95 Understanding Your Assignment

Before you begin working on an essay, don’t forget to spend some time reading and analyzing the assignment sheet, making note of key words, and asking clarifying questions.

If you can break down the assignment sheet, put the task ahead of you in your own words, and specifically recognize what is being asked of you, you are setting yourself up for a smoother journey to avoid issues down the road. Often, students will skim an assignment sheet/prompt or only listen to their instructors’ overview, and, then, when it comes time to begin choosing a topic, researching, and writing they feel lost or confused because they did not follow or fully understand the instructions correctly. This confusion can lead to falling behind in an assignment, feelings of stress, and writer’s block. Another common issue is that students will misinterpret what is being asked of them because of a lack of understanding of the key words and action verbs utilized. For example, when a student will only summarize when the assignment asked them to analyze. These verbs also help you determine what the instructor wants you to learn and demonstrate through this assignment.

When looking at an assignment sheet it might feel daunting and a lot to take in, but if you can deconstruct and understand those overarching components, that can help you not feel too overwhelmed as the weeks go on. Having confidence in knowing and understanding the assignment, will also help you to avoid second-guessing yourself and going back and forth with your ideas.

Here are some steps and questions to consider when you take in your assignment sheet/prompt: 

• Determine the purpose and genre of the assignment.

• • What are you being asked to do?
  • What are the identifying features and conventions of the genre you are engaging with?
  • What end goal are you working towards?

• Identify any assignment questions being asked of you.

• • • Are there specific questions that your instructor wants you to answer in your essay? What are they?
    • Are there implied questions that your instructor wants you to think about? What are they?

• Make note of what type of research you will engage in and who your audience will be.

• • • How many sources do you need to incorporate?
    • Do they need to be primary or secondary sources? Scholarly or popular?
    • Where does your instructor want you to find your sources?
    • Who are you writing to and for?
    • What are the audience’s expectations?
    • What style of writing does your audience expect or need?

• Locate the evaluation and grading criteria;

• • • What is the required page length?
    • When is it due?
    • Are you required to submit a draft before the final copy?
    • Will there be a peer review?
    • Is there a rubric? If so, go over the rubric requirements.

• Finally, identify the disciplinary conventions with which you are expected to write.

• • Does the essay need to be in MLA, APA, CMS, or another style?
  • Does the instructor require any specific submission elements or formats?

You can also start with some more reflective questions:

• What do you think the instructor expects you to take away from this assignment?
• Why has your instructor given this assignment?
• How does it relate to what you are studying in class?
• What skills do you think you will be tapping into?

What are the Key Words to Pay Attention To?

It is essential to focus on the key words of the subject matter being discussed. With that in mind here are some common action verbs used in assignment instructions:

Summarize:  When you summarize, you present the main idea or the most important points from a subject or source or text or story. You leave out minor, extraneous details/examples. You write summaries efficiently, effectively, and ethically. With that last point, you must ensure you retain the accurate meaning of the subject/source/text and do not distort the author’s perspective. Summaries will define key terms as needed. To write an accurate summary, ask questions such as: Which of the ideas in the reading or source are most significant? Why? How do these ideas fit together? What do the key passages in the reading mean and why? And how can I communicate that information in an accurate way?

Report/Inform: Reports provide information and explanations to their audience. The goal of a report is to fill in the relevant and necessary gaps on a subject. Reporting involves making informative claims about why readers need to know this information and why it matters. Reports “can provide new information on a known subject, provide historical or other relevant context, clear up misconceptions, propose a plan, introduce the audience to something unknown, or develop a profile of a person, place, or object” (Hoermann-Elliott and Quesenbury). When reporting information to readers you need to ask questions such as: What would a person need to know to understand my topic or point? What definitions or key words and terms need to be defined? Do I need to explain the history of my chosen topic to give readers context? What about the present reality of my topic do I need to explain to readers? Do I need to help my readers visualize what I am discussing? What facts, figures, and statistics do I need to provide to readers?

Argue: In composition, “having a clear stance on an issue, detailing specific evidence that supports that stance, establishing common ground with others who have opposing views on that issue, and defending/explaining the advantages of that stance over the oppositions’ arguments” (Hoermann-Elliott and Quesenbury). It is not ignoring all other points of view, but instead considers and/or addresses other points of view It is not just your opinion, it is a position based on evidence. With that last point, remember we all start with an opinion and thoughts and perhaps even precursory experience and knowledge about the things we want to and will write about. But, when you begin researching and engaging with your opinion and thoughts and topics on a deeper, more analytical level, when you look to experts to provide you with evidence and information surrounding your topic, when you enter the conversation, that is when you move from opinion to informed perspective/position.  The way you will usually state your position is in your thesis statement. And the way you prove your thesis statement is with evidence.

Analyze: To analyze something is to ask what that something means. It is to ask how something does what it does and why it is what it is. The basic process of analysis: 1) Divide the subject into its defining parts, its main elements or ingredients, 2) Consider how these parts are related, both to each other and to the subject as a whole. Analytical writing is more concerned with arriving at an understanding of a subject than it is with either debate-style writing or changing readers’ views. In analysis and argument you respond to the questions: 1) ‘What have you got to go on?’ (evidence) 2) ‘How did you get there?’ (the principles and reasons that caused you to conclude what you did about the evidence), and 3) Why does it matter? An analysis is interested in how humans make meaning; it values sharing with readers the thought process that led to those conclusions. Rather than telling other people how and what to think, analytical writers encourage readers to think collaboratively with them.

Reflect: When you reflect, you look back on and consider a past experience or assignment and think critically about that journey and the work and contributions you did, and your feelings about the whole thing. Often times you will be asked questions such as:  What was your process like? How did you approach your writing for this project or what stages of drafting did you move through and why? What decisions in your piece are you most proud of? What decisions challenged you and why? “Written reflections, therefore, present an opportunity for writing about writing” (Hoermann-Elliott and Quesenbury).

Discuss: When you are told to discuss, this means your instructor wants to see you think critically about the topic and to provide your own observations and inquiries. Discussing means saying what you think, not what you think you’re supposed to say.

Compare/contrast: explain the similarities and differences between two or more ideas, objects, and phenomena, and discuss the significance of these relationships.

This list does not cover all terms you may come across in an assignment prompt. When you come across additional action verbs, make sure you look up their definition (tip: You can search Google for define: and then the word you need to be defined). You may even start a “cheat sheet” of these verbs and definitions written in your own words.

Here are some more basic pieces of advice one can use to approach these assignments constructively.

• Get answers to your questions. After thoroughly reading the assignment sheet, you might not have questions right away. That’s okay! But maybe when you go to sit back down and begin the early stages of your process you might have something come up that you don’t quite get or something you need clarification on or something that you need to feel reassured about. When that happens don’t be afraid to ask your instructor questions. It’s what they are there for! Instructors tend to enjoy and benefit from student inquiry, as questions help them rethink their assignments and improve the clarity of their expectations. You likely are not the only student with a question, so be the one who is assertive and responsible enough to get answers. With that, they might even address your question to the rest of the class. You don’t want to play a guessing game when it comes to tackling assignment criteria, so try to discuss any and all questions with the person who assigned the work, either in person or via email. You can visit your instructor during office hours or stay after class. Try not to wait until the last minute. In the worst case scenario, when you have done all of these things and a professor still fails to provide you with the clarity you are looking for, discuss your questions with fellow classmates or go to your writing center.
• Writing Centers. Many colleges and universities have a writing center. Tutors are helpful consultants for reviewing writing assignments both before and after you begin. Most students think they have to have something written to go to their Writing Center, but that is not the case! Tutors can help you at any stage of the writing process, including all pre-writing and brainstorming stages. If you need some extra support in understanding your assignment, you can just take your assignment sheet to a tutor and have them go through it with you. They can help you gain an understanding of what you need to do for that particular assignment, help you draft an outline, help you draft a timeline, help you come up with topics to discuss, on and on. Tutors can also review your final draft before its submission to your professor as well. Many writing centers allow you to make appointments online for convenience and may also have “walk-in” availability. It is a good idea to check out the available options a week or so in advance of when you will actually need the appointment, or even longer if it will be during mid-term or finals week.
• Create a timeline. You probably will have set due dates not just to turn in your final submission but also to turn in parts of your draft. It is always helpful to write those key due dates down, but it can also be a good thing to set up personal goals for yourself. Even if you are not the type of person who enjoys or benefits from outlining, try to create an idea of what you want to do with your essay and when you want to do it. Set due dates for yourself, whether they be to have a topic picked, your outline crafted, or a whole rough draft completed. Again you can work with your instructor or a Writing Center tutor to help you in crafting an effective assignment timeline for you. This is a helpful option for new, inexperienced writers who have not yet learned the art of analyzing assignments, and who are not familiar with the amount of time that is required for the college writing process. As always be kind to yourself. If you miss a personal deadline, don’t beat yourself up about it, and try to catch up when you can.