• ...is an important factor/concept/idea/ to consider because...
• … will be argued/outlined in this paper.
Once you have finished writing your first draft it is recommended that you spend time revising your work. Proofreading and editing are two different stages of the revision process.
As can be seen in the figure above there are four main areas that you should review during the editing phase of the revision process. The main things to consider when editing include content, structure, style, and sources. It is important to check that all the content relates to the assignment task, the structure is appropriate for the purposes of the assignment, the writing is academic in style, and that sources have been adequately acknowledged. Use the checklist below when editing your work.
Editing checklist
There are also several key things to look out for during the proofreading phase of the revision process. In this stage it is important to check your work for word choice, grammar and spelling, punctuation and referencing errors. It can be easy to mis-type words like ‘from’ and ‘form’ or mix up words like ‘trail’ and ‘trial’ when writing about research, apply American rather than Australian spelling, include unnecessary commas or incorrectly format your references list. The checklist below is a useful guide that you can use when proofreading your work.
Proofreading checklist
This chapter has examined the experience of writing assignments. It began by focusing on how to read and break down an assignment question, then highlighted the key components of essays. Next, it examined some techniques for paraphrasing and summarising, and how to build an argument. It concluded with a discussion on planning and structuring your assignment and giving it that essential polish with editing and proof-reading. Combining these skills and practising them, can greatly improve your success with this very common form of assessment.
Academic Skills Centre. (2013). Writing an introduction and conclusion . University of Canberra, accessed 13 August, 2013, http://www.canberra.edu.au/studyskills/writing/conclusions
Balkis, M., & Duru, E. (2016). Procrastination, self-regulation failure, academic life satisfaction, and affective well-being: underregulation or misregulation form. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 31 (3), 439-459.
Custer, N. (2018). Test anxiety and academic procrastination among prelicensure nursing students. Nursing education perspectives, 39 (3), 162-163.
Yerdelen, S., McCaffrey, A., & Klassen, R. M. (2016). Longitudinal examination of procrastination and anxiety, and their relation to self-efficacy for self-regulated learning: Latent growth curve modeling. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 16 (1).
Writing Assignments Copyright © 2021 by Kate Derrington; Cristy Bartlett; and Sarah Irvine is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
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.
Before you start researching or writing, take some time to analyse the assignment topic to make sure you know what you need to do.
Read through the topic a few times to make sure you understand it. Think about the:
Identify keywords in the topic that will help guide your research, including any:
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.
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 information about the topic that you:
When you brainstorm:
Our advisers can help undergraduate and postgraduate students in all programs clarify ideas from workshops, help you develop skills and give feedback on assignments.
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Advice and resources to support you with effective academic writing.
Assignment writing is a process which involves planning, drafting and reviewing what you are going to say. You will find you need to review your initial plan and edit it as you go along. You should expect to have to redraft some sections of writing.
You should also check any guidance given to you as part of your course, as conventions vary between subject areas.
One of the hardest things can be to get started writing an assignment. Sometimes this is a question of taking the time to reflect on what you are being asked to do in the assignment brief.
The handout Getting started suggests a way in which you can break down your task, think about aspects of it and commit some of your initial ideas to paper. It also suggests ways you can start to adapt this method to suit you. Alternatively you may prefer to use a prompt list to start to analyse your title.
Getting started (pdf) Getting started (Word rtf)
Essay title prompts (pdf) Essay title prompts (Word rtf)
You will want to respond to the assignments you have been set as well as you can. This means paying attention to key words in the question or assignment brief. These are sometimes known as command or directive words because they tell you what to do. The document Directive words provides definitions of some of the commonly used words.
Directive words (pdf) Directive words (Word rtf) Directive words – British Sign Language translation (Media Hopper video)
In any written assignment you will be expected to organise and structure information which is synthesised from a range of sources. You will need to make notes from your readings to help you consolidate and connect your research to your question. The Reading at university page has strategies to help you develop effective skills for making notes from reading.
Reading at university
Making notes means you end up with lots of bits of writing which you need to link together for your reader. Sometimes it can be hard to know what to select and how to identify relationships between ideas and concepts.
There are suggestions in the Getting your ideas in order handout of practical ways in which you might reorganise your material in response to the task set. Playing around with the order can help you arrive at a line reasoning that will convince the reader. Aim to experiment and find out what works for you.
Getting your ideas in order (pdf) Getting your ideas in order (Word rtf)
If you have been asked to write an academic essay, and you haven't done this before, you may be unsure of what is expected. The Parts of an essay handout gives a brief introductory overview of the component parts of an essay.
Parts of an essay (pdf) Parts of an essay (Word rtf)
Paragraphs are the building blocks of an essay and are a way of organising your thinking and making your meaning clear in your writing for your reader. The handout Developing writing in paragraphs encourages you to think about the way you shape your paragraphs and when to move on to a new one.
Developing writing in paragraphs (pdf) Developing writing in paragraphs (Word rtf)
Identifying and writing about good evidence is not enough. You need to build an argument. An argument is:
Using reasons to support a point of view, so that known or unknown audiences may be persuaded to agree. Cottrell, S. (2011)Critical thinking skills: developing effective analysis and argument. 2nd edn. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, p52.
You can develop your argument as you read and write by creating a working hypothesis or basic answer in response to the assignment brief.
Building an argument as you go (pdf) Building an argument as you go (Word rtf)
As you move through your studies lecturers will expect more from your written work. They will expect the accurate attribution of ideas from others (including academic and other authors, and the ideas of those who teach you). There is general advice and resources for referencing and citations (and avoiding plagiarism) on the Referencing and citations page.
Referencing and citations
Your marker(s) will expect written pieces to be logically structured with fluid expression of thought, and with deeper and more critical engagement with the subjects and ideas you are reading and learning about.
Aim to become familiar with the level of writing required by reading good quality examples. At an advanced level you are aiming to write to the style you read in academic journals.
As your written tasks become longer and more complex it can be helpful to reflect on your own writing process.
Reflect on your writing process (pdf) Reflect on your writing process (Word rtf)
Academic writing is much more than just an essay. You might be asked to write a lab or business report, a policy brief, a blog post, a journal article or a reflection piece for example. These tend to be subject and task specific so you need to check the assignment brief and any criteria for details of their purpose, formatting, structure, things to include etc.
