What do you do
when you get an assignment from your college or university? Do you begin
drafting immediately? Or do you just freak out that you have got so many
assignments and exams and you don’t know how to finish them on time? Do you
leave it until the last minute and then frantically work upon it?
If this sounds
familiar to you, then you are in luck.
Today I am going
to tell you how to write an assignment easily. Let’s begin.
Tip 1: Make proper notes
The first thing
you need to do when you receive an assignment is to skim and scan it for
essential details and make proper notes out of it. Note the following information:
• The final date of assignment submission
• Word limit of the assignment
• The keywords like ‘describe’, ‘analyze’,
‘Compare & contrast’, ‘Explain’, ‘Justify’ and ‘Discuss’.
If your
an assignment is formal and you have to write in the 3rd person, or if informal
then you have to write in the 1st person. Most written assignments are in the
3rd person that means that you do not use personal pronouns like ‘I’ or ‘My’. Some
assignments are informal, and you can write in 1st person using ‘I’ or ‘My’.
Tip 2: Plan well
Plan out all the
paragraphs and the information you need to include in the text. You need an
introduction and conclusion and in between will be the paragraphs containing
all your information. You might like to picture it as a sandwich or burger. All
the ingredients are placed in a certain order in the burger, and the top and the
bottom part is the introduction and conclusion.
Tip 3: Conduct a thorough research
Don’t just rely
on the first page that you find on the internet. Look for information in a
variety of sources like reliable web pages, books, magazines, newspaper
articles, databases, journals, and many more. Find whatever is relevant to your
assignment topic.
Tip 4: Say NO to plagiarism
Do not copy and
paste somebody else’s work and pass it off as your own. Plagiarism is a big No!
No! You would not take an art form (as
that of Mona Lisa) and pass it as of your own, the same applies to information
in the text. Even if you copy the sentences line by line, do not forget to cite
references. To check any traces of plagiarism.
Tip 5: Write the draft
Your first copy
is your draft. It is not going to be perfect, that’s why it is called a draft.
Transfer the information that you have found during your research in complete
sentences. Stay away from writing really long sentences. If a sentence goes
over 20 words, check whether it makes sense and try to break it into smaller
sentences. When typing your assignment into a computer, make sure that you save
your work. It is better to keep a backup copy on an external hard drive or USB
device.
Tip 6: Proofread and Edit your assignments
Read your work
out loud or read it to somebody else. Check for spelling and grammatical
errors. If you are using Microsoft Word, you will see a red line under the word
if you spell it wrong. You will see a
green line under the word if it requires revising or has the wrong punctuation.
For example, you
meant to write ‘Write the spellings correctly’ but ended up writing ‘Right the
spelling correctly.’
Mistakes similar
to these can be addressed when you decide to proofread your paper.
If you have
worked through the steps of planning, drafting and writing your assignment, you
can submit a flawless paper before the expiry of the deadline. By following the
above top-notch tips, you can un-complicate the task of assignment writing.
