Writing an academic assignment? A few tips to help you get started

The academic year can be a busy time for students, particularly when several assignments and assessments seem to arrive at once.

If you are working on an academic essay, report or case study, here are a few practical tips that can help:

1. Give your work a clear structure.
Think of your assignment as a story. It needs a beginning, middle and end: an introduction that sets out what you are going to address, a main body that develops your argument, and a conclusion that brings the key points together.

2. Support your points with academic evidence.
Your own ideas and analysis are important, but academic writing requires you to support the points you make with appropriate research and sources.

3. Reference carefully.
Use the referencing guidance provided by your university or college and make sure you understand the referencing style you are expected to use.

4. Let your own voice come through.
Academic writing doesn’t mean filling an assignment with quotations. Read and understand your sources, explain the ideas in your own words and reference the original author appropriately.

5. Leave time to edit and proofread.
A final read-through can make a significant difference. Look at the structure, clarity, spelling, referencing and whether you have actually answered the question you were asked.

And finally, if you have several assessments ahead of you, try not to look at everything at once. Take it one assignment at a time.

Good luck to everyone working through assignments and assessments at the moment.