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Educators Battle Plagiarism As 89% Of Students Admit To Using OpenAI’s ChatGPT For Homework

Who's teaching who?

A large majority of students are already using ChatGPT for homework assignments, creating challenges around plagiarism , cheating, and learning. According to Wharton MBA Professor Christian Terwisch, ChatGPT would receive “a B or a B-” on an Ivy League MBA-level exam in operations management. Another professor at a Utah-based university asked ChatGPT to tweet in his voice - leading Professor Alex Lawrence to declare that “this is the greatest cheating tool ever invented”, according to the Wall Street Journal . The plagiarism potential is potent - so, is banning the tool a realistic solution?

New research from Study.com provides eye-opening insight into the educational impact of ChatGPT , an online tool that has a surprising mastery of learning and human language. INSIDER reports that researchers recently put ChatGPT through the United States Medical Licensing exam (the three-part exam used to qualify medical school students for residency - basically, a test to see if you can be a doctor). In a December report, ChatGPT “performed at or near the passing threshold for all three exams without any training or reinforcement.” Lawrence, a professor from Weber State in Utah who tested via tweet, wrote a follow-up message to his students regarding the new platform from OpenAI: “I hope to inspire and educate you enough that you will want to learn how to leverage these tools, not just to learn to cheat better.” No word on how the students have responded so far.

Machines, tools and software have been making certain tasks easier for us for thousands of years. Are we about to outsource learning and education to artificial intelligence ? And what are the implications, beyond the classroom, if we do?

Considering that 90% of students are aware of ChatGPT, and 89% of survey respondents report that they have used the platform to help with a homework assignment, the application of OpenAI’s platform is already here. More from the survey:

48% of students admitted to using ChatGPT for an at-home test or quiz, 53% had it write an essay, and 22% had it write an outline for a paper.
72% of college students believe that ChatGPT should be banned from their college's network. (New York, Seattle and Los Angeles have all blocked the service from their public school networks).
82% of college professors are aware of ChatGPT
72% of college professors who are aware of ChatGPT are concerned about its impact on cheating
Over a third (34%) of all educators believe that ChatGPT should be banned in schools and universities, while 66% support students having access to it.
Meanwhile, 5% of educators say that they have used ChatGPT to teach a class, and 7% have used the platform to create writing prompts.

A teacher quoted anonymously in the Study.com survey shares, “'I love that students would have another resource to help answer questions. Do I worry some kids would abuse it? Yes. But they use Google and get answers without an explanation. It's my understanding that ChatGPT explains answers. That [explanation] would be more beneficial.” Or would it become a crutch?

Modern society has many options for transportation: cars, planes, trains, and even electric scooters all help us to get around. But these machines haven’t replaced the simple fact that walking and running (on your own) is really, really good for you. Electric bikes are fun, but pushing pedals on our own is where we find our fitness. Without movement comes malady. A sedentary life that relies solely on external mechanisms for transport is a recipe for atrophy, poor health, and even a shortened lifespan. Will ChatGPT create educational atrophy, the equivalent of an electric bicycle for our brains?

Of course, when calculators came into the classroom, many declared the decline of math skills would soon follow. Research conducted as recently as 2012 has proven this to be false. Calculators had no positive or negative effects on basic math skills.

But ChatGPT has already gone beyond the basics, passing medical exams and MBA-level tests. A brave new world is already here, with implications for cheating and plagiarism, to be sure. But an even deeper implication points to the very nature of learning itself, when ChatGPT has become a super-charged repository for what is perhaps the most human of all inventions: the synthesis of our language. (That same synthesis that sits atop Blooms Taxonomy - a revered pyramid of thinking, that outlines the path to higher learning ). Perhaps educators, students and even business leaders will discover something old is new again, from ChatGPT. That discovery? Seems Socrates was right: the key to strong education begins with asking the right questions. Especially if you are talking to a ‘bot.

Back-to-school for higher education sees students and professors grappling with AI in academia

America’s colleges have an AI dilemma, but students are embracing it.

As millions of students return to school this fall, ABC News spoke with students and professors learning to navigate the influence of generative artificial intelligence.

ChatGPT, which launched in November 2022, is described on its website as an AI-powered language model, "capable of generating human-like text based on context and past conversations."

At the University of California, Davis, senior Andrew Yu found himself using AI to help outline an eight-page paper for his poetry class. It needed to be in the style of an academic memorandum, which Yu had never written before -- so he turned to ChatGPT to help him visualize the project.

"I think it's kind of ironic or it's a really funny thing because I'm an English major," Yu told ABC News.

MORE: Amid spread of AI tools, new digital standard would help users tell fact from fiction

Yu says he is careful to use ChatGPT technology to template and structure his assignments but not go beyond that. "I feel like it's not authentic to me in the way that I write, so I just use it as a skeleton, like an outline," he said.

"Sometimes we get a little stuck and need extra help," said Eneesa Abdullah-Hudson, a senior at Morgan State University, a historically Black college in Baltimore. "So just having this tool here to help guide us, so we can add our feedback with it, it's definitely helpful."

Among U.S. adults who have heard of ChatGPT, only 41% between ages 18 and 29 have used it, according to Pew Research data . Now, professors across the country are learning alongside their students about the risks and rewards of generative AI in education.

University of Florida Warrington College of Business Professor Dr. Joel Davis said AI innovations like ChatGPT could be used as a tool for core language arts subjects.

"There's a natural progression," Davis, who researches the integration of generative AI solutions, told ABC News. "New tools like the calculator, like Grammarly and editing tools that came out a number of years ago that made all of our writing better, including mine, right? Those are things that are just going to keep on coming. And, we can't stop them from coming, but it's up to us to decide how to integrate them appropriately."

Despite using AI himself, Yu says he is cautious and concerned by the quality of AI responses.

MORE: As acceptance rates decline, students bill themselves as admissions experts

"It's definitely like a risk," Yu said, adding "I feel like it can be beneficial. You just have to use it responsibly and make sure that the majority of your wording is you, and none of it is by the AI."

Does AI promote or detect cheating?

Most schools are embracing the novelty of generative AI use by teachers and students, but some faculty are already facing the issue of it interfering with assignments in their classrooms.

Davis demoed AI's abilities with his own tests.

"It does fairly well on my exams," he said. "It can recite those answers pretty well, but I don't view that as a ChatGPT problem; that's my issue."

Furman University Professor Darren Hick had a hunch that one of his students used AI to write a final paper last December.

Hick said the student sat in his Greenville, South Carolina, office, hyperventilating, before confessing to using ChatGPT.

"We're not ready for it [AI chatbot cheating]," Hick, who gave this student a failing grade, told ABC News. "We're not prepared to deal with this. It's just harder to catch. That's always been my concern."

Furman's current definition of plagiarism is "copying word for word from another source without proper attribution." These instances, when AI use is detected, could be considered "inappropriate collaboration or cheating," a school spokesperson said.

An OpenAI spokesperson also said the company that powers ChatGPT has always called for "transparency" around generative AI use. Davis, at the University of Florida, told ABC News that assessments need to change if educators are worried about students using chatbots to cheat.

But Jessica Zimny, a junior at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, told ABC News she earned perfect scores on her political science discussion posts until her account was flagged for AI-assistance detection.

"I noticed that when I logged in, it said that I had a zero for that assignment, and to the right of it was a note stating that Turnitin detected AI use on my assignment," Zimny said.

Turnitin, a popular resource used by schools to check for plagiarism within student assignments, searches text for signs it was generated by AI. When AI detection is indicated, the company recommends that teachers have conversations with their students and this will usually "resolve" the issue one way or another.

Even though Zimny claimed she didn't use AI, she said her professor failed her because the program flagged her assignment.

"It's just really frustrating," Zimny said. "I just hate the fact that there are actually people out there that do use AI and do cheat to where you have to get to the point where there have to be detectors that are made that can falsely accuse people who aren't in the wrong."

ABC News reached out to Midwestern State for a comment on Zimny's failing grade. Interim Provost Dr. Marcy Brown Marsden said she's unable to speak directly to a student's academic record or appeals due to FERPA regulations. On the school's public directory, it says if Turnitin.com detects that an assignment was completed using AI, the student will be given a grade of zero for that assignment.

