Are You Making These Common Assignment Writing Mistakes?

Are you one of those students who struggle hard to get good grades on their assignments and essays? No matter how hard you try, does your teacher never seem to be satisfied with your answers? Or do you simply find it difficult to cope with the burden of homework and finish everything on time?

If you’ve answered “yes” to any of the above questions, it’s time to change the way you approach your assignments.

Of course, it’s disheartening and disappointing to know that you haven’t scored well on an assignment. However, instead of mulling over your poor grades, you need to dig deeper and figure out the possible reasons behind them.

If your assignments haven’t been fetching good grades despite your earnest efforts, chances are you aren’t approaching them the right way. Here’s the thing – solving an assignment isn’t as simple as looking at the question and writing your answers.

You need a systematic and organized approach to gather your references, create an outline, and finally start writing the assignment. That’s why, in this blog, we’ve outlined a few common assignment writing mistakes that every student must watch out for. Let’s take a look.

1. Ignoring the Guidelines

The biggest mistake students often make is to jump right into an assignment without checking the guidelines. It goes without saying that you must carefully check the guidelines of an assignment. Whether you have to work on an essay or solve math problems, make sure you thoroughly read the questions.

Watch out for other aspects of the assignments, such as:

• Formatting guidelines
• Recommended font type and size
• Submission date
• Assessment criteria

Familiarizing yourself with the guidelines will go a long way to help you understand what your teacher is expecting. Also, it’ll help you identify the core areas you need to work on to score good grades. You can even get a fair idea of how you should approach the question and start solving it.

2. Not Starting Early Enough

The temptation to procrastinate is far too real for most students. However, when writing an assignment, the last thing you want is to start working on your assignment a night before the deadline. Needless to say, you won’t have enough time to research, gather references, and revise your assignment before submitting it.

That’s why it is recommended that you start working on your assignment while you still have time. A clever approach is to carefully analyze the question/guidelines and determine how much time you’ll need. Then, work backward and find out how many days you have before the deadline comes knocking at your door.

3. Jumping Right Into An Assignment

No. You can’t write an outstanding assignment without proper research and an outline. If you skip these essential steps, you’ll likely end up with a mediocre essay that’ll fail to impress your teacher. Ultimately, it’ll adversely affect your grades and academic performance.

As a ground-rule, make sure you invest adequate time to research various aspects of the assignment. For instance, if you’re writing an essay, you’ll have to dig deeper and read more about the topic. You’ll even have to find various references and arguments to support your stance on the topic.

Next, you have to prepare a clear outline of the essay. Break it down into multiple sections, including an introduction and a conclusion. Also, don’t forget to mention the points and arguments you’ll cover under each section.

4. Avoiding Help

Yes. It’s essential that you write an assignment on your own. However, there’s no harm in seeking help from others if you’re stuck with a particular question. Trying to solve every question on your own, even when it’s beyond your capabilities, will ultimately end up costing you precious time and effort.

That’s why it is recommended that you identify potential problem areas in your assignment and ask for help in advance. In addition to consulting your classmates, you could also consider utilizing online learning platforms.

For instance, you can connect with experienced online educators at HomeworkMarket, who can handhold you through various assignment problems. Additionally, you can create a study group with a few of your classmates to cover various aspects of the assignment and share useful tips and insights.

5. Skipping Proofreading

Who enjoys reading an essay or article that’s flooded with incorrect grammar and spelling errors? Absolutely no one. This includes your teacher as well.

Even if you write the most remarkable answers for your assignment, simple misspellings and grammatical mistakes could affect its quality. That’s why it is essential to thoroughly revise your assignment after you complete it. Read it out loud to identify any mistakes or tonal inconsistencies.

You can also have a friend or senior glance through it and point out any errors. Alternatively, you could consider using a proofreading tool to weed out such mistakes. This is also a good time to use a plagiarism checking tool and find out whether there are any instances of plagiarism (albeit unintentional) in your assignment. Do you have any useful assignment writing tips for today’s students? Share your suggestions in the comments section below.