Four top tips for submitting your first university assignments

Hello! My name’s Gemma, and I’m a second-year BA Marketing student. As a first year, submitting your first assessments can be daunting, but please don’t worry, as there are steps you can take to help you succeed! Practice makes perfect too, and you’ll continue to develop your skills and knowledge throughout your time at university. Having achieved ‘Best Year 1 Performance in Marketing’, I thought it would be useful to share my top tips for writing a great assignment in this blog. Here are my top tips…   

1) Plan your time 

During your time at university, you’ll repeatedly be told not to leave your assessments until the last minute. It can be easy to fall into the trap of leaving your assignment to the last minute but giving yourself enough time to carefully plan and write your assessment is crucial. At the beginning of the term, map out all your deadlines and plan time for independent study – using a diary can be particularly helpful. I prefer to plan for my assessments as soon as possible, so when I attend lectures, I make notes of my ideas and what topics and theories will be of relevance.  I also like to write to-do lists as they are helpful to plan what I want to get done each week.  

2) Understand the assessment brief 

Assessment briefs are carefully constructed to provide you with all the information and guidance you need to complete the assessment. The wording of the brief is particularly important, so a key step is finding the directive word e.g., evaluate, discuss, justify etc. Subsequently, highlighting key words/phrases and breaking down the brief into its constituent parts, will provide you with a deeper understanding of what is expected from you. The learning outcomes and marking criteria provide insight into what topics are of relevance and what should be included. Once you’ve done this, you can then begin developing ideas and organising your research to plan for the assessment. 

3) Use a reference builder 

Referencing is an important part of academic integrity to ensure you avoid plagiarism. When you quote, paraphrase, or summarise from a text you must include a citation as well as a full reference at the end of your work in an alphabetical list. The reference builder on the library site is a useful tool to construct correctly formatted citations following APA 7th style. You select the type of source you’re referencing, such as a book or journal article, then fill in the details and the citation will be generated for you. It does the hard work for you, so be sure to fully utilise that.  

 4) Proofread, proofread, and proofread!  

Once you’ve completed your assessment and feel ready to submit it, make sure to proofread it thoroughly beforehand. This includes checking the overall content and structure, referencing, and any errors with spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Checking your work against the marking criteria in the assessment brief will help find any points you’ve missed. It’s useful to give yourself a break between completing the assessment and proofreading so that you can look at it with fresh eyes. 

Last thoughts   

One of the most important ways to help you prepare a great assignment is to start it early, giving yourself enough time to plan, research and reflect to ensure you’re prepared to write a great assessment. Additionally, if you’re ever struggling, don’t hesitate to reach out to your lecturer or academic team, they’re there to support you. At Huddersfield Business School, the academics are very approachable and willing to help students. You can usually email them for guidance, catch them after a lecture or seminar or also book an appointment in their office. Finally, be sure to pay close attention to the feedback you receive once you get your results, as this will help you to improve for your next assignments. I hope my tips help you to feel more prepared and confident with writing your first assignments. Good luck! 

If you would like any support with your assignment, you can contact the LIDC (Learning Innovation and Development Centre) tutors, and book a 1-2-1 appointment by emailing busstudenthub@hud.ac.uk. The LIDC provides a team of experienced learning development tutors who support Huddersfield Business School students in developing the skills required to successfully complete their degrees.