However, Turnitin leaves the final decision-making to the instructor.

"Teachers should be using similarity reports and AI reports as resources, not deciders," Annie Chechitelli, chief product officer at Turnitin, told ABC News in a statement.

Aside from plagiarism concerns, there is also worry about the security of data entered by students and teachers into generative AI tools.

"It is indeed entirely possible, and indeed likely, that bad actors will use open source large language models - which students may well use – to obtain sensitive personal data, for the purposes of targeting advertising, blackmail, and so forth," "Rebooting AI" author Gary Marcus told ABC News.

New York City Public Schools placed ChatGPT on its list of restricted websites, though it is still accessible if schools request it. However, in a statement on Chalkbeat , Chancellor of New York City Public Schools David C. Banks said, "The knee-jerk fear and risk overlooked the potential of generative AI to support students and teachers, as well as the reality that our students are participating in and will work in a world where understanding generative AI is crucial."

Is AI avoidable?

Generative AI has become the new frontier for educators and students to work around. Some universities said there's no one-size-fits-all approach while others have strict guidelines to combat unethical usage.

Carnegie Mellon University's (CMU) Academic Integrity Policy prohibits "unauthorized assistance," which would include generative AI tools unless explicitly permitted by the instructor, according to a recent letter published by the school's leaders. Most colleges -- like CMU -- still embrace the novelty of generative AI use by teachers and students.

"I think for probably the first time, nine months ago when OpenAI put out the ChatGPT, it [AI] sort of allowed an average person to kind of touch and feel it, to explore it, to try it," AI Scholar and CMU Professor Rayid Ghani told ABC News. "It wasn't something we could touch and feel and do. We weren't using it ourselves."

Abdullah-Hudson said she uses ChatGPT to check her work. "It's just like an extra helping tool."

And, OpenAI invites teachers to use its technology. The company's Teaching with AI page suggests prompts to help teachers come up with lesson plans. Embracing AI, Abdullah-Hudson believes it's here to stay.

"Living in the world today, there's no way around it," Abdullah-Hudson said. "So there's no way to avoid the AI, might as well learn to use it instead of being afraid of it."

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Science News Explores

Think twice before using chatgpt for help with homework.

This new AI tool talks a lot like a person — but still makes mistakes

ChatGPT is impressive and can be quite useful. It can help people write text, for instance, and code. However, “it’s not magic,” says Casey Fiesler. In fact, it often seems intelligent and confident while making mistakes — and sometimes parroting biases.

Glenn Harvey

Test yourself: Can you spot the ChatGPT answers in our quiz?

But some experts suspect that bots like ChatGPT could also be a great help to learners and workers everywhere. Like calculators for math or Google for facts, an AI chatbot makes something that once took time and effort much simpler and faster. With this tool, anyone can generate well-formed sentences and paragraphs — even entire pieces of writing.

How could a tool like this change the way we teach and learn?

The good, the bad and the weird

ChatGPT has wowed its users. “It’s so much more realistic than I thought a robot could be,” says Avani Rao. This high school sophomore lives in California. She hasn’t used the bot to do homework. But for fun, she’s prompted it to say creative or silly things. She asked it to explain addition, for instance, in the voice of an evil villain. Its answer is highly entertaining.

Tools like ChatGPT could help create a more equitable world for people who are trying to work in a second language or who struggle with composing sentences. Students could use ChatGPT like a coach to help improve their writing and grammar. Or it could explain difficult subjects. “It really will tutor you,” says Vogelsinger, who had one student come to him excited that ChatGPT had clearly outlined a concept from science class.

Teachers could use ChatGPT to help create lesson plans or activities — ones personalized to the needs or goals of specific students.

Several podcasts have had ChatGPT as a “guest” on the show. In 2023, two people are going to use an AI-powered chatbot like a lawyer. It will tell them what to say during their appearances in traffic court. The company that developed the bot is paying them to test the new tech. Their vision is a world in which legal help might be free.

@professorcasey Replying to @novshmozkapop #ChatGPT might be helpful but don’t ask it for help on your math homework. #openai #aiethics ♬ original sound – Professor Casey Fiesler

Xiaoming Zhai tested ChatGPT to see if it could write an academic paper . Zhai is an expert in science education at the University of Georgia in Athens. He was impressed with how easy it was to summarize knowledge and generate good writing using the tool. “It’s really amazing,” he says.

All of this sounds great. Still, some really big problems exist.

Most worryingly, ChatGPT and tools like it sometimes gets things very wrong. In an ad for Bard, the chatbot claimed that the James Webb Space Telescope took the very first picture of an exoplanet. That’s false. In a conversation posted on Twitter, ChatGPT said the fastest marine mammal was the peregrine falcon. A falcon, of course, is a bird and doesn’t live in the ocean.

ChatGPT can be “confidently wrong,” says Casey Fiesler. Its text, she notes, can contain “mistakes and bad information.” She is an expert in the ethics of technology at the University of Colorado Boulder. She has made multiple TikTok videos about the pitfalls of ChatGPT .

Also, for now, all of the bot’s training data came from before a date in 2021. So its knowledge is out of date.

Finally, ChatGPT does not provide sources for its information. If asked for sources, it will make them up. It’s something Fiesler revealed in another video . Zhai discovered the exact same thing. When he asked ChatGPT for citations, it gave him sources that looked correct. In fact, they were bogus.

Zhai sees the tool as an assistant. He double-checked its information and decided how to structure the paper himself. If you use ChatGPT, be honest about it and verify its information, the experts all say.

Under the hood

ChatGPT’s mistakes make more sense if you know how it works. “It doesn’t reason. It doesn’t have ideas. It doesn’t have thoughts,” explains Emily M. Bender. She is a computational linguist who works at the University of Washington in Seattle. ChatGPT may sound a lot like a person, but it’s not one. It is an AI model developed using several types of machine learning .

The primary type is a large language model. This type of model learns to predict what words will come next in a sentence or phrase. It does this by churning through vast amounts of text. It places words and phrases into a 3-D map that represents their relationships to each other. Words that tend to appear together, like peanut butter and jelly, end up closer together in this map.

Before ChatGPT, OpenAI had made GPT3. This very large language model came out in 2020. It had trained on text containing an estimated 300 billion words. That text came from the internet and encyclopedias. It also included dialogue transcripts, essays, exams and much more, says Sasha Luccioni. She is a researcher at the company HuggingFace in Montreal, Canada. This company builds AI tools.

OpenAI improved upon GPT3 to create GPT3.5. This time, OpenAI added a new type of machine learning. It’s known as “reinforcement learning with human feedback.” That means people checked the AI’s responses. GPT3.5 learned to give more of those types of responses in the future. It also learned not to generate hurtful, biased or inappropriate responses. GPT3.5 essentially became a people-pleaser.

a photo of the disclaimer shown upon opening ChatGPT's interface

During ChatGPT’s development, OpenAI added even more safety rules to the model. As a result, the chatbot will refuse to talk about certain sensitive issues or information. But this also raises another issue: Whose values are being programmed into the bot, including what it is — or is not — allowed to talk about?

OpenAI is not offering exact details about how it developed and trained ChatGPT. The company has not released its code or training data. This disappoints Luccioni. “I want to know how it works in order to help make it better,” she says.

When asked to comment on this story, OpenAI provided a statement from an unnamed spokesperson. “We made ChatGPT available as a research preview to learn from real-world use, which we believe is a critical part of developing and deploying capable, safe AI systems,” the statement said. “We are constantly incorporating feedback and lessons learned.” Indeed, some early experimenters got the bot to say biased things about race and gender. OpenAI quickly patched the tool. It no longer responds the same way.

ChatGPT is not a finished product. It’s available for free right now because OpenAI needs data from the real world. The people who are using it right now are their guinea pigs. If you use it, notes Bender, “You are working for OpenAI for free.”

Humans vs robots

How good is ChatGPT at what it does? Catherine Gao is part of one team of researchers that is putting the tool to the test.

At the top of a research article published in a journal is an abstract. It summarizes the author’s findings. Gao’s group gathered 50 real abstracts from research papers in medical journals. Then they asked ChatGPT to generate fake abstracts based on the paper titles. The team asked people who review abstracts as part of their job to identify which were which .

The reviewers mistook roughly one in every three (32 percent) of the AI-generated abstracts as human-generated. “I was surprised by how realistic and convincing the generated abstracts were,” says Gao. She is a doctor and medical researcher at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Ill.

In another study, Will Yeadon and his colleagues tested whether AI tools could pass a college exam . Yeadon is a physics teacher at Durham University in England. He picked an exam from a course that he teaches. The test asks students to write five short essays about physics and its history. Students who take the test have an average score of 71 percent, which he says is equivalent to an A in the United States.

Yeadon used a close cousin of ChatGPT, called davinci-003. It generated 10 sets of exam answers. Afterward, he and four other teachers graded them using their typical grading standards for students. The AI also scored an average of 71 percent. Unlike the human students, however, it had no very low or very high marks. It consistently wrote well, but not excellently. For students who regularly get bad grades in writing, Yeadon says, this AI “will write a better essay than you.”

These graders knew they were looking at AI work. In a follow-up study, Yeadon plans to use work from the AI and students and not tell the graders whose work they are looking at.

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Cheat-checking with AI

People may not always be able to tell if ChatGPT wrote something or not. Thankfully, other AI tools can help. These tools use machine learning to scan many examples of AI-generated text. After training this way, they can look at new text and tell you whether it was most likely composed by AI or a human.

Most free AI-detection tools were trained on older language models, so they don’t work as well for ChatGPT. Soon after ChatGPT came out, though, one college student spent his holiday break building a free tool to detect its work . It’s called GPTZero .

The company Originality.ai sells access to another up-to-date tool. Founder Jon Gillham says that in a test of 10,000 samples of text composed by GPT3, the tool tagged 94 percent of them correctly. When ChatGPT came out, his team tested a much smaller set of 20 samples that had been created by GPT3, GPT3.5 and ChatGPT. Here, Gillham says, “it tagged all of them as AI-generated. And it was 99 percent confident, on average.”

In addition, OpenAI says they are working on adding “digital watermarks” to AI-generated text. They haven’t said exactly what they mean by this. But Gillham explains one possibility. The AI ranks many different possible words when it is generating text. Say its developers told it to always choose the word ranked in third place rather than first place at specific places in its output. These words would act “like a fingerprint,” says Gillham.

a conversation between ChatGPT and Avani Rao

The future of writing

Tools like ChatGPT are only going to improve with time. As they get better, people will have to adjust to a world in which computers can write for us. We’ve made these sorts of adjustments before. As high-school student Rao points out, Google was once seen as a threat to education because it made it possible to instantly look up any fact. We adapted by coming up with teaching and testing materials that don’t require students to memorize things.

Now that AI can generate essays, stories and code, teachers may once again have to rethink how they teach and test. That might mean preventing students from using AI. They could do this by making students work without access to technology. Or they might invite AI into the writing process, as Vogelsinger is doing. Concludes Rao, “We might have to shift our point of view about what’s cheating and what isn’t.”

Students will still have to learn to write without AI’s help. Kids still learn to do basic math even though they have calculators. Learning how math works helps us learn to think about math problems. In the same way, learning to write helps us learn to think about and express ideas.

Rao thinks that AI will not replace human-generated stories, articles and other texts. Why? She says: “The reason those things exist is not only because we want to read it but because we want to write it.” People will always want to make their voices heard. ChatGPT is a tool that could enhance and support our voices — as long as we use it with care.

Correction: Gillham’s comment on the 20 samples that his team tested has been corrected to show how confident his team’s AI-detection tool was in identifying text that had been AI-generated (not in how accurately it detected AI-generated text).

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Expert Commentary

Basic newswriting: Learn how to originate, research and write breaking-news stories

Syllabus for semester-long course on the fundamentals of covering and writing the news, including how identify a story, gather information efficiently and place it in a meaningful context.

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .

by The Journalist's Resource, The Journalist's Resource January 22, 2010

This course introduces tomorrow’s journalists to the fundamentals of covering and writing news. Mastering these skills is no simple task. In an Internet age of instantaneous access, demand for high-quality accounts of fast-breaking news has never been greater. Nor has the temptation to cut corners and deliver something less.

To resist this temptation, reporters must acquire skills to identify a story and its essential elements, gather information efficiently, place it in a meaningful context, and write concise and compelling accounts, sometimes at breathtaking speed. The readings, discussions, exercises and assignments of this course are designed to help students acquire such skills and understand how to exercise them wisely.

Photo: Memorial to four slain Lakewood, Wash., police officers. The Seattle Times earned the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting for their coverage of the crime.

Course objective

To give students the background and skills needed to originate, research, focus and craft clear, compelling and contextual accounts of breaking news in a deadline environment.

Learning objectives

Build an understanding of the role news plays in American democracy.
Discuss basic journalistic principles such as accuracy, integrity and fairness.
Evaluate how practices such as rooting and stereotyping can undermine them.
Analyze what kinds of information make news and why.
Evaluate the elements of news by deconstructing award-winning stories.
Evaluate the sources and resources from which news content is drawn.
Analyze how information is attributed, quoted and paraphrased in news.
Gain competence in focusing a story’s dominant theme in a single sentence.
Introduce the structure, style and language of basic news writing.
Gain competence in building basic news stories, from lead through their close.
Gain confidence and competence in writing under deadline pressure.
Practice how to identify, background and contact appropriate sources.
Discuss and apply the skills needed to interview effectively.
Analyze data and how it is used and abused in news coverage.
Review basic math skills needed to evaluate and use statistics in news.
Report and write basic stories about news events on deadline.

Week 1: Why journalism matters

Previous week | Next week | Back to top

Class 1: The role of journalism in society

The word journalism elicits considerable confusion in contemporary American society. Citizens often confuse the role of reporting with that of advocacy. They mistake those who promote opinions or push their personal agendas on cable news or in the blogosphere for those who report. But reporters play a different role: that of gatherer of evidence, unbiased and unvarnished, placed in a context of past events that gives current events weight beyond the ways opinion leaders or propagandists might misinterpret or exploit them.

This session’s discussion will focus on the traditional role of journalism eloquently summarized by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel in The Elements of Journalism . The class will then examine whether they believe that the journalist’s role has changed or needs to change in today’s news environment. What is the reporter’s role in contemporary society? Is objectivity, sometimes called fairness, an antiquated concept or an essential one, as the authors argue, for maintaining a democratic society? How has the term been subverted? What are the reporter’s fundamental responsibilities? This discussion will touch on such fundamental issues as journalists’ obligation to the truth, their loyalty to the citizens who are their audience and the demands of their discipline to verify information, act independently, provide a forum for public discourse and seek not only competing viewpoints but carefully vetted facts that help establish which viewpoints are grounded in evidence.

Reading: Kovach and Rosenstiel, Chapter 1, and relevant pages of the course text

Assignments:

Students should compare the news reporting on a breaking political story in The Wall Street Journal , considered editorially conservative, and The New York Times , considered editorially liberal. They should write a two-page memo that considers the following questions: Do the stories emphasize the same information? Does either story appear to slant the news toward a particular perspective? How? Do the stories support the notion of fact-based journalism and unbiased reporting or do they appear to infuse opinion into news? Students should provide specific examples that support their conclusions.
Students should look for an example of reporting in any medium in which reporters appear have compromised the notion of fairness to intentionally or inadvertently espouse a point of view. What impact did the incorporation of such material have on the story? Did its inclusion have any effect on the reader’s perception of the story?

Class 2: Objectivity, fairness and contemporary confusion about both

In his book Discovering the News , Michael Schudson traced the roots of objectivity to the era following World War I and a desire by journalists to guard against the rapid growth of public relations practitioners intent on spinning the news. Objectivity was, and remains, an ideal, a method for guarding against spin and personal bias by examining all sides of a story and testing claims through a process of evidentiary verification. Practiced well, it attempts to find where something approaching truth lies in a sea of conflicting views. Today, objectivity often is mistaken for tit-for-tat journalism, in which the reporters only responsibility is to give equal weight to the conflicting views of different parties without regard for which, if any, are saying something approximating truth. This definition cedes the journalist’s responsibility to seek and verify evidence that informs the citizenry.

