Assignment planning is an important skill to ensure that your assignment is structured, logical and directly answers the assignment brief. If you launch straight into an assignment it may end up being under researched and may provide lots of information which could be influenced by your train of thought rather than the assignment brief. This can result in students describing topics that they do not need to and not being as critical as is needed. 

By planning your assignment in detail it may be possible to identify what you already know, what you need to research, and in what order specific topics should be addressed to effectively communicate your point. This process may make the assignment writing stage more organised. 

Please see the Library Skills Guide on Being Critical for more information on critical thinking, reading and writing. 

An important part of assignment planning is giving yourself time to plan, write and edit your assignments. This may involve setting your own personal deadlines and trying out different planning methods to see what works for you. 

Assignment Planning should be viewed as any other skill - which takes time to develop. Being organised and maintaining focus are essential to successful planning. Before commencing any task consider how good is my preparation for assignments and tasks?

Do I?

• Understand the question/theme of the assignment?
• Plan effectively?
• Source a range of relevant resources to read and refer to?
• Apply criticality throughout?
• Manage my timescale effectively?

Test your knowledge on assignment planning by completing the quiz below: