You will find this guide presented in modern English version. It is meant to be simple, easy to follow and to understand. So let us get STARTED.

Disclaimer:

The answers and model answers guide do not guarantee you distinctions. We do not take responsibility for any plagiarism that you may incurred if you followed the answers on these model assignments. They are meant to be examples and samples of good answers and not to be copied exactly for submission to your universities.


Getting Started!

Getting started on your assignment is the hardest step to take. The assignment itself or doing the assignment is not so difficult once you have started But getting started is really, really difficult.

Somehow, students just can’t get started or maybe they don’t know how to get started. Come to think of it, in my 28 years of teaching, none of my lecturer or tutor even taught me how to get started on the assignment. Rather I learnt if from a class mate.

The first step.

Read the assignment question, not once but TEN times. Read it fast, read it slow. Take some notes, dissect the question, jot down some key ideas. Break the question down into understandable parts. Get what the assignment want you to do. This is very important so that there is no misinterpretation of the question or assignment.

Look at the marking criteria section. In many assignments, there is a detail breakdown of the marking criteria. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. Follow the items or requirements stated in this section because this is how the marks are given. Read and reread this section several times. Jot down the key criteria required of the assignment.

Plan your essay or report around the criteria requirements. This must be followed strictly. The markers are given instructions based on these marking criteria. It makes sense that if your substance give according to what is required and stated on the marking criteria, you will be given full marks based on those points. So keep in mind the requirements of the assignment at all times. Students failed because their assignments were off the point in most cases.

Read up the materials required to answer the assignment. You cannot write the assignment unless you have ideas, materials and substance to write about. So where do you get these ideas, these points? From the required readings of course! Most students do not read sufficiently. They read the minimum required. They read the text chapters that was stated and then go straight into the assignment. Insufficient readings result in shallow substances because your ideas are limited and your understanding is also limited. Your references are also limited.

And Readings take time. You have to read several times before you can get the real things. And it is only after several readings , that you are able to sieve out the unwanted information from the ones that is required for the assignment.