Writing Assignments
Essays
In your coursework you may come across assignments that ask you to write an essay. Here are some tips to help you through the process:
- The first thing you can do is pay close attention to any prompts or specific instructions noted in the assignment. This will help you focus and make sure you meet your instructor’s requirements.
- Next, brainstorm your ideas. Create a mind map or outline to capture your thoughts on what to include in your essay.
- Figure out how you will structure your ideas in a logical way. In general, essays have an introduction, body, and conclusion. It’s usually easier to start by writing the body paragraph(s), and then write the introduction and conclusion.
Introduction: This is where you open with a broad orientation to the topic, address the essay prompt with a thesis statement, and give a brief “road map” of what readers can expect as they read the rest of your essay.
Body: This is where you develop your main idea. You can think of each paragraph as a building block to support your overall message. In the body of your essay you should show your knowledge and grasp of the material. You should also use relevant examples to illustrate your points.
Conclusion: This is where you restate your “answer” to the essay prompt and summarize the main points. You can include a final, broad statement to wrap everything up, such as possible implications or future direction for research or practice.
- After you have a first draft of your essay, put it aside for a bit. Come back to it later to revise and edit.
- When you are happy with the flow of your ideas, you have checked to make sure you fulfilled the requirements of the essay prompt, and you have corrected any spelling and grammar errors, you’ve reached your final draft!
Reports
Reports are similar to essays, but there are a few key differences. In EarlyEdU coursework you may be asked to write a case study report about a specific child in your learning setting, or you might report data you have collected over a period of time about your own teaching practice or your early learning program. Here are a few key elements to keep in mind when writing a report:
- While essays weave together the learning content with your personal opinions and interpretations, reports typically stick to the facts. Your interpretations and opinions may be presented at the end in the discussion section or conclusion.
- Reports are highly organized. They usually have a table of contents, page numbers, headings, and subheadings to define different sections. While readers are meant to go through an essay from beginning to end, people can skip around to different sections in a report.
- The structure of a report is similar to an essay (introduction, body, conclusion), sometimes with the addition of an executive summary at the very beginning. The executive summary is a separate section that briefly summarizes the findings of your report so readers know what to expect.
Spelling and Grammar
Producing written work that has been checked for spelling and grammar errors is an important part of professionalism. Minimizing spelling and grammar errors in your work helps you clearly and effectively communicate a message to any audience.
Before you submit writing assignments, be sure to check your spelling and grammar. Read over your writing once or twice to catch any errors, and use the automated spelling and grammar tools available in most word processing programs to double check for anything you may have missed. You can also have your device dictate what you wrote aloud, which may help you catch errors. You can even ask a classmate, friend, relative, or writing center tutor to review your work before submitting a final draft.
