What is a successful assignment?

Assignments are set to test your understanding of a topic.

The process of researching and writing an assignment helps you to develop and reinforce this understanding.

You will get higher marks if you

• meet the criteria that have been set
• produce a piece of work that shows that you have understood and answered the question
• support your arguments with relevant evidence taken from reliable and fully referenced sources of information. 

You will need to be well organized but there are tried and tested steps you can follow to get your assignment completed effectively. 

1. Make sure you understand what you need to do to answer the question                                 
2. Research the topic
3. Organise and structure your ideas                                                                         
4. Start writing your first draft
5. Write your final draft

 These 5 steps are from a useful guide to essay writing from the University of Southampton.

The most important thing for success in any assessment is to ensure that you fully understand what you have to do so that you meet the criteria and answer the question.

Keep going back to these to make sure you are keeping on track.

Planning to meet your deadline

Before you start to do any significant research or plan in any detail spend a few minutes making sure you understand the question. This will save you time.

Find out more about this in the next section.  Click on the right arrow below.