieces, where each new thought reinforces the previous one, and one idea smoothly flows into another.
Main Steps of Assignment Writing
These are steps to take to get a worthy paper. If you complete these step-by-step, your text will be among the most exemplary ones.
The research part
If the topic is unique and no one has written about it yet, look at materials close to this topic to gain thoughts about it. You should feel that you are ready to express your thoughts. Also, while reading, get acquainted with the format of the articles, study the details, collect material for your thoughts, and accumulate different points of view for your article. Be careful at this stage, as the process can help you develop your ideas. If you are already struggling here, pay for assignment to be done , and it will be processed in a split second via special services. These services are especially helpful when the deadline is near as they guarantee fast delivery of high-quality papers on any subject.
If you use Google to search for material for your assignment, you will, of course, find a lot of information very quickly. Still, the databases available on your library’s website will give you the clearest and most reliable facts that satisfy your teacher or professor. Be sure you copy the addresses of all the web pages you will use when composing your paper, so you don’t lose them. You can use them later in your bibliography if you add a bit of description! Select resources and extract quotes from them that you can use while working. At this stage, you may also create a request for late assignment if you realize the paper requires a lot of effort and is time-consuming. This way, you’ll have a backup plan if something goes wrong.
Planning your text
Assemble a layout. It may be appropriate to use the structure of the paper of some outstanding scientists in your field and argue it in one of the parts. As the planning progresses, you can add suggestions that come to mind. If you use citations that require footnotes, and if you use single spacing throughout the paper and double spacing at the end, it will take you a very long time to make sure that all the citations are on the exact pages you specified! Add a reference list or bibliography. If you haven’t already done so, don’t put off writing an essay until the last day. It will be more difficult to do later as you will be stressed out because of time pressure.
Writing major parts
It happens that there is simply no mood or strength to get started and zero thoughts. In that case, postpone this process for 2-3 hours, and, perhaps, soon, you will be able to start with renewed vigor. Writing essays is a great (albeit controversial) way to improve your skills. This experience will not be forgotten. It will certainly come in handy and bring many benefits in the future. Do your best here because asking for an extension is not always possible, so you probably won’t have time to redo it later. And the quality of this part defines the success of the whole paper.
Writing the major part does not mean the matter is finished. To review the text, make sure that the ideas of the introduction and conclusion coincide because such a discrepancy is the first thing that will catch the reader’s eye and can spoil the impression. Add or remove anything from your intro to edit it to fit the entire paper. Also, check your spelling and grammar to ensure there are no typos or draft comments. Check the sources of your quotes so that your it is honest and does not violate any rules. And do not forget the formatting rules.
with the right tips and guidance, it can be easier than it looks. To make the process even more straightforward, students can also use an assignment service to get the job done. This way they can get professional assistance and make sure that their assignments are up to the mark. At PapersOwl, we provide a professional writing service where students can order custom-made assignments that meet their exact requirements.
Expert Tips for your Writing Assignment
Want to write like a pro? Here’s what you should consider:
- Save the document! Send the finished document by email to yourself so you have a backup copy in case your computer crashes.
- Don’t wait until the last minute to complete a list of citations or a bibliography after the paper is finished. It will be much longer and more difficult, so add to them as you go.
- If you find a lot of information on the topic of your search, then arrange it in a separate paragraph.
- If possible, choose a topic that you know and are interested in.
- Believe in yourself! If you set yourself up well and use your limited time wisely, you will be able to deliver the paper on time.
- Do not copy information directly from the Internet without citing them.
Writing assignments is a tedious and time-consuming process. It requires a lot of research and hard work to produce a quality paper. However, if you are feeling overwhelmed or having difficulty understanding the concept, you may want to consider getting accounting homework help online . Professional experts can assist you in understanding how to complete your assignment effectively. PapersOwl.com offers expert help from highly qualified and experienced writers who can provide you with the homework help you need.
Will I succeed with my assignments?
Anyone can learn how to be good at writing: follow simple rules of creating the structure and be creative where it is appropriate. At one moment, you will need some additional study tools, study support, or solid study tips. And you can easily get help in writing assignments or any other work. This is especially useful since the strategy of learning how to write an assignment can take more time than a student has.
Therefore all students are happy that there is an option to order your paper at a professional service to pass all the courses perfectly and sleep still at night. You can also find the sample of the assignment there to check if you are on the same page and if not — focus on your papers more diligently.
So, in the times of studies online, the desire and skill to research and write may be lost. Planning your assignment carefully and presenting arguments step-by-step is necessary to succeed with your homework. When going through your references, note the questions that appear and answer them, building your text. Create a cover page, proofread the whole text, and take care of formatting. Feel free to use these rules for passing your next assignments.
When it comes to writing an assignment, it can be overwhelming and stressful, but Papersowl is here to make it easier for you. With a range of helpful resources available, Papersowl can assist you in creating high-quality written work, regardless of whether you’re starting from scratch or refining an existing draft. From conducting research to creating an outline, and from proofreading to formatting, the team at Papersowl has the expertise to guide you through the entire writing process and ensure that your assignment meets all the necessary requirements.
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10 Tips for Writing Assignments
Writing assignments are a cornerstone of your academic journey, and honing your assignment writing skills is paramount for your success. Whether you're embarking on your first year or a seasoned academic, the art of effective assignment writing can wield significant influence over your grades and overall educational voyage. In this comprehensive guide, we'll offer you ten invaluable tips to elevate your assignment writing prowess. These strategies, along with expert guidance from our specialized assignment help website writemyessays.com/do-my-assignment.html , will empower you to enhance your writing skills and chart a course towards academic triumph.
Tip 1: Start Early
The first rule of successful assignment writing is to start early. Procrastination is the enemy of quality work. By initiating your assignments as soon as you receive them, you'll have ample time for essential steps such as research, planning, drafting, and revisions. Starting early allows you to manage your time effectively and produce well-crafted assignments.
Tip 2: Understand the Assignment
Before you begin writing, it's essential to thoroughly understand the assignment instructions. Take the time to read and analyze what is expected of you. If any aspects are unclear, don't hesitate to seek clarification from your instructor. Understanding the assignment's requirements is fundamental to meeting them successfully.
Tip 3: Plan Your Work
Effective planning is a cornerstone of assignment writing. Develop a structured plan that includes creating a timeline for your assignment. Break down the work into smaller tasks, allocate sufficient time for research, outlining, drafting, and proofreading. A well-organized plan will keep you on track and reduce stress.
Tip 4: Utilize Campus Resources
Your university offers a wealth of resources to support your writing endeavors. Take advantage of writing centers, libraries, and academic advisors who can provide guidance and feedback on your assignments. These resources are valuable assets that can significantly improve the quality of your work.
Tip 5: Research Thoroughly
High-quality assignments require thorough research. Dive deeply into your chosen topic, utilizing a variety of credible sources such as academic journals, books, and reputable websites. Ensure that you cite your sources correctly to provide evidence for your arguments and maintain academic integrity.
Tip 6: Maintain a Good Writing Style
Developing and maintaining a clear and concise writing style is essential for effective communication in your assignments. Avoid overly complex language and prioritize clarity. Ensure that your assignments have a logical structure with a clear flow of ideas. Your goal is to make your writing accessible and easy for your reader to understand.
Tip 7: Seek Writing Assistance
If you ever find yourself struggling with assignment writing, don't hesitate to seek writing assistance. Many universities offer writing assistance programs staffed by experienced tutors who can provide guidance and feedback on your work. These services are designed to help you refine your writing skills and produce higher-quality assignments.
Tip 8: Proofread and Edit
The importance of proofreading and editing cannot be overstated. After completing your initial draft, take the time to review and edit your work. Check for grammar and punctuation errors, ensure proper formatting, and verify that your assignment aligns with the assignment guidelines. Effective editing will polish your work and enhance its overall quality.
Tip 9: Stay Safe Online
When conducting online research for your assignments, it's essential to prioritize online safety. Use reliable sources and be cautious of plagiarism. Properly cite all your references to maintain academic integrity and avoid unintentional academic misconduct.
Tip 10: Celebrate Your Achievements
Lastly, don't forget to celebrate your achievements in assignment writing. Completing assignments is a significant accomplishment on your academic journey. Reward yourself for your hard work and dedication, and acknowledge your successes. Recognizing your achievements can motivate you to excel in future assignments.
Dos and Don'ts
To summarize, here are some dos and don'ts for successful assignment writing:
- Start early and plan your work effectively.
- Thoroughly understand the assignment instructions.
- Utilize available campus resources for support and guidance.
- Conduct in-depth research using credible sources.
- Maintain a clear and concise writing style for accessibility.
- Seek writing assistance when facing challenges.
- Commit to thorough proofreading and editing.
- Stay safe and ethical when conducting online research.
- Celebrate your achievements and milestones.
- Procrastinate on your assignments; start early instead.
- Overlook or misinterpret assignment instructions.
- Miss out on utilizing valuable campus resources.
- Skimp on research quality or rely on unreliable sources.
- Engage in overly complex writing that hinders clarity.
- Hesitate to seek assistance when facing challenges.
- Neglect the critical steps of proofreading and editing.
- Plagiarize or compromise on academic integrity.
- Forget to acknowledge and celebrate your accomplishments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some common questions related to assignment writing:
1. How can I improve my writing style?
Improving your writing style is a gradual process. Consider taking writing courses, seeking feedback from professors or writing tutors, and practicing regularly to refine your skills.
2. Is it okay to use online sources for research?
Yes, it's acceptable to use online sources for research, but ensure that they are reliable and properly cited in your assignments to maintain academic credibility.
Final Thoughts
Writing assignments may seem challenging at times, but with the right approach and these ten tips, you can excel in your academic journey. Remember that assignment writing is a skill that improves with practice and dedication. By following these guidelines and continuously honing your writing skills, you'll be well-equipped to tackle assignments successfully and achieve academic excellence. Go to website
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Most Effective Tips for Writing an Impressive Assignment
When in college, you have to accomplish all of your assignments as part of your education. One of the most common assignments is written essays that will contribute to your grade at the end of your course.