Focusing on the “Journalism of Verification” chapter in The Elements of Journalism , this class will review the evolution and transformation of concepts of objectivity and fairness and, using the homework assignment, consider how objectivity is being practiced and sometimes skewed in the contemporary new media.

Reading: Kovach and Rosenstiel, Chapter 4, and relevant pages of the course text.

Assignment: Students should evaluate stories on the front page and metro front of their daily newspaper. In a two-page memo, they should describe what elements of news judgment made the stories worthy of significant coverage and play. Finally, they should analyze whether, based on what else is in the paper, they believe the editors reached the right decision.

Week 2: Where news comes from

Class 1: News judgment

When editors sit down together to choose the top stories, they use experience and intuition. The beginner journalist, however, can acquire a sense of news judgment by evaluating news decisions through the filter of a variety of factors that influence news play. These factors range from traditional measures such as when the story took place and how close it was to the local readership area to more contemporary ones, such as the story’s educational value.

Using the assignment and the reading, students should evaluate what kinds of information make for interesting news stories and why.

In this session, instructors might consider discussing the layers of news from the simplest breaking news event to the purely enterprise investigative story.

Assignment: Students should read and deconstruct coverage of a major news event. One excellent source for quality examples is the site of the Pulitzer Prizes , which has a category for breaking news reporting. All students should read the same article (assigned by the instructor), and write a two- or three-page memo that describes how the story is organized, what information it contains and what sources of information it uses, both human and digital. Among the questions they should ask are:

Does the first (or lead) paragraph summarize the dominant point?
What specific information does the lead include?
What does it leave out?
How do the second and third paragraphs relate to the first paragraph and the information it contains? Do they give unrelated information, information that provides further details about what’s established in the lead paragraph or both?
Does the story at any time place the news into a broader context of similar events or past events? If so, when and how?
What information in the story is attributed , specifically tied to an individual or to documentary information from which it was taken? What information is not attributed? Where does the information appear in the sentence? Give examples of some of the ways the sources of information are identified? Give examples of the verbs of attribution that are chosen.
Where and how often in the story are people quoted, their exact words placed in quotation marks? What kind of information tends to be quoted — basic facts or more colorful commentary? What information that’s attributed is paraphrased , summing up what someone said but not in their exact words.
How is the story organized — by theme, by geography, by chronology (time) or by some other means?
What human sources are used in the story? Are some authorities? Are some experts? Are some ordinary people affected by the event? Who are some of the people in each category? What do they contribute to the story? Does the reporter (or reporters) rely on a single source or a wide range? Why do you think that’s the case?
What specific facts and details make the story more vivid to you? How do you think the reporter was able to gather those details?
What documents (paper or digital) are detailed in the story? Do they lend authority to the story? Why or why not?
Is any specific data (numbers, statistics) used in the story? What does it lend to the story? Would you be satisfied substituting words such as “many” or “few” for the specific numbers and statistics used? Why or why not?

Class 2: Deconstructing the story

By carefully deconstructing major news stories, students will begin to internalize some of the major principles of this course, from crafting and supporting the lead of a story to spreading a wide and authoritative net for information. This class will focus on the lessons of a Pulitzer Prize winner.

Reading: Clark/Scanlan, Pages 287-294

Assignment: Writers typically draft a focus statement after conceiving an idea and conducting preliminary research or reporting. This focus statement helps to set the direction of reporting and writing. Sometimes reporting dictates a change of direction. But the statement itself keeps the reporter from getting off course. Focus statements typically are 50 words or less and summarize the story’s central point. They work best when driven by a strong, active verb and written after preliminary reporting.

Students should write a focus statement that encapsulates the news of the Pulitzer Prize winning reporting the class critiqued.

Week 3: Finding the focus, building the lead

Class 1: News writing as a process

Student reporters often conceive of writing as something that begins only after all their reporting is finished. Such an approach often leaves gaps in information and leads the reporter to search broadly instead of with targeted depth. The best reporters begin thinking about story the minute they get an assignment. The approach they envision for telling the story informs their choice of whom they seek interviews with and what information they gather. This class will introduce students to writing as a process that begins with story concept and continues through initial research, focus, reporting, organizing and outlining, drafting and revising.

During this session, the class will review the focus statements written for homework in small breakout groups and then as a class. Professors are encouraged to draft and hand out a mock or real press release or hold a mock press conference from which students can draft a focus statement.

Reading: Zinsser, pages 1-45, Clark/Scanlan, pages 294-302, and relevant pages of the course text

Class 2: The language of news

Newswriting has its own sentence structure and syntax. Most sentences branch rightward, following a pattern of subject/active verb/object. Reporters choose simple, familiar words. They write spare, concise sentences. They try to make a single point in each. But journalistic writing is specific and concrete. While reporters generally avoid formal or fancy word choices and complex sentence structures, they do not write in generalities. They convey information. Each sentence builds on what came before. This class will center on the language of news, evaluating the language in selections from America’s Best Newspaper Writing , local newspapers or the Pulitzers.

Reading: Relevant pages of the course text

Assignment: Students should choose a traditional news lead they like and one they do not like from a local or national newspaper. In a one- or two-page memo, they should print the leads, summarize the stories and evaluate why they believe the leads were effective or not.

Week 4: Crafting the first sentence

Class 1: The lead

No sentence counts more than a story’s first sentence. In most direct news stories, it stands alone as the story’s lead. It must summarize the news, establish the storyline, convey specific information and do all this simply and succinctly. Readers confused or bored by the lead read no further. It takes practice to craft clear, concise and conversational leads. This week will be devoted to that practice.

Students should discuss the assigned leads in groups of three or four, with each group choosing one lead to read to the entire class. The class should then discuss the elements of effective leads (active voice; active verb; single, dominant theme; simple sentences) and write leads in practice exercises.

Assignment: Have students revise the leads they wrote in class and craft a second lead from fact patterns.

Class 2: The lead continued

Some leads snap or entice instead of summarize. When the news is neither urgent nor earnest, these can work well. Though this class will introduce students to other kinds of leads, instructors should continue to emphasize traditional leads, typically found atop breaking news stories.

Class time should largely be devoted to writing traditional news leads under a 15-minute deadline pressure. Students should then be encouraged to read their own leads aloud and critique classmates’ leads. At least one such exercise might focus on students writing a traditional lead and a less traditional lead from the same information.

Assignment: Students should find a political or international story that includes various types (direct and indirect) and levels (on-the-record, not for attribution and deep background) of attribution. They should write a one- or two-page memo describing and evaluating the attribution. Did the reporter make clear the affiliation of those who expressed opinions? Is information attributed to specific people by name? Are anonymous figures given the opportunity to criticize others by name? Is that fair?

Week 5: Establishing the credibility of news

Class 1: Attribution

All news is based on information, painstakingly gathered, verified and checked again. Even so, “truth” is an elusive concept. What reporters cobble together instead are facts and assertions drawn from interviews and documentary evidence.

To lend authority to this information and tell readers from where it comes, reporters attribute all information that is not established fact. It is neither necessary, for example, to attribute that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was first elected president in 1932 nor that he was elected four times. On the other hand, it would be necessary to attribute, at least indirectly, the claim that he was one of America’s best presidents. Why? Because that assertion is a matter of opinion.

In this session, students should learn about different levels of attribution, where attribution is best placed in a sentence, and why it can be crucial for the protection of the accused, the credibility of reporters and the authoritativeness of the story.

Assignment: Working from a fact pattern, students should write a lead that demands attribution.

Class 2: Quoting and paraphrasing

“Great quote,” ranks closely behind “great lead” in the pecking order of journalistic praise. Reporters listen for great quotes as intensely as piano tuners listen for the perfect pitch of middle C. But what makes a great quote? And when should reporters paraphrase instead?

This class should cover a range of issues surrounding the quoted word from what it is used to convey (color and emotion, not basic information) to how frequently quotes should be used and how long they should run on. Other issues include the use and abuse of partial quotes, when a quote is not a quote, and how to deal with rambling and ungrammatical subjects.

