Ten Common Mistakes Everyone Makes In Assignment Writing

Assignments are an important part of the curriculum no matter what degree you pursue. Students have to submit assignments throughout their academic career as assignments are a major means to assess their understanding level and performance in the course. There are several factors by which professors assess the assignments and give marks. Of course, good quality content is a must but, the presentation and format of the assignment also play an important role. Hence, today we have come up with 10 common mistakes that students must avoid while writing their assignments to make them flawless:

1. Misinterpreting the Assignment
   A very common mistake that students make while preparing their assignments is that they do not understand the assignment topic, requirements, and writing instructions properly. As a result, they end up submitting incomplete assignments. They must know what the assignment demands from them and for that, they must read the question(s) carefully. Also, they must take care of the word counts, paragraphs headings, or any other instructions mentioned by their professors.
2. Not enough content
   Assignment writing demands to research ideas and concepts from various sources and writing what you understood in your own words. If you do not research well you may end up having less content to write. Sometimes students repeat the same idea to increase the content length but that is of no use. Hence, students must research well to gather enough information about the topic. They should also refer to their class notes while preparing the assignment. This shows their attentive nature and sincere attitude which may impress the professors.
3. Poor Introduction and Conclusion
   The introduction of the assignment is the first thing that your professor will read. Hence, it must be well written if you want to put up a good impression. Students often write an incomplete or misleading introduction and loose marks.
   Similarly, students often rush and conclude the assignment in an unimpressive way. Students must remember that the conclusion should be a well-defined summary of your assignment and it too can help you earn some extra marks.
4. Improper Editing
   Writing the content is not enough. Students must edit the assignments properly to ensure their quality and remove all the inconsistencies in writing. Editing allows you to check the writing style and tone. It can help you point out all the unnecessary words or excessive passive voice usage in the assignment. Students often commit the mistake of submitting the assignment without editing it properly and end up losing marks.
5. Not Proofreading
   After you check the language and the writing style it is time to correct all the surface errors in your assignment like grammatical mistakes, spelling errors, punctuation mistakes etc. Believe it or not proper usage of question marks, quotation marks, and apostrophes do play an important role in enhancing the quality of your assignment writing. Hence, plan your assignment and take enough time to edit and proofread it. Do not rush in editing and proofreading your work immediately when you finish the writing part. To increase their effectiveness, students must keep some gap in writing and proofreading of the assignment.
6. No Referencing
   If you are using some information or content directly from a source then you must reference it properly otherwise it can be considered as plagiarism. Students often lose marks if they do not cite their references appropriately.
7. Improper Formatting
   The presentation of the assignment plays a vital role in seizing some extra marks for the students. Students who do not pay attention to properly organizing their content often get low grades than those who present their assignments impressively. Hence, students must organize their assignments by giving proper headings and subheadings to the paragraphs accordingly. Paragraphs define a logical flow of the assignment and give it a structure. One tip that students can keep in mind here is that they should mention a single idea or concept per paragraph so that it becomes easy to understand and identify.
8. Plagiarism issues
   Assignments are given to reflect what you understood in the classroom. Students are expected to write in their own words and maintain the originality of the assignment. One can include references but if you simply copy and paste the content from other sources directly without referencing it, you may land into troubles. Students need to understand that plagiarism is a serious issue and they should be careful about it.
9. Deviating from the Topic
   A consequence of misinterpreting the assignment topic and requirements is that students deviate from what actually they are expected to write. Sometimes students intentionally include unnecessary information in the assignment and waste a lot of their time. This is generally a bad practice as professors never give marks for irrelevant content. Students must understand that their answers should be to the point and clear.
10. Late submission
    Students often do not keep a check on the deadlines for submitting the assignments and as a result, they either end up submitting an incomplete assignment or they submit it after the due date. In both cases, they tend to lose marks because of their careless behaviour. Hence, if you do not want to lose marks then, you must start planning your assignments quite ahead of time and keep a track of the deadlines.