But you might feel apprehensive when you receive such an assignment, especially if it's your first time. You might not feel like you have the necessary skills to write a good essay. But there are certain tips you can use to write a good assignment and lay your apprehensions to rest.
Research and plan
When you take on a course, you will receive a reading list. Familiarize yourself with it right away because your professors will choose texts from this list that will specifically help you with your tasks and assignments. Reading what's on your list will provide you with valuable insight into the topics you have to write about. It will make life easier for you when you need to write an assignment.
After researching, you should make a schedule for writing your assignments. Stick to your schedule. Also, double-check your deadline so you won't have to feel overwhelmed when you realize that your deadline is right around the corner. Break down your time and tasks into more manageable chunks so that you will always be on top of your work. Make a schedule that consists of mini-deadlines. Knowing that you have completed a task will keep you motivated.
Understand your assignment and take notes
Before starting your assignment, make sure that you understand it because writing an essay that contains irrelevant information or isn't coherent will prove disastrous. You should always know what you're doing and what you need to convey. If needed, rereading the instructions will help you understand what's expected of you. Moreover, you also need to determine how long the essay should be and how you will proceed with it.
Note-taking is another important aspect of writing. Before you start, you must collect various materials and resources relevant to your topic. You should also create an outline that will guide you. Go through various research materials, then take down notes on the most crucial information that you can include in your work. The writing process will become more manageable when you have all of the information you need.
Assignment writing by professionals
As a student in college, you have the option to ask for help when you need to complete an assignment and you have no time to do it. Since written tasks are an unavoidable aspect of college education, the best thing you can do is to seek assistance when you need it. The writers at AssignmentBro helped with my assignment writing in college. Thanks to their professional writers, I still had plenty of time to study and tackle my other responsibilities.
Use various resources
Aside from the deadlines and instructions that your professor will provide, they might also recommend some resources to you. Sadly, this is something that many students tend to overlook. For instance, for you to understand how your professor will grade your assignment, you will need to examine their rubric. This is a chart that provides information on what you must do. You will also learn about the objectives of the assignments or the learning outcomes.
Other resources you might receive include reading lists, lecture recordings, discussion boards, and sample assignments. Usually, you will find all of these resources in an online platform known as a Learning Management System (LMS). Research has shown that students who use LMS tend to get higher grades. If you still have any questions, you can ask your professor either online or offline.
Determine the objective and structure of your assignment
The next thing you need to do is to define the objectives of your written work and its structure. This is where you will determine the pattern of a well-written assignment. You want to make your work look impressive in the eyes of your reader. One way to accomplish this is to include more theoretical content and details in your essay.
Make sure all of your paragraphs flow smoothly
It's not enough for the essay writing project assigned to you to provide enough information. It's also important to remain coherent. You must link each paragraph to each other.
This will keep your reader connected with the content . To achieve this, you need to go back to your plan for your assignment, then search for significant concepts that will help you connect the paragraphs smoothly. Here's an easy tip to do this - include phrases or words that will attract the eyes of your readers while supporting the context of your written assignment.
University life is full of challenges. One of which is the writing of assignments that will require higher communication, critical thinking, and information gathering skills that you may have practiced in high school. Instead of feeling daunted because of your assignments, use the tips you learned to make things easier for you.
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The Beginner's Guide to Writing an Essay | Steps & Examples
An academic essay is a focused piece of writing that develops an idea or argument using evidence, analysis, and interpretation.
There are many types of essays you might write as a student. The content and length of an essay depends on your level, subject of study, and course requirements. However, most essays at university level are argumentative — they aim to persuade the reader of a particular position or perspective on a topic.
The essay writing process consists of three main stages:
- Preparation: Decide on your topic, do your research, and create an essay outline.
- Writing : Set out your argument in the introduction, develop it with evidence in the main body, and wrap it up with a conclusion.
- Revision: Check your essay on the content, organization, grammar, spelling, and formatting of your essay.
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Table of contents
Essay writing process, preparation for writing an essay, writing the introduction, writing the main body, writing the conclusion, essay checklist, lecture slides, frequently asked questions about writing an essay.
The writing process of preparation, writing, and revisions applies to every essay or paper, but the time and effort spent on each stage depends on the type of essay .
For example, if you’ve been assigned a five-paragraph expository essay for a high school class, you’ll probably spend the most time on the writing stage; for a college-level argumentative essay , on the other hand, you’ll need to spend more time researching your topic and developing an original argument before you start writing.
1. Preparation | 2. Writing | 3. Revision |
---|---|---|
, organized into Write the | or use a for language errors |
Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.
Before you start writing, you should make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to say and how you’re going to say it. There are a few key steps you can follow to make sure you’re prepared:
- Understand your assignment: What is the goal of this essay? What is the length and deadline of the assignment? Is there anything you need to clarify with your teacher or professor?
- Define a topic: If you’re allowed to choose your own topic , try to pick something that you already know a bit about and that will hold your interest.
- Do your research: Read primary and secondary sources and take notes to help you work out your position and angle on the topic. You’ll use these as evidence for your points.
- Come up with a thesis: The thesis is the central point or argument that you want to make. A clear thesis is essential for a focused essay—you should keep referring back to it as you write.
- Create an outline: Map out the rough structure of your essay in an outline . This makes it easier to start writing and keeps you on track as you go.
Once you’ve got a clear idea of what you want to discuss, in what order, and what evidence you’ll use, you’re ready to start writing.
The introduction sets the tone for your essay. It should grab the reader’s interest and inform them of what to expect. The introduction generally comprises 10–20% of the text.
1. Hook your reader
The first sentence of the introduction should pique your reader’s interest and curiosity. This sentence is sometimes called the hook. It might be an intriguing question, a surprising fact, or a bold statement emphasizing the relevance of the topic.
Let’s say we’re writing an essay about the development of Braille (the raised-dot reading and writing system used by visually impaired people). Our hook can make a strong statement about the topic:
The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.
2. Provide background on your topic
Next, it’s important to give context that will help your reader understand your argument. This might involve providing background information, giving an overview of important academic work or debates on the topic, and explaining difficult terms. Don’t provide too much detail in the introduction—you can elaborate in the body of your essay.
3. Present the thesis statement
Next, you should formulate your thesis statement— the central argument you’re going to make. The thesis statement provides focus and signals your position on the topic. It is usually one or two sentences long. The thesis statement for our essay on Braille could look like this:
As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness.
4. Map the structure
In longer essays, you can end the introduction by briefly describing what will be covered in each part of the essay. This guides the reader through your structure and gives a preview of how your argument will develop.
The invention of Braille marked a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by blind and visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.
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The body of your essay is where you make arguments supporting your thesis, provide evidence, and develop your ideas. Its purpose is to present, interpret, and analyze the information and sources you have gathered to support your argument.
Length of the body text
The length of the body depends on the type of essay. On average, the body comprises 60–80% of your essay. For a high school essay, this could be just three paragraphs, but for a graduate school essay of 6,000 words, the body could take up 8–10 pages.
Paragraph structure
To give your essay a clear structure , it is important to organize it into paragraphs . Each paragraph should be centered around one main point or idea.
That idea is introduced in a topic sentence . The topic sentence should generally lead on from the previous paragraph and introduce the point to be made in this paragraph. Transition words can be used to create clear connections between sentences.
After the topic sentence, present evidence such as data, examples, or quotes from relevant sources. Be sure to interpret and explain the evidence, and show how it helps develop your overall argument.
Lack of access to reading and writing put blind people at a serious disadvantage in nineteenth-century society. Text was one of the primary methods through which people engaged with culture, communicated with others, and accessed information; without a well-developed reading system that did not rely on sight, blind people were excluded from social participation (Weygand, 2009). While disabled people in general suffered from discrimination, blindness was widely viewed as the worst disability, and it was commonly believed that blind people were incapable of pursuing a profession or improving themselves through culture (Weygand, 2009). This demonstrates the importance of reading and writing to social status at the time: without access to text, it was considered impossible to fully participate in society. Blind people were excluded from the sighted world, but also entirely dependent on sighted people for information and education.
See the full essay example
The conclusion is the final paragraph of an essay. It should generally take up no more than 10–15% of the text . A strong essay conclusion :
- Returns to your thesis
- Ties together your main points
- Shows why your argument matters
A great conclusion should finish with a memorable or impactful sentence that leaves the reader with a strong final impression.
What not to include in a conclusion
To make your essay’s conclusion as strong as possible, there are a few things you should avoid. The most common mistakes are:
- Including new arguments or evidence
- Undermining your arguments (e.g. “This is just one approach of many”)
- Using concluding phrases like “To sum up…” or “In conclusion…”
Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.
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Checklist: Essay
My essay follows the requirements of the assignment (topic and length ).
My introduction sparks the reader’s interest and provides any necessary background information on the topic.
My introduction contains a thesis statement that states the focus and position of the essay.
I use paragraphs to structure the essay.
I use topic sentences to introduce each paragraph.
Each paragraph has a single focus and a clear connection to the thesis statement.
I make clear transitions between paragraphs and ideas.
My conclusion doesn’t just repeat my points, but draws connections between arguments.
I don’t introduce new arguments or evidence in the conclusion.
I have given an in-text citation for every quote or piece of information I got from another source.
I have included a reference page at the end of my essay, listing full details of all my sources.
My citations and references are correctly formatted according to the required citation style .
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Your essay meets all the most important requirements. Our editors can give it a final check to help you submit with confidence.
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An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates.
In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills.
Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative : you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence, analysis and interpretation.
The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.
The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.
Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:
- An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
- Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
- A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.
The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .
A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.
The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:
- It gives your writing direction and focus.
- It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.
Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.
A topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph . Everything else in the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.
At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).
Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.
The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .
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Planning Your Assignment
- Understand and analyze your assignment
- Narrow your topic
- Do preliminary research and review course concepts
- Develop a working research question or thesis question
- Make a research plan
- Read sources and take notes
- Develop a thesis and outline
- Write first draft
- Revise and edit
- Proofread and check citations
Booking an appointment with an Academic Skills Instructor is beneficial at any stage of the writing process. Plan ahead and book an instructor to help you understand your assignment, create an outline, or review the first draft of your paper.
Consider how long each step will take and make a plan for when you will complete each step. Enter these mini-deadlines into your calendar or planner. See an example.
1. Understand and analyze your assignment
Spend some time to fully understand your assignment before you begin your work.
- Analyze the assignment question: read it carefully and underline key words, terms, and concepts.
- The length of the assignment provides clues as to how much research you need to do and the depth of the paper
- Research requirements: number and type of sources
- Referencing style (APA, MLA, Chicago etc.)
Try our template for analyzing your assignment instructions: How to Analyze your Assignment Instructions.docx .
2. Narrow your topic
Take time to narrow your topic ; a focused topic promotes good research and strong analysis.
When you can choose your own topic, pick something that truly interests you. Browse through the syllabus, lecture and reading notes, and course readings to help you decide.
3. Do preliminary research and review course concepts
Preliminary reading helps to focus your topic. You can determine how much information is available and whether you need to change the scope of your topic.
- Start with course readings and texts.
- Search the Trent Library Guides to find reference tools related to your discipline, including the best databases to use, relevant peer reviewed journals, good websites, dictionaries, and encyclopedias.
4. Develop a working research question or thesis question
A research question is a starting point that expresses what you want to know about your topic and why you want to know it. A good question will help focus your research.
5. Make a research plan
The research process will consume a significant amount of time, so make sure that you leave plenty of time for this stage. Research is easier when you take the time to plan .
- Research Plan Worksheet
6. Read sources and take notes
- Read your sources efficiently and effectively . Academic reading is difficult reading and requires you to both actively and critically read.
- Take useful research notes. Notetaking from reading is a critical skill that aids in the research process and also distances you from your sources to help prevent plagiarism.
- Notetaking templates
7. Develop a thesis and an outline
The thesis is your position about the topic and the centre around which your paper will be organized. Review how to generate a good thesis .
An outline identifies the main sections of the paper in relation to one another and the order in which they will be discussed in the essay. Include the evidence (and citation information) that you will use to support each section. There are various ways to outline a paper.
8. Write a first draft
The first draft for most writers is a document that contains errors, rough points, and incomplete sections. This becomes the basis for thoughtful revision and a final draft.
- Start writing the first draft.
9. Revise and edit
- Revise the whole paper. This includes considering the structure and argumentation of the paper.
- Edit for sentence-level errors and ensure that you are communicating your ideas clearly.
10. Proofread and check citations
Final proofreading is important for a polished finished product.
Check citations for accuracy; our documentation guide has full details on proper citation.
Assignment Time Calculator to help meet Deadlines
Got an assignment deadline coming up?
Not sure how much free time you need to sacrifice to complete the work on time?
Here’s a handy calculator to estimate the time needed to complete an assignment within the given deadline.
Calculator for time needed to finish an assignment
To use this tool, please follow the instructions below.
- The cells marked in yellow should be amended to suit your specific situation
- Check whether your assignment has a word count allowance. If so, then you just need to meet the minimum end of the range when you’re pressed of time
- An excellent writing speed would be about 600 words an hour
- Medium would be around 350 words per hour
- A slow writing speed implies roughly about 200 words an hour
- Enter the deadline for the assignment in Month / Day / Year format
Tips to complete assignments on time
Cliché as it may be, the best advice to complete assignments by the deadline is to start in advance. Of course, this may not always be feasible but just trust us, your future self with be really grateful that you didn’t leave it until the last minute.
If you’re behind schedule, you’re going to want to make the most efficient use of whatever little time you have. However, even in such a situation, we highly recommend that you set aside a brief slot in your schedule to plan the structure of the assignment and what word count needs to go in each section that you have identified.
This will help you get a better idea of which sections are going to take up a bigger chunk of your time and you can use this to prioritize your available time accordingly.
We have a guide on how to make an assignment structure outline quickly using grading criteria . We also have another one on managing assignment word count .
Here’s another helpful guide from Purdue University with good suggestions for time management when it comes to assignments.
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Learn how planning your assignments at the start ensures a smoother writing process.
Written assignments, whether short response essays or long research papers, often seem overwhelming at first, but carefully reading and evaluating assignment guidelines and requirements will help you understand your goals and plan your paper. This can result in a more confident, optimistic approach to the assignment, and a more relaxed writing experience.
Whenever you receive an assignment, it’s important to review the requirements several times. Reading them over as soon as you receive them will help you to plan how much time you’ll need, and get a sense of the scope, or focus, of the project. If you look over them again right before you start researching or writing, they will be fresh in your mind, and you’ll use your time more effectively, since you’ll have a better idea of what tasks you need to accomplish. Finally, always reread the assignment requirements after you’ve completed your rough draft but before you’ve started revising it. This will help you make sure that you’ve fulfilled all of the requirements before you hand the work in for a grade.
The first time you read the assignment guidelines, it’s helpful to keep these types of questions in mind:
What is the assignment asking you to do? Although most assignments require that you do many different things within them, they almost always have a main objective or purpose. This is what the paper should “do.” Look for words like argue, persuade, define, convince, compare, contrast (or compare and contrast), analyze, explain, present, summarize, report, recommend, narrate, outline, and discuss . Are you required to develop an original thesis or argument about a topic or issue? Will you be responding to another author’s book or article? Does the assignment have a question (or “prompt”) that the assignment will answer or respond to? If you can establish your primary goal, or purpose, for the assignment, it will be much easier to plan your work and manage your time.
What skills will the assignment emphasize or teach? Assignments usually support, or require you to use, skills, tools, and/or techniques that you’re working on in your course. Will the assignment require you to use sources (books, articles, databases) that you discussed or read in class? Are there certain topics or issues that you’ve studied during the semester, and will the assignment be your opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of or opinions about them? How does the paper assignment relate to the focus of your course?
Does the assignment require research from secondary sources? Sometimes you’ll be using the library, online library databases, and/or the Internet to conduct research for your assignment, while other times you’ll be required to use only your own ideas or knowledge.
If the assignment requires use of secondary sources, does it specify what types of resources you should use? If you are incorporating secondary sources, you may be required to use a certain type of source, such as an online library database. You may also be required to use a certain number of a certain type of source (a minimum of four library databases, for example). Being clear about this before you start researching will save you time later.
Are there particular parts or components that you must include? There may be certain elements that you’re required to incorporate into your paper, such as graphics, charts, graphs, or summaries. You may also need to discuss certain points, subtopics, or questions within the paper (sometimes in a certain order). Look for these kinds of requirements as you review the assignment guidelines.
Does the assignment need to use a particular citation style? Sometimes your instructor will require a certain citation style. American Psychological Association (APA), Modern Language Association (MLA), Chicago, and Turabian are among the most common citation styles. If the assignment guidelines don’t specify a particular citation style, check with your instructor, so you can format the citations as you write and develop your draft.
Are there any formatting requirements? Do you need to use a particular font, margin size, or layout? Do you need a cover page? Does the title need to be in a certain spot?
How long does the assignment need to be? Is there a minimum or maximum length for the paper?
When is the assignment due? Make a note of the assignment’s due date, and plan accordingly. Also check to see if there’s one date when everything is due, or if you’re required to hand in certain parts individually. Sometimes you’ll submit a thesis statement or introduction before the rest of the paper, for example.
Considering these types of questions will help you to understand your assignment requirements and develop a plan. Always check with your instructor if you are unsure about any requirements.
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- Steps for writing assignments
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- Assignment writing
Follow this step-by-step guide to assignment writing to help you to manage your time and produce a better assignment.
This is a general guide. It's primarily for research essays, but can be used for all assignments. The specific requirements for your course may be different. Make sure you read through any assignment requirements carefully and ask your lecturer or tutor if you're unsure how to meet them.
- Analysing the topic
- Researching and note-taking
- Planning your assignment
- Writing your assignment
- Editing your assignment
1. Analysing the topic
Before you start researching or writing, take some time to analyse the assignment topic to make sure you know what you need to do.
Understand what you need to do
Read through the topic a few times to make sure you understand it. Think about the:
- learning objectives listed in the course profile – understand what you should be able to do after completing the course and its assessment tasks
- criteria you'll be marked on – find out what you need to do to achieve the grade you want
- questions you need to answer – try to explain the topic in your own words.
Identify keywords
Identify keywords in the topic that will help guide your research, including any:
- task words – what you have to do (usually verbs)
- topic words – ideas, concepts or issues you need to discuss (often nouns)
- limiting words – restrict the focus of the topic (e.g. to a place, population or time period).
If you're writing your own topic, include task words, topic words and limiting words to help you to focus on exactly what you have to do.
Example keyword identification - text version
Topic: Evaluate the usefulness of a task analysis approach to assignment writing, especially with regard to the writing skill development of second language learners in the early stages of university study in the Australian university context. Task words: Evaluate Topic words: task analysis approach, assignment writing, writing skill development Limiting words : second language learners (population), early stages of university (time period), Australian university (place)
Brainstorm your ideas
Brainstorm information about the topic that you:
- already know
- will need to research to write the assignment.
When you brainstorm:
- use 'Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How?' questions to get you thinking
- write down all your ideas – don't censor yourself or worry about the order
- try making a concept map to capture your ideas – start with the topic in the centre and record your ideas branching out from it.
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6 tips on how to start your assignment
Sarah Crossing
Mar 11, 2024
We all know the feeling when someone mentions the word ‘ assignment ’ and dread sweeps over you. Maybe you put it aside for now. After all, the due date is three whole weeks away.
Sound familiar?
Don’t sweat, it’s all about how you approach it. Doing an assignment is a process, these tips might help get you started and hopefully avoid last-minute stress and struggles.
