My Top Tips on How You Should Plan to Write an Assignment

I have written a fair share of assignments especially the Level 7 CIPD. I now mark assignments and help my students with how to write assignments. So below are my quick 4 top tips which should help all learners when you come to write your assignments.

Don’t assume, but seek to understand

Not all assignments are the same. You need to find out if is it an academic essay, a business report, an academic discussion piece, a literature review, a reflective task, an analysis of case studies, or something else. It is important to understand this as it will help you with how you write, for example, in an academic essay you need to cite your resources, in a business report is a bit more free-flowing and here you generally follow the storytelling method. Now that you know what to write next you need to plan for it.

Failing to plan is planning to fail

Your plan for the assignment should be around getting your sources together, developing your structure for each section, knowing what you are going to write, what are your arguments, how are you going to construct and present them, and how many words should each section be, how many references should you cite, what are the key references for your topic, how much time are you going to be spending on writing, when do you need to submit it buy, who will proofread this for you, how many times are you going to over it. These are all key planning questions that you need to be aware of.

Writing is the painting of the voice

Once you have sorted the above two points now you are ready to write. The key here is to write small chunks regularly. Cramming it all in one go will only lead to poor quality of work which will lead to poor grades being awarded. You need to take your time in writing, making sure you have the focus and the deep thinking which goes into writing. In academic writing, you will often have sections like an introduction, main body, conclusion, references, and maybe an appendix. If the chosen topic is something which you have an interest in, then you may see that the writing session becomes therapeutic. It is through this deep connection when that great quality assignment writing is produced. At the same time, you need to be aware that you must have the right mental state, to start writing. If you are tired from a long day and you are struggling to write even a few sentences, this is the time to call it a day and do something else. You need to listen to your mind and body too.

Post-production is where coal becomes a precious gem

You have done all the hard work now it’s time to polish your assignment but how do you do it? This is the stage where you should get back to it after 24 to 48 hours later and start reading your assignment, the key here to ask does it make sense at all. You could give it to someone you know who could proofread it for you and let you know what they think of it, did they understand the key themes and messages. Besides this, you should be looking at your sentence structures, and the flow, and check the spelling and grammar. You should check your headings and subheadings for consistency, does it flow ok, check your references, whether are they in right referencing format, and if you have used diagrams and figures have you explained what these are? The more you re-read your work and pick out all the issues the more chances you have to write a gem, in other words, a first-class assignment.

Finally, in conclusion, let me just say this

Assignments are never hard if you prepare for them thoroughly. All you need is a bit of planning, and time adds some genuine effort and hopefully, you will have a well-written thought-provoking assignment. End of the day, don’t just write any assignment but write THE assignment you are meant to write.

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