clarify what's being asked of you read through course unit outline and the marking criteria and to refresh your understanding of the context for the assignment. What are you supposed to demonstrate through completion of the task? evidence of wide reading, the application of theory to practice, skill in reflecting on an experience? read the small print. Does the assignment need to be double spaced? what referencing style does your tutor require? is there a word limit? what is the deadline for submission? understand the question the most eloquent and well structured essay will not succeed if it doesn't answer the question. draw up a reading list a little thought in preparing a reading list will mean you get the most out of time spent reading. read and take notes see our section on reading or our section on note taking if you'd like specific guidance on this. draft out an essay plan / report structure see how to write an essay. write the assignment! tips and resources on planning and drafting your work.

Not fully answering the specifics of the question is a common reason for assignments losing marks. Knowing what the question is asking will frame your planning and drafting of your assignment. Try breaking down the question into its separate parts this will allow you to determine the focus and direction of the question. Part of planning for assignments will always be to ask yourself how long you should devote to this assignment. Do not underestimate the time required to complete an assignment to a high standard.

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Be sensible about it and plan to work on the assignment steadily this will allow you time to process all the information while at the same time considering your analysis/argument. When planning out your time break down a large assignment into more manageable smaller tasks. Remember you may have multiple assignments so spreading out the time and prioritising work will help you manage your assignments. A big part of masters is thinking! at masters level it is important to take time to think about your subject and your assignments. You can refine your thoughts by bringing them together in one place perhaps writing them down in an assignment journal/note book or by keeping a space at the end or start of your assignment drafts.

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There are many methods available that you can use to plan the structure of an assignment it is important to find one that suits you. You could break it down further into subtopics, headings or questions you want to answer. Use your notes, and sketch out the main ideas and points you think you want to cover. You may want to try mind maps, spider diagrams, concept diagrams or post it notes to organise the structure.

Remember a structure is only a guide it may change as you progress with your assignment. Drafts are essential check points where you can review your progress and determine if your assignment is on track. There is no rule for how many drafts you should complete, but if you submit your first draft as your final submitted assignment, you will be unlikely to receive the higher range of marks. For example, your first draft may sketch out your first thoughts, arguments and potential structure, and you may want to review and check these: are you focussed on the right topics? is your structure and line of thought sensible? middle drafts. You also may find that as you are writing the direction that your assignment is moving in changes for example this could be due to your literature research producing new avenues of thought or your lab results turning up unexpected results. You may need to therefore review the focus of your initial question, and review whether your arguments or conclusions are still sensible.

In your final draft s you may be focussed more on ensuring your presentation, spelling and grammar are correct and all your references are included following the appropriate format guidance, etc. At a draft stop, you will leave writing for a day or two and come back to it with fresh eyes, you will be better able to spot mistakes, and places where editing down, expanding or rewriting will help improve the piece. When you look at your work you should look at it as an editor or an examiner would. Would a reader find your assignment easy to follow: are your ideas linking, have you signposted on from one section to the next, etc? planning your writing nearly always helps you to think more clearly about your topic and this will save you time later. Usually, planning effectively before you write helps you to write effectively, which means you will have less editing to do later on. As you plan, ask yourself: 'what do i want to say in response to the question?'. Rather than: 'which ‘quotes’ or pieces of information do i want to include? writing with a clear question in mind puts you in a position as a writer to have something to say about what you have read.

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Of course, you do not want to write your unsubstantiated opinions on the topic, but explaining the ideas of writers you have read and then commenting on their usefulness, relevance, strengths and weaknesses is the essence of the task for an academic writer. Imagine your topic was 'evaluate the usefulness of a task analysis approach to assignment writing'. there are many ways of planning. Here is an example approach to planning for this topic: look at your research notes under headings or questions as suggested earlier. Decide how these notes will come together under a few main sections of the paper. Obviously there will be an introduction, body and conclusion, but what will you include in each part? it is often useful to decide on the sections or major ideas that you want to talk about in the body first and then plan the introduction and conclusion afterwards. Sometimes two or more questions from your research will come together under one heading in your plan. For example, there could have been a research question about how people learn metacognition and how knowledge is constructed, which could have been put together under the heading: what is task analysis? see concept map pdf, 79 kb create a concept map.

In the concept map of the essay that follows, there are three main areas that the writer addresses: task analysis, thinking and planning, and writing. As you write, remember to include links between ideas between sentences, between paragraphs and between sections in your essay. This ensures that your writing flows and will make more sense to your reader, who is nearly always also your marker. Impress your reader! see also the section on paragraph planning and linking paragraphs. The following extract has been adapted from the student learning centre's study guide, planning and writing university assignments. For the full guide and other useful material, visit the student learning centre's website: w.otago.ac.nz/slc. Essay questions rarely ask you to write down everything you've learnt about a topic, so it's crucial that your answer is focused and includes only relevant material.

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To help keep on track, it's useful to break down the question and perhaps re write it in your own words. What the essay should be about the subject which particular aspects of the subject you should focus on the instructions for approaching the topic e.g. See the following table library skills search the web, find articles and books etc. Initial planning has a number of advantages: helps to decide the points for discussion, shows how these can be most logically organised, weeds out irrelevant information, identifies overlaps and repetition.