As an exercise, students might either interview the instructor or a classmate about an exciting personal experience. After their interviews, they should review their notes choose what they consider the three best quotes to include a story on the subject. They should then discuss why they chose them.

Assignment: After completing the reading, students should analyze a summary news story no more than 15 paragraphs long. In a two- or three-page memo, they should reprint the story and then evaluate whether the lead summarizes the news, whether the subsequent paragraphs elaborate on or “support” the lead, whether the story has a lead quote, whether it attributes effectively, whether it provides any context for the news and whether and how it incorporates secondary themes.

Week 6: The building blocks of basic stories

Class 1: Supporting the lead

Unlike stories told around a campfire or dinner table, news stories front load information. Such a structure delivers the most important information first and the least important last. If a news lead summarizes, the subsequent few paragraphs support or elaborate by providing details the lead may have merely suggested. So, for example, a story might lead with news that a 27-year-old unemployed chef has been arrested on charges of robbing the desk clerk of an upscale hotel near closing time. The second paragraph would “support” this lead with detail. It would name the arrested chef, identify the hotel and its address, elaborate on the charges and, perhaps, say exactly when the robbery took place and how. (It would not immediately name the desk clerk; too many specifics at once clutter the story.)

Wire service stories use a standard structure in building their stories. First comes the lead sentence. Then comes a sentence or two of lead support. Then comes a lead quote — spoken words that reinforce the story’s direction, emphasize the main theme and add color. During this class students should practice writing the lead through the lead quote on deadline. They should then read assignments aloud for critique by classmates and the professor.

Assignment: Using a fact pattern assigned by the instructor or taken from a text, students should write a story from the lead through the lead quote. They should determine whether the story needs context to support the lead and, if so, include it.

Class 2: When context matters

Sometimes a story’s importance rests on what came before. If one fancy restaurant closes its doors in the face of the faltering economy, it may warrant a few paragraphs mention. If it’s the fourth restaurant to close on the same block in the last two weeks, that’s likely front-page news. If two other restaurants closed last year, that might be worth noting in the story’s last sentence. It is far less important. Patterns provide context and, when significant, generally are mentioned either as part of the lead or in the support paragraph that immediately follows. This class will look at the difference between context — information needed near the top of a story to establish its significance as part of a broader pattern, and background — information that gives historical perspective but doesn’t define the news at hand.

Assignment: The course to this point has focused on writing the news. But reporters, of course, usually can’t write until they’ve reported. This typically starts with background research to establish what has come before, what hasn’t been covered well and who speaks with authority on an issue. Using databases such as Lexis/Nexis, students should background or read specific articles about an issue in science or policy that either is highlighted in the Policy Areas section of Journalist’s Resource website or is currently being researched on your campus. They should engage in this assignment knowing that a new development on the topic will be brought to light when they arrive at the next class.

Week 7: The reporter at work

Class 1: Research

Discuss the homework assignment. Where do reporters look to background an issue? How do they find documents, sources and resources that enable them to gather good information or identify key people who can help provide it? After the discussion, students should be given a study from the Policy Areas section of Journalist’s Resource website related to the subject they’ve been asked to explore.

The instructor should use this study to evaluate the nature structure of government/scientific reports. After giving students 15 minutes to scan the report, ask students to identify its most newsworthy point. Discuss what context might be needed to write a story about the study or report. Discuss what concepts or language students are having difficulty understanding.

Reading: Clark, Scanlan, pages 305-313, and relevant pages of the course text

Assignment: Students should (a) write a lead for a story based exclusively on the report (b) do additional background work related to the study in preparation for writing a full story on deadline. (c) translate at least one term used in the study that is not familiar to a lay audience.

Class 2: Writing the basic story on deadline

This class should begin with a discussion of the challenges of translating jargon and the importance of such translation in news reporting. Reporters translate by substituting a simple definition or, generally with the help of experts, comparing the unfamiliar to the familiar through use of analogy.

The remainder of the class should be devoted to writing a 15- to 20-line news report, based on the study, background research and, if one is available, a press release.

Reading: Pages 1-47 of Stein/Paterno, and relevant pages of the course text

Assignment: Prepare a list of questions that you would ask either the lead author of the study you wrote about on deadline or an expert who might offer an outside perspective.

Week 8: Effective interviewing

Class 1: Preparing and getting the interview

Successful interviews build from strong preparation. Reporters need to identify the right interview subjects, know what they’ve said before, interview them in a setting that makes them comfortable and ask questions that elicit interesting answers. Each step requires thought.

The professor should begin this class by critiquing some of the questions students drew up for homework. Are they open-ended or close-ended? Do they push beyond the obvious? Do they seek specific examples that explain the importance of the research or its applications? Do they probe the study’s potential weaknesses? Do they explore what directions the researcher might take next?

Discuss the readings and what steps reporters can take to background for an interview, track down a subject and prepare and rehearse questions in advance.

Reading: Stein/Paterno, pages 47-146, and relevant pages of the course text

Assignment: Students should prepare to interview their professor about his or her approach to and philosophy of teaching. Before crafting their questions, the students should background the instructor’s syllabi, public course evaluations and any pertinent writings.

Class 2: The interview and its aftermath

The interview, says Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jacqui Banaszynski, is a dance which the reporter leads but does so to music the interview subject chooses. Though reporters prepare and rehearse their interviews, they should never read the questions they’ve considered in advance and always be prepared to change directions. To hear the subject’s music, reporters must be more focused on the answers than their next question. Good listeners make good interviewers — good listeners, that is, who don’t forget that it is also their responsibility to also lead.

Divide the class. As a team, five students should interview the professor about his/her approach to teaching. Each of these five should build on the focus and question of the previous questioner. The rest of the class should critique the questions, their clarity and their focus. Are the questioners listening? Are they maintaining control? Are they following up? The class also should discuss the reading, paying particularly close attention to the dynamics of an interview, the pace of questions, the nature of questions, its close and the reporter’s responsibility once an interview ends.

Assignment: Students should be assigned to small groups and asked to critique the news stories classmates wrote on deadline during the previous class.

Week 9: Building the story

Class 1: Critiquing the story

The instructor should separate students into groups of two or three and tell them to read their news stories to one another aloud. After each reading, the listeners should discuss what they liked and struggled with as the story audience. The reader in each case should reflect on what he or she learned from the process of reading the story aloud.

The instructor then should distribute one or two of the class stories that provide good and bad examples of story structure, information selection, content, organization and writing. These should be critiqued as a class.

Assignment: Students, working in teams, should develop an angle for a news follow to the study or report they covered on deadline. Each team should write a focus statement for the story it is proposing.

Class 2: Following the news

The instructor should lead a discussion about how reporters “enterprise,” or find original angles or approaches, by looking to the corners of news, identifying patterns of news, establishing who is affected by news, investigating the “why” of news, and examining what comes next.

Students should be asked to discuss the ideas they’ve developed to follow the news story. These can be assigned as longer-term team final projects for the semester. As part of this discussion, the instructor can help students map their next steps.

Reading: Wickham, Chapters 1-4 and 7, and relevant pages of the course text

Assignment: Students should find a news report that uses data to support or develop its main point. They should consider what and how much data is used, whether it is clear, whether it’s cluttered and whether it answers their questions. They should bring the article and a brief memo analyzing it to class.

Week 10: Making sense of data and statistics

Class 1: Basic math and the journalist’s job

Many reporters don’t like math. But in their jobs, it is everywhere. Reporters must interpret political polls, calculate percentage change in everything from property taxes to real estate values, make sense of municipal bids and municipal budgets, and divine data in government reports.

First discuss some of the examples of good and bad use of data that students found in their homework. Then, using examples from Journalist’s Resource website, discuss good and poor use of data in news reporting. (Reporters, for example, should not overwhelm readers with paragraphs stuffed with statistics.) Finally lead students through some of the basic skills sets outlined in Wickham’s book, using her exercises to practice everything from calculating percentage change to interpreting polls.

Assignment: Give students a report or study linked to the Journalist’s Resource website that requires some degree of statistical evaluation or interpretation. Have students read the report and compile a list of questions they would ask to help them understand and interpret this data.