1. Set realistic goals and reminders
Make goals for your study - how many days do you have, and what will you get done each day or each week? Today, will you get your plan done? Two hundred words finished? Break it down into achievable chunks. Be realistic and update your plan as you go. Things change, you might have to make room for a family dinner, holiday, or another assignment.
When’s the due date? Put it on a calendar. Put another reminder a week before that. And also a reminder the week before that. Don’t put pressure on your memory. You’ve got other things to remember. Make that date and your goals visible. If you're prepared, it won't sneak up on you. You can always use our quick and simple free calculator tool, too.
>> Check out our free Assignment Calculator
2. Start when you're feeling fresh
Make it easier on yourself - start when you’re fresh and focused. This might be different for everyone. Some people are fresher after soccer practice or after dinner, and some prefer early mornings. Find the best time and make it regular. Recent studies suggest that it’s better to do work in short blocks (say 50 minutes), more often. This will help you stay fresh and work productively.
3. Clarify what is required
Make sure you start by understanding the question. Break it down and circle or highlight the key words. Identify the key concepts and ideas in your topic and if you're unsure or anything, ask someone - a teacher, your parents, a friend or an expert . Knowing what is required right from the start - even reading the question out loud - will help you source the right research material, feel more confident, and form your own ideas and work.
4. Be flexible and learn as you go
Are you keeping the assignment question in mind? As you start your research and re-read texts, you might discover new things that change what you think about the answer to the question. You can’t change evidence, but you can change your point of view, or acknowledge a different perspective.
5. Get something on paper
If you're really stuck and just can't get that first sentence out, start by writing notes and ideas down. Here are some creative tasks that might help you start:
Take notes under common headings and find themes in your notes
Brainstorm your ideas on paper around keywords in the question
Write ideas on notecards and group them into piles or columns to create your assignment structure and paragraphs
- Read the question, then read your planned responses out loud as if answering someone in front of you.
6. Get feedback
Once you've got something written down, get feedback early and often. Log into your Studiosity account, via your institution's student portal, and upload your draft. You'll get fast feedback on your critical thinking, structure, language, spelling and grammar, and referencing, which you can apply to your work before submitting it. Getting feedback is an integral part of your learning journey, and you will see your confidence flourish, the more you receive and apply to your own work.
Topics: Students , Homework , Study , Assignment Help
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Preparing for Academic Writing
- Understanding the Question
- Planning Your Assignment Timeline
- Outlining Your Essay
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- Introduction
- Guiding Principles for an Assignment Timeline
- Backwards Planning
After you have gained an understanding of your assignment by analysing the information given to you, it is advised that you create an assignment timeline. Creating an assignment timeline can help increase your certainty and clarity over what you need to do and when.
Use the tabs to learn more about how you can plan your assignment timeline.
You may feel that it is difficult to create a timeline this early into your assignment, or that it is hard to accurately predict exactly how long each step will take. These feelings should be considered when making a plan. First you should note that your initial attempt to plan is educated guesswork. You are simply considering what steps you think you need to take and how long they should be. As you progress through your assignment timeline you can review your plan and update the timeline to be more accurate.
Inevitably some things may take shorter or longer than you had initially planned. If you are progressing quickly that is good news as you have some extra time that could be spent on your assignment or on something else of your choosing. However, do make sure that you are confident that you have met the required marking criteria within the step if you are moving quicker than planned. If things are taking longer than planned, consider how you will adjust your timings and steps to ensure that your work can be handed in on time. If this is not possible consider if you could apply for extra time through the Late Submission Request Procedure or the Exceptional Extenuating Circumstances Procedure .
When creating your initial plan, it may be wise to plan some leeway into your schedule. A good rule of thumb would be to plan extra time in each step. So if you expect research would take you two weeks, plan three weeks to complete it in. If it takes the normal amount of time, you have an extra week. If it takes longer then you are prepared. Another method of creating leeway is to aim to beat your deadline by submitting one week in advance.
During your studies you will often be working towards multiple assignments at once, alongside other deadlines (such as applications) and any responsibilities (work, caring, childcare etc.). When planning your assignment you should take into account that your assignment may not be your only focus. For more information on completing multiple assignments see our academic writing is assessment season livestream .
You may find it easier to plan your assignment by starting from your deadline (or your personal deadline if you are aiming to submit in advance), and working backwards to the start of your assignment. If you attribute estimated times to each step you can establish when you realistically need to start. Backwards planning allows you to consider the whole process, so that you allow crucial time for referencing and proofreading. Proofreading, for example, is an opportunity to evaluate if you have hit the marking criteria, and then to make any necessary actions (such as further reading or rewriting a paragraph). If this step is undervalued in planning then you may find flaws in your work but not have the time to fix them.
If you would like to know more about how to time manage or how to motivate yourself throughout your academic writing timeline, see our Improving Marks in Academic Writing Guide.
In this episode of the Assignment Journey Podcast Alex and Diana (Skills Graduate Placement), discuss how you can use your understanding of the assignment to structure your assignment. They go through what is expected in an introduction, main body and conclusion of an essay as well as a simple paragraph structure.
Managing time over the course
In this video from the Time Management workshop, Naomi from the Skills Team discusses how you can manage your time over the course of a semester through backwards planning.
Academic writing in assessment
In this hour long livestream, Alexander and Naomi discuss their advice for thriving in assessment season, including how you can time manage during this tricky period and how to manage multiple assessments at once whilst looking out for your mental health.
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How to write the best college assignments.
By Lois Weldon
When it comes to writing assignments, it is difficult to find a conceptualized guide with clear and simple tips that are easy to follow. That’s exactly what this guide will provide: few simple tips on how to write great assignments, right when you need them. Some of these points will probably be familiar to you, but there is no harm in being reminded of the most important things before you start writing the assignments, which are usually determining on your credits.
The most important aspects: Outline and Introduction
Preparation is the key to success, especially when it comes to academic assignments. It is recommended to always write an outline before you start writing the actual assignment. The outline should include the main points of discussion, which will keep you focused throughout the work and will make your key points clearly defined. Outlining the assignment will save you a lot of time because it will organize your thoughts and make your literature searches much easier. The outline will also help you to create different sections and divide up the word count between them, which will make the assignment more organized.
The introduction is the next important part you should focus on. This is the part that defines the quality of your assignment in the eyes of the reader. The introduction must include a brief background on the main points of discussion, the purpose of developing such work and clear indications on how the assignment is being organized. Keep this part brief, within one or two paragraphs.
This is an example of including the above mentioned points into the introduction of an assignment that elaborates the topic of obesity reaching proportions:
Background : The twenty first century is characterized by many public health challenges, among which obesity takes a major part. The increasing prevalence of obesity is creating an alarming situation in both developed and developing regions of the world.
Structure and aim : This assignment will elaborate and discuss the specific pattern of obesity epidemic development, as well as its epidemiology. Debt, trade and globalization will also be analyzed as factors that led to escalation of the problem. Moreover, the assignment will discuss the governmental interventions that make efforts to address this issue.
Practical tips on assignment writing
Here are some practical tips that will keep your work focused and effective:
– Critical thinking – Academic writing has to be characterized by critical thinking, not only to provide the work with the needed level, but also because it takes part in the final mark.
– Continuity of ideas – When you get to the middle of assignment, things can get confusing. You have to make sure that the ideas are flowing continuously within and between paragraphs, so the reader will be enabled to follow the argument easily. Dividing the work in different paragraphs is very important for this purpose.
– Usage of ‘you’ and ‘I’ – According to the academic writing standards, the assignments should be written in an impersonal language, which means that the usage of ‘you’ and ‘I’ should be avoided. The only acceptable way of building your arguments is by using opinions and evidence from authoritative sources.
– Referencing – this part of the assignment is extremely important and it takes a big part in the final mark. Make sure to use either Vancouver or Harvard referencing systems, and use the same system in the bibliography and while citing work of other sources within the text.
– Usage of examples – A clear understanding on your assignment’s topic should be provided by comparing different sources and identifying their strengths and weaknesses in an objective manner. This is the part where you should show how the knowledge can be applied into practice.
– Numbering and bullets – Instead of using numbering and bullets, the academic writing style prefers the usage of paragraphs.
– Including figures and tables – The figures and tables are an effective way of conveying information to the reader in a clear manner, without disturbing the word count. Each figure and table should have clear headings and you should make sure to mention their sources in the bibliography.
– Word count – the word count of your assignment mustn’t be far above or far below the required word count. The outline will provide you with help in this aspect, so make sure to plan the work in order to keep it within the boundaries.
The importance of an effective conclusion
The conclusion of your assignment is your ultimate chance to provide powerful arguments that will impress the reader. The conclusion in academic writing is usually expressed through three main parts:
– Stating the context and aim of the assignment
– Summarizing the main points briefly
– Providing final comments with consideration of the future (discussing clear examples of things that can be done in order to improve the situation concerning your topic of discussion).
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Lois Weldon is writer at Uk.bestdissertation.com . Lives happily at London with her husband and lovely daughter. Adores writing tips for students. Passionate about Star Wars and yoga.
7 comments on “How To Write The Best College Assignments”
Extremely useful tip for students wanting to score well on their assignments. I concur with the writer that writing an outline before ACTUALLY starting to write assignments is extremely important. I have observed students who start off quite well but they tend to lose focus in between which causes them to lose marks. So an outline helps them to maintain the theme focused.
Hello Great information…. write assignments
Well elabrated
Thanks for the information. This site has amazing articles. Looking forward to continuing on this site.
This article is certainly going to help student . Well written.
Really good, thanks
Practical tips on assignment writing, the’re fantastic. Thank you!
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Understanding Writing Assignments
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How to Decipher the Paper Assignment
Many instructors write their assignment prompts differently. By following a few steps, you can better understand the requirements for the assignment. The best way, as always, is to ask the instructor about anything confusing.
- Read the prompt the entire way through once. This gives you an overall view of what is going on.
