7 Summary

This week you looked at everyday writing, at different types of university assignments and at useful ways to break the writing process into manageable steps.

These are this week’s key learning points:

1. Writing is a daily activity for most people.
2. Writing is easier if you know why you are writing and how to organise ideas and information.
3. Assignments are written to show a tutor that the student has understood and can use the ideas and information learned from the course materials.
4. Essays and reports are two common types of assignment.
5. A range of strategies can be used to deal with the challenges of assignment writing.
6. A useful way to approach assignment writing is to follow a process that consists of several manageable steps.
7. The first step involves understanding the instruction words and key ideas contained in the question.
8. The second step consists in producing a draft plan and deciding what kind of information will be necessary to answer the question.
9. Mind maps and other diagrams can help to plan essays and organise notes.

You can now go to Week 4 [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .