 and welcome back to another vlog. If you haven't watched my vlogs before, my name is Claire Carmichael and I'm a second year adult student nurse. Today's vlog is all about assignment writing because I knew that I struggled when I first started university and figuring out how to write an assignment, Harvard referencing, how to structure an assignment, it was hell and for my very first assignment I've said it before in another vlog I got 55% and I was gutted. That's a pass but I was gutted because it was a low grade so I wanted to improve. I took on board all of the feedback I was given. I made just some slight little changes and got myself a 75% for my next assignment so I just want to tell you what I did to improve that grade and hopefully it's going to help you and get you off to the right start. As always I need to put this little disclaimer out there so this is just my own personal experience and what I've done and how I've improved and based around my own university guidelines so always make sure you check your own university guidelines, your marking criteria and your assignment briefs and follow that over anything else. Tip number one so my first tip about writing assignments is make sure you use linking words which is something very very new to me I didn't realise and I didn't use any linking words in my first assignment but for the second one I did I originally heard about these linking words from somebody that I work with and she actually looked at my assignment and she was like Claire you need to use these linking words you can't keep just putting and this and that and this you're gonna get a really low grade and I was like what what are you on about these linking words so use linking words like furthermore moreover nevertheless nonetheless however just those tiny little changes makes your assignment flow so much nicer it links it all in and I'm gonna put all of the links below to the websites that really helped me with the linking words have a look at those and hopefully it's gonna help you a little bit. Tip number two so you want to break your assignment down into small manageable sections this will just make your life so much easier to write this assignment so I start with putting little subheadings about what I'm gonna talk about for each piece of my assignment and I just fill in those bit by bit and then I remove the subheadings and then just link it all together and that just it makes it so much easier to do rather than just get onto paper or your laptop and just write because it just makes it just so much more manageable just to do piece by piece chip away at it slowly and it all comes together really nicely. Tip number three this tip I'm gonna tell you is literally less is more which sounds bizarre because you've got two thousand words to write sometimes or three thousand four thousand however many thousand words you've got to write look at what you need to write and don't over complicate it so basically whatever's in your assignment brief so if it says something like let's say you need to talk about consent so don't over complicate it by putting 101 different types of consent in there literally just pick one or two things and go in depth with those things because that's far better to do than just put in little snippets of pieces but not going in depth and not explaining it and you have to really go into depth and that's a really good tip I think and that's just some advice that I've always been given and it's really really helped to just make my assignment sound a lot better because otherwise it's gonna sound too bitty does that make sense it's gonna sound too bitty you're gonna talk about one thing and then another thing and then go on to another thing and it just it no it doesn't flow that well so just literally narrow it down to one or two things and then really go into depth with it and that's gonna get you a better grade. Tip number four so I reference as I go I don't like to do the referencing at the end because that's a really big job that you're not gonna want to do at the end of writing that assignment so just make sure you reference as you go right I personally write what I want to say first and then I go and find the reference that just helps avoid plagiarism I think because if you're looking at assignment you think oh yeah that sounds really good and then you type it and you're changing it around you run the risk of committing plagiarism by copying somebody else's work so I literally just write what I want to say first and then I go out and research the evidence and then I input the reference in as I go so I'll write my piece I'll find the research put the reference in put it on the reference list and it's there it's ready it makes your life so much easier I promise you and Harvard referencing is like a massive subject on its own that needs like a whole other vlog so I'm just gonna find some links for you and I'll put some links below to actual Harvard referencing and how to Harvard reference but your university should have all the guidelines there so make sure you follow whatever guidelines your university uses because that's what they're going to be marking you on not something else from a website or anything like that so make sure you follow your own university guidelines and if you don't use Harvard referencing whatever reference into all you use just make sure you follow it from your university's point of view tip number five so when finding your evidence and your research for your assignment you want to use more journals and evidence-based practice and research papers because that's going to get you the top marks because from a professional academic point of view they like to see that they like to see the evidence behind things so they don't want to see books they don't want to see websites they want legitimate evidence so if you can find research papers and research articles journal articles anything like that is gonna win you some massive brownie points and that was also the main thing that was highlighted on my very first assignment was that I used too many books because I always thought that books were really good and I should be using books and I think I used one journal article and it was highlighted quite clearly that I shouldn't be doing that so I completely changed it I went out I got some evidence-based practice research papers all of that millions of journals and that I think topped my mark just up a little bit tip number six so with regards to your referencing and your journals and all of that jazz you want to be putting in a reference every 50-ish words 50 to 55 words you want a reference because I just that's a rule that I just stick to I don't know why is is just what I stick to and