A Complete Guide on How to Write Assignment (HD Grades)

Overview

As a student, you will often find yourself engaged and busy with academic assignments and the hard part is that you don’t really have a choice. You may not like the idea of doing assignments one after the other but you cannot deny the fact that these assignments are important for your academic progress. When you complete your assignments with task competence and effective time management, you give yourself a perfect chance to score HD grades which will put you at a competitive advantage. Makes complete sense, right?

However, the question is, what does it take to write an HD grades assignment? What are the tips you ought to follow for submitting a high-grade assignment such that you can make your parents proud? This is exactly what this guide is about. This guide on HD grade assignments is your complete handbook on how you should approach an assignment and things you need to be careful of before submitting your assignment to your professors. So, let’s get started.

Things to do before you start an assignment

We have divided the entire process of writing a high-grade assignment into three stages. The first stage is the set of tips to take care of before you start your assignment. Subsequently, the next segment talks about things you need to do in the due course of the assignment. Lastly, the guide sheds light on the effective tips for you to take care of before you finally submit your assignment to your professors.

Tips to follow before starting an assignment

1. Understand the task/question

When you are assigned an assessment task by your professor, the very first thing that you need to do is to understand the assignment task. Since every assignment is crucial to your final grades, you need to ensure that you have complete clarity on what is to be done and how it is to be done. Let’s say your assignment task is to conduct a strategic analysis of a multinational company and then provide recommendations to the company for sustaining its competitive advantage. Let’s suppose the company is Amazon.

So, before you begin this task, you first need to understand what the company offers and the industry in which it operates. Thereafter, you then need to acquire an effective understanding of strategic analysis and the various frameworks that you will be applying to conduct an in-depth strategic analysis of Amazon looking into the competitive positioning, internal capabilities, and external opportunities for the company. Some of the important frameworks with respect to strategic analysis include PESTLE Analysis, SWOT Analysis, VRIO Analysis, and Perceptual Map.

So, in order to complete this assignment effectively for scoring HD grades, you need an in-depth understanding of how to conduct PESTLE Analysis, SWOT Analysis, and other frameworks included in the strategic analysis. Further, you need to understand how you can make some effective recommendations to the company which are implementable as real-time strategies.

Key tip: While understanding the task thoroughly, also be sure of the citation style requirements of assignment

2. Set milestones for your assignment

Planning your assignment in a phased manner is always a great idea. In fact, it is an important step in the direction of scoring HD grades. Students are often tempted by the idea of completing their assignments in a single day which is usually the last day prior to the deadline. However, when you try to rush things on the last day, you will not be able to carry out the amount of extensive research required to complete a high-scoring assignment.

Hence, you should set milestones for your assignment. You should break the assignment tasks into different stages to be completed on different days.

Continuing our example of the assessment task from above (Amazon Strategic Analysis), let’s say the assignment file is of 4000 words and is to be completed within a week’s time. So, a better approach would be to set different milestones. You can keep the first two days for extensive research needed for an impressive assignment. The research will involve going through Amazon’s annual reports, recognizing the major markets for Amazon, identifying key competitors along with their financial reports and other data available to substantiate arguments.

Further, you can set milestones in a way that you commit to completing a minimum of 1500 words per day. In this way, you will be able to complete the assignment within three days subsequent to the days kept for extensive research. Lastly, you can keep the last two days for proofreading and final edits before submission. Also, for effective time management to ensure that these milestones are met, you can use the Pareto Principle.

All in all, when you set milestones, you can approach your assignment in a more systematic way which will eventually be the key to facilitating impressive quality at all times. So, when it comes to your objective of scoring HD grades, such efficient planning will surely help.

Key tip: Set attainable milestones

3. Get your research going

As discussed above, a high-quality assignment requires high-quality and meticulous research. Having said that, after you have set your milestones, you should then begin your research in a systematic way. You need to identify your sources of research and then arrange them for easy accessibility when you finally begin writing your assignment.

Taking our example of Amazon Strategic Analysis, the research will require you to analyze large volumes of data from Amazon’s financial statements, and the company’s official website. Besides, while analyzing the external business environment with respect to Amazon, you also need to carry out in-depth research with respect to the prevailing economic, social, political, and other factors prevailing in the given country.

If you will carry out the prerequisite research beforehand, you will not have to disrupt your flow while writing the assignment. You will then have all the information and data that you need to frame the content of your assignment.

Key tip: Keep all your research links and PDFs arranged effectively in one place for easy accessibility

4. Create an effective structure

Once the task is understood and the milestones are set, the next step is to set the structure of your assignment. There is every chance that your professors would have already given you a proper structure to follow highlighting the various key points of the assignment. Even if that is not the case, you need to still ensure that you create a proper structure that includes the executive summary, all the relevant subheadings, and the summary.

For instance, if we talk about our example assignment task, the strategic analysis of Amazon, the structure of the assignment will roughly be the following (subject to variations as per teachers’ guidelines)

a. Amazon history

b. Amazon mission and vision

c. Amazon External Analysis

• Amazon PESTLE Analysis
• Amazon Porter Five Forces Analysis
• Amazon Competitor’s Analysis
• Amazon Positioning Analysis

d. Amazon Internal Analysis

• Amazon VRIO Analysis
• Amazon SWOT Analysis

e. Amazon Business Strategy Analysis

f. Amazon Marketing Analysis

g. Recommendations to the company

h. Conclusion

Key tip: Crosscheck the structure with the exact requirements of assignment

5. Prepare a rough draft of the assignment

After you have conducted your research in an extensive manner and have prepared the structural outline of your assignment, the next step is to prepare the rough draft of your assignment. In simple terms, while preparing the draft, you will be able to identify which part of your research will be included in the specific sections of the assignment’s structure. In this way, you will be able to complete your assignment with greater efficiency and in less time. You will exactly know which data will be included in which sections of your assignment.

For instance, taking our example further, when you prepare the draft of your strategic analysis of Amazon, you will know that the company’s cash flow can be added in the SWOT analysis section when you talk about the financial health of the company. Similarly, the data on economic indicators of the given country can be added to the Amazon PESTLE analysis. Moreover, all the research with respect to Amazon’s competitors can be added to the Amazon competitors’ analysis section.

Key tip: Plan your sections as per the breakup of the total word count (if given)

Tips to follow while writing your assignment

1. Begin with an effective introduction

Practically speaking, the introduction paragraph of an assignment is subject to change as per the type of the assignment or the requirements of an assignment. To explain, the introduction style of an argumentative essay will be a lot different from the introduction of a marketing plan assignment.

In a general sense, the introduction of your assignment should give your professors a clear idea that you have understood the task well and you have delivered exactly the same in your assignment. Besides, the introduction of your assignment should be impressive enough to hook your professors if you are keen on scoring HD grades. The introduction should clearly highlight the objectives of your assignment and the key talking points.

The introduction should be concise and should give an overview of the assessment task followed by the thesis statement. To put it simply, you should include in the introduction what your task is, what you are including in the assignment, and the key points you are elaborating on. For a more lucid understanding of an effective introduction for assignments, you can go through our complete guide on how to write an introduction.

A small sample (as per the above example) of an impressive introduction is given below

Sample Introduction: Amazon is a globally recognized online retail and technological services company headquartered in the United States of America. The company was incorporated in the year 1994 and since then it has successfully expanded across various verticals and markets. This report presents a well-researched and effective strategic analysis of Amazon inclusive of the company’s external analysis, internal analysis, competitive positioning, and evaluation of marketing strategies. Further, the report also puts forth various strategic recommendations for the company that can be incorporated through effective change management.

As evident in the above example, an impressive introduction should clearly illustrate the objectives of the assignment along with a clear thesis statement.

Key tip: If relevant, add 1-2 citations in the introduction as well

2. Include substantive information in the body paragraphs

In the body paragraphs, you need to include precise and substantive information backed by statistics and facts. The greater the number of substantive facts, the more impressive the assignment will seem to your professors. You need to ensure that the content of the body paragraphs includes only relevant and factual information. You need to write highly information along with a brief description of the cause and effect relationship along with the implications of the fact.

For instance, in the case of the strategic analysis of Amazon, when you are doing the PESTLE Analysis section, you need to add factual and correct information with respect to the external factors affecting the company and the kind of influence they can have. Similarly, in the VRIO analysis section, you need to add factual information that is relevant to the resources and capabilities of the company. Any information added to the VRIO section which does not correlate to the resources and capabilities of the company will be considered irrelevant.

Key tip: As we mentioned above, preparing a rough draft of the assignment beforehand will help you in framing the content of your body paragraphs in a more worthwhile way.

3. Take care of cohesion

When you write long paragraphs in your assignments, it is essential to maintain cohesiveness. If there is no cohesion between sentences and paragraphs, the ideas and arguments will seem scattered. It will seem like you have put things together in bits and pieces without any correlation. Hence, you need to use connectors like furthermore, moreover, besides, on the contrary, subsequently and so on to maintain cohesion.

Key tip: Use relevance-based connectors for cohesion

4. Include citations correctly

This is a very important aspect of your assignment. In fact, your professors add it clearly to the guidelines that you need to add citations of your sources. Also, on most occasions, there is a minimum or a maximum number of citations that you need to add to your assignment. Also, as suggested above, you need to be sure of the citation style your professor has instructed. To avoid plagiarism, you need to make sure that you are citing all the sources of information you have extracted from other authors’ work and have given attribution wherever needed. Also, you need to maintain caution against misquoting the sources. Moreover, not citing your sources can also be considered an act of academic dishonesty.

