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Understanding Assignment Briefs

Learning Enhancement Team

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© Middlesex University

Variety is the Spice of Life!

Different Schools… ….Different Rules

– Can you use ‘I’ in an academic text?

– Should an essay have section headings?

– How long is a report?

– Do you use primary or secondary research?

– Footnotes, endnotes or no notes?

– Harvard style referencing or MLA? What about APA?

Which school are you in? What is acceptable and what is unacceptable in your field?

Always check in your module handbooks or with your tutor if you are concerned about appropriacy

Understanding Assignment Briefs | 2


Understanding Assignment Briefs Aims

—To analyse question types

—To look at common instructions

—To consider how the question can help planning

—To look at description and analysis



Planning

| 4 Understanding Assignment Briefs

Planning can make or break an assignment, especially those types of assignment(s) with long and complex briefs.

— Do you plan your writing?

— How do you plan?

— Do you always follow your plan?

— Does your plan change?


— Lack of Planning

• No direction

• No focus

— Failure to dissect the problem/issue/question

• Just writing about the general topic

— Weak introduction

• The reader can’t see what’s coming and why

— Letting the material ‘speak for itself’

• Vague, detached, aimless writing

– The reader is thinking “and..?”; “so what..?”


Weak Writing

Results in the text having no genuine meaning


Using The Question

You can use your assignment brief to plan your essay. This has a number of advantages, most notably the fact you can make sure you are answering the question, and you can plan your thread.



Essay Question

To make an essay question easier to tackle, it can be useful to divide the question into three parts:

— TOPIC – the broad phenomenon under examination

— FOCUS – the specific “what about” the broad phenomenon? What angle / perspective?

— INSTRUCTION – what you should do in the essay (i.e. Discuss / Analyse / Outline etc.)



Example

Consider the following essay question:

“Discuss the Strategic Importance to a Business of the Operations Function”

— TOPIC = The operations function

— FOCUS = The strategic importance to a business

— INSTRUCTION = Discuss



Task

With a partner, decide what is the TOPIC, FOCUS and INSTRUCTION is for these questions:

1. Discuss the main reasons leading to the breakdown of the Bretton Woods agreement.

2. Compare and contrast the urban problems of developed and less developed countries.

3. Account for the success of the mobile phone industry in Britain today.



Task

With a partner, decide what is the TOPIC, FOCUS and INSTRUCTION is for these questions:

1. Discuss the main reasons leading to the breakdown of the Bretton Woods agreement.

2. Compare and contrast the urban problems of developed and less developed countries.





Planning

Essays follow a General-to-Specific pattern

You can use the Topic and Focus to help you create the basic structure of your essays:


Bretton Woods

agreement –

what? Where?

Why? Who?

Breakdown –

reason one?

Reason two?

Reason three?

The AWL Open Workshop Essay Writing could also help you to improve your writing.


Planning

Essays follow a General-to-Specific pattern. Once you have the basic structure, you can focus on the Instruction – in this case, ‘Discuss’:

Discuss main reasons leading to the breakdown of the Bretton Wood Agreement:

— Reason one:

• Why? What effects? Complete or partial breakdown? Why? Any advantages? What? What? How does it compare to similar breakdowns? Could it have been avoided? Why? How? Why not?....

— Reason Two


— Reason Three


— How did these reasons result in the breakdown? Would it always have happened? Was one reason more significant? Why?/Were all the reasons cumulative? Why?



