Answer the question!

I’ve been reading and listening to student work over the past couple of days and if I was asked to give one piece of advice to students it would be: follow the instructions and answer the question!

If you are asked to:

Choose an article about finance to present to the class

and you present an article about something else then you are not going to get a very good mark.  If the assignment brief says:

Discuss the quote above with reference to a great leader from your country

and you discuss a great leader from your country but you don’t discuss the quote you were given then you are not going to get a very good mark.

Think carefully about the title of your coursework. Look back at the assignment brief again and again as you are working to make sure you are addressing the question properly. I highly recommend  Andy Gillett’s page on Understanding the Question from his extensive Using English for Academic Purposes website to help you understand the question. It’s here.