Class 2: The use and abuse of statistics

Discuss the students’ questions. Then evaluate one or more articles drawn from the report they’ve analyzed that attempt to make sense of the data in the study. Discuss what these articles do well and what they do poorly.

Reading: Zinsser, Chapter 13, “Macabre Reminder: The Corpse on Union Street,” Dan Barry, The New York Times

Week 11: The reporter as observer

Class 1: Using the senses

Veteran reporters covering an event don’t only return with facts, quotes and documents that support them. They fill their notebooks with details that capture what they’ve witnessed. They use all their senses, listening for telling snippets of conversation and dialogue, watching for images, details and actions that help bring readers to the scene. Details that develop character and place breathe vitality into news. But description for description’s sake merely clutters and obscures the news. Using the senses takes practice.

The class should deconstruct “Macabre Reminder: The Corpse on Union Street,” a remarkable journey around New Orleans a few days after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005. The story starts with one corpse, left to rot on a once-busy street and then pans the city as a camera might. The dead body serves as a metaphor for the rotting city, largely abandoned and without order.

Assignment: This is an exercise in observation. Students may not ask questions. Their task is to observe, listen and describe a short scene, a serendipitous vignette of day-to-day life. They should take up a perch in a lively location of their choosing — a student dining hall or gym, a street corner, a pool hall or bus stop or beauty salon, to name a few — wait and watch. When a small scene unfolds, one with beginning, middle and end, students should record it. They then should write a brief story describing the scene that unfolded, taking care to leave themselves and their opinions out of the story. This is pure observation, designed to build the tools of observation and description. These stories should be no longer than 200 words.

Class 2: Sharpening the story

Students should read their observation pieces aloud to a classmate. Both students should consider these questions: Do the words describe or characterize? Which words show and which words tell? What words are extraneous? Does the piece convey character through action? Does it have a clear beginning, middle and end? Students then should revise, shortening the original scene to no longer than 150 words. After the revision, the instructor should critique some of the students’ efforts.

Assignment: Using campus, governmental or media calendars, students should identify, background and prepare to cover a speech, press conference or other news event, preferably on a topic related to one of the research-based areas covered in the Policy Areas section of Journalist’s Resource website. Students should write a focus statement (50 words or less) for their story and draw up a list of some of the questions they intend to ask.

Week 12: Reporting on deadline

Class 1: Coaching the story

Meetings, press conferences and speeches serve as a staple for much news reporting. Reporters should arrive at such events knowledgeable about the key players, their past positions or research, and the issues these sources are likely discuss. Reporters can discover this information in various ways. They can research topic and speaker online and in journalistic databases, peruse past correspondence sent to public offices, and review the writings and statements of key speakers with the help of their assistants or secretaries.

In this class, the instructor should discuss the nature of event coverage, review students’ focus statements and questions, and offer suggestions about how they cover the events.

Assignment: Cover the event proposed in the class above and draft a 600-word story, double-spaced, based on its news and any context needed to understand it.

Class 2: Critiquing and revising the story

Students should exchange story drafts and suggest changes. After students revise, the instructor should lead a discussion about the challenges of reporting and writing live on deadline. These likely will include issues of access and understanding and challenges of writing around and through gaps of information.

Weeks 13/14: Coaching the final project

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The final week or two of the class is reserved for drill in areas needing further development and for coaching students through the final reporting, drafting and revision of the enterprise stories off the study or report they covered in class.

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The Writing Center • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Understanding Assignments

What this handout is about.

The first step in any successful college writing venture is reading the assignment. While this sounds like a simple task, it can be a tough one. This handout will help you unravel your assignment and begin to craft an effective response. Much of the following advice will involve translating typical assignment terms and practices into meaningful clues to the type of writing your instructor expects. See our short video for more tips.

Basic beginnings

Regardless of the assignment, department, or instructor, adopting these two habits will serve you well :

Read the assignment carefully as soon as you receive it. Do not put this task off—reading the assignment at the beginning will save you time, stress, and problems later. An assignment can look pretty straightforward at first, particularly if the instructor has provided lots of information. That does not mean it will not take time and effort to complete; you may even have to learn a new skill to complete the assignment.
Ask the instructor about anything you do not understand. Do not hesitate to approach your instructor. Instructors would prefer to set you straight before you hand the paper in. That’s also when you will find their feedback most useful.

Assignment formats

Many assignments follow a basic format. Assignments often begin with an overview of the topic, include a central verb or verbs that describe the task, and offer some additional suggestions, questions, or prompts to get you started.

An Overview of Some Kind

The instructor might set the stage with some general discussion of the subject of the assignment, introduce the topic, or remind you of something pertinent that you have discussed in class. For example:

“Throughout history, gerbils have played a key role in politics,” or “In the last few weeks of class, we have focused on the evening wear of the housefly …”

The Task of the Assignment

Pay attention; this part tells you what to do when you write the paper. Look for the key verb or verbs in the sentence. Words like analyze, summarize, or compare direct you to think about your topic in a certain way. Also pay attention to words such as how, what, when, where, and why; these words guide your attention toward specific information. (See the section in this handout titled “Key Terms” for more information.)

“Analyze the effect that gerbils had on the Russian Revolution”, or “Suggest an interpretation of housefly undergarments that differs from Darwin’s.”

Additional Material to Think about

Here you will find some questions to use as springboards as you begin to think about the topic. Instructors usually include these questions as suggestions rather than requirements. Do not feel compelled to answer every question unless the instructor asks you to do so. Pay attention to the order of the questions. Sometimes they suggest the thinking process your instructor imagines you will need to follow to begin thinking about the topic.

“You may wish to consider the differing views held by Communist gerbils vs. Monarchist gerbils, or Can there be such a thing as ‘the housefly garment industry’ or is it just a home-based craft?”

These are the instructor’s comments about writing expectations:

“Be concise”, “Write effectively”, or “Argue furiously.”

Technical Details

These instructions usually indicate format rules or guidelines.

“Your paper must be typed in Palatino font on gray paper and must not exceed 600 pages. It is due on the anniversary of Mao Tse-tung’s death.”

The assignment’s parts may not appear in exactly this order, and each part may be very long or really short. Nonetheless, being aware of this standard pattern can help you understand what your instructor wants you to do.

Interpreting the assignment

Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and jot down the answers on the assignment sheet:

Why did your instructor ask you to do this particular task?

Who is your audience.

What kind of evidence do you need to support your ideas?

What kind of writing style is acceptable?

What are the absolute rules of the paper?

Try to look at the question from the point of view of the instructor. Recognize that your instructor has a reason for giving you this assignment and for giving it to you at a particular point in the semester. In every assignment, the instructor has a challenge for you. This challenge could be anything from demonstrating an ability to think clearly to demonstrating an ability to use the library. See the assignment not as a vague suggestion of what to do but as an opportunity to show that you can handle the course material as directed. Paper assignments give you more than a topic to discuss—they ask you to do something with the topic. Keep reminding yourself of that. Be careful to avoid the other extreme as well: do not read more into the assignment than what is there.

Of course, your instructor has given you an assignment so that they will be able to assess your understanding of the course material and give you an appropriate grade. But there is more to it than that. Your instructor has tried to design a learning experience of some kind. Your instructor wants you to think about something in a particular way for a particular reason. If you read the course description at the beginning of your syllabus, review the assigned readings, and consider the assignment itself, you may begin to see the plan, purpose, or approach to the subject matter that your instructor has created for you. If you still aren’t sure of the assignment’s goals, try asking the instructor. For help with this, see our handout on getting feedback .

Given your instructor’s efforts, it helps to answer the question: What is my purpose in completing this assignment? Is it to gather research from a variety of outside sources and present a coherent picture? Is it to take material I have been learning in class and apply it to a new situation? Is it to prove a point one way or another? Key words from the assignment can help you figure this out. Look for key terms in the form of active verbs that tell you what to do.

