Click on the different tabs below to expand more information.

Understanding assignments

Interpreting the assignment

Interpreting the assignment

Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and jot down the answers.

Why did your lecturer ask you to do this particular task?
Who is your audience?
What kind of evidence do you need to support your ideas?
What kind of writing style is acceptable?

Try to look at the question from the point of view of the lecturer and recognise that there is a reason for giving you this assignment and for giving it to you at a particular point in the module. In every assignment, the tutor has a challenge for you. This challenge could be anything from demonstrating an ability to think clearly to demonstrating an ability to use the library. See the assignment not as a vague suggestion of what to do but as an opportunity to show that you can handle the course material as directed. Assignments give you more than a topic to discuss—they ask you to do something with the topic. Keep reminding yourself of that. Be careful to avoid the other extreme as well: do not read more into the assignment than what is actually there.

Why did your lecturer ask you to do this particular task?

Why did your lecturer ask you to do this particular task?

Of course, your lecturer has given you an assignment so that he or she will be able to assess your understanding of the course material and give you an appropriate grade. But there is more to it than that. Your lecturer has tried to design a learning experience of some kind. Your lecturer wants you to think about something in a particular way for a particular reason. If you read the course description at the beginning of your syllabus, review the assigned readings, and consider the assignment itself, you may begin to see the plan, purpose, or approach to the subject matter that your lecturer has created for you. If you still aren’t sure of the assignment’s goals, try asking the lecturer.

Who is your audience?

Who is your audience?

Now, what about your reader? Most undergraduates think of their audience as the lecturer. True, your lecturer is a good person to keep in mind as you write, but for the purposes of a good assignment, think of your audience as someone like your house mates: smart enough to understand a clear, logical argument, but not someone who already knows exactly what is going on in your particular assignment. Remember, even if the lecturer knows everything there is to know about your assignment topic, they still have to read your assignment and assess your understanding.

Aiming a paper at your audience happens in two ways: you make decisions about the tone and the level of information you want to convey.

Tone means the “voice” of your assignment. Should you be chatty, formal, or objective? Usually you will find some happy medium—you do not want to alienate your reader by sounding condescending or superior, but you do not want to, um, like, ‘totally dis the man, you know’? Eschew ostentatious erudition: some students think the way to sound academic is to use big words. Be careful—you can sound ridiculous, especially if you use the wrong big words.
The level of information you use depends on who you think your audience is. If you imagine your audience as your lecturer and that they already know everything you have to say, you may find yourself leaving out key information that can cause your argument to be unconvincing and illogical. However, you do not have to explain every single word or issue. Think about it, if you are telling your house mate what happened on your favourite science fiction TV show last night, you do not tell them every small detail: “First a dark-haired white man of average height, wearing a suit and carrying a flashlight, walked into the room. Then a purple alien with fifteen arms and at least three eyes turned around. Then the man smiled slightly. In the background, you could hear a clock ticking. The room was fairly dark and had at least two windows that I saw.” You also do not say, “This guy found some aliens. The end.” Find some balance of useful details that support your main point.

What kind of evidence do you need?

What kind of evidence do you need?

There are lots of different types of proof or evidence. Here are several common types:

Einstein proof—a famous (or not so famous) smart person agrees with you or says something you can use to back up your point. This kind of evidence can come from course materials or outside research. Be sure to reference these.
Case proof—a case in which your point works or the other person’s point does not work to demonstrate your idea. These may come from your experience, hypothetical situations, or from outside sources.
Fact proof—statistical, “objective” information.
For example proof—examples from the subject or text you are studying to back up your focused point. For example (!), you might quote several of Hamlet’s lines to try to establish that he is depressed.

Make sure you are clear about this part of the assignment, because your use of evidence will be crucial in writing a successful assignment. You are not just learning how to argue; you are learning how to argue with specific types of materials and ideas.

