It’s a beautiful Monday morning, perfect for your Political Economy class. And you’re ever ready, looking cool and sassy, waiting for your Professor to arrive.
He’s arrived. He’s delivered perfect 1 hour: 48 minutes lecture. But something happened before he stepped his legs out of the class.
‘Take this as an assignment,’ he commands. ‘Define the term ‘political corruption’ and stress its impact on Nigeria’s economic stagnation. Submit next week.’
Now your beautiful day turns ugly, because you hate writing assignment or any essay writing.
You feel it’s too demanding, exploiting, too much a threat to your leisure time. So, you threw that assignment in the pit of rage and never looked back.
It’s really OK that you’re having this feeling. You’re not alone. Most students hate assignments. In fact, you should have these feelings because no Nigerian university – that I know of (and you can correct me on this one) – has writing course in its curriculum, even though, I think universities should, as a matter of urgency, incorporate writing in their curriculum.
Therefore, it’s normal to feel scared at writing an assignment because, writing, like any other art, requires years of training, practice and commitment.
If your assumption is that: assignments are mostly done in written form; I’m not good at writing; and, therefore, I can’t write any assignment, then these tips will help you reconsider your thoughts.
Understand the question(s) first.
The first thing that you should do, once you’re giving an assignment, is to try and understand the question thoroughly.
I know this sounds pretty obvious, but seriously, most students, even when they think that they get the assignment question; in reality, they don’t. And the reason is that, their attention and interest is way off from the assignment question that’s being asked.
And when there’s no focus and interest and attention, then there will be no thorough understanding of the assignment question. And without really understanding what problem your professor is asking you to solve, there’s no way you can write your assignment, no matter how simple and straightforward it sounds.
To get laser focus at understanding your assignment, you need to:
Befriend the question (literally).
Smile at it.
Get to know every sentence, every word in that question.
I also recommend that you translate the assignment question – word for word – in your mother tongue – just so you master the question even more. This is how I have been reading over the years and that has helped me passed my exams (pretty well) at every level in my academic career.
You also need to be critical when making sense of the assignment question. Don’t just rely on the wordings of the assignment; uncover what your professor implies.
Once you’re sure of what the assignment requires you to do, then move further to the next step: research materials.
Determine your keywords
These are the words/phrases that are the building blocks of your question. In the assignment question which reads: ‘Define the term ‘political corruption’ and stress its impact on Nigeria’s economic stagnation,’ for example, your keywords are:
political corruption
economic stagnation
Why does finding your keywords important for writing your assignment?
1. They will tell you what materials to search for.
2. They’ll help you stay focused on your research and writing processes.
3. They’ll help speed up your writing.
So, find your keywords and keep them handy.
Know where to source your research materials
There are a billion websites, blogs, podcasts and other valuable channels on the Internet. Where would you source your research materials?
Google is the Internet’s no. 1 search engine. It gives you the answer to virtually everything you ask her. But, sometimes, Google’s answers are not direct, relevant or credible.
Low-ranking sites are buried within the algorithm of the search engine giant and using materials from these sites might hurt your assignment.
Use Google Scholar instead. It’s a great search engine that was created and managed by Google. And it’s very simple to use.
Structure your ideas
Now that you have expanded your knowledge on the subject and figured out what to say, the next thing to do is to organise or structure your thoughts. In other words, build a skeleton for your assignment.
Think of it as an architectural blueprint of a house. The blocks, the sand and cements are all used to construct the beautiful house on that blueprint. The structure, the points you intended to discuss in your essay, are your blueprint.
All other words you put in there are the meat of your body.
For example, using our assignment question example, you can structure your ideas as follows:
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Meaning and Explanations of Political Corruption in Nigeria
1-3 definitions of political corruption
1 classical example of political corruption in Nigeria
1.2 Effects of Political Corruption on the Slow Growth of the Nigerian Economy
political corruption and infrastructural decay
political corruption and epileptic education
political corruption on economic growth
1.3 Conclusion
summary
recommendation
References
Write, Edit and Reference
Now, just fill in the points with flesh and blood (valuable words).
Don’t expect your written words to be perfect at this time, because they’ll never be. Just write, not minding grammar goofs, spelling mistakes and technical information.
After you’ve written your ideas, it’s the right time now to edit.
Unlike during the writing stage, now you pay serious attention to your broken sentences, grammar goofs, spelling mistakes, check for correct data/information and so on.
It’s the editing that makes your assignment outstanding; therefore, make it perfect.
Also, don’t forget to reference all your work. Unlike opinion-based articles, your essay writing assignment must include a reference section where you list all the works you’ve cited (used) in your article.
Conclusion
I have to admit: writing an assignment is a little bit difficult. Sure, it’ll take you 3 hours or 33 days before you write that 2-page homework that your Prof. will grade favourably, especially if you’re not use to the task. But here’s the good news: You can learn it.
If you follow the tips I’ve outlined in this article and stay committed and patient to writing, you can write that 2-page assignment without any fuss or insulting your Prof.
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Suhaib Mohammed is a lecturer, professional freelance writer and founder and CEO of Cademica - the academic writing and editing company. Consult him for essay, thesis and other writing and editing solutions. And don't forget to follow him on Twitter – @Cademicaa and catch him on Facebook.