Speaking in the context of our example, the strategic analysis of Amazon will certainly involve a lot of facts and stats. You need to make sure that you are citing all the sources of the information that you quote in your content. So, when you talk about the cash flow of the company extracted from the company’s annual report, you need to include the in-text citation as well as the bibliographic citation of the annual report in the citation style instructed by your professor.

Key tip: Follow the correct format for citations as asked

In case you are not sure about plagiarism, you can go through the types of plagiarism and their examples for a more lucid understanding.

5. Substantiate arguments with examples

Examples could exactly be the underlying difference between an assignment scoring average grades and an HD grades assignment. When you substantiate the arguments with real and practical examples, it reflects your extensive research and also expresses your understanding of the topic in an intelligible way.

For instance, in the strategic analysis of Amazon, when you put forth recommendations for the company, you can include examples of other companies that have benefited from the proposed strategies. Similarly, when you analyze Amazon’s marketing strategies, you can give examples of competitors that are doing better in terms of marketing. A real case study explained through an example will make your assignment a lot more credible and impressive. There is no reason then why your professors will not feel the temptation to give you HD grades.

Key tip: Each body paragraph should ideally discuss a single idea

6. Give a precise conclusion

Like an effective introduction to your assignment, writing a great conclusion is equally important for getting HD grades. Your conclusion should be precise and should effectively summarize the arguments discussed in your assignment or research paper. The conclusion should be in alignment with the ideas discussed in the body paragraphs and ideally, there should be no contradiction to your ideas when you sum up your assignment.

Given below is a sample conclusion (with respect to our example) for a clearer understanding. Besides, if you need additional help, you can read our delineated guide on how to write a conclusion.

Sample conclusion: To encapsulate, it is analyzed that Amazon has a strong competitive position and the external business environment is also largely favorable for the company to penetrate new markets and amplify its profitability. Moreover, it is identified that the company has strong internal capabilities that put the company at a competitive advantage. After a comprehensive strategic analysis of the company, it is concluded that the company has a leadership position in its industry which it can capitalize on. Further, if the company can integrate the recommendations made in the report, the company can further enhance its position in the corresponding industry.

Now we come to the last segment, things to do after you have completed your assignment. The subsequent section discusses the various tips that you need to follow before you submit your completed assignment to your professor. This is your final checklist before you send your assignment to score HD grades.

Tips to follow after you complete your assignment

1. Recheck the task objectives

Once you have completed your assignment, you need to recheck once if all the objectives and guidelines or not. For that, you need to read the task and the included instructions thoroughly once again before you submit your assignment. In case you missed out on a part, you will be able to figure it out before you finally submit your assignment. Why let silly mistakes come in the way of HD grades?

Key tip: Complete your assignment before the due date to leave room for changes

2. Proofread your assignment

Next, when you are certain that everything is complete, it is highly important to proofread your assignment effectively. In case your assignment has some typing errors or grammatical errors, they could give your professor a valid reason to not give you HD grades. Frankly speaking, even the best of us can make typing errors or grammatical errors at times, and hence, proofreading is super important.

Besides, the effectiveness of your proofreading will directly depend on how focused or attentive you are when you proofread your assignment. So, it is recommended that while proofreading, you should put all distractions away, create a conducive environment, and then proofread your work with complete concentration.

Key tip: While proofreading, also proofread for any citation mistakes you might have made

3. Check for toc and cover letter requirements

In case your assignment guidelines state that you need to add a cover letter and table of contents, you should add the same before you finally submit the assignment. In most cases, it is included in the instructions that you need to add a TOC and Cover Letter to the assignment which will not be included in the total word count.

Key tip: Look for cover letter templates if you are not sure of what a good cover letter looks like

4. Check your assignment for plagiarism

Did you know that even the smallest act of plagiarism is considered severe academic misconduct and is even punishable by law in Australia, the US, and most other countries? Having said that, you need to be double sure that your assignment is not plagiarized at all. Also, even if there is slight plagiarism in your assignment, you will certainly lose the chance to score HD grades. Think about it, why would professors give you HD grades for an assignment with plagiarized content?

However, the real question is, how can you be sure of whether your assignment is plagiarism free or not? Well, we can help you with that! Send your files to us and we will send you a credible plagiarism report so that you can submit a high-quality assignment that will surely score HD grades.

Key tip: Citing your sources wrongly can also be considered plagiarism

5. Make sure your file is in the right format

Before you finally submit your assignment, make sure it is in the correct format as per the requirements laid down by your professor. To explain, you need to be sure whether you have to submit your assignment in PDF format, Word format, or any other format. Sending it in the wrong format can attract negative feedback from the professor and that all-important first impression will get ruined.

Key tip: If the format is not mentioned in the task file, ask your professor before making the submission

To conclude, it takes a lot more to score HD grades than you would have otherwise thought. However, as long as you are diligent and follow the above tips effectively, there is no reason why you cannot score HD grades in all your assignments.

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