Structuring your assignment

Do you need help planning and structuring your assignments?  

This guide will cover:  

• Answering the assessment criteria  

• Planning the structure  

• Writing introductions and conclusions  

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At Teesside, you’ll find your assessment criteria in your module handbook. 

• Criteria are there to guide you. They will let you know what you should put into your assignment and what to leave out! If it’s not in the criteria,  then it doesn’t belong in your assignment. Remember, you won’t get extra marks. 
• You usually need to cover all the criteria to pass an assignment
• Look for clue words to help you understand what you are being asked to do.

Below is a link to an example assessment criteria.

Clue Words give you additional information for how to write your assignment. Look out for words like - identify, explain, discuss, demonstrate etc. The table below gives you more examples of clue words and their definitions. 

You might find it helpful to plan your assignment, identifying themes that you intend to cover. There are many ways to organise your thoughts, below are two suggestions.  

Visual plan

Example plan from Anna Barker – shows you how to divide your topic into sections. ​As you find some research that fits into a specific section, colour-code it, so can see immediately which parts belong together.​ Is there too much in one section? Is there not enough in another? Will you need to do more research on that section? Colour coding makes this easier to see. If you only have 1 or 2 pieces of research for one section, you’ll need to look for more research.

Linear Plan

If the visual plan doesn’t work for you, here’s another way of planning.​ 

Dividing up the word count enables you to give all criteria equal weight. ​You could include a ‘Key points’ column to remind you how this theme fits in with the overall argument of your assignment. ​You could use the ‘Notes’ column to provide a link to key resources, or to give yourself ‘to do’ instructions, or to comment on how far you are with writing this section. ​

Introductions

• Should be written last - you can't introduce something you haven't written yet! Remember, it is an introduction to your assignment, not the whole topic.
• Should be about 5-10% of the final word count.
• Guiding the reader – you should signpost to what the assignment contains. Be up front with what your argument is. 

Conclusions

• Should be about 5-10% of the final word count.
• Be summary of your main findings.
• It should contain no new material or references. 
• Your last sentence should relate to the assignment title. 

Click the icon below to view an online reading list of additional resources and further reading.

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