A TRAINING ABOUT HOW TO PREPARE AN EFFECTIVE

ASSIGNMENT/ RESEARCH.
PREPARED BY:
ALI ABDI ALI (ALI KIIMIKO)
Feb,2020
 Assignment

Define in your own words the meaning of an

assignment
Assignment: is a task or piece of work allocated to someone as part of a job or

course of study.
A Straightforward Guide to Finding Information for Your Assignment

Conducting research is an essential part of your assignment preparation process, and it can
oftentimes seem overwhelming/ very great in amount. if you approach the matter in a well
organised manner and consider a few key aspects. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to
approach your research to find proper resources for your paper.
 Identify Your Topic, Focus or Angle

Sometimes, your teachers will allow you to choose your own topic, while other
times they will assign you one – even so, you will usually still need to think about
an angle or find a more narrow focus for your task. Before starting your searching
for resources, first do some preliminary research to ensure you understand your
topic and find an angle or focus you feel more comfortable with and about which
you can find good information.
 Ensure You Understand Your Assignment

There are many things you need to determine about your task before you start looking for
information.

What type of paper will you be writing? Persuasive essay, research paper, or an assignment?

Are there any gaps in your knowledge you need to cover before getting started?

How much information will you need?

What must you find out?

Are there any hints provided in the instructions that you must keep in mind?
 Determine the Sort of Information You Need

Do you need analyses, opinions, facts, research studies, or a mix of all?

What format should your sources have? Online sources may provide a basic intro to your
topic, books may offer highly detailed explanations, while journals and statistics databases are
the best sources to find evidence.

Do your sources need to be up to date (as in the case of scientific discoveries, for instance) or
can you just as well use information written in the 80’s?
 Start Your Assignment/ Research

Determine the best places to find the right information for your assignment. Wikipedia is
usually not one of them. You can try Google Scholar, e-journals, online academic databases, or
your institution’s library.

Find the right keywords to look for information online. Think of alternative terms or
synonyms as well.
If you’ve been searching for a while using the keywords identified earlier and still haven’t
found anything, you may need to rethink your strategy.

Look for different words to search or try other resources, you might need to rethink your topic
and find a more accessible focus or angle.
 Evaluate What You Find

While not finding enough resources for your assignment might be quite an issue,
finding too many or wrong ones can be a disappointed. Once you’ve gathered your
data, it is essential to analyse it carefully to weed out irrelevant information and
assess the quality of your sources.
 Citation and reference

What is the difference between Citation and reference

 Reference

A reference list is a list of the resources that you used when writing your assignment or doing
your research. These resources may include:

books, including electronic books, journals (online an paper based)

online sources including websites, blogs and forums

Speeches

conference papers, proceedings and thesis

other sources of information such as film, television, video, etc. 

Reference lists come at the end of an assignment, and are arranged in alphabetical order,
usually by author or editor.
 Citation

Citations or in-text citations are similar to references, but occur in the body of the text with
direct quotes and paraphrases to identify the author/publication for the material you have used.
Citations are used:

to show which reference supports a particular statement

for direct quotes – when you repeat a passage from a text (or speech, video, etc.) in your
assignment without changing any words
when you paraphrase – this is when you use your own words to restate the meaning of a text
in your assignment.

One of the most important things to remember is that every citation should also have a
corresponding entry in your reference list.
 Example of Citation and reference

Citation

Kothari (2004) describes it as ―the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data

in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the research purpose with economy in procedure.

Reference

Kothari (2004) Research Methodology: Methods and Techniques. New Delhi: Vishwa Prakashan.