- Underline or circle the portions that you absolutely must know. This information may include due date, research (source) requirements, page length, and format (MLA, APA, CMS).
- Underline or circle important phrases. You should know your instructor at least a little by now - what phrases do they use in class? Does he repeatedly say a specific word? If these are in the prompt, you know the instructor wants you to use them in the assignment.
- Think about how you will address the prompt. The prompt contains clues on how to write the assignment. Your instructor will often describe the ideas they want discussed either in questions, in bullet points, or in the text of the prompt. Think about each of these sentences and number them so that you can write a paragraph or section of your essay on that portion if necessary.
- Rank ideas in descending order, from most important to least important. Instructors may include more questions or talking points than you can cover in your assignment, so rank them in the order you think is more important. One area of the prompt may be more interesting to you than another.
- Ask your instructor questions if you have any.
After you are finished with these steps, ask yourself the following:
- What is the purpose of this assignment? Is my purpose to provide information without forming an argument, to construct an argument based on research, or analyze a poem and discuss its imagery?
- Who is my audience? Is my instructor my only audience? Who else might read this? Will it be posted online? What are my readers' needs and expectations?
- What resources do I need to begin work? Do I need to conduct literature (hermeneutic or historical) research, or do I need to review important literature on the topic and then conduct empirical research, such as a survey or an observation? How many sources are required?
- Who - beyond my instructor - can I contact to help me if I have questions? Do you have a writing lab or student service center that offers tutorials in writing?
(Notes on prompts made in blue )
Poster or Song Analysis: Poster or Song? Poster!
Goals : To systematically consider the rhetorical choices made in either a poster or a song. She says that all the time.
Things to Consider: ah- talking points
- how the poster addresses its audience and is affected by context I'll do this first - 1.
- general layout, use of color, contours of light and shade, etc.
- use of contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity C.A.R.P. They say that, too. I'll do this third - 3.
- the point of view the viewer is invited to take, poses of figures in the poster, etc. any text that may be present
- possible cultural ramifications or social issues that have bearing I'll cover this second - 2.
- ethical implications
- how the poster affects us emotionally, or what mood it evokes
- the poster's implicit argument and its effectiveness said that was important in class, so I'll discuss this last - 4.
- how the song addresses its audience
- lyrics: how they rhyme, repeat, what they say
- use of music, tempo, different instruments
- possible cultural ramifications or social issues that have bearing
- emotional effects
- the implicit argument and its effectiveness
These thinking points are not a step-by-step guideline on how to write your paper; instead, they are various means through which you can approach the subject. I do expect to see at least a few of them addressed, and there are other aspects that may be pertinent to your choice that have not been included in these lists. You will want to find a central idea and base your argument around that. Additionally, you must include a copy of the poster or song that you are working with. Really important!
I will be your audience. This is a formal paper, and you should use academic conventions throughout.
Length: 4 pages Format: Typed, double-spaced, 10-12 point Times New Roman, 1 inch margins I need to remember the format stuff. I messed this up last time =(
Academic Argument Essay
5-7 pages, Times New Roman 12 pt. font, 1 inch margins.
Minimum of five cited sources: 3 must be from academic journals or books
- Design Plan due: Thurs. 10/19
- Rough Draft due: Monday 10/30
- Final Draft due: Thurs. 11/9
Remember this! I missed the deadline last time
The design plan is simply a statement of purpose, as described on pages 40-41 of the book, and an outline. The outline may be formal, as we discussed in class, or a printout of an Open Mind project. It must be a minimum of 1 page typed information, plus 1 page outline.
This project is an expansion of your opinion editorial. While you should avoid repeating any of your exact phrases from Project 2, you may reuse some of the same ideas. Your topic should be similar. You must use research to support your position, and you must also demonstrate a fairly thorough knowledge of any opposing position(s). 2 things to do - my position and the opposite.
Your essay should begin with an introduction that encapsulates your topic and indicates 1 the general trajectory of your argument. You need to have a discernable thesis that appears early in your paper. Your conclusion should restate the thesis in different words, 2 and then draw some additional meaningful analysis out of the developments of your argument. Think of this as a "so what" factor. What are some implications for the future, relating to your topic? What does all this (what you have argued) mean for society, or for the section of it to which your argument pertains? A good conclusion moves outside the topic in the paper and deals with a larger issue.
You should spend at least one paragraph acknowledging and describing the opposing position in a manner that is respectful and honestly representative of the opposition’s 3 views. The counterargument does not need to occur in a certain area, but generally begins or ends your argument. Asserting and attempting to prove each aspect of your argument’s structure should comprise the majority of your paper. Ask yourself what your argument assumes and what must be proven in order to validate your claims. Then go step-by-step, paragraph-by-paragraph, addressing each facet of your position. Most important part!
Finally, pay attention to readability . Just because this is a research paper does not mean that it has to be boring. Use examples and allow your opinion to show through word choice and tone. Proofread before you turn in the paper. Your audience is generally the academic community and specifically me, as a representative of that community. Ok, They want this to be easy to read, to contain examples I find, and they want it to be grammatically correct. I can visit the tutoring center if I get stuck, or I can email the OWL Email Tutors short questions if I have any more problems.
Understanding Assignments
What this handout is about.
The first step in any successful college writing venture is reading the assignment. While this sounds like a simple task, it can be a tough one. This handout will help you unravel your assignment and begin to craft an effective response. Much of the following advice will involve translating typical assignment terms and practices into meaningful clues to the type of writing your instructor expects. See our short video for more tips.
Basic beginnings
Regardless of the assignment, department, or instructor, adopting these two habits will serve you well :
- Read the assignment carefully as soon as you receive it. Do not put this task off—reading the assignment at the beginning will save you time, stress, and problems later. An assignment can look pretty straightforward at first, particularly if the instructor has provided lots of information. That does not mean it will not take time and effort to complete; you may even have to learn a new skill to complete the assignment.
- Ask the instructor about anything you do not understand. Do not hesitate to approach your instructor. Instructors would prefer to set you straight before you hand the paper in. That’s also when you will find their feedback most useful.
Assignment formats
Many assignments follow a basic format. Assignments often begin with an overview of the topic, include a central verb or verbs that describe the task, and offer some additional suggestions, questions, or prompts to get you started.
An Overview of Some Kind
The instructor might set the stage with some general discussion of the subject of the assignment, introduce the topic, or remind you of something pertinent that you have discussed in class. For example:
“Throughout history, gerbils have played a key role in politics,” or “In the last few weeks of class, we have focused on the evening wear of the housefly …”
The Task of the Assignment
Pay attention; this part tells you what to do when you write the paper. Look for the key verb or verbs in the sentence. Words like analyze, summarize, or compare direct you to think about your topic in a certain way. Also pay attention to words such as how, what, when, where, and why; these words guide your attention toward specific information. (See the section in this handout titled “Key Terms” for more information.)
“Analyze the effect that gerbils had on the Russian Revolution”, or “Suggest an interpretation of housefly undergarments that differs from Darwin’s.”
Additional Material to Think about
Here you will find some questions to use as springboards as you begin to think about the topic. Instructors usually include these questions as suggestions rather than requirements. Do not feel compelled to answer every question unless the instructor asks you to do so. Pay attention to the order of the questions. Sometimes they suggest the thinking process your instructor imagines you will need to follow to begin thinking about the topic.
“You may wish to consider the differing views held by Communist gerbils vs. Monarchist gerbils, or Can there be such a thing as ‘the housefly garment industry’ or is it just a home-based craft?”
These are the instructor’s comments about writing expectations:
“Be concise”, “Write effectively”, or “Argue furiously.”
Technical Details
These instructions usually indicate format rules or guidelines.
“Your paper must be typed in Palatino font on gray paper and must not exceed 600 pages. It is due on the anniversary of Mao Tse-tung’s death.”
The assignment’s parts may not appear in exactly this order, and each part may be very long or really short. Nonetheless, being aware of this standard pattern can help you understand what your instructor wants you to do.
Interpreting the assignment
Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and jot down the answers on the assignment sheet:
Why did your instructor ask you to do this particular task?
Who is your audience.
- What kind of evidence do you need to support your ideas?
What kind of writing style is acceptable?
- What are the absolute rules of the paper?
Try to look at the question from the point of view of the instructor. Recognize that your instructor has a reason for giving you this assignment and for giving it to you at a particular point in the semester. In every assignment, the instructor has a challenge for you. This challenge could be anything from demonstrating an ability to think clearly to demonstrating an ability to use the library. See the assignment not as a vague suggestion of what to do but as an opportunity to show that you can handle the course material as directed. Paper assignments give you more than a topic to discuss—they ask you to do something with the topic. Keep reminding yourself of that. Be careful to avoid the other extreme as well: do not read more into the assignment than what is there.
Of course, your instructor has given you an assignment so that they will be able to assess your understanding of the course material and give you an appropriate grade. But there is more to it than that. Your instructor has tried to design a learning experience of some kind. Your instructor wants you to think about something in a particular way for a particular reason. If you read the course description at the beginning of your syllabus, review the assigned readings, and consider the assignment itself, you may begin to see the plan, purpose, or approach to the subject matter that your instructor has created for you. If you still aren’t sure of the assignment’s goals, try asking the instructor. For help with this, see our handout on getting feedback .
Given your instructor’s efforts, it helps to answer the question: What is my purpose in completing this assignment? Is it to gather research from a variety of outside sources and present a coherent picture? Is it to take material I have been learning in class and apply it to a new situation? Is it to prove a point one way or another? Key words from the assignment can help you figure this out. Look for key terms in the form of active verbs that tell you what to do.
Key Terms: Finding Those Active Verbs
Here are some common key words and definitions to help you think about assignment terms:
Information words Ask you to demonstrate what you know about the subject, such as who, what, when, where, how, and why.
- define —give the subject’s meaning (according to someone or something). Sometimes you have to give more than one view on the subject’s meaning
- describe —provide details about the subject by answering question words (such as who, what, when, where, how, and why); you might also give details related to the five senses (what you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell)
- explain —give reasons why or examples of how something happened
- illustrate —give descriptive examples of the subject and show how each is connected with the subject
- summarize —briefly list the important ideas you learned about the subject
- trace —outline how something has changed or developed from an earlier time to its current form
- research —gather material from outside sources about the subject, often with the implication or requirement that you will analyze what you have found
Relation words Ask you to demonstrate how things are connected.
- compare —show how two or more things are similar (and, sometimes, different)
- contrast —show how two or more things are dissimilar
- apply—use details that you’ve been given to demonstrate how an idea, theory, or concept works in a particular situation
- cause —show how one event or series of events made something else happen
- relate —show or describe the connections between things
Interpretation words Ask you to defend ideas of your own about the subject. Do not see these words as requesting opinion alone (unless the assignment specifically says so), but as requiring opinion that is supported by concrete evidence. Remember examples, principles, definitions, or concepts from class or research and use them in your interpretation.
- assess —summarize your opinion of the subject and measure it against something
- prove, justify —give reasons or examples to demonstrate how or why something is the truth
- evaluate, respond —state your opinion of the subject as good, bad, or some combination of the two, with examples and reasons
- support —give reasons or evidence for something you believe (be sure to state clearly what it is that you believe)
- synthesize —put two or more things together that have not been put together in class or in your readings before; do not just summarize one and then the other and say that they are similar or different—you must provide a reason for putting them together that runs all the way through the paper
- analyze —determine how individual parts create or relate to the whole, figure out how something works, what it might mean, or why it is important
- argue —take a side and defend it with evidence against the other side
More Clues to Your Purpose As you read the assignment, think about what the teacher does in class:
- What kinds of textbooks or coursepack did your instructor choose for the course—ones that provide background information, explain theories or perspectives, or argue a point of view?
- In lecture, does your instructor ask your opinion, try to prove their point of view, or use keywords that show up again in the assignment?
- What kinds of assignments are typical in this discipline? Social science classes often expect more research. Humanities classes thrive on interpretation and analysis.
- How do the assignments, readings, and lectures work together in the course? Instructors spend time designing courses, sometimes even arguing with their peers about the most effective course materials. Figuring out the overall design to the course will help you understand what each assignment is meant to achieve.
Now, what about your reader? Most undergraduates think of their audience as the instructor. True, your instructor is a good person to keep in mind as you write. But for the purposes of a good paper, think of your audience as someone like your roommate: smart enough to understand a clear, logical argument, but not someone who already knows exactly what is going on in your particular paper. Remember, even if the instructor knows everything there is to know about your paper topic, they still have to read your paper and assess your understanding. In other words, teach the material to your reader.
Aiming a paper at your audience happens in two ways: you make decisions about the tone and the level of information you want to convey.
- Tone means the “voice” of your paper. Should you be chatty, formal, or objective? Usually you will find some happy medium—you do not want to alienate your reader by sounding condescending or superior, but you do not want to, um, like, totally wig on the man, you know? Eschew ostentatious erudition: some students think the way to sound academic is to use big words. Be careful—you can sound ridiculous, especially if you use the wrong big words.
- The level of information you use depends on who you think your audience is. If you imagine your audience as your instructor and they already know everything you have to say, you may find yourself leaving out key information that can cause your argument to be unconvincing and illogical. But you do not have to explain every single word or issue. If you are telling your roommate what happened on your favorite science fiction TV show last night, you do not say, “First a dark-haired white man of average height, wearing a suit and carrying a flashlight, walked into the room. Then a purple alien with fifteen arms and at least three eyes turned around. Then the man smiled slightly. In the background, you could hear a clock ticking. The room was fairly dark and had at least two windows that I saw.” You also do not say, “This guy found some aliens. The end.” Find some balance of useful details that support your main point.
You’ll find a much more detailed discussion of these concepts in our handout on audience .
The Grim Truth
With a few exceptions (including some lab and ethnography reports), you are probably being asked to make an argument. You must convince your audience. It is easy to forget this aim when you are researching and writing; as you become involved in your subject matter, you may become enmeshed in the details and focus on learning or simply telling the information you have found. You need to do more than just repeat what you have read. Your writing should have a point, and you should be able to say it in a sentence. Sometimes instructors call this sentence a “thesis” or a “claim.”
So, if your instructor tells you to write about some aspect of oral hygiene, you do not want to just list: “First, you brush your teeth with a soft brush and some peanut butter. Then, you floss with unwaxed, bologna-flavored string. Finally, gargle with bourbon.” Instead, you could say, “Of all the oral cleaning methods, sandblasting removes the most plaque. Therefore it should be recommended by the American Dental Association.” Or, “From an aesthetic perspective, moldy teeth can be quite charming. However, their joys are short-lived.”
Convincing the reader of your argument is the goal of academic writing. It doesn’t have to say “argument” anywhere in the assignment for you to need one. Look at the assignment and think about what kind of argument you could make about it instead of just seeing it as a checklist of information you have to present. For help with understanding the role of argument in academic writing, see our handout on argument .
What kind of evidence do you need?
There are many kinds of evidence, and what type of evidence will work for your assignment can depend on several factors–the discipline, the parameters of the assignment, and your instructor’s preference. Should you use statistics? Historical examples? Do you need to conduct your own experiment? Can you rely on personal experience? See our handout on evidence for suggestions on how to use evidence appropriately.
Make sure you are clear about this part of the assignment, because your use of evidence will be crucial in writing a successful paper. You are not just learning how to argue; you are learning how to argue with specific types of materials and ideas. Ask your instructor what counts as acceptable evidence. You can also ask a librarian for help. No matter what kind of evidence you use, be sure to cite it correctly—see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial .
You cannot always tell from the assignment just what sort of writing style your instructor expects. The instructor may be really laid back in class but still expect you to sound formal in writing. Or the instructor may be fairly formal in class and ask you to write a reflection paper where you need to use “I” and speak from your own experience.
Try to avoid false associations of a particular field with a style (“art historians like wacky creativity,” or “political scientists are boring and just give facts”) and look instead to the types of readings you have been given in class. No one expects you to write like Plato—just use the readings as a guide for what is standard or preferable to your instructor. When in doubt, ask your instructor about the level of formality they expect.
No matter what field you are writing for or what facts you are including, if you do not write so that your reader can understand your main idea, you have wasted your time. So make clarity your main goal. For specific help with style, see our handout on style .
Technical details about the assignment
The technical information you are given in an assignment always seems like the easy part. This section can actually give you lots of little hints about approaching the task. Find out if elements such as page length and citation format (see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial ) are negotiable. Some professors do not have strong preferences as long as you are consistent and fully answer the assignment. Some professors are very specific and will deduct big points for deviations.
Usually, the page length tells you something important: The instructor thinks the size of the paper is appropriate to the assignment’s parameters. In plain English, your instructor is telling you how many pages it should take for you to answer the question as fully as you are expected to. So if an assignment is two pages long, you cannot pad your paper with examples or reword your main idea several times. Hit your one point early, defend it with the clearest example, and finish quickly. If an assignment is ten pages long, you can be more complex in your main points and examples—and if you can only produce five pages for that assignment, you need to see someone for help—as soon as possible.
Tricks that don’t work
Your instructors are not fooled when you:
- spend more time on the cover page than the essay —graphics, cool binders, and cute titles are no replacement for a well-written paper.
- use huge fonts, wide margins, or extra spacing to pad the page length —these tricks are immediately obvious to the eye. Most instructors use the same word processor you do. They know what’s possible. Such tactics are especially damning when the instructor has a stack of 60 papers to grade and yours is the only one that low-flying airplane pilots could read.
- use a paper from another class that covered “sort of similar” material . Again, the instructor has a particular task for you to fulfill in the assignment that usually relates to course material and lectures. Your other paper may not cover this material, and turning in the same paper for more than one course may constitute an Honor Code violation . Ask the instructor—it can’t hurt.
- get all wacky and “creative” before you answer the question . Showing that you are able to think beyond the boundaries of a simple assignment can be good, but you must do what the assignment calls for first. Again, check with your instructor. A humorous tone can be refreshing for someone grading a stack of papers, but it will not get you a good grade if you have not fulfilled the task.
Critical reading of assignments leads to skills in other types of reading and writing. If you get good at figuring out what the real goals of assignments are, you are going to be better at understanding the goals of all of your classes and fields of study.
You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Assignment Juggling Mastery: Strategies to Efficiently Navigate and Excel When Facing a Pile-Up of Academic Tasks.
When faced with a heavy workload of assignments, effective planning and execution are key to success. Managing multiple assignments requires strategic prioritization, efficient time management, and a structured approach to ensure quality and timely completion. This guide explores practical steps to tackle numerous tasks: from breaking down assignments into manageable parts and creating a schedule, to staying organized and minimizing distractions. By implementing these strategies, students can enhance productivity, reduce stress, and achieve academic goals effectively. Balancing thoroughness with efficiency, this approach fosters not only completion but also mastery of content, empowering students to excel amidst demanding academic schedules.
Strategic Implementation for Enhanced Productivity and Academic Success
Implementing these strategies enhances productivity, reduces stress, and achieves academic goals effectively. Balancing thoroughness with efficiency fosters both completion and content mastery, empowering students to excel amidst demanding academic schedules.
1. Prioritize Your Assignments:
- Start by identifying which assignments are due. Prioritize them based on deadlines. Consider factors like the complexity of the assignment, the amount of research required, and your familiarity with the topic.
2. Break Down Each Assignment:
- Divide each assignment into smaller, manageable tasks. It could include researching, outlining, writing, revising, and proofreading. Breaking down assignments into smaller steps makes them less intimidating.
3. Create a Schedule:
- Develop a detailed schedule or to-do list that outlines when you'll work on each assignment. Allocate specific time slots for research, writing, and editing. Be realistic about the time needed for each task.