In some subjects, assessment may be based on critical reflection. This can be a challenge as it is a very particular style and form of writing which you may not have come across before. As well as check your assignment brief for specifics, the University’s Employability Consultancy have created a Reflection Toolkit of resources, models and questions to help you develop your reflective writing skills.
The Reflection Toolkit
Take advantage of any writing development sessions organised through or learning materials offered by your School, Deanery or course. These will help you develop the specific writing skills you need for your discipline or subject area.
If you have to write your own title in response to the brief you have been set, you need to think about how to frame this. The Formulating your own title handout suggests some aspects to consider.
Formulating your own title (pdf) Formulating your own title (Word rtf)
If you are studying during a career break, or part-time while still working, you need to be aware that academic writing is a very different skill from other forms of writing you may have done in the workplace. Academic writing tends to be more formal, requiring succinct prose rather than bullet points, and it is more about the argument than simply conveying, or describing, information. Writing for assessment requires you to think carefully about your assignment and criteria, your argument and content, use of your subject specific conventions (e.g. language, style etc.), and your audience.
Your written work needs to be grounded in and backed up by appropriate and informed opinion and sources, rather than solely by personal opinion and experience. Academic written work will also make fewer absolute statements. Language is often more tentative or cautious.
Academic Phrasebank is a collection of general phrases taken from academic sources created by John Morley at the University of Manchester. The phrases are sorted into writing and assignment themes such as being critical and writing conclusions.
This article was published on 2024-02-26
Gen ed writes, writing across the disciplines at harvard college.
Gen Ed courses transcend disciplinary boundaries in a variety of ways, so the types of writing assignments that they include also often venture outside the traditional discipline-specific essays. You may encounter a wide variety of assignment types in Gen Ed, but most can be categorized into four general types:
Traditional academic.
For most of us, these are the most familiar types of college-level writing assignments. While they are perhaps less common in Gen Ed than in departmental courses, there are still numerous examples we could examine.
Two illustrations of common types include:
Example 1: Short Essay Professor Michael Sandel asks the students in his Gen Ed course on Tech Ethics to write several short essays over the course of the semester in which they make an argument in response to the course readings. Because many students will never have written a philosophy-style paper, Professor Sandel offers students a number of resources—from a guide on writing in philosophy, to sample graded essays, to a list of logical fallacies—to keep in mind.
Example 2: Research Paper In Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Cares?, a Gen Ed course co-taught by multiple global health faculty members, students write a 12–15 page research paper on a biosocial analysis of a global health topic of their choosing for the final assignment. The assignment is broken up into two parts: (1) a proposal with annotated bibliography and (2) the final paper itself. The prompt clearly outlines the key qualities and features of a successful paper, which is especially useful for students who have not yet written a research paper in the sciences.
In Gen Ed, sometimes assignments ask students to engage in academic work that, while familiar to faculty, is beyond the scope of the typical undergraduate experience.
Here are a couple of examples from Gen Ed courses:
Example 1: Design a conference For the final project in her Gen Ed course, Global Feminisms, Professor Durba Mitra asks her students to imagine a dream conference in the style of the feminist conferences they studied in class. Students are asked to imagine conference panels and events, potential speakers or exhibitions, and advertising materials. While conferences are a normal occurrence for graduate students and professors, undergraduates are much less likely to be familiar with this part of academic life, and this kind of assignment might require more specific background and instructions as part of the prompt.
Example 2: Curate a museum exhibit In his Gen Ed class, Pyramid Schemes, Professor Peter Der Manuelian's final project offers students the option of designing a virtual museum exhibit . While exhibit curation can be a part of the academic life of an anthropologist or archaeologist, it's not often found in introductory undergraduate courses. In addition to selecting objects and creating a virtual exhibit layout, students also wrote an annotated bibliography as well as an exhibit introduction for potential visitors.
One of the goals of Gen Ed is to encourage students to engage with the world around them. Sometimes writing assignments in Gen Ed directly mirror types of writing that students are likely to encounter in real-world, non-academic settings after they graduate.
The following are several examples of such assignments:
Example 1: Policy memo In Power and Identity in the Middle East, Professor Melani Cammett assigns students a group policy memo evaluating "a major initiative aimed at promoting democracy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)." The assignment prompt is actually structured as a memo, providing context for students who likely lack experience with the format. It also outlines the key characteristics of a good memo, and it provides extensive advice on the process—especially important when students are working in groups.
Example 2: Letter In Loss, Professor Kathleen Coleman asks students to write a letter of condolence . The letter has an unusual audience: a mother elephant who lost her calf. Since students may not have encountered this type of writing before, Professor Coleman also provides students with advice on process, pointing to some course readings that might be a good place to start. She also suggests a list of outside resources to help students get into the mindframe of addressing an elephant.
Example 3: Podcast Podcasts are becoming increasingly popular in Gen Ed classes, as they are in the real world. Though they're ultimately audio file outputs, they usually require writing and preparing a script ahead of time. For example, in Music from Earth, Professor Alex Rehding asks students to create a podcast in which they make an argument about a song studied in class. He usefully breaks up the assignments into two parts: (1) researching the song and preparing a script and (2) recording and making sonic choices about the presentation, offering students the opportunity to get feedback on the first part before moving onto the second.
These are the types of assignments that perhaps are less obviously "writing" assignments. They usually involve an artistic or otherwise creative component, but they also often include some kind of written introduction or artist statement related to the work.
The following are several examples from recently offered Gen Ed courses:
Example 1: Movie Professor Peter Der Manuelian offers students in his class, Pyramid Schemes, several options for the final project, one of which entails creating a 5–8 minute iMovie making an argument about one of the themes of the course. Because relatively few students have prior experience making films, the teaching staff provide students with a written guide to making an iMovie as well as ample opportunities for tech support. In addition to preparing a script as part of the production, students also submit both an annotated bibliography and an artist’s statement.
Example 2: Calligram In his course, Understanding Islam and Contemporary Muslim Societies, Professor Ali Asani asks students to browse through a provided list of resources about calligrams, which are an important traditional Islamic art form. Then they are required to "choose a concept or symbol associated with God in the Islamic tradition and attempt to represent it through a calligraphic design using the word Allah," in any medium they wish. Students also write a short explanation to accompany the design itself.
Example 3: Soundscape In Music from Earth, Professor Alex Rehding has students create a soundscape . The soundscape is an audio file which involves layering sounds from different sources to create a single piece responding to an assigned question (e.g. "What sounds are characteristic of your current geographical region?"). Early on, as part of the development of the soundscape, students submit an artist's statement that explains the plan for the soundscape, the significance of the sounds, and the intention of the work.