Key Terms: Finding Those Active Verbs

Here are some common key words and definitions to help you think about assignment terms:

Information words Ask you to demonstrate what you know about the subject, such as who, what, when, where, how, and why.

define —give the subject’s meaning (according to someone or something). Sometimes you have to give more than one view on the subject’s meaning
describe —provide details about the subject by answering question words (such as who, what, when, where, how, and why); you might also give details related to the five senses (what you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell)
explain —give reasons why or examples of how something happened
illustrate —give descriptive examples of the subject and show how each is connected with the subject
summarize —briefly list the important ideas you learned about the subject
trace —outline how something has changed or developed from an earlier time to its current form
research —gather material from outside sources about the subject, often with the implication or requirement that you will analyze what you have found

Relation words Ask you to demonstrate how things are connected.

compare —show how two or more things are similar (and, sometimes, different)
contrast —show how two or more things are dissimilar
apply —use details that you’ve been given to demonstrate how an idea, theory, or concept works in a particular situation
cause —show how one event or series of events made something else happen
relate —show or describe the connections between things

Interpretation words Ask you to defend ideas of your own about the subject. Do not see these words as requesting opinion alone (unless the assignment specifically says so), but as requiring opinion that is supported by concrete evidence. Remember examples, principles, definitions, or concepts from class or research and use them in your interpretation.

assess —summarize your opinion of the subject and measure it against something
prove, justify —give reasons or examples to demonstrate how or why something is the truth
evaluate, respond —state your opinion of the subject as good, bad, or some combination of the two, with examples and reasons
support —give reasons or evidence for something you believe (be sure to state clearly what it is that you believe)
synthesize —put two or more things together that have not been put together in class or in your readings before; do not just summarize one and then the other and say that they are similar or different—you must provide a reason for putting them together that runs all the way through the paper
analyze —determine how individual parts create or relate to the whole, figure out how something works, what it might mean, or why it is important
argue —take a side and defend it with evidence against the other side

More Clues to Your Purpose As you read the assignment, think about what the teacher does in class:

What kinds of textbooks or coursepack did your instructor choose for the course—ones that provide background information, explain theories or perspectives, or argue a point of view?
In lecture, does your instructor ask your opinion, try to prove their point of view, or use keywords that show up again in the assignment?
What kinds of assignments are typical in this discipline? Social science classes often expect more research. Humanities classes thrive on interpretation and analysis.
How do the assignments, readings, and lectures work together in the course? Instructors spend time designing courses, sometimes even arguing with their peers about the most effective course materials. Figuring out the overall design to the course will help you understand what each assignment is meant to achieve.

Now, what about your reader? Most undergraduates think of their audience as the instructor. True, your instructor is a good person to keep in mind as you write. But for the purposes of a good paper, think of your audience as someone like your roommate: smart enough to understand a clear, logical argument, but not someone who already knows exactly what is going on in your particular paper. Remember, even if the instructor knows everything there is to know about your paper topic, they still have to read your paper and assess your understanding. In other words, teach the material to your reader.

Aiming a paper at your audience happens in two ways: you make decisions about the tone and the level of information you want to convey.

Tone means the “voice” of your paper. Should you be chatty, formal, or objective? Usually you will find some happy medium—you do not want to alienate your reader by sounding condescending or superior, but you do not want to, um, like, totally wig on the man, you know? Eschew ostentatious erudition: some students think the way to sound academic is to use big words. Be careful—you can sound ridiculous, especially if you use the wrong big words.
The level of information you use depends on who you think your audience is. If you imagine your audience as your instructor and they already know everything you have to say, you may find yourself leaving out key information that can cause your argument to be unconvincing and illogical. But you do not have to explain every single word or issue. If you are telling your roommate what happened on your favorite science fiction TV show last night, you do not say, “First a dark-haired white man of average height, wearing a suit and carrying a flashlight, walked into the room. Then a purple alien with fifteen arms and at least three eyes turned around. Then the man smiled slightly. In the background, you could hear a clock ticking. The room was fairly dark and had at least two windows that I saw.” You also do not say, “This guy found some aliens. The end.” Find some balance of useful details that support your main point.

You’ll find a much more detailed discussion of these concepts in our handout on audience .

The Grim Truth

With a few exceptions (including some lab and ethnography reports), you are probably being asked to make an argument. You must convince your audience. It is easy to forget this aim when you are researching and writing; as you become involved in your subject matter, you may become enmeshed in the details and focus on learning or simply telling the information you have found. You need to do more than just repeat what you have read. Your writing should have a point, and you should be able to say it in a sentence. Sometimes instructors call this sentence a “thesis” or a “claim.”

So, if your instructor tells you to write about some aspect of oral hygiene, you do not want to just list: “First, you brush your teeth with a soft brush and some peanut butter. Then, you floss with unwaxed, bologna-flavored string. Finally, gargle with bourbon.” Instead, you could say, “Of all the oral cleaning methods, sandblasting removes the most plaque. Therefore it should be recommended by the American Dental Association.” Or, “From an aesthetic perspective, moldy teeth can be quite charming. However, their joys are short-lived.”

Convincing the reader of your argument is the goal of academic writing. It doesn’t have to say “argument” anywhere in the assignment for you to need one. Look at the assignment and think about what kind of argument you could make about it instead of just seeing it as a checklist of information you have to present. For help with understanding the role of argument in academic writing, see our handout on argument .

What kind of evidence do you need?

There are many kinds of evidence, and what type of evidence will work for your assignment can depend on several factors–the discipline, the parameters of the assignment, and your instructor’s preference. Should you use statistics? Historical examples? Do you need to conduct your own experiment? Can you rely on personal experience? See our handout on evidence for suggestions on how to use evidence appropriately.

Make sure you are clear about this part of the assignment, because your use of evidence will be crucial in writing a successful paper. You are not just learning how to argue; you are learning how to argue with specific types of materials and ideas. Ask your instructor what counts as acceptable evidence. You can also ask a librarian for help. No matter what kind of evidence you use, be sure to cite it correctly—see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial .

You cannot always tell from the assignment just what sort of writing style your instructor expects. The instructor may be really laid back in class but still expect you to sound formal in writing. Or the instructor may be fairly formal in class and ask you to write a reflection paper where you need to use “I” and speak from your own experience.

Try to avoid false associations of a particular field with a style (“art historians like wacky creativity,” or “political scientists are boring and just give facts”) and look instead to the types of readings you have been given in class. No one expects you to write like Plato—just use the readings as a guide for what is standard or preferable to your instructor. When in doubt, ask your instructor about the level of formality they expect.

No matter what field you are writing for or what facts you are including, if you do not write so that your reader can understand your main idea, you have wasted your time. So make clarity your main goal. For specific help with style, see our handout on style .

Technical details about the assignment

The technical information you are given in an assignment always seems like the easy part. This section can actually give you lots of little hints about approaching the task. Find out if elements such as page length and citation format (see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial ) are negotiable. Some professors do not have strong preferences as long as you are consistent and fully answer the assignment. Some professors are very specific and will deduct big points for deviations.

Usually, the page length tells you something important: The instructor thinks the size of the paper is appropriate to the assignment’s parameters. In plain English, your instructor is telling you how many pages it should take for you to answer the question as fully as you are expected to. So if an assignment is two pages long, you cannot pad your paper with examples or reword your main idea several times. Hit your one point early, defend it with the clearest example, and finish quickly. If an assignment is ten pages long, you can be more complex in your main points and examples—and if you can only produce five pages for that assignment, you need to see someone for help—as soon as possible.

Tricks that don’t work

Your instructors are not fooled when you:

spend more time on the cover page than the essay —graphics, cool binders, and cute titles are no replacement for a well-written paper.
use huge fonts, wide margins, or extra spacing to pad the page length —these tricks are immediately obvious to the eye. Most instructors use the same word processor you do. They know what’s possible. Such tactics are especially damning when the instructor has a stack of 60 papers to grade and yours is the only one that low-flying airplane pilots could read.
use a paper from another class that covered “sort of similar” material . Again, the instructor has a particular task for you to fulfill in the assignment that usually relates to course material and lectures. Your other paper may not cover this material, and turning in the same paper for more than one course may constitute an Honor Code violation . Ask the instructor—it can’t hurt.
get all wacky and “creative” before you answer the question . Showing that you are able to think beyond the boundaries of a simple assignment can be good, but you must do what the assignment calls for first. Again, check with your instructor. A humorous tone can be refreshing for someone grading a stack of papers, but it will not get you a good grade if you have not fulfilled the task.