4. Set Goals:
- Establish daily or weekly goals for completing portions of your assignments. Setting achievable milestones will help you stay on track and motivated.
5. Minimize Distractions:
- Find a quiet and focused workspace to minimize distractions. Turn off social media notifications and other distractions while working on assignments.
6. Use Time Management Techniques:
- Techniques like the Pomodoro Technique (working in focused intervals with short breaks) can improve productivity and prevent burnout.
7. Start Early:
- Begin working on assignments as soon as they are assigned. Procrastination can lead to stress and lower-quality work.
8. Utilize Resources:
- If you encounter challenges with a particular assignment, seek help from professors, or you can opt for platforms offering Assignment Help USA . Don't hesitate to ask questions when you're unsure about a task.
9. Stay Organized:
- Keep all your assignment-related materials well-organized, including research notes, outlines, and drafts. Use digital tools or physical folders to manage your resources.
10. Avoid Multitasking:
- Focus on one assignment at a time. Multitasking can reduce the quality of your work and increase stress levels.
11. Take Breaks:
- Allocate short breaks between tasks to recharge your mind. Use this time to stretch, walk, or do something enjoyable to prevent burnout.
12. Stay Healthy:
- Maintain a balanced diet, exercise regularly, and get enough sleep. Physical and mental well-being are crucial for effective time management and productivity.
13. Review and Revise:
- After completing an assignment, take the time to review and revise your work. Check for errors and improve the overall quality of your assignment.
14. Seek Extensions if Necessary:
- If you encounter unexpected challenges or circumstances that hinder your ability to complete an assignment on time, consider requesting an extension from your professor. Be sure to provide valid reason/reasons and request it before the deadlines mentioned in the instructions.
15. Celebrate Your Achievements:
- Acknowledge your accomplishments along the way. Reward yourself for meeting milestones and completing assignments. Positive reinforcement can boost motivation.
You must remember that effective time management and organization are crucial to completing multiple assignments successfully. Following these steps and maintaining a proactive approach to your coursework can reduce stress and produce high-quality work within your deadlines.
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7 ways to make the assignment process easier
You put a lot of energy, creativity and effort into planning and managing assignments – from designing and assigning them to answering questions, checking up on whether they’ve been turned in and finally grading them.
But does corralling assignments ever feel like this?
Here are seven ways to make your assignment process easier, from start to finish.
1. Simplify standards-based assessment If you teach in the US public school system, alignment with state education standards is part of your day-to-day life. Designing assignments to meet those standards may, at times, feel like it’s putting a damper on your creativity. But with the right tools, standards-based assessment doesn’t have to keep you from incorporating fresh, creative and engaging assignments into your teaching.
The Skooler learning management system makes it easy to directly import standards from your state’s Department of Education, then align the standards to your lesson plans. Every assignment you make in Skooler, and its assessment, can be linked to the appropriate standards – like a checklist. That way you can ensure that, for every student, your plans, assignments and assessments are aligned to meet the standards for each student’s respective level.
2. Get the most from rubrics If you’re using formative assessments to evaluate how students are progressing in their learning, you know the importance of feedback rubrics. But creating and attaching rubrics to every piece of student work – and making sure students keep track of them – can be a complicated endeavor.
Save yourself time and energy by starting a library of re-usable rubrics in Skooler. Simply click on the Rubrics tool, then + Add rubric.
Customize your fields and points values in the rubric creator and copy and paste the criteria you usually use. Save. Now, the next time you go into Assignments & Assessments, it will be there, ready to attach to your students’ assignments. Here’s an example:
3. Focus on mastery while streamlining the feedback cycle With Skooler and Teams, the feedback cycle mirrors what goes on in the classroom. Rather than a “one and done” situation where assignments are turned in and graded all at once, Teams allows students to turn in their work as many times as needed to master the assignment. This way they keep learning and improving their work over time, and teachers can track their progress and provide guidance along the way. This is a great way to transition into a competency-based education model where students can learn and revise at their own pace until they master a new skill. Then they’re ready to take on the next assignment (and so are you).
While multi-modal projects can provide unique and incredibly powerful learning experiences, they also can take a lot longer to grade, making students wait longer to get feedback. Wouldn’t it be easier if you could support multi-modal projects all within your online learning management system?
With Skooler, you can give students the flexibility of a wide variety of different formats and file types for their projects, such as interlinked documents, digital whiteboards in OneNote, videos, photos of constructed projects and even video storytelling or presentations. All can be assigned within their Class Notebook, which allows for multi-modal inking, typing, and embedding multimedia. You can give feedback in the same place, making the whole process faster and easier. (And it just may save your back seat from all the shedding glitter.)
5. Feel the joy of checking-off daily work Ever find yourself staring at a stack of 30 spiral bound notebooks that you need to flip through to find every student’s latest journal entry or to check a project for completion? There is a certain satisfaction as you close the last notebook in the pile, but just think how much smoother and more satisfying the experience would be if all of the exercises and assignments were in one digital hub where you can evaluate them and mark them complete.
This is how it works when you move your exercises to the assignments hub in Teams. Journal entries can be completed as Word documents or a Class Notebook page. You can even skip assigning a point value. Simply pull up the assignment for review, select a student’s document to open it in the document viewer, and speed through each student’s work using the arrows next to student names. When you check them off as complete, the student is immediately notified.
6. Tailor assignments with a simple dropdown You may find yourself teaching multiple sections of the same course to different groups of students or needing to tailor assignments for specific students who have different learning needs. It can be tough to track who’s working on what. And you don’t want students with special needs to feel singled out when their instructions and work differ from those of other students.
When you create assignments in Skooler, you can either select multiple classes from the dropdown menu or select individual students or small groups in one class for specific work. And it’s easy to re-use assignments too – no sense reinventing wheels.
7. Be a quick-change artist Nobody’s perfect. And sometimes assignments need to be changed. Perhaps you make an assignment then realize later that you’ve missed a key direction. Or you might find yourself answering the same questions over and over – a clue that you probably weren’t clear enough in your directions from the start.
When you manage your assignments in Skooler, you can make changes at any time – even assignments you’ve already sent out – and ensure that your students always have the latest and greatest. Open the assignment, select the Edit button, change what you need to change, hit Update and you’re done. And you know that both you and your students are looking at the most up-to-date version.
Not at your computer when you realize a fix is needed? No problem. You can make changes to assignments, or even create new assignments, right from your phone.
How are you using Skooler to make your day-to-day teaching a little bit easier? Let us know!
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Eberly Center
Teaching excellence & educational innovation, creating assignments.
Here are some general suggestions and questions to consider when creating assignments. There are also many other resources in print and on the web that provide examples of interesting, discipline-specific assignment ideas.
Consider your learning objectives.
What do you want students to learn in your course? What could they do that would show you that they have learned it? To determine assignments that truly serve your course objectives, it is useful to write out your objectives in this form: I want my students to be able to ____. Use active, measurable verbs as you complete that sentence (e.g., compare theories, discuss ramifications, recommend strategies), and your learning objectives will point you towards suitable assignments.
Design assignments that are interesting and challenging.
This is the fun side of assignment design. Consider how to focus students’ thinking in ways that are creative, challenging, and motivating. Think beyond the conventional assignment type! For example, one American historian requires students to write diary entries for a hypothetical Nebraska farmwoman in the 1890s. By specifying that students’ diary entries must demonstrate the breadth of their historical knowledge (e.g., gender, economics, technology, diet, family structure), the instructor gets students to exercise their imaginations while also accomplishing the learning objectives of the course (Walvoord & Anderson, 1989, p. 25).
Double-check alignment.
After creating your assignments, go back to your learning objectives and make sure there is still a good match between what you want students to learn and what you are asking them to do. If you find a mismatch, you will need to adjust either the assignments or the learning objectives. For instance, if your goal is for students to be able to analyze and evaluate texts, but your assignments only ask them to summarize texts, you would need to add an analytical and evaluative dimension to some assignments or rethink your learning objectives.
Name assignments accurately.
Students can be misled by assignments that are named inappropriately. For example, if you want students to analyze a product’s strengths and weaknesses but you call the assignment a “product description,” students may focus all their energies on the descriptive, not the critical, elements of the task. Thus, it is important to ensure that the titles of your assignments communicate their intention accurately to students.
Consider sequencing.
Think about how to order your assignments so that they build skills in a logical sequence. Ideally, assignments that require the most synthesis of skills and knowledge should come later in the semester, preceded by smaller assignments that build these skills incrementally. For example, if an instructor’s final assignment is a research project that requires students to evaluate a technological solution to an environmental problem, earlier assignments should reinforce component skills, including the ability to identify and discuss key environmental issues, apply evaluative criteria, and find appropriate research sources.
Think about scheduling.
Consider your intended assignments in relation to the academic calendar and decide how they can be reasonably spaced throughout the semester, taking into account holidays and key campus events. Consider how long it will take students to complete all parts of the assignment (e.g., planning, library research, reading, coordinating groups, writing, integrating the contributions of team members, developing a presentation), and be sure to allow sufficient time between assignments.
Check feasibility.
Is the workload you have in mind reasonable for your students? Is the grading burden manageable for you? Sometimes there are ways to reduce workload (whether for you or for students) without compromising learning objectives. For example, if a primary objective in assigning a project is for students to identify an interesting engineering problem and do some preliminary research on it, it might be reasonable to require students to submit a project proposal and annotated bibliography rather than a fully developed report. If your learning objectives are clear, you will see where corners can be cut without sacrificing educational quality.
Articulate the task description clearly.
If an assignment is vague, students may interpret it any number of ways – and not necessarily how you intended. Thus, it is critical to clearly and unambiguously identify the task students are to do (e.g., design a website to help high school students locate environmental resources, create an annotated bibliography of readings on apartheid). It can be helpful to differentiate the central task (what students are supposed to produce) from other advice and information you provide in your assignment description.
Establish clear performance criteria.
