Gathering your materials Preparing assignments
When you’re confident you understand what you’re being asked to do, take some time to think about how you'll go about writing your assignment. Then gather and check through all of the items you’ll need.
Remember to:
- Keep your assignment question handy, so you can check you're staying on track.
- Check to see what marks are allocated to each part of the assignment.
- Consider how long you'll need (include time for planning, drafting, editing and proofreading before you send it in).
- Go back through the notes you made and identify relevant module material for the assignment.
- Keep a record of sources as you go for your reference section (see the OU Library's Bibliographic management page to learn more about reference management tools).
Selecting the evidence
Think about the types of evidence you'll need to support any arguments you make, such as quotes, tables and paraphrasing of other people's work. Ask yourself how each of these will help you to answer the assignment question and make sure to note where they come from for your reference list. If you need help to identify relevant material, check the learning outcomes for the assignment.
Reviewing your work
Review what you've done so far to make sure the key message that you're trying to put across reflects the requirements of the assignment. Check that you haven't missed any useful material from other parts of the module.