Assignment Decoder
Writing Across the Curriculum
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One of the best ways for students to determine what they know, think, and believe about a given subject is to write about it. To support students in their writing, it is important to provide them with a meaningful writing task, one that has an authentic purpose, clear guidelines, and engages students in their learning. In this section, you can read about key principles of assignment design, review examples of effective writing assignments, and use a checklist to guide your own designs. You can also consult with a Writing Across the Curriculum Program team member . We’re happy to think with you about your writing assignment, whether it is in the inkling stage or undergoing a few minor tweaks.
A good deal of educational research points to the benefits of writing assignments that exhibit the following features:
Meaningful tasks. A task is given meaning by its relevance to and alignment with the learning aims in the course. What counts as meaningful in one course context might not be meaningful in another. As Eodice, Geller, and Lerner (2016) have shown, meaningful writing assignments do occur across all disciplines and they are typically ones that “offer students opportunities to engage with instructors, peers, and texts and are relevant to past experiences and passions as well as to future aspirations and identities.”
Maximized learning time. As Linda Suskie argues, effectiveness is determined by the “learning payoff,” not by size of the assignment. Will students learn four times as much on an assignment that takes 20 hours outside of class than one that takes 5? Longer research-based assignments and elaborate class activities (mock conferences, debates, poster sessions, etc.) can greatly maximize learning, but there must be an appropriate level of writing and learning time built into the task. Term papers are much more effective when students have time to draft and revise stages of the assignment, rather than turning in one final product at the end.
Logical sequencing. A writing task that includes discrete stages (research, drafting, review, revising, etc.) is more likely to be an effective learning experience than one that only specifies the final product. Furthermore, these stages are more effective when they are scaffolded so simpler tasks precede more complex tasks. For example, a well-sequenced 10-12 page essay assignment might involve discrete segments where students generate a central inquiry question, draft and workshop a thesis statement, produce a first draft of the essay, give and receive feedback on drafts, and submit a revision. Read more about sequencing assignments .
Clear criteria will help students connect an assignment’s relevance to larger scale course outcomes. The literature on assignment design strongly encourages instructors to make the grading criteria explicit to students before the assignment is collected and assessed. A grading scheme or rubric that is handed out along with the assignment can provide students with a clear understanding of the weighted expectations and, thus help them decide what to focus on in the assignment. It becomes a teaching tool, not just an assessment tool.
Forward-thinking activities more than backward-thinking activities. Forward-thinking activities and assignments ask students to apply their learning rather than simply repeat it. The orientation of many writing prompts is often backward, asking students to show they learned X, Y, and Z. As L. Dee Fink (2013) points out, forward-thinking assignments and activities look ahead to what students will be able to do in the future having learned about X, Y, and Z. Such assignments often utilize real-world and scenario-based problems, requiring students to apply their learning to a new situation. For Grant Wiggins (1998) , questions, problems, tests, and assignments that are forward-thinking often:
Organized, clear, and analytical writing.
University-level writing should be organized, clear, and analytical. The following guides provide direction on different types of writing assignments and strategies for writing.
Planning your essay
Writing your introduction
Structuring your essay
Structuring your dissertation
University essays differ from school essays in that they are less concerned with what you know and more concerned with how you construct an argument to answer the question. This means that the starting point for writing a strong essay is to first unpick the question and to then use this to plan your essay before you start putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).
A really good starting point for you are these short, downloadable Tips for Successful Essay Writing and Answering the Question resources. Both resources will help you to plan your essay, as well as giving you guidance on how to distinguish between different sorts of essay questions.
You may find it helpful to watch this seven-minute video on six tips for essay writing which outlines how to interpret essay questions, as well as giving advice on planning and structuring your writing:
Different disciplines will have different expectations for essay structure and you should always refer to your Faculty or Department student handbook or course Canvas site for more specific guidance.
However, broadly speaking, all essays share the following features:
Essays need an introduction to establish and focus the parameters of the discussion that will follow. You may find it helpful to divide the introduction into areas to demonstrate your breadth and engagement with the essay question. You might define specific terms in the introduction to show your engagement with the essay question; for example, ‘This is a large topic which has been variously discussed by many scientists and commentators. The principal tension is between the views of X and Y who define the main issues as…’ Breadth might be demonstrated by showing the range of viewpoints from which the essay question could be considered; for example, ‘A variety of factors including economic, social and political, influence A and B. This essay will focus on the social and economic aspects, with particular emphasis on…..’
Watch this two-minute video to learn more about how to plan and structure an introduction:
The main body of the essay should elaborate on the issues raised in the introduction and develop an argument(s) that answers the question. It should consist of a number of self-contained paragraphs each of which makes a specific point and provides some form of evidence to support the argument being made. Remember that a clear argument requires that each paragraph explicitly relates back to the essay question or the developing argument.
If you are writing an essay for a science subject you may need to consider additional areas, such as how to present data or diagrams. This five-minute video gives you some advice on how to approach your reading list, planning which information to include in your answer and how to write for your scientific audience – the video is available here:
A PDF providing further guidance on writing science essays for tutorials is available to download.
Short videos to support your essay writing skills
There are many other resources at Oxford that can help support your essay writing skills and if you are short on time, the Oxford Study Skills Centre has produced a number of short (2-minute) videos covering different aspects of essay writing, including:
Extended essays and dissertations
Longer pieces of writing like extended essays and dissertations may seem like quite a challenge from your regular essay writing. The important point is to start with a plan and to focus on what the question is asking. A PDF providing further guidance on planning Humanities and Social Science dissertations is available to download.
Planning your time effectively
Try not to leave the writing until close to your deadline, instead start as soon as you have some ideas to put down onto paper. Your early drafts may never end up in the final work, but the work of committing your ideas to paper helps to formulate not only your ideas, but the method of structuring your writing to read well and conclude firmly.
Although many students and tutors will say that the introduction is often written last, it is a good idea to begin to think about what will go into it early on. For example, the first draft of your introduction should set out your argument, the information you have, and your methods, and it should give a structure to the chapters and sections you will write. Your introduction will probably change as time goes on but it will stand as a guide to your entire extended essay or dissertation and it will help you to keep focused.
The structure of extended essays or dissertations will vary depending on the question and discipline, but may include some or all of the following:
The main body of your extended essay or dissertation will probably include your methodology, the results of research, and your argument(s) based on your findings.