Tricks that don’t work

Your lecturers are not fooled when you:

Spend more time on the cover page than the essay — graphics and cool binders are no replacement for a well-written assignment.
Use huge fonts, wide margins, or extra spacing to make it look longer — these tricks are immediately obvious to the eye.
Use a assignment from another class that covered “sort of similar” material. Again, the lecturer has a particular task for you to fulfill in the assignment that usually relates to course material and lectures. Your other assignment may not cover this material.
Get all wacky and “creative” before you answer the question. Showing that you are able to think beyond the boundaries of a simple assignment can be good, but you must do what the assignment calls for first. Again, check with your lecturer. A humorous tone can be refreshing for someone grading a stack of assignments, but it will not get you a good grade if you have not fulfilled the task.

Ultimately, critical reading of assignments leads to skills in other types of reading and writing. If you get good at figuring out what the real goals of assignments are, you are going to be better at understanding the goals of all of your classes and areas of study.

Tricks that don’t work

Tricks that don’t work

Your lecturers are not fooled when you:

Spend more time on the cover page than the essay — graphics and cool binders are no replacement for a well-written assignment.
Use huge fonts, wide margins, or extra spacing to make it look longer — these tricks are immediately obvious to the eye.
Use a assignment from another class that covered “sort of similar” material. Again, the lecturer has a particular task for you to fulfill in the assignment that usually relates to course material and lectures. Your other assignment may not cover this material.
Get all wacky and “creative” before you answer the question. Showing that you are able to think beyond the boundaries of a simple assignment can be good, but you must do what the assignment calls for first. Again, check with your lecturer. A humorous tone can be refreshing for someone grading a stack of assignments, but it will not get you a good grade if you have not fulfilled the task.

Generating Ideas

Generating Ideas

Before beginning an assignment you might find it helpful to spend some time generating ideas. But what is meant by this?

Generating ideas refers to the gathering of information before an assignment. This information doesn’t have to be the literature you will refer to throughout your assignment, but rather the information you already know, and the ways you can use this to further your line of inquiry, such as:

What you already know and think about the topic
To see what ideas you can generate yourself
Develop questions to guide your literature search

(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014)

Generating ideas before writing or researching your assignment kick starts the critical thinking process by encouraging exploration of connections and relationships (divergent thinking) and formulating solutions (convergent thinking) (Hamilton, 2011, p. 8). It also allows you to engage with your assignment from your own, informed perspective, whilst creating and developing your own academic voice.

Overcoming writer’s block

Sometimes, it can be difficult to get going with your writing; no matter what stage in the process you are. A blank page might seem daunting; perhaps because you are feeling overwhelmed by a task and the amount of time you have to complete it; or because you genuinely have no idea where to start. You aren’t alone! There are several techniques to try to get your writing started:

Use a different colour for writing or typing to remind yourself that this is a draft and doesn’t need to be grammatically correct or perfect at this stage
Mark your paper with a doodle, a heading, a word to reduce the off-putting nature of a blank page
If you find it hard to write, then speak your ideas aloud, record it and replay
Find out which methods work for you in getting started i.e. mind maps, free writing, lists, question banks or free association (see Cottrell, 2019, p. 279)

Free writing

Free writing is also known as ‘spontaneous writing’ and is technique that is tried, tested and triumphant in breaking down the writer’s block brick-wall (Mewburn, Firth & Lehmann, 2019, p. 77). But what makes it useful? MIT (2014) propose that this technique encourages the free-flow of ideas without accidental censorship of your good ideas and it also assists with fluency in writing. If you’re unsure where to start, why not try this:

In three minutes, allow yourself to write about whatever comes into your mind. Write as fast as you can and capture all ideas as they arrive. Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation or spelling (Cottrell, 2019). You can use paper and pen, or type directly into a blank document. They key is to carry on writing without stopping or pausing! Remember, no one will ever see this draft, so it can take any format you like: mind maps, illustrations, a pretend letter or a shopping list. At the end of the 3 minutes, your brain is primed and ready to continue and your thoughts will be clearer. You can then try free writing again for a longer period of time (Hamilton, 2011).

Click here for a sample of freewriting

Moodling

Moodling is almost the opposite of free-writing. Put simply, moodling is the act of daydreaming with a pen or a pencil in your hand and allowing the free-flow of thought to come and go naturally, whilst refraining from writing until you are moved to do so (MIT, 2014). This technique encourages the Moodler to sit and let the mind wander without writing unless the urge to write occurs; completely guilt-free! This can be a useful technique when you already have ideas or information, but you aren’t quite sure how to put them together.

