Sharon’s Assignment Writing Tips

15 The point of writing assignments is 1) to show that you

can apply the skills and knowledge acquired in the
course books –at this point in your studies you should
not need to bring in material from outside the course
unless specifically directed to do so . 2) To develop
your essay writing skills-we do not expect them to
come fully formed!

16 Read the Question(s) Have a quick look at the

assignment question(s) for the part of the course you
are working on.

17Read the appropriate chapters with the assignment

question in mind-but don’t just ignore the rest of the
course material, you may need skills you learn there
later on!

18 Brainstorm -jot down anything and everything that

comes to mind on the subject-don’t reject anything at
this point.

19 Now read the question again very carefully,

including the guidance notes. You can then look at your
jottings and cut out what is irrelevant.

20 Remember that you should answer the whole

question and nothing but the question. If in doubt
miss it out because if you have doubts about a point
being relevant it probably isn’t.

21Planning

22Look at your list of ideas and put them in order .Try out
different ways of doing this to see which you prefer but
try to make one point follow logically from the next.
23 Now you can expand on your list of ideas, do you need
need to illustrate with examples, give evidence,
quotations etc? Try to write in your own words but feel
free to add small quotations from primary sources,
such as the text(s) that you are writing about in your
essay. Your quotes will need referencing using the
method explained in the Course Companion and the
Assignment Booklet.

24Usually you will need one paragraph for each point and
as a rough average guide, 3 or 4 paragraphs to a page.

25Write in clear English thinking about punctuation and

grammar.

26Check that you have written the question as a title.

Does that give sufficient information to for your reader
to know what you are writing about? If not you may
need to say something by way of an introduction.
(Imagine that you are writing not for me but for an
intelligent reader who has not read your course books.

27Put it away for at least an hour or so then read it

through. It helps to read it aloud or to someone else.
They need not know about the subject but if they keep
saying “What does that mean” you probably need to
rewrite that bit of the answer.

28 Then check that every part of it is directed at

answering the question. You may need to make one
redraft but don’t overwork it.

29 Don’t forget to provide a bibliography. You should list

texts that you have quoted from and your background
reading such as the relevant course book.chapter.
Again there is guidance in the Course Companion and
the Assignment Booklet.