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Skills Check 0

The Skills Check is a short survey which should take you no more than 3 minutes to complete. Once you have completed the Skills Check we provide you with a personal learning plan targeted to your personal study needs and goals.

Sign in to work on the Skills Check.
  1. Home
  2. Assignments
  3. Preparing assignments
  4. Gathering your materials

Gathering your materials

Once you are confident you understand what you are being asked to do, take some time and think about how you're going to go about writing your assignment. Then gather and check through all of the items that you need.

Remember to

  • Keep your assignment booklet with you so you can check you're staying on track.
  • Read your assignment booklet carefully to see how marks are allocated to each part of the assignment.
  • Identify how long you'll need (include time for planning and drafting and sending it in).
  • Start to identify relevant module material and jot down notes for the assignment as you study or review material.
  • Keep a record of sources as you go for your reference section at the end.

Remember to stay focused on the assignment title as you are working on the answer. Cynthia and Robin, OU students, describe their approaches to the writing process.

Go through your assignment booklet for clues to which books, DVDs, supplementary materials, etc., are relevant to the assignment. Gather together your notes and ideas and review them. Keeping the key words of the assignment in your mind, gather together your notes and ideas

Selecting the evidence

  • Think about the types of evidence required to support any arguments you make, such as quotes, tables, paraphrasing of other people's work.
  • Select appropriate evidence and quotes - ask yourself how each of these will help you to answer the assignment question. Make sure to note where they come from for your reference list.
  • Check the learning outcomes for the assignment if you need help in identifying relevant material.

Reviewing what you've done so far

  • Check what you've done so far against the assignment question: have you missed any useful material from another part of the module?
  • Review your ideas and evidence and check once more against the assignment question.
  • Identify the key message that you are thinking of putting across. Make sure it reflects the requirements of the assignment.