What you will learn
Lecturers and tutors will tell you that the single biggest mistake students make with their early assignments is to misinterpret what the assignment is asking them to do. Before you begin reading or writing for your assignment, it is important to analyse and understand both the question and the marking rubric. After completing this module, you will have learned how to:
Completing assignments at university is a lot like undertaking a road trip. There’s a few destinations you will have to pass through: researching, reading, writing and referencing, but at times you might find yourself doubling back and revisiting some of the same tasks. It’s not necessarily going to be a linear progression.
It makes you more aware of the words and the brief in its entirety.
Keywords are the main concepts, subjects, or topics in your assignment. They will form the basis of your research and are discussed further in the module Finding Information.
Directive verbs give us instructions about what we are required to do.
Re-read the unit outline. What are the unit’s stated learning outcomes? What have you heard in lectures or been told to read that indicates the main aspects of the unit?
The marking guide (often called a marking rubric) is what the marker will use to assess your work. The rubric will tell you what the marker is looking to find in your assignment and the relative value of the different elements in terms of marks.
You will likely be provided instructions that outline the type of academic writing you should do, the types and number of sources you can use, the word limit, the referencing style, even the font size and spacing. If you want to maximise your assignment marks, follow these instructions closely!
The assignment question will include:
For more information about how to structure and write each assignment type, visit the writing guide.
Analyse the following assignment question and work through the three activities to identify the keywords, directive verbs, and limiting words that you will need to consider.
Directive verbs are those that give instructions about what you are required to do in an assignment. Below are six commonly used directive verbs.
The directive verbs presented above are only some of those that may appear in your assignment question. Below is a list of common directive verbs. If the verb used in your question is not listed and you’re not sure of its meaning, look it up in a dictionary.
Fast forward
You’ll learn more about the different forms of academic writing including essays, reports, reflective writing, case studies and literature reviews in our Writing module.