John, a Specialist Learning Adviser from our Disability Team, provides some top tips for all types of learners on getting started with your assignment.

Getting a new assignment brief can be daunting. Reading it for the first time can leave you with a mixture of emotions – excited, anxious, irritated or sometimes completely overwhelmed. It can seem like an impossible mountain to climb. Procrastination may kick in.

As we all know however, the assignment doesn’t ever quite go away. It might not be at the front of your mind, but it’s definitely somewhere lurking in the recesses, sprinkling your day with occasional tinges of anxiety, or waking you up in the night with that annoying voice: ‘Shouldn’t you have started that assignment by now?’

If you can make a start, at least you then know what it is you’re dealing with, and you’ll have a much better idea of how long it might take you to complete. So, try to make in-roads as soon as you can.

Two common questions that come up are ‘what exactly is this brief asking me to do?’ and ‘where do I start?’

At this point take a deep breath, give yourself some time and approach the assignment as positively as you can. Choose the right space for you to work in and the right time of day when you may feel at your calmest. It has been found that anxiety and stress interfere with our thinking process and therefore inhibits learning. It becomes harder to interpret what’s in front of us.

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” – Abraham Lincoln

(Of course we might be better off planting more trees … but you get the point)

With this in mind, here are 5 simple measures you can take to get started on your assignment.

STEP 1

Make the brief easier to read.

Create a single document and paste in all the crucial information – the assignment brief and the learning outcomes. Convert your assignment brief into a list of instructions. Change the spacing. Delete any repeated information.

This will mean you’re less likely to accidentally miss something.

Before:

After:

TIP: If there is anything you’re not sure about, this is a good point at which to make a note of any questions you may have for your tutor.

STEP 2

Use colour to highlight key information.

Use the highlighter tool to note or draw your attention to things. You can also use it to remind you that you have a task to do that you haven’t yet done. 

TIP: There are several highlighter and text colours. You could code each colour for your own needs.

STEP 3

Turn instructions into questions.

Creating questions invites us to answer them, clarifying in our minds the focus and sequence of each section. It can also give some prompts when you’re struggling to find the words to start a sentence. In the example below: Q. What is the current NICE guidance? A. The current NICE guideline in… states that…..

Before:

After:

STEP 4

Create a bulleted list of points.

As you start gathering information, create a framework of the main points. You may be more of a ‘diver writer’, someone who likes just to throw themselves in. Anxiety can sometimes drive us to get words onto the page but try to resist the temptation. It’s much easier to delete or amend a bullet point than it is a whole paragraph and much less time consuming. You can also easily add to it later, as your understanding of the topic develops with further reading.

You can also get a sense of how limited you are in word count for each point, encouraging you to be concise in your writing.

Tip: Keep building these points up. Each bullet point could have sub points.

STEP 5

Be kind to your future self!

Once you’ve sketched out your plan, you may not revisit it for days, even weeks. Will you know where you left off? You can spend a lot of time just simply catching up with where you were, so, leave it in a condition that’s easier to pick up.

Build up the plan gradually and only start writing full paragraphs when you’re happy with the basic structure and content (imagine you’re creating a big sculpture: think chicken wire and clay – rather than stone and chisel!). This could dramatically reduce the time required later for editing.

And finally…  Keep your references organised.

You may have your own system that works for you such as creating a separate table or using reference management tools such as RefWorks which is great. You could also simply summarise the basic point of each reference as you go, adding it to your plan.

Whatever your approach, try to make sure you keep tidying it as you go. It’ll be much easier to navigate when you return to it.

If you create a well-considered, structured plan, you’ll feel much more in control of the direction the assignment is going in and your future self will be very grateful!

Need further support with an assignment? Contact the appropriate Student Services Team via the Student Enquiry Point.

By John Cunningham, Specialist Learning Advisor.