The conclusion is to summarise the value your research has added to the topic, and any further lines of research you would undertake given more time or resources.
Tips on writing longer pieces of work
Approaching each chapter of a dissertation as a shorter essay can make the task of writing a dissertation seem less overwhelming. Each chapter will have an introduction, a main body where the argument is developed and substantiated with evidence, and a conclusion to tie things together. Unlike in a regular essay, chapter conclusions may also introduce the chapter that will follow, indicating how the chapters are connected to one another and how the argument will develop through your dissertation.
For further guidance, watch this two-minute video on writing longer pieces of work .
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'How do I know what I think until I see what I say?' E.M. Forster
University writing is quite different from writing at school or work. There is a range of different types of writing you are expected to do at university. Each type requires different structures and features according to the assessment task. You are expected to use formal language and write an argument with evidence. This may mean changing habits you have developed and allowing plenty of time to edit and revise your writing style after you have finished writing the content.
It's important to learn the basics of writing an academic assignment. This includes:
This resource will provide a general overview of writing an academic assignment. You can also work through the resource before you attend the writing an academic assignment workshop. For more information on referencing please see our referencing guide.
Writing an academic assignment at university can be quite a daunting task if you've never written one before – and even if you have! At university you will encounter a number of different types of assignments.
Consider the following when approaching different types of writing:
Academic writing is a process, it is a good idea to revisit and revise your writing numerous times. Keep in mind that analysing the question and planning how you will respond is important. So make sure you dedicate a significant amount of time to this.
– usually nouns – tell you what to consider. – verbs – tell you what to do. – tell when/during what period, or how much/how many, or which ones to include, which to exclude. | |
It is not sufficient just to give an opinion based on past experience, general knowledge or a summary of lectures. Writing at university must be based on reading and investigation. | |
Form a tentative position; this is your thesis or answer to the question. Before you can develop your own stand or argument you need to understand and evaluate the arguments of experts in the field. Often they will disagree. Reflect on the issue and evaluate what you have read. Try to connect ideas, group evidence that is similar and evidence that contradicts. Substantiate your claims. You are expected to support and strengthen and add validity to your arguments with reference to your research on the assignment topic. | |
A plan helps you to develop your critical thinking and come to a position on a topic. This is what academic writing is in a nutshell, whether it is an essay or a report, and whether it is 1000 or 100,000 words long! |
If you need assistance with understanding your assignment question you should speak to a Writing Mentor or a Language and Learning Advisor . You could also ask your tutor, lecturer or Unit Chair.
Introduction.
Define the topic, state your purpose clearly and present your line of argument.
Develop your argument; Use headings/subheadings and paragraphs in logical order.
Now you can write a draft of your essay.
To write a clear paragraph give the main idea - (lead or topic sentence) and then develop the main idea by:
Reading aloud is an effective way to edit and proofread. Check your work to see that:
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
To summarize, here are some dos and don'ts for successful assignment writing:
Here are some common questions related to assignment writing:
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.
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.
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
This week you will start to look at university writing, a very important student activity. You will first consider which aspects of your current writing will be useful when it comes to university-level writing and which might need a bit more work. Then you will move on to look at university assignments, their purposes and structure and the strategies students follow when approaching them.
Watch Anna describing what you will study this week:
Welcome to Week 3.
So far you have looked at reading: reading strategies and ways to use insights from readings in an assignment. Reading and selecting key information are two of the first steps towards writing a good assignment. It is now time to look at what university assignments ask for and how to produce a good assignment.
During Weeks 3, 4 and 5 you will concentrate on assignment writing. In particular, this week you will find out what types of assignments university students normally write, the reasons why they write them and the way they approach them. In Week 4 you will look in more detail at essay writing. In Week 5, you will learn how to clearly link ideas in your writing, so that your readers can easily understand your ideas.
By the end of this week you will be able to understand:
For many of us writing is a daily activity. In a morning, for example, I might write a text message to a friend, make a ‘to do’ list and email a colleague.
Three images: first image is of a to-do list, second image of a CV and third image of three Post-it notes on a fridge door.
Think about the types of text, that is any piece of writing, you have written in the past few days. These can be as short as a few words scribbled on a Post-it note or as long as a letter or a workplace report. Note your thoughts in the box below.
The answer is personal to you. Here are some of the texts I have written lately:
Most people do not consider themselves to be writers, yet they write something every day. There are many types of text. Some texts may appear easy but others seem more complex to write. In the next activity you will compare some texts to understand how they differ and why some are harder to write than others.
When we write, we communicate with other people. Birthday cards, Post-it notes and text messages are all ways to send other people messages containing information. Even a personal diary and a to-do list may be read initially only by the writer, but may be shared or read in the future by other people.
Communication is therefore the main reason why people write. The particular purpose of each piece of writing depends on the situation and the people we communicate with. For example, many of us leave little notes on the fridge to remind ourselves and others to do important chores or to wish them well.
The way our texts are organised varies depending on our reason for writing and our relationship with the person or persons who will read our messages.
In this activity you will look at the purpose and structure of three texts (Figure 2).
Three images: first image is of a to-do list, second image of a thank-you letter and third image of a CV.
Look at the three texts below and match them to their typical purpose.
A to-do list
To briefly remind ourselves and others what needs to be done
A curriculum vitae (CV)
To show an employer our skills and experiences in the hope of being invited to an interview
A thank-you card
To tell somebody how much we appreciate what they have done for us
Using the following two lists, match each numbered item with the correct letter.
a. To show an employer our skills and experiences in the hope of being invited to an interview
b. To briefly remind ourselves and others what needs to be done
c. To tell somebody how much we appreciate what they have done for us
Have you ever written any of these three types of text? How easy or difficult do you or would you find writing them? Note your thoughts in the box below before comparing them with mine.
Here is my answer:
I’m one of those people who often write to-do lists. They are simple and informal, and contain just isolated words describing activities. I normally cross off each activity as soon as it is done.
I find thank-you cards and cards in general less easy to write. This is in part because in Italy, my country, people tend to phone or thank other people in person so cards are rarely written. In the UK, handwritten cards tend to follow a specific structure but I am never sure which one I should use, in which order to different people in different situations. I therefore tend to avoid cards or buy ready-made cards and just add my signature.
A curriculum vitae is generally difficult to write. My first CV was untidy, quite long and contained too much information so I had to ask a more experienced friend to help me.
All texts, even the simplest everyday ones, are written for a purpose. When we write, we have this purpose and our readers in mind and this helps us to structure our texts.
Some texts are easy to write because we understand their purpose, they are part of our culture and we are familiar with their typical structure. However, approaching unfamiliar text types may be challenging unless we know why we are writing them and how they should be organised. In many cases a model of a particular type of text or a more experienced person can help.
The next sections introduce some texts you may not be familiar with. You will look at texts written by university students, the reasons why they are written and the ways in which they are organised.
At British universities, students are asked to carry out written tasks called assignments and submit them to their tutors by a set date. Assignments are part of the assessment process and, while most assignments are completed at home, some will take the form of a formal examination.
Like any other piece of writing you have written so far, assignments are written for a reason and follow a specific structure. The key is to understand these reasons and learn which structure you are expected to follow.
Students are asked to write assignments for a number of reasons:
Depending on the specific purpose of each assignment, university students are asked to write a range of assignment types. For example, they use summaries and definitions to simply describe what they have learned from their readings. They use essays to discuss what they have learned and to show that they can use their learning to make sense of real world situations. Finally, they use reports to describe or analyse a situation and provide recommendations.
The next section looks more closely at assignment types, their purpose and structure.
There is a wide range of assignment types that students may be asked to produce during their university studies. Some assignments might require them to write single-sentence responses, while others might ask them to write an extended response of 600, 800 or even 2000 words.
In this video three Open University tutors talk about the assignments students are required to complete for the courses they teach:
It may be more common to find one kind of assignment type in a particular subject than in others. For example, science assignments may consist of short questions that require short answers, while a social sciences assignment might consist of short answers explaining a definition or essays explaining a theory. Regardless of the subject they are studying, students will probably have to write a variety of assignment types during their studies.
You are now going to gain an overview of some of the assignment types that you are likely to encounter in your university studies. Look at the list below of descriptions of various types of assignment. Match each assignment type with its appropriate description.
An assignment that gives detailed information and analysis about a topic; it will often have different sections, with headings that have different functions; there is an introduction, different sections and a conclusion with recommendations
Short definition and explanation
A word or concept is briefly defined and explained
An assignment that focuses on one topic; it has an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion
Short-answer exercise
Brief answers in response to questions; the contents of one answer is not necessarily directly connected with the next
A short account of the content of something you have read, heard or viewed without details
a. An assignment that gives detailed information and analysis about a topic; it will often have different sections, with headings that have different functions; there is an introduction, different sections and a conclusion with recommendations
b. A word or concept is briefly defined and explained
c. Brief answers in response to questions; the contents of one answer is not necessarily directly connected with the next
d. A short account of the content of something you have read, heard or viewed without details
e. An assignment that focuses on one topic; it has an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion
During your university studies, you will be asked to complete a variety of assignment tasks to demonstrate what you have learned. Having a good understanding of what is required in the various assignments that you are asked to produce for your university modules will help you fulfil the task and get better marks.
Writing a university assignment can be difficult. The following activity identifies the main challenges.
Below is a list of challenges typically experienced by students who are new to assignment writing. Think of your experience of writing longer and possibly formal texts. For example, you may have had to write a job application or a formal email. If you haven’t had such experiences, you may want to think back to your school experiences. Have you ever experienced any of the challenges listed below?
Type your comments in the box before comparing them with mine.
The main problems students experience are caused by lack of experience and, in particular, difficulty in getting started. These difficulties arise when students have problems understanding the question and the way in which essays and reports should be organised. Some see assignment writing as daunting as it is a completely new experience.
The next section will address these challenges by focusing on the writing process.
Writing a successful assignment is less daunting if it is seen as a process consisting of several manageable steps. You will probably be familiar with some of these steps already: for example writing notes, putting ideas in order, selecting ideas to include, reviewing and rewriting what you have already written in order to improve it.
Another key point is that anyone writing an essay has to give themselves enough time. Generally the best assignments result from doing a little at a time over a period of days, rather than attempting to complete an assignment in one evening.
In this section you will look at this step-by-step process.
In the next activity you will look in more detail at the challenges often faced by students and the strategies they can use to complete an essay.
In the videos below, three students describe their writing process. They also mention the challenges they face and some of the strategies they use. Watch the videos and identify the challenges and strategies each student uses. Note them in the boxes below before comparing your answers with mine.
Coping with university writing is about developing strategies that help to meet a range of challenges. These students seem to have been successful in essay writing despite the various challenges they mention. They have dealt with those challenges by adopting strategies for planning what they are going to write, structuring the content of their essays and reviewing the text over and over again.
The next activity introduces you to a method that exploits all the strategies described by the three students.
In this activity you are introduced to the different stages of the essay-writing process. This process starts with activities that include reading (understanding the ideas of others), brainstorming (thinking of all you know about the topic) and note making, and proceeds through one or more cycles until you feel you have produced a full and correct answer.
The boxes show the eight stages in the process of completing an assignment. Drag each stage into the relevant blank box in the diagram.
Writing a university assignment involves going through a series of stages. It is quite normal for all writers to want to go through the cycle more than once. This may happen for many reasons. For example they may feel that they haven’t quite answered the question or they may want to go back to their readings and notes to find additional relevant material.
Many students find that the habit of breaking their writing process into manageable steps helps them not only to write university assignments but also other pieces of writing such as workplace documents.
In the next two sections you will learn how to plan an essay and a report.
Before writing an essay, it is important to take the time to understand its structure as this provides a useful starting point. A typical essay includes an introduction, the main body of the text, a conclusion and a list of references (Figure 3).
The structure of an essay consists of the introduction, the main body, the conclusion and the references.
While this is a simple structure, students often wonder what should be included in the main body of the essay. In this section you will learn how carefully reading the assignment question and carrying out some simple tasks can help you to plan the content of the main body of the essay.
Answering an essay question is only possible if a student knows and understands it. Reading the essay question is therefore a very important step that must be completed before starting the writing process.
Now answer the following question:
What is the first thing students should do after reading the assignment question?
Write a plan of their essay using tables or diagrams
Find the words that explain what they are required to do
Start looking for the information they can use in the essay
The correct answer is b.
It is important to carefully study the key words contained in the assignment question to find out what it is asking the student to do. These key words as known as instruction words and content words.
Having a good understanding of instruction words will help you to identify what type of task you are being asked to do, which, in turn, makes it more likely that an assignment answer will be relevant. These words may seem complex but they are very often used in assignment questions. Understanding instruction words makes it easier to understand the requirements of most assignments.
