Stage 1: Understand Your Brief

It might seem very obvious to state the point that it is important that you start your academic writing task with understanding your brief. However, difficulties with academic writing can actually start here when a student misinterprets what their assignment is or responds to a question that actually hasn’t been asked. It is therefore essential at the beginning of any assignment activity to ensure that you are fully clear on what it is you are supposed to be doing. As you will see here, there can be a little more involved in understanding an assignment brief than giving it a quick read. Four easy steps are outlined below to help you to get to the very core of what the assignment is asking you to do.