Assignments… the bane of every student (well those who are not as interested in studying). As long as you are a student, you have to deal with assignments one way or another. But we are here to tell you, that it doesn’t have to be a dreaded task. You can make it quite easy on yourself, thereby saving time for more entertaining prospects as well as getting better grades.
How is that possible, you ask? Easy, all it takes is an internet connection and various resources will open up for you. In this article, we will check out some tips that can help you utilize these sources as well as your own intellect to get better at creating assignments.
1. Allocate Your Time Effectively
All assignments have a deadline, and it is usually one week. Sometimes it can be longer or shorter. The thing is that the professors and teachers provide ample time for you to complete the assignment. You have to make efficient use of this time.
So, allocate a few days for research, then a few days for writing the assignment, and finally at least one day for proofreading and finalizing. In a typical one-week deadline, you can make do with this timetable:
- 2 days for research
- 3 days for writing
- 2 days for proofreading and finalizing
If you leave everything for the last day, then you will be under immense pressure and have a terrible experience. So, stick to your timetable to easily and effortlessly do your assignment.
2. Research Effectively
You will always need to research and gather data before you can start writing anything. That is obviously true for assignment writing as well. You will need to refer to the reading material in your curriculum or consult online sources to conduct your research.
This phase is one of the most important parts of writing a great assignment. Only if you have sufficient information, can you write a quality assignment? Without enough data, you will just be mincing words and wasting time.
That’s why in our timetable, we allocated just as much time to research as we did to writing.
3. Learn About the Grading Criteria and Any Special Requirements
Typically, all assignments follow a template that is provided by the school/college/institute. But sometimes teachers can give unique assignments with special instructions on how to do them. Do not ignore these special conditions.
Before you start writing anything, check the requirements and make sure that you are confident of fulfilling them.
You should also check the grading criteria for an assignment. An assignment always consists of a few different parts. According to the grading criteria, different parts can carry a different number of points.
By learning what is required to get a good score, you will be able to write a great assignment.
4. Create an Outline First
Now, that all the preamble is done, you can start working on writing the assignment. The first thing you need to do in that regard is to create an outline.
The outline does not need to be too detailed. You can simply list all the headings/sections of your assignment. Or you can go into more detail and even add the sub-sections as well.
Let’s take a look at the outline for this article as an example. When we started writing it, the outline looked something like this:
- Introduction
- Timetable
- Research
- Grading criteria
- Outline
- Clear writing
- Citations
- Proofreading
Outlines like these help you keep your direction and stop you from going off-topic. Whenever you feel “lost” during writing, you can consult the outline to remember what you need to write about.
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5. Keep Your Writing Clear and To the Point
When you start writing, remember that you only have to write one assignment but your teacher has to check a lot of them. Try to keep their circumstances in mind and make an effort to aid them.
The easiest way of doing that is to make sure that your writing is clear and easy to understand. Most assignments are not a test of literary skill (unless of course, the assignment is for a literature subject). So, you can benefit from using simple vocabulary, short sentences, and small paragraphs.
You can get help with this if you find it hard to intentionally limit your literary skills. An easy solution is to look for a paraphrase tool.
With the help of a paraphrase tool, you can make your content simpler to read. Of course, you can get help from other people as well. All it matters is that you ensure that your write-up is easily understood.
6. Add Citations for Any Source Material
During your research phase, you may have consulted many books, online articles, or even research papers to gather enough information. All the information from these sources is attributable to them.
In colleges and high school, it is necessary to add citations of any sources you use in your work. In fact, most grading criteria have points associated with this. This means that if you don’t add citations, you can lose points and get a bad grade on your assignment.
7. Always Proofread
In our “time allocating phase” we mentioned leaving enough time for proofreading and finalizing your assignment. That’s because proofreading is necessary for ensuring that your assignment has the smallest number of mistakes possible.
By proofreading, you can usually find out stuff like:
- Spelling mistakes
- Punctuation errors
- Wordy sentences
- In-correct facts
- Poor word choices
To get the most out of proofreading, always get another person to do it for you. Humans do not like to face their own mistakes and that can lead you to ignore them during proofreading. But another person will usually always find them. This way you can ensure that your proofreading is thorough.
Conclusion
And those were seven tips for improving your assignment writing skills. Of course, they may seem a bit too much for students who want to spend their time doing other entertaining things, but they are necessary as well.
Overall, writing your assignments by applying these tips will save you a lot of trouble. You won’t have to deal with the pressure that comes with an approaching deadline, your teacher will be happy with you, and you will have ample time for your hobbies.