References

Hamilton, C. L. (2011). Anthem guide to essay writing. London, UK: Anthem Press.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (2014). The writing process: Step 1 Generating ideas. Retrieved from https://writingprocess.mit.edu/process/step-1-generate-ideas

Mewburn, I., Firth, K. & Lehmann, S. (2019). How to fix your academic writing trouble: A practical guide. New York, NY: Open University Press.

Improving your marks

Do you have your own method of writing and preparing for academic assignments, but you can’t seem to move beyond a particular marking boundary? You may find some of the following tips and advice helpful in improving your marks.

Know your mark boundaries

University assignments are marked in a very specific way; which might be very different to the marks or grades you have received in previous education. It is worth familiarising yourself with the marking schedules in order to understand the quality of your work and if you need to improve it.

Click here to see the Student Regulations Framework for Assessment Practices. 12.6 details the marking scheme that is followed for all summative assessments at Marjon. Please note that Levels 4, 5 & 6 refer to the marking of undergraduate programmes and Level 7 refers to Masters programmes. For specific marking criteria of a given assignment, please refer to your module handbook.

Take action!

Reaching the next marking boundary may seems impossible, but if you want to improve your marks, there are a number of actions you can take. Click here for the Study Skills guide to Improving Your Marks.

Further Reading: Cottrell, S. (2019). Fifty ways to boost your grades. London, UK: Red Globe Press. (Marjon Library shelf-mark 371.3028/COT)

Types of assessment

Formative assessment

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is an integral part of teaching and learning. It does not contribute to the final mark given for the module; instead it contributes to learning through providing feedback. It should indicate what is good about a piece of work and why this is good; it should also indicate what is not so good and how the work could be improved. Effective formative feedback will affect what the student and the teacher does next.

Summative assessment

Summative assessment

Summative assessment demonstrates the extent of a learner’s success in meeting the assessment criteria used to gauge the intended learning outcomes of a module or programme, and which contributes to the final mark given for the module. It is normally, though not always, used at the end of a unit of teaching. Summative assessment is used to quantify achievement, to reward achievement, to provide data for selection (to the next stage in education or to employment). For all these reasons the validity and reliability of summative assessment are of the greatest importance. Summative assessment can provide information that has formative/diagnostic value.

Diagnostic assessment

Diagnostic assessment

Like formative assessment, diagnostic assessment is intended to improve the learner’s experience and their level of achievement. However, diagnostic assessment looks backwards rather than forwards. It assesses what the learner already knows and/or the nature of difficulties that the learner might have, which, if undiagnosed, might limit their engagement in new learning. It is often used before teaching or when a problem arises.

Dynamic assessment

Dynamic assessment

Dynamic assessment measures what the student achieves when given some teaching in an unfamiliar topic or field. An example might be assessment of how much Swedish is learnt in a short block of teaching to students who have no prior knowledge of the language. It can be useful to assess potential for specific learning in the absence of relevant prior attainment, or to assess general learning potential for students who have a particularly disadvantaged background. It is often used in advance of the main body of teaching.

Synoptic assessment

Synoptic assessment

Synoptic assessment encourages students to combine elements of their learning from different parts of a programme and to show their accumulated knowledge and understanding of a topic or subject area. A synoptic assessment normally enables students to show their ability to integrate and apply their skills, knowledge and understanding with breadth and depth in the subject. It can help to test a student’s capability of applying the knowledge and understanding gained in one part of a programme to increase their understanding in other parts of the programme, or across the programme as a whole . Synoptic assessment can be part of other forms of assessment.

Criterion referenced assessment

Criterion referenced assessment

Each student’s achievement is judged against specific criteria. In principle no account is taken of how other students have performed. In practice, normative thinking can affect judgements of whether or not a specific criterion has been met. Reliability and validity should be assured through processes such as moderation, trial marking, and the collation of exemplars.

Ipsative assessment

Ipsative assessment

This is assessment against the student’s own previous standards. It can measure how well a particular task has been undertaken against the student’s average attainment, against their best work, or against their most recent piece of work. Ipsative assessment tends to correlate with effort, to promote effort-based attributions of success, and to enhance motivation to learn.