Different instructors apply different criteria when grading student work, so it’s important that you clearly articulate to students what your criteria are. To do so, think about the best student work you have seen on similar tasks and try to identify the specific characteristics that made it excellent, such as clarity of thought, originality, logical organization, or use of a wide range of sources. Then identify the characteristics of the worst student work you have seen, such as shaky evidence, weak organizational structure, or lack of focus. Identifying these characteristics can help you consciously articulate the criteria you already apply. It is important to communicate these criteria to students, whether in your assignment description or as a separate rubric or scoring guide . Clearly articulated performance criteria can prevent unnecessary confusion about your expectations while also setting a high standard for students to meet.
Specify the intended audience.
Students make assumptions about the audience they are addressing in papers and presentations, which influences how they pitch their message. For example, students may assume that, since the instructor is their primary audience, they do not need to define discipline-specific terms or concepts. These assumptions may not match the instructor’s expectations. Thus, it is important on assignments to specify the intended audience http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop10e.cfm (e.g., undergraduates with no biology background, a potential funder who does not know engineering).
Specify the purpose of the assignment.
If students are unclear about the goals or purpose of the assignment, they may make unnecessary mistakes. For example, if students believe an assignment is focused on summarizing research as opposed to evaluating it, they may seriously miscalculate the task and put their energies in the wrong place. The same is true they think the goal of an economics problem set is to find the correct answer, rather than demonstrate a clear chain of economic reasoning. Consequently, it is important to make your objectives for the assignment clear to students.
Specify the parameters.
If you have specific parameters in mind for the assignment (e.g., length, size, formatting, citation conventions) you should be sure to specify them in your assignment description. Otherwise, students may misapply conventions and formats they learned in other courses that are not appropriate for yours.
A Checklist for Designing Assignments
Here is a set of questions you can ask yourself when creating an assignment.
- Provided a written description of the assignment (in the syllabus or in a separate document)?
- Specified the purpose of the assignment?
- Indicated the intended audience?
- Articulated the instructions in precise and unambiguous language?
- Provided information about the appropriate format and presentation (e.g., page length, typed, cover sheet, bibliography)?
- Indicated special instructions, such as a particular citation style or headings?
- Specified the due date and the consequences for missing it?
- Articulated performance criteria clearly?
- Indicated the assignment’s point value or percentage of the course grade?
- Provided students (where appropriate) with models or samples?
Adapted from the WAC Clearinghouse at http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop10e.cfm .
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Academic writing skills guide: structuring your assignment.
- Key Features of Academic Writing
- The Writing Process
- Understanding Assignments
- Brainstorming Techniques
- Planning Your Assignments
- Thesis Statements
- Writing Drafts
- Structuring Your Assignment
- How to Deal With Writer's Block
- Using Paragraphs
- Conclusions
- Introductions
- Revising & Editing
- Proofreading
- Grammar & Punctuation
- Reporting Verbs
- Signposting, Transitions & Linking Words/Phrases
- Using Lecturers' Feedback
Organising and structuring your assignment can be as important as the content itself as it helps you present your arguments in a logical way. A good, logical structure to your assignment is key to ensuring your lecturer can follow your argument, making it easier to read and understand. You should take them on a journey to your conclusion, so that they can see how your case builds up through your assignment. An effective structure not only improves the flow of your writing but also demonstrates that you thought about and planned your work before you started writing. This is important as it is obvious to any lecturer if you have not planned your work before you start. Not only does this demonstrate poor thinking, it makes your work harder to understand, which will inevitably harm your grades. If you work on the structure before you write your first draft, you will not have to do so much reorganisation and rewriting when it is completed. Time spent organising the structure of the main body of your assignment is valuable as it gives you the chance to link paragraphs together into a logical sequence. It will also make the writing process easier as adopting a structured approach helps you break down each part of the process into manageable chunks. |
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For example, you could break a research paper down into several smaller tasks: 1) do preliminary research, 2) write an outline, 3) draft an introduction, 4) draft body paragraphs, 5) write conclusion, 6) revise. Each of these is much more do-able on its own. Method 2.
To construct an assignment structure, use outlines. These are pieces of text that relate to your topic. It can be ideas, quotes, all your thoughts, or disparate arguments. Type in everything that you think about. Separate thoughts scattered across the sheets of Word will help in the next step. Then it is time to form the text.
Tip 3: Plan Your Work. Effective planning is a cornerstone of assignment writing. Develop a structured plan that includes creating a timeline for your assignment. Break down the work into smaller tasks, allocate sufficient time for research, outlining, drafting, and proofreading. A well-organized plan will keep you on track and reduce stress.
It's also important to remain coherent. You must link each paragraph to each other. This will keep your reader connected with the content. To achieve this, you need to go back to your plan for your assignment, then search for significant concepts that will help you connect the paragraphs smoothly. Here's an easy tip to do this - include phrases ...
Come up with a thesis. Create an essay outline. Write the introduction. Write the main body, organized into paragraphs. Write the conclusion. Evaluate the overall organization. Revise the content of each paragraph. Proofread your essay or use a Grammar Checker for language errors. Use a plagiarism checker.
Consider how long each step will take and make a plan for when you will complete each step. Enter these mini-deadlines into your calendar or planner. See an example. 1. Understand and analyze your assignment. Spend some time to fully understand your assignment before you begin your work.
If so, then you just need to meet the minimum end of the range when you're pressed of time. Select your average writing speed. An excellent writing speed would be about 600 words an hour. Medium would be around 350 words per hour. A slow writing speed implies roughly about 200 words an hour. Enter the deadline for the assignment in Month ...
Written assignments, whether short response essays or long research papers, often seem overwhelming at first, but carefully reading and evaluating assignment guidelines and requirements will help you understand your goals and plan your paper. This can result in a more confident, optimistic approach to the assignment, and a more relaxed writing ...
Make sure you read through any assignment requirements carefully and ask your lecturer or tutor if you're unsure how to meet them. Analysing the topic. Researching and note-taking. Planning your assignment. Writing your assignment. Editing your assignment. 1. Analysing the topic. Before you start researching or writing, take some time to ...
Take notes under common headings and find themes in your notes. Brainstorm your ideas on paper around keywords in the question. Write ideas on notecards and group them into piles or columns to create your assignment structure and paragraphs. Read the question, then read your planned responses out loud as if answering someone in front of you. 6.
After you have gained an understanding of your assignment by analysing the information given to you, it is advised that you create an assignment timeline. Creating an assignment timeline can help increase your certainty and clarity over what you need to do and when. Use the tabs to learn more about how you can plan your assignment timeline.
Structure the Assignment Sheet Clearly. Many of us create assignments that are too long-and students need to decode them in order to move forward. When students see a full page (or more) of text on an assignment sheet, they often feel overwhelmed. Similarly, if students see only one sentence, they may feel that they do not know where to go next.
Dividing the work in different paragraphs is very important for this purpose. - Usage of 'you' and 'I' - According to the academic writing standards, the assignments should be written in an impersonal language, which means that the usage of 'you' and 'I' should be avoided. The only acceptable way of building your arguments ...
Make sure you recap the key points and arguments you made in your assignment, including supporting evidence if needed. Expert tip: Make sure that you don't introduce any new ideas in your conclusion; this section is purely for summarising your previous arguments. 9. Getting over writer's block.
Many instructors write their assignment prompts differently. By following a few steps, you can better understand the requirements for the assignment. The best way, as always, is to ask the instructor about anything confusing. Read the prompt the entire way through once. This gives you an overall view of what is going on.
The assignment's parts may not appear in exactly this order, and each part may be very long or really short. Nonetheless, being aware of this standard pattern can help you understand what your instructor wants you to do. Interpreting the assignment. Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and jot down the answers on the assignment sheet:
4. Set Goals: - Establish daily or weekly goals for completing portions of your assignments. Setting achievable milestones will help you stay on track and motivated. 5. Minimize Distractions: - Find a quiet and focused workspace to minimize distractions. Turn off social media notifications and other distractions while working on assignments.
Here are seven ways to make your assignment process easier, from start to finish. 1. Simplify standards-based assessment. If you teach in the US public school system, alignment with state education standards is part of your day-to-day life. Designing assignments to meet those standards may, at times, feel like it's putting a damper on your ...
Creating Assignments. Here are some general suggestions and questions to consider when creating assignments. There are also many other resources in print and on the web that provide examples of interesting, discipline-specific assignment ideas. ... Consider how long it will take students to complete all parts of the assignment (e.g., planning ...
Stage #3 - Assignment Framework: Take the information gathered in Stage #2 and organise it into the assignment framework chart to finalise your structure. Stage #4 - Assignment Checklist: Go through the Assignment check list to check that you have included everything that is required for each section.
Fonts. Use a clear, readable font, such as Verdana, Calibri, Tahoma or Arial and use the same font throughout. Use black text on a white background. Avoid coloured backgrounds or text in a colour other than black, unless you have special permission to use them. Use 11 or 12 point font for the body of your assessment.
If you are writing a 2000-word assignment, the introduction should be 200-250 words long. But if you are writing a 3000-word assignment, the introduction should be 350-400 words long. Guidelines/Tips On How To Write An Assignment Introduction. Always start your assignment's introduction with a broad idea about the topic of the assignment.
You can downplay high-stakes work by: (1) allowing students to drop one or two of their worst scores on exams, assignments, or quizzes; (2) letting students replace an earlier score with a ...
Casas began his Minor League rehab assignment for Triple-A Worcester on July 30, serving as the DH. He went 0-for-3 with a walk. He was scheduled to start at first base on July 31, but the game was postponed. Casas will likely play one game in the doubleheader on Aug. 1. It remains to be seen how long Casas will need for his rehab assignment.
Trump, Elon Musk, J.K. Rowling and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni all appeared to criticize including Imane Khelif of Algeria.
Backup catcher Reese McGuire and long reliever Chase Anderson were both designated for assignment to make room on the roster for starter James Paxton and catcher Danny Jansen, who are both active ...