In the next activity you will learn some of the key words used in assignment questions.
Listed below are eight of the most common instruction words. Match each one with its definition.
Compare and contrast
Look for differences and similarities between two or more concepts or things in an organised way
Discuss/to what extent
Give reasons for and against an idea
Make an idea clear by giving an example
Give a shortened version of a written or spoken item, stating only the key points
Give a detailed account of something such as characteristics, a reading or an experience
Examine something to judge its value, importance, quality, or effectiveness
Take apart an idea and examine it in great detail in order to understand it
Give details, clarify meaning or give reasons
a. Give details, clarify meaning or give reasons
b. Take apart an idea and examine it in great detail in order to understand it
c. Give a detailed account of something such as characteristics, a reading or an experience
d. Examine something to judge its value, importance, quality, or effectiveness
e. Make an idea clear by giving an example
f. Give a shortened version of a written or spoken item, stating only the key points
g. Look for differences and similarities between two or more concepts or things in an organised way
h. Give reasons for and against an idea
Having understood what type of task is required, you need to find out what content you have to focus on. This is done by identifying the content words.
The content words are words that express key ideas that you are expected to write about. In the following example of an essay title, the content words are highlighted:
Using examples from Chapter 3, describe some biological factors that influence the health of the individual (approximately 600 words).
Once the content words and the instruction words (in this case, using examples and describe ) are clear, you should be able to rephrase the title to clarify it:
What are the biological factors that influence people’s health? I need to identify and give details about a few biological factors, and explain how each can affect health. I need to give some examples from Chapter 3 of my module materials to illustrate my explanation s .
In the next activity you will practise identifying instruction and content words, and rephrasing questions into a simpler format.
Below are four essay questions. For each one complete the following tasks:
At this stage, you are not expected to know the content or the authors mentioned in these questions. Your purpose for reading them is to understand what each question asks you to do. Type your notes in the boxes before comparing your answers with mine.
Find similarities and differences between your education and either your mother’s or your father’s education. Decide which of these similarities and differences are the most important and explain why this is the case.
Decide which primate species you would prioritise for conservation action and explain how you came to this conclusion.
Which primate species is it essential to protect from extinction as soon as possible? Why should each of these species be prioritised?
The content word is:.
Codeswitching describes the habit bi-lingual people have of using more than one language when they talk to each other.
Give many reasons why people codeswitch
What are the causes of deforestation? Write about the negative effects of deforestation. Write down your ideas about how good the solutions to the problems are.
The next stage is to write a draft outline. This can only be written on the basis of a full understanding of the question. The first draft outline helps to decide what to look for in any readings. However, after reading, it is normal to update the draft outline to reflect your improved understanding of the subject.
Look at this task:
Describe government interventions which may help people to tackle obesity . To what extent do you think these interventions can be effective ? (800 words)
As this task asks the student to describe government interventions, each section of the essay will need to provide details about one type of intervention. It is also important to consider situations and reasons why an intervention is likely to be effective as well as situations and reasons why it may fail. Each point should be illustrated with examples.
This is a possible outline:
Intervention type 1 – description – examples – why it can be effective?/not effective? + examples
Intervention type 2 – description – examples – why it can be effective?/not effective? + examples
Intervention type 3 – description – examples – why it can be effective?/not effective? + examples
Having written this plan it will be necessary to read the course materials to find:
You will now look again at the essay questions you analysed in Activity 9 and evaluate different outlines that can be used to answer them.
Below is a list of assignment tasks. For each assignment look at the outlines provided and make notes in response to these two questions:
Outline 1 | Outline 2 |
---|---|
Introduction | Introduction |
1st codeswitching technique + example | 1st reason for codeswitching + typical techniques + examples |
2nd codeswitching technique + example | 2nd reason for codeswitching + typical techniques + examples |
3rd codeswitching technique + example | 3rd reason for codeswitching + typical techniques + examples |
Conclusion | Conclusion |
Outline 1 | Outline 2 |
---|---|
Introduction | Introduction |
Why conservation is important | Primate species that should be prioritised – brief description |
Types of primate species | Reason to prioritise 1 + evidence + acknowledge reasons against |
Primate species becoming extinct | Reason to prioritise 2 + evidence + acknowledge reasons against |
The most important primate species | Reason to prioritise 3 + evidence + acknowledge reasons against |
Conclusion | Conclusion |
Outline 2 is the most appropriate because it directly answers the question by selecting one species and using each paragraph or section to clearly give reasons for this selection. For each reason, the writer also shows that they have considered and dismissed a contrasting viewpoint (e.g. a reason for not selecting this species). This adds strength to the points they make.
The themes covered by Outline 1 provide background information but fail to directly address the question. As the requirement is to write only 800 words there is no space to provide much background information. Some of this (e.g. reasons why conservation is necessary) could be included very concisely in the introduction.
Outline 1 | Outline 2 | Outline 3 |
---|---|---|
Introduction | Introduction | Introduction |
Point of comparison 1 (e.g. subjects studied) – similarities and differences – examples | ||
Point of comparison 2 (e.g. teaching quality) – similarities and differences – examples | ||
Point of comparison 3 – similarities and differences – examples | Conclusion | |
The most important points of comparison + reason | ||
Conclusion | ||
Conclusion |
Outline 1 answers the question because it identifies and develops several points of comparison and clearly compares and contrasts the two experiences. It also uses the last paragraph to indicate which one is the most important and why.
Outline 2 provides information about the two educational experiences but does not compare them. Therefore, this outline does not help to answer the question.
Outline 3 is also appropriate because it compares and contrasts the two experiences. However, the points of contrast need to be clearly mentioned when looking at similarities and differences. The last paragraph clearly indicates which points of contrast are the most important and why.
Outline 1 | Outline 2 |
---|---|
Introduction | Introduction |
Deforestation technique 1 | Cause 1 – description + example |
Deforestation technique 2 | Cause 2 – description + example |
Effect 1 – examples | Effect 1 – description + example |
Effect 2 – examples | Effect 2 – description + example |
Solution 1 – examples | Solution 1 – description + example + pros/cons |
Solution 2 – examples | Solution 2 – description + example + pros/cons |
Conclusion | Conclusion |
Outline 1 is inappropriate because it develops two paragraphs about deforestation techniques, which are not required. It does provide examples of possible effects and solutions but does not describe them. The solutions are neither described nor evaluated.
