2. Written assignments

• Writing and researching
• Writing tools and techniques
• Editing and proofreading
• Grammar and spelling
• Audience, tone and purpose

There are many different types of written assignments, including essays, reports and reviews. The Academic Skills Team has resources to help you understand different types of written assignments and how to structure your work:

• Assignment types — outlines the purpose, audience, tone of writing and structural features of some written assessment types, including research essays, reports, annotated bibliographies and reflective journals
• Steps for writing assignments — breaks the assignment writing process into a series of manageable tasks
• The Academic Skills Team offer workshops to help improve your study and assignment writing skills all year round (except Christmas).

Writing and researching

Online tools and courses to improve your skills:

• The Academic Phrasebank — provides examples of phrases to use in academic writing, including writing introductions, describing methods, reporting results, discussing findings and writing conclusions
• Writing research papers (LinkedIn Learning course, 1h56m) — a Charles Sturt login is required. This course covers understanding different types of research papers, researching the topic, brainstorming your focus, developing a thesis statement, writing topic sentences, composing a title, using a style guide and formatting your paper.

Writing tools and techniques

• Writing and referencing tools has information on different tools and software to use for your written assignments.
• Charles Sturt offers students Microsoft Office 365, Excel and PowerPoint skills tutorials free through LinkedIn Learning.
• Charles Sturt University provides students with free software to use on your own computer/device while you are studying with us.

Editing and proofreading

Sometimes when we read aloud we say the words that should be there, even if they are not. A text-to-speech tool is a good way of checking the accuracy and flow of your assignment. The tool will only read what is actually written on the page. Study hacks lists text-to-speech tools.

The Academic Skills Team has information on editing and proofreading.

Grammar and spelling

You can use the spelling and grammar features in your word processing tool (e.g. Microsoft Word and Google Docs) to check what you have written. Grammarly is a browser extension that you can install to check your spelling and grammar.

Use the Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries if you are unsure about any words. It is regarded as the standard reference on Australian English.

Audience, tone and purpose

To write effectively, you should think carefully about the intended audience and purpose of your assignment. Adjust your tone to suit your audience and the medium you are using.

The Essentials skills: Writing in your own words workshop will help you to learn how to paraphrase texts for your assignments.