the more references you can put in the more research you can find it shows that you've done a whole lot of wider reading and you're gonna get those marks tip number seven as well as the referencing and having lots of references you want to make sure these references are up to date so I tend to try my hardest to find within the last five years I stick to the five years because that's the most up-to-date best evidence you can find but if it's 10 years it doesn't matter but if there's something newer than 10 years you need to use that over the 10 year one just because it looks a whole lot better is more current is more up-to-date you're gonna get more points for that if you're using things from like 1990 and there's better research than that you're gonna just lose a little bit of marks for that but at the same point if there's only research and that's the only place you can find it is from 10 years ago it doesn't matter the golden rule is to be honest between now and 10 years ago but five years ago and now is the top marks I think tip number eight this tip goes to anyone that has an assignment where you can pick the subjects to write about my top tip for this is right about what you love right about what you're passionate about and then it won't be a chore to write honestly I've been quite lucky with the past couple of assignments because we've had a choice to pick between a few things so I've always gone in what I love talking about which is my current job that I do in sexual health so my last one was on chlamydia and chlamydia particularly in young people and I really enjoyed writing that so it wasn't a chore I loved finding the research I loved writing it and if you do that this assignment is gonna be easy to write for you tip number nine if you can critically analyze in your assignment you are gonna get the high marks because that's what they want they want you to critically analyze it they don't want to just state facts they don't want a description of something they want you to critically analyze and I think a lot of people really really struggle with this so I'm just gonna give a little bit more I think information about how to critically analyze something and hopefully you'll be able to understand it a little bit better and I hope it really helps you with your assignment critically analyzing is literally weighing up the pros and the cons and come into a conclusion at the end of those pros and cons so something I was told in a lecture that really helped me understand how to critically analyze was that it's a bit like choosing your mobile phone so you're going out you're looking for a new mobile phone but you don't know which one to have so you're weighing up the iPhone the Samsung you're looking at the specs so what cameras they got what body shape is it what color do you want do you want a case for it what memory do you pick all of these different things and features you're looking at every single one okay this one's better than this one but this one's better than this one oh good but this is a bad feature of this one but this is bad feature okay overall I'm gonna choose such and such mobile and that is literally all you're gonna do in your assignment you're gonna weigh up the pros and cons of something so just to give you an example of this for my last assignment I was discussing wound dressings and what type of dressing I was going to use for a laceration on the wrist so I was debating whether to use all these different dressings but some dressings are specifically for sluffy wounds some of for infected wounds and this wound was literally just a straight cut wound it wasn't infected it was fine so I was trying to weigh up the pros and cons of which dressing to use for that and not only that but I was weighing up the cost of these wounds so which type of dressing was the most appropriate and the most cost effective for this type of wound and that's literally all you're doing and then you come to your conclusion so I picked the dressing for that type of wound and the cost effective that's literally all you have to do guys I say it is all you have to do it probably is a lot harder than I'm making it out to be so I am sorry it's not that easy I know it's not simple but when you just don't overthink it just literally do you know what actually what I would do is put whatever you're talking about as a heading put two columns pros and cons do your pros and cons in sections and then come to a conclusion just on a bit of scrap paper or something and that might just help you write your assignment and write it critically does that make sense I hope that makes sense I'm so sorry if it doesn't but that's to me that's the easiest way I can explain it and I hope that makes sense and you understand and I hope it helps you a little bit but let me know if it does or doesn't let me know if it doesn't because this is terrible if it doesn't and I'll need to know how to improve to explain things a little bit better maybe last but not least tip number 10 my last tip of the day is get somebody to proofread your assignment when you're finished because it doesn't matter who they are they don't have to be a nurse they don't have to work in education you might just make this the slightest little mistake and you might not have realized but just those fresh pair of eyes that hasn't seen the assignment form might pick up the spelling mistake or you've put a full stop in the wrong place you've started a paragraph when you shouldn't have those little things they can really pick up on it's just so nice just to get someone just to scan through it and see if it can be improved and it really really does make all of the difference that's all from me thank you so much for watching if I can help you anymore with assignment writing please let me know in the comments message me on social media anything you wish let me know and I'll help where I can but it's always important just to remember I'm just going to reiterate please follow your own policies and procedures your own guidelines of the university and if you're really really struggling with the assignments please get the help from the support team at your university go to your personal development department if you've got one anyone that helps you academically go to them don't be afraid to ask for help if you're struggling and sometimes they will read over your assignment and to show you where you're going wrong and they will be brutal they'll be honest they are those critiques that you need trust me fingers crossed if you're in the middle of writing an assignment you've got one coming up to submit fingers crossed good luck I hope you're gonna smash it I know you're gonna smash it good luck and I'll see you next time