Check that your writing is clear and look for mistakes in spelling, grammar and punctuation.
The format of your work is also very important. When you have worked hard to develop your ideas and present them, you don’t want anything to distract your tutor from what you have written. Make sure that you have followed the correct formatting style. The requirements are usually set out in your assignment guidelines or marking guide.
Check the question and marking guide again after you’ve completed your assessment. Make sure you’ve answered all parts of the question and that you’ve used keywords from the question to signpost for the marker which specific parts you’re answering. Make sure all the information you’ve quoted, paraphrased or summarised is cited correctly.
Make sure that each paragraph in the body of your assessment deals with only one main idea and that its main idea is clearly expressed in its topic sentence.
Don’t rely entirely on spell check as it has a limited dictionary, so some words that you have spelled correctly may be picked up as incorrect. Also, spell check will not pick up misspellings that are valid words. For example, if you type “form” instead of “from” spell check will not pick up the error. Use a dictionary to check the spelling if you are not sure. Check out our Spelling and Punctuation page for more information.
Similarly, don’t rely entirely on your computer’s grammar check as it usually works with a limited number of rules; it can’t identify every error. Reading aloud to yourself and checking whether sentences sound right can help correct most grammatical errors
Punctuation should make it easier for people to understand what you have written. Students sometimes struggle to use the following punctuation effectively:
Colons (:) are mainly used to:
Semicolons (;) are mainly used to:
Apostrophes (‘) are used to show:
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