Outline 2 is appropriate because it clearly focuses on the three key content words included in the question: causes, effects and solutions. For each of these, it provides a description and some examples. When looking at solutions, it looks at reasons in favour of and against choosing them.
This section has highlighted the importance of fully understanding the essay question as this helps to produce an appropriate outline. In the next section you will look at ways to represent outlines visually through a diagram.
Many students find that diagrams can be useful when planning their essays. This is because diagrams help them to think in a visual way about their essays and the ideas they need to include in them.
Look again at this assignment question:
Describe the causes of deforestation, explain its negative effects and evaluate the solutions that have been implemented to date.
This assignment can be outlined using a mind map as shown in Figure 4.
At the centre of this mind map is a cloud labelled ‘deforestation’. From this cloud stem three branches. From one branch, labelled ‘causes’, stem three branches. From another branch labelled ‘effects’ also stem three branches. From the third branch, which is labelled ‘solutions’, stem two further branches labelled ‘solutions 1’ and ‘solutions 2’. From each of these branches stem two branches labelled ‘pros’ and ‘cons’. From each of these stem two branches.
The mind map can be used while reading about deforestation to add information that could be included in the essay.
Draw a mind map that can be used to plan the following essay and to record the most relevant information from readings.
Before designing your mind map, look again at the suggested outline for this question. When you have finished, compare your mind map with mine and read the comments.
While reading about this topic and using this mind map (Figure 5), it is possible to enter each of the three reasons, details about explanations, evidence and alternative views and more branches.
At the centre of this mind map is the word ‘conservation’. From this stem three branches labelled: Reason 1, Reason 2, Reason 3. From each of these branches stem three further branches labelled explanations, evidence and alternative view.
Sometimes just reading an assignment question is not sufficient to write a draft plan. You will now look at a science assignment that requires students to describe and explain but provides no information that could help them to write a plan.
The assignment title is:
Describe and explain the greenhouse effect.
Just reading this title is insufficient to outline a text easily because the title does not contain helpful key words such as cause, effect or similarities. Before planning it is therefore necessary to read about this effect. Having done this, information needs to be arranged into steps as this will help to plan the text.
The following activity provides a useful visual technique for planning the essay.
Watch the following video in which Open University science tutor Phil explains to Zorica how to plan the assignment by using a diagram to visualise the information she needs to include.
Now put the following steps into order described by Phil and Zorica.
Infrared radiation emitted from the Sun.
Absorption of infrared by the Earth.
Re-emission of infrared to the atmosphere.
Infrared absorbed by CO 2 and H 2 O.
This activity shows the how diagrams can be used to both identify and present the steps of a process at the pre-writing stage. Depending on the number of words the student is required to write, they can then write either a paragraph or a longer text outlining each of the stages of the process.
Reports differ from essays because they normally follow a more detailed standard structure. Knowing this standard structure makes planning easier as it is only necessary to decide what specific content to place in each of its parts and for what reason.
This structure depends on the subject. The next two sections illustrate the structure of a science or technology report, and of a business report.
Table 5 highlights the elements of a science or technology report, though the same general principles apply in other disciplines too.
Element | Purpose | Description |
---|---|---|
title | attracts the reader’s attention | concise phrase or sentence introducing the content |
abstract | gives a brief summary | short paragraph clarifying the scope of the report and the main findings |
introduction | gives the purpose of the investigation being reported | explains why the investigation was undertaken and gives essential background information |
main text | describes how the study was conducted describes how the study was conducted interprets results | the ‘meat’ of the report containing, for example (depending on the discipline): |
conclusions | describes what the study has shown | includes the meaning of the results of the investigation, what has been demonstrated and any recommendations for action |
When writing a report, it is necessary to assemble and order the material, perhaps under a set of headings (which can be added to or subdivided). The plan will help to include material that is relevant and to the point.
Business studies reports follow a structure that is very similar to those normally written to help management to make decisions. The main purpose of these reports is to describe a real life business situation and to provide a list of recommendations.
While the overall structure is similar to that of a science or a technology report, the main text is usually structured using a ‘business model’, i.e. a framework that helps the writer to analyse a situation by looking at its specific features.
The following assignment task is structured using a SWOT model. SWOT stands for:
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
In other words, it is a framework that analyses a business by looking at its strengths and weaknesses as well as at any opportunities it can exploit and the threats it faces.
Below is a business studies assignment question:
Use a SWOT model to analyse the multinational company Coca-Cola.
Table 6 shows how this report should be structured.
Element | Purpose | Description |
---|---|---|
Title | Attracts the reader's attention | Concise phrase or sentence introducing the content |
Executive summary | Gives a brief summary | Section or paragraph explaining the purpose of the report, the main findings and the recommendations |
Introduction | Gives the purpose of the investigation being reported | Paragraph providing background information and explaining why the investigation was required |
Method | Explains how the investigation was conducted | Explains why a particular model has been used and how the data was collected |
Analysis | Examines the situation in great detail using the SWOT categories | Four sections or paragraphs under the following headings: |
Conclusion | Describes what the study has shown | Paragraph briefly summarising the findings, i.e. the content of the analysis and highlighting the key factors |
Recommendations | Suggests future action | Paragraph or bullet point list of recommendations based on the findings |
Well done, you’ve just completed the last of the activities for this week's study before the weekly quiz.
Remember the quizzes will let you check your understanding of what you have learned while also helping to prepare you for the badge quiz at the end of Week 4. By completing the weekly quiz you’ll also know how the quizzes work before you complete the badge quiz. So, it is a good idea to make time for them if you can.
Week 3 practice quiz .
Open the quiz in a new tab or window (by holding ctrl [or cmd on a Mac] when you click the link).
This week you looked at everyday writing, at different types of university assignments and at useful ways to break the writing process into manageable steps.
These are this week’s key learning points:
You can now go to Week 4 .
This course was written by Anna Calvi.
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The material acknowledged below is Proprietary and used under licence (not subject to Creative Commons Licence). Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for permission to reproduce material in this unit:
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The research process, explore more of umgc.
When tasked with writing a research paper, you are able to “dig in” to a topic, idea, theme, or question in greater detail. In your academic career, you will be assigned several assignments that require you to “research” something and then write about it. Sometimes you can choose a topic and sometimes a topic is assigned to you.
