Sunday, July 30, 2006

Welcome to Students with Journal Asessments

A big welcome to any students who have been following this site or Journal Writing Tips (now retired!) to help with assignments and journal writing.

I receive a lot of enquiry emails from students about journals, and as semester 2 is starting for students here in Australia this month I thought it was timely to do a weekly spot on "Journalling for Asessment" for a few weeks. To my own Uni students popping by I hope you enjoy the rest of the blog too and that we have a great semester together.

Today's topic is really simple to get us started.

Know what the lecturer wants. Read the instructions.

As a University lecturer there is nothing worse than marking a really well written paper (or journal) ... that then doesn't answer the question at hand. So look at your written instructions. Make sure you follow them to a tee ... and ask if you need more assistance.

If there are three points to cover ... then cover all three points. If you add anything extra, make sure it can be included under any required headings.

As to the style ... if the lecturer makes it clear that certain styles need to be followed ... do so. And make sure you still reference like you would any assignment UNLESS you are told otherwise.

As for format ... once again follow any instructions as to having it typed, types of paper/margins etc. No point losing presentation marks just because you didn't read the more mundane stuff on the asessment outline.

I know this is a quick & basic entry... but next week we will look at Journals and Analysis ... the other bit most students seem to struggle with...

Have a good semester!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh wow. I know this sounds so simple but listen to her! I nearly failed an easy journal assignment because I missed the bits THEY wanted and just did my own thing.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the extra advice. Can I just clarify something. When asked in class today you said it was ok not to fully reference in the journal ... does that still stand? (This is fun having your blog to refer to as well).

Pamela J Weatherill said...

Fair question! I am happy for journals for MY class not to be referenced fully ... the point I was making here was to encourage students to check with each individual lecturer/teacher. We're all very different creatures!