Writing your Assignment

Purpose of the Assignment

Trying to understand the purpose of the assignment is instrumental in producing superior work. Assignments are usually aligned to specific goals, where the student is required to unravel these goals. To understand the purpose of the assignment, the students must ask themselves the questions, “how is the assignment related to course objectives?” and “why is the student required to figure out the question in this way?” Some of the key purposes of assignments include:

a) To create an understanding of the relationship between ideas from the previous and the current topics.

b) To help students understand the specific way of doing particular things. This may entail procedures and guidelines.

c) Help anticipate perceived difficulties in next lessons/topics. This is essential in introducing ideas of a new topic.

d) Allow students expand their individual perception about specific issues or topics.  

What to Incorporate in your Assignment

It is important to understand the specific attributes that assignments should encompass. These attributes constitute a superior assignment. They may encompass:

a) Clear purpose: an assignment should illustrate clarity in its purpose. The student should understand what is required of them, where such understanding is key in devising the most appropriate approach to the assignment. Some purposes of assignments may include philosophical or historical analysis, problem-solving, close textual analysis, description, comparison, argumentation, or summary.

b) Illustration of various steps entailed: the student should be able to understand the specific items entailed in an assignment, illustrate an adept interpretation of the items, be able to synthesize or generalize several arguments, as well as evaluate different view-points.

c) Illustrate research and ability to expound on basic ideas: this entails the ability to rely on already established knowledge to advance an argument. The student should be able to incorporate ideas from other people into their work while remaining independent in thought.

d) Founded on evidence: arguments in the assignment should be supported by verifiable evidence. Every argument advanced must be backed by facts and reasons. Opinion should be separated from facts and evidence.

e) Should be in appropriate paper format: students should understand the requirements of specific paper formats as well as referencing styles.

f) Use examples, tables, and figures: examples are the evidence that learners understand what is required of them. They should use examples to support their points. On the other hand, tables and figures should be used to provide illustrations and detailed information.   

How to Write your Assignment

Writing a good assignment demands adequate time. The process entails conducting research on the topic, brainstorming on relevant information, developing ideas, and organizing such ideas into statements. The process of writing an assignment can be defined by various steps as illustrated below.

Step 1: Planning

This step entails figuring out what the assignment demands of you. It involves finding out the aim of the assignment, the core issue, and the assignment’s extent. To realize this, the student should pay adequate attention to assignment instructions to find out the relationship between the assignment and the course materials. Go through text book materials related to the core issue to acquire an understanding of what the assignment aims at.

Step 2: Developing and Outline

This seeks to determine the various sections defining the assignment. All the sections should ensure that the central theme is retained to the end. Extensive sections should be broken down into subsections each encompassing different topic components and containing specific category of information. The subsections should follow each other in a logical manner to ensure that the argument’s thread is clear and that preceding arguments logically lay foundation for the next argument. The assignment should also be balanced and connecting sentences should be a key feature. Headings and subheadings should be utilized when and where applicable and appropriate.

Step 3: Collecting Information

This should start by reviewing lecture notes and relevant course materials. After going through respective concepts, ideas, and theories, the student should conduct a library and an online research to expound on the existing individual knowledge about a topic. Identifying information sources in this step is quite key. This process should be guided by the respective headings and subheadings in the assignment. The information gathered should be reliable and relevant.  Authoritative sources should be identified and authors noted. The students should limit their work to appropriate topic scope.

Step 4: Reading and Making Notes

At this stage, the student should well understand information necessary in accomplishing the assignment. Reading should be selective and critical to ensure time is spent securing the appropriate information. Reading should be guided by critical questions about the topic. In this, you should determine the values of presented facts, interpret the facts, compare and evaluate the facts, and make deductions on laws, principles, and trends observable in the information. You should take notes on appropriate points while noting down respective referencing details.  

Step 5: Writing down the Assignment

The writing process is extremely important and should ensure that the final product is balanced, logical, and systematic. This entails developing an appropriate introduction, generating a suitable problem statement, constructing respective subsections, and signing off with a categorical conclusion. In the writing process, you should give special attention to language and style. This will involve considering such aspects of writing as clarity, mode of writing, translations, numbering and abbreviations, joining together and division of words, and quotation marks.  

Step 6: Re-writing

This entails compiling the gathered ideas into coherent arguments. It encompasses rereading the assignment to ensure that it is in agreement with the facts gathered from respective sources. Ensure that it is smoothly written and easy to understand. Grammatical errors should be checked and corrected.