Either way, look at this assignment as an opportunity to learn more about something and to add your voice to the discourse community about said topic. Your professor is assigning you the task to give you a chance to learn more about something and then share that newfound knowledge with the professor and your academic peers. In this way, you contribute meaningfully to the existing scholarship in that subject area. You are then creating a research space for yourself and for other researchers who may follow you.
Mailing Address: 3501 University Blvd. East, Adelphi, MD 20783 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License . © 2022 UMGC. All links to external sites were verified at the time of publication. UMGC is not responsible for the validity or integrity of information located at external sites.
Chapter 1: College Writing
How Does College Writing Differ from Workplace Writing?
What Is College Writing?
Why So Much Emphasis on Writing?
Chapter 2: The Writing Process
Doing Exploratory Research
Getting from Notes to Your Draft
Introduction
Prewriting - Techniques to Get Started - Mining Your Intuition
Prewriting: Targeting Your Audience
Prewriting: Techniques to Get Started
Prewriting: Understanding Your Assignment
Rewriting: Being Your Own Critic
Rewriting: Creating a Revision Strategy
Rewriting: Getting Feedback
Rewriting: The Final Draft
Techniques to Get Started - Outlining
Techniques to Get Started - Using Systematic Techniques
Thesis Statement and Controlling Idea
Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Freewriting
Writing: Getting from Notes to Your Draft - Summarizing Your Ideas
Writing: Outlining What You Will Write
Chapter 3: Thinking Strategies
A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone
A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone: Style Through Vocabulary and Diction
Critical Strategies and Writing
Critical Strategies and Writing: Analysis
Critical Strategies and Writing: Evaluation
Critical Strategies and Writing: Persuasion
Critical Strategies and Writing: Synthesis
Developing a Paper Using Strategies
Kinds of Assignments You Will Write
Patterns for Presenting Information
Patterns for Presenting Information: Critiques
Patterns for Presenting Information: Discussing Raw Data
Patterns for Presenting Information: General-to-Specific Pattern
Patterns for Presenting Information: Problem-Cause-Solution Pattern
Patterns for Presenting Information: Specific-to-General Pattern
Patterns for Presenting Information: Summaries and Abstracts
Supporting with Research and Examples
Writing Essay Examinations
Writing Essay Examinations: Make Your Answer Relevant and Complete
Writing Essay Examinations: Organize Thinking Before Writing
Writing Essay Examinations: Read and Understand the Question
Chapter 4: The Research Process
Planning and Writing a Research Paper
Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Ask a Research Question
Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Cite Sources
Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Collect Evidence
Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Decide Your Point of View, or Role, for Your Research
Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Draw Conclusions
Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Find a Topic and Get an Overview
Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Manage Your Resources
Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Outline
Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Survey the Literature
Planning and Writing a Research Paper: Work Your Sources into Your Research Writing
Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Human Resources
Research Resources: What Are Research Resources?
Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found?
Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Electronic Resources
Research Resources: Where Are Research Resources Found? - Print Resources
Structuring the Research Paper: Formal Research Structure
Structuring the Research Paper: Informal Research Structure
The Nature of Research
The Research Assignment: How Should Research Sources Be Evaluated?
The Research Assignment: When Is Research Needed?
The Research Assignment: Why Perform Research?
Chapter 5: Academic Integrity
Academic Integrity
Giving Credit to Sources
Giving Credit to Sources: Copyright Laws
Giving Credit to Sources: Documentation
Giving Credit to Sources: Style Guides
Integrating Sources
Practicing Academic Integrity
Practicing Academic Integrity: Keeping Accurate Records
Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material
Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Paraphrasing Your Source
Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Quoting Your Source
Practicing Academic Integrity: Managing Source Material - Summarizing Your Sources
Types of Documentation
Types of Documentation: Bibliographies and Source Lists
Types of Documentation: Citing World Wide Web Sources
Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations
Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - APA Style
Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - CSE/CBE Style
Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - Chicago Style
Types of Documentation: In-Text or Parenthetical Citations - MLA Style
Types of Documentation: Note Citations
Chapter 6: Using Library Resources
Finding Library Resources
Chapter 7: Assessing Your Writing
How Is Writing Graded?
How Is Writing Graded?: A General Assessment Tool
The Draft Stage
The Draft Stage: The First Draft
The Draft Stage: The Revision Process and the Final Draft
The Draft Stage: Using Feedback
The Research Stage
Using Assessment to Improve Your Writing
Chapter 8: Other Frequently Assigned Papers
Reviews and Reaction Papers: Article and Book Reviews
Reviews and Reaction Papers: Reaction Papers
Writing Arguments
Writing Arguments: Adapting the Argument Structure
Writing Arguments: Purposes of Argument
Writing Arguments: References to Consult for Writing Arguments
Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Anticipate Active Opposition
Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Determine Your Organization
Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Develop Your Argument
Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Introduce Your Argument
Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - State Your Thesis or Proposition
Writing Arguments: Steps to Writing an Argument - Write Your Conclusion
Writing Arguments: Types of Argument
Dictionaries
General Style Manuals
Researching on the Internet
Special Style Manuals
Writing Handbooks
Collaborative Writing: Assignments to Accompany the Group Project
Collaborative Writing: Informal Progress Report
Collaborative Writing: Issues to Resolve
Collaborative Writing: Methodology
Collaborative Writing: Peer Evaluation
Collaborative Writing: Tasks of Collaborative Writing Group Members
Collaborative Writing: Writing Plan
General Introduction
Peer Reviewing
Working with Your Instructor’s Comments and Grades
Devising a Writing Project Plan and Schedule
Reviewing Your Plan with Others
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1. Keep it real. It’s normal to want to make a good impression on the school of your choice, but it’s also important to show who you really are. So just be yourself! Compelling stories might not be perfectly linear or have a happy ending, and that’s OK. It’s best to be authentic instead of telling schools what you think they want to hear.
2. Be reflective . Think about how you’ve changed during high school. How have you grown and improved? What makes you feel ready for college, and how do you hope to contribute to the campus community and society at large?
3. Look to the future. Consider your reasons for attending college. What do you hope to gain from your education? What about college excites you the most, and what would you like to do after you graduate? Answering these questions will not only give colleges insight into the kind of student you’ll be, but it will also give you the personal insight you’ll need to choose the school that’s right for you.
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We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.
In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.
If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.
Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.
When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat
You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.
When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).
The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.
The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:
Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):
Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.
Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.
Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.
The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.
Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.
Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).
You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references—four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them.
We’ve also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications ?
On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.
For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.
Update: APA Journals has published policies on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials .
We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000
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