Instructions

1. DESCRIBE

2. DISCUSS

3. EVALUATE

4. EXAMINE

5. EXPLAIN

6. STATE

7. SUMMARISE

8. JUSTIFY

9. OUTLINE

10.RELATE

A. Give reasons for something

B. Look at carefully

C. Describe without details

D. Give the facts

E. Decide on the value of a theory

F. Give the main features of a theory omitting minor details

G. Present in brief clear form

H. Show how things are connected to each other

I. Consider all sides of an issue

J. Provide satisfactory reasons



Instructions

1. DESCRIBE

2. DISCUSS

3. EVALUATE

4. EXAMINE

5. EXPLAIN

6. STATE

7. SUMMARIZE

8. JUSTIFY

9. OUTLINE

10.RELATE

1. Give the facts

2. Consider all sides of an issue

3. Decide on the value of a theory

4. Look at carefully

5. Give reasons for something

6. Present in brief clear form

7. Describe without details

8. Provide satisfactory reasons

9. Give the main features of a theory omitting minor details

10. Show how things are connected to each other



Task

With the person next to you, look at your own assignment question. Use this to make a basic plan.

Presentation title | 15


Question Types

There are two common types of assignment question, direct and Quotation.

Direct Questions:

— Discuss the strategic importance to a business of the operations function

— Identify and critically discuss the major factors that can and should influence the pricing policy of exporting companies

Quotation Questions:

“Of course, managers should avoid treating their customers in an unethical manner. After all, in the long run, unethical behaviour towards customers

only serves to harm the firms’ own interests.”

Critically evaluate this statement with reference to examples illustrating at least two areas of the Marketing Mix.



Extent

‘Extent’ is another very commonly used word in essay questions. For example:

— “To what extent ...?”

— “Assess the extent to which ...”

— “To what extent do you agree that ...?”

— “[Quote] To what extent do you agree?”

— “[Quote] To what extent is this true?”

What does ‘extent’ mean? What do your lecturers expect from you?



Extent

Analyse this question. What do you need to consider?

“To what extent can we attribute high individual performance to employee training, learning and development?”

— High employee performance is [solely] due to training learning & development

— Training, learning & development is what produces / leads to / brings about high employee performance

— It is training learning & development that produces / leads to / brings about high employee performance



Extent

Analyse this question. What do you need to consider?


— to a massive extent

— to a huge extent

— to a significant extent

— to a certain extent

— to a limited extent

— to a very limited extent

— X plays a pivotal / central / fundamental / major / key / predominant / significant / limited / minor role in ...



Conclusion


Conclusion:

For these reasons, we can draw a number of conclusions. Firstly, this is a [highly] complex area in which a wide variety of different factors interplay / there are a number of critical factors underlying high employee performance. Secondly, and more specifically, ... [Thirdly, and very/most importantly, ...] In terms of how big a role is played specifically by training, learning and development however, the evidence clearly shows / suggests [seems to show / suggest] {seems to point to the fact} that ...



Description And Analysis

At university, you are expected to be analytical (critical) in your writing – but you still need to include some description!

What is the difference between ‘description’ and ‘analysis’?

DESCRIPTION =

— An explanation of the issues that are relevant to the essay

— The ‘what’ ‘where’ ‘when’ ‘who’ aspects

ANALYSIS =

— An actual line of argument that formulates an evaluation of the issues

— The ‘why’ (and maybe the ‘how’)

— Analysis of the roots of theories, ideas etc



Tip

To ensure a balance between description and analysis, identify the different questions:

“Identify and critically discuss the major factors that can and should influence the pricing policy of exporting companies.”

— What are the major factors? [DESCRIPTION]

— What are the strengths / weaknesses / problems / issues relating to these factors according to research & my beliefs/ understanding? [ANALYSIS]


Don’t forget the AWL Open Workshop Critical Thinking and Reading Journal Articles can help improve criticality!


The Writing Process


Thinking, reflecting, planning

Reading & note-taking

Drafting and redrafting

Writing and rewriting

Editing and checking


Where now?

— Need more detailed assistance? Book a tutorial!

— Want feedback on a specific section? Drop in to Getting Your Assignment Ready!

— Want somewhere quiet to write, and get on the spot assistance? Try The Writing Space!

— Got a few quick questions? AWL Office Hours at [The Study Hub] are for you!

— AWL Open Workshops can be booked here!

• Suggestions:

– Essay Writing

– Critical Thinking

– Reading Journal Articles


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Understanding Assignment Briefs


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