Assignment and Study Help

New Students often find the start of study challenging, Learning time management and planning skills will enhance your study skills and benefit you in your future career.

 A process of organizing and planning how to divide your time between different activities, working smarter not harder 

(Tumisu, 2017)

• Introduction to Time Management  - Figure out how much time you actually need to be successful and a Time Audit
• Procrastination and Time Robbers - Do you Procrastinate? Top tips for minimising distractions
• Create a Weekly Schedule  -  TAFE Queensland Weekly Schedule
• Top 10 Study Tips

STRATEGIES TO ASSIST WITH STUDY

 Mind Mapping - A creative thinking tool that is used to brainstorm ideas when preparing for assignments, reports, presentations and exams

• How to create a mind map - RMIT  Library
• Mind Map - University of Adelaide

• Smartdraw is a free mind mapping tool you can use to brainstorm and visually connect ideas and concepts.

• Infobase Learning Cloud - Search for the course Planning A Paper to learn more about  mind mapping 

Reference List

Tumisu (2017)  Time management  [Photograph]  Pixabay  https://pixabay.com/illustrations/time-management-business-planning-1966396/

To start your search you need to determine the main parts of your assignment question. 

Assignment questions contain instructional words, keywords and limiting words. These form the structure of your assignment.

Instruction words tell you how to approach the topic or subject, and clarify what focus your research should take. Words like examine, explore and argue all require you to tackle your assignment in a different way.

Limiting words determine where to start and stop and set limits to your topic.They may identify specific time periods or geographic areas, eg. Australia or 20th century.

Keywords are single words or phrases which define the subject or main ideas of the question. To identify the keywords of your question:

1. Read and analyse the question carefully
2. Underline or highlight all the keywords. These are the words that will tell you what information you need to find.
3. Circle all the instructional words. These words will tell you what to do with the information you find.
4. Create a mind map to help you structure, organise and analyse your ideas. Mind map software link is located in the Resources section at the bottom of this page.
5. Begin a list of everything you need to combine into your assignment. This will help ensure you include everything that your assignment question has asked for.
6. Next write a list of the topics you need to research. Use other sections in this Guide to ensure your search is broad, including books, eJournals and reputable websites just to name a few. Don’t forget your suggested reading list & textbooks.

The following may also be relevant when choosing keywords:

• Alternative words or synonyms (e.g. mobile phones / cell phones)
• Abbreviations (e.g dept for department)
• Singular or plural terms (woman and women)
• Spelling variations (colour and color)
• Variations of word endings (e.g. nurse, nurses, nursing or nursery)

TIP: If you can't think of any synonyms or related terms yourself, try searching a thesaurus, dictionary or encyclopaedia

For more help watch the video tutorials below.

Note: you will use the keywords and limiting words when conducting your search

Before moving onto the next tutorials, ensure you understand the following: