Assignment planning masterclass

Fundamentals of Assignment Planning

Planning is key to writing a good assignment. Taking the time to plan your assignment will make it easier to understand what you are doing, ensure you are doing everything you are being asked to do and help you achieve the task more effectively.

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A 1hr, confidential appointment with a Study Skills Advisor/Academic Liaison Librarian. Available to all Sunderland Campus undergrad, taught-postgrad and Independent Distance Learning students.

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Resources for guidance on everything academic!From being critical to referencing to revision, we've got something for you!

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this session

Assessing learning outcomes

Assessing the assignment question

Assignment planning tools

Research technique & notetaking

Developing ideas

Structuring written tasks

01

assessing learning outcomes

Let's begin the process of breaking down the assignment.

assessing learning outcomes

Learning outcomes indicate what you are expected to know by completing the module. Highlight key words in these learning outcomes:

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Display understanding of the relevance of evidence-based practice to assessment, diagnosis, management and policy within nursing.

02

Assessing the Assignment Question

This might seem an obvious step but it needs to be clarified – what exactly are you being asked to do?

assessing the assignment question

Produce a report on patient care in one of the following areas: personalised care, digitally-enhanced care, continuity of carer or end of life care.

In your report, you should:

• assess what recent developments have occurred in your chosen area (descriptive)
• assess what you determine to be the most significant innovations/areas of change in your area of study (critical)
• assess why are they of significance to patients (critical)
• analyse current research to identify where there are problems/limitations which need to be resolved for patients and/ or healthcare professionals (critical)

Finally, use your critical voice as the author of the report to recommend a minimum of three key strategies health organisations in the relevant area should be implementing, where possible, to support your chosen area or care. 2500 words

+ CRITICAL TASKS

+ OPTIONAL THEMES

+ format & structure

+ CORE THEMES

03

assignment planning tools

This step will help you start to organise your thoughts and ideas into a coherent structure.

don't get sidetracked!

It's easy to get sidetracked when you start to think about the aspects you want to cover in your assignment. Keep refering back to your assignment title to make sure you stay on point.

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04

research technique & notetaking

Like all academic skills, researching literature is a skill that develops with use.

research technique

Cornell Notes

Give yourself plenty of time when conducting desk research. Start this process early so that you can have the space to essay plan and make changes to your research, focus and, nearer the end, your assignment itself. Library searching is typically best done in bitesize chunks.

Boxing Method

Double-entry Notetaking

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Mind-mapping

05

developing ideas

Bring the different notetaking methods together to create an assignment plan.

developing your ideas

06

Structuring written tasks

Keep a clear focus on the purpose of each section and allocate a word count to keep you focused on what to include.

understand your question

sort your paragraphs out

Thank You! any questions?

Share your thoughts with us!

Searching for and identifying relevant sources takes time, practice and perseverance. Don’t worry if on your first try, the results aren’t simply ‘there’! Little, often and vary your terms. Explore abstracts, don’t be afraid to skim and scan read until you find useful sources.

As you read through your assignment, make sure all of your points are relevant. Does the point you're making contribute to your overall argument or is it just an interesting detail?

Go through your work one paragraph at a time and compare each one to the question.

The assignment is a REPORT. It has to focus on ONE area. It has to include a recommendation of at least THREE key strategies. It has a 2500 word count.

Patient care. Recent developments. Significant innovations. Problems and limitations for patients or healthcare professionals.

Assess. Determine. Significance. Analyse. Identify. Recommend.

key features of effective note-taking

• Date
• Key themes
• Bibliographical details of sources – there's nothing worse than losing the referencing details of something you want to use!
• Quotes that may be of particular use
• Comparisons to other sources

Personalised care. Digitally-enhanced care. Continuity of carer. End of life care.