1. Planning assignments
Plan your assignment
- Start planning
- Improve your research skills
- Put it into words
- Reference your work
- Polish your assignment
Academic Skills have more information on Understanding your assignment task
Review your lecture and tutorial notes before you begin your assignment. Your lecturer will have mentioned key concepts that will help you with your assignment research.
Manage your time
It’s very important to manage your time effectively. You may have multiple assignments and activities to complete at the same time. Careful planning can save you valuable time, as you will have to:
- research your assignment topic – find out how to improve your research skills
- write a first draft – find out how to improve to improve your academic writing
- edit and proofread your first draft
- edit and proofread your draft again to ensure your meaning is clear
- submit the assignment.
Mark the dates that your assignments are due on a calendar so you can see when they have to be submitted. Allow 3 to 4 weeks to work on the assignment.
Get tips to help with procrastination with this Charlie blog post – The ultimate guide to beat procrastination.
Get it checked
It is a good idea to get someone else to read your assignment before you submit it. They may spot a mistake that you missed. Spell check tools often won’t find words that are spelt correctly but are used incorrectly in the sentence (e.g.“from” instead of “form”). You can also read your work aloud or use a text-to-speech tool to convert your assignment text into spoken words. Then you can listen for any strange sentences or spelling errors. Studiosity will provide you with feedback on ways to improve the writing in your draft assignment.
Take a break
Remember to take regular breaks when writing your assignment. Taking regular breaks will allow you to return to your work with a clear mind and may help you to focus on your writing.
Develop your skills
Join a workshop! These are available to all students and focus on developing skills in research, assignment writing, and exam preparation.
Written essays are not the only type of assignments that you might be required to create during your time at university. Find information on how to complete other task types, including reports, posters, oral presentations and reflective writing on the Understanding your assessment task page.
The right tool
If you need to select a tool to create your assignment, the Choose the right tool module has information on a variety of software, tools and apps for different tasks.
Important warning on file-sharing services
File-sharing services buy, sell or trade academic content. They often portray themselves as cutting-edge and collaborative while offering homework help and study resources. While some sites may offer genuine help services, they are typically businesses which profit from the upload of student-generated and university-owned materials. There are also private sharing sites on platforms such as Facebook, WeChat or other sharing apps.
Risk of academic misconduct with file-sharing
Using file sharing platforms can result in academic misconduct. You should avoid:
- uploading your assessments (exams, assignments or coding) for others to use
- uploading course materials such as PowerPoint slides or class notes in violation of the lecturer’s intellectual property rights
- downloading work completed by others and submitting all or part of it as your own work
- getting answers for any assessable item such as exams, quizzes, homework tasks etc.
Visit Charles Sturt’s Academic Integrity page to make sure you understand your responsibilities.
If you are experiencing difficulty, get help from:
- your course teaching team
- Academic skills – help to prepare for your assignments, plan your work, reference and manage stress
- the Library – a range of services are available for students to help with access and research.