Critical reading of assignments leads to skills in other types of reading and writing. If you get good at figuring out what the real goals of assignments are, you are going to be better at understanding the goals of all of your classes and fields of study.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Teach Current Events With These Free Worksheets From The Week Junior

Article summary worksheets and news accuracy tips for grades 3-8! 🗞️

Current events worksheets - The Week Junior

The Week Junior magazine is a kid-friendly, unbiased current events news source. It’s a safe and trusted partner to help you explain to kids what’s happening in the world while providing fun reading content including puzzles, recipes, crafts, and more.

The benefits of using current events in the classroom are practically endless. News stories help students better understand their communities, new perspectives, and real-world events. Introducing current events in the classroom can promote critical thinking, empathy, reading skills, global awareness, and so much more. Whether you’re assigning weekly current events summaries or conducting a single lesson, our free current events worksheets for grades 3-8 are the perfect companion.

Inside, you’ll find two options for current event summaries. In addition, our savvy news reader tips and activity will guide students through determining if an article is trustworthy. In a world of so many media outlets, news literacy is a crucial skill!

Get my current events worksheets!

Current Events Summary Worksheets

Current events worksheet graphic organizer

WeAreTeachers

When giving current events assignments, give students the option to use one of two article summary worksheets to get started.
Choose from a graphic organizer–style worksheet or a traditional fill-in worksheet to evaluate an article.

News Accuracy Worksheets

Begin a lesson on news literacy. Use the list tips to educate students on determining a news article’s accuracy and credibility.
Then, have students complete the corresponding worksheet to practice what they learned and evaluate a news article on their own.

The Week Junior , an Unbiased Classroom Current Events Resource

The Week Junior magazine is an awesome way to expose 3rd through 8th grade readers to current events through a kid-friendly, unbiased magazine. There’s something for every student, with sections on sports, culture, movies, crafts, recipes, and so much more! Get a free issue of The Week Junior , and watch kids dive into this interactive reading resource.

9 Ways To Use Newsela With Your Students

Endless differentiated reading options at your fingertips! Continue Reading

Tech & Innovation
Artificial Intelligence

Designing Assignments in the ChatGPT Era

By Susan D’Agostino

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Is an ice cream sandwich a sandwich? How about a sushi roll, chicken wrap or sloppy joe? These were some of the prompts included in a classification and model-building assignment in the fall 2022 Knowledge-Based AI course that David Joyner taught at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

But when Joyner, executive director of online education and the online master of science in computer science and senior research associate, was scheduled to teach the course again in the spring 2023 semester, he reconsidered the assignment in the presence of ChatGPT —the OpenAI chat bot that burst onto the global stage in late 2022 and sent shock waves across academe. The bot interacts with users in a conversational way, including by answering questions, admitting its mistakes, challenging falsehoods and rejecting inappropriate requests.

“I’d used the questions for five years because they were fun questions,” Joyner said. “But ChatGPT’s answer was so precise that I’m pretty sure it was learning from my own best students,” whom he suspected had posted their work online. Joyner replaced several of the sandwich options with avocado toast, shawarma, pigs in a blanket, Klondike bar and Monte Cristo. He also updated the academic misconduct statement on his syllabus to “basically say that copying from ChatGPT isn’t different from copying from other people.” Such efforts, Joyner acknowledges, may be a temporary fix.

As faculty members ponder academe’s new ChatGPT-infused reality, many are scrambling to redesign assignments. Some seek to craft assignments that guide students in surpassing what AI can do. Others see that as a fool’s errand—one that lends too much agency to the software.

Either way, in creating assignments now, many seek to exploit ChatGPT’s weaknesses. But answers to questions concerning how to design and scale assessments, as well as how to help students learn to mitigate the tool’s inherent risks are, at best, works in progress.

“I was all ready to not stress about the open AI shit in terms of student papers, because my assignments are always hyper specific to our readings and require the integration of news articles to defend claims etc. … BUT THEN I TRIED IT …” Danna Goldthwaite Young, professor of communication at the University of Delaware, wrote this week in introducing a thread on Twitter.

Students Should Surpass AI—or Not

When Boris Steipe, associate professor of molecular genetics at the University of Toronto, first asked ChatGPT questions from his bioinformatics course, it produced detailed, high-level answers that he deemed as good as his own. He still encourages his students to use the chat bot. But he also created The Sentient Syllabus Project , an initiative driven by three principles: AI should not be able to pass a course, AI contributions must be attributed and true, and the use of AI should be open and documented.

“When I say AI cannot pass the course, it means we have to surpass the AI,” Steipe said. “But we also must realize that we cannot do that without the AI. We surpass the AI by standing on its shoulders.”

Steipe, for example, encourages students to engage in a Socratic debate with ChatGPT as a way of thinking through a question and articulating an argument.

“You will get the plain vanilla answer—what everybody thinks—from ChatGPT,” Steipe said, adding that the tool is a knowledgeable, infinitely patient and nonjudgmental debate partner. “That’s where you need to start to think. That’s where you need to ask, ‘How is it possibly incomplete?’”

But not every faculty member is convinced that students should begin with ChatGPT’s outputs.

“Even when the outputs are decent, they’re shortcutting the students’ process of thinking through the issue,” said Anna Mills , English instructor at the College of Marin. “They might be taking the student in a different direction than they would have gone if they were following the germ of their own thought.”

Some faculty members also challenge the suggestion that students should compete with AI, as such framing appears to assign the software agency or intelligence.

“I do not see value in framing AI as anything other than a tool,” Marc Watkins, lecturer in composition and rhetoric at the University of Mississippi, wrote in an email. Watkins, his department colleagues and his students are experimenting with ChatGPT to better understand its limitations and benefits. “Our students are not John Henry, and AI is not a steam-powered drilling machine that will replace them. We don’t need to exhaust ourselves trying to surpass technology.”

Still, others question the suggestion that AI-proofing a course is difficult.

“Creating a course that AI cannot pass? Shouldn’t take very long at all,” Robert Cummings, associate professor of writing and rhetoric at the University of Mississippi, wrote in an email. “Most AI writing generators are, at this stage, laughably inaccurate … Testing AI interactions with components of a course might make more sense.”

But Steipe is pondering a possible future in which descendants of today’s AI-writing tools raise existential questions.

“This is not just about upholding academic quality,” Steipe said. “This is channeling our survival instincts. If we can’t do that, we are losing our justification for a contribution to society. That’s the level we have to achieve.”

How Faculty Can Exploit ChatGPT’s (Current) Weaknesses

In the future, faculty members may get formal advice about how to craft assignments in a ChatGPT world, according to James Hendler, director of the Future of Computing Institute and professor of computer, web and cognitive sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

In the meantime, faculty are innovating on their own.

In computer science, for example, many professors have observed that AI writing tools can write codes that work, though not necessarily of the kind that humans find easy to edit, Hendler said. That observation can be exploited to create assignments that distinguish between content and creative content.

“We try to teach our students how to write code that other people will understand, with comments, mnemonic variable names and breaking code up into meaningful pieces,” Hendler said. “That’s not what’s happening with these systems yet.”

Also, since ChatGPT’s ability to craft logical arguments can underwhelm, assignments that require critical thinking can work well in the presence of ChatGPT.

“It’s not very good at introspecting,” Steipe said. “It just generates. You often find non sequiturs or arguments that don’t hold water. When you point it out to the to the AI, it says, ‘Oh, I got something wrong. I apologize for the confusion.’”

Several faculty members contacted for this article mentioned that lessons learned from the earlier emergence of Wikipedia hint at a path forward. That is, both the online encyclopedia and OpenAI’s chat bot offer coherent prose that is prone to errors. They adapted assignments to mix use of the tech tools with fact-checking.

Moving forward, professors can expect students to use ChatGPT to produce first drafts that warrant review for accuracy, voice, audience and integration to the purpose of the writing project, Cummings wrote. As the tools improve, students will need to develop more nuanced skills in these areas, he added.

An Unsolved Problem

Big tech plans to mainstream AI writing tools in its products. For example, Microsoft, which recently invested in ChatGPT , will integrate the tool into its popular office software and sell access to the tool to other businesses. That has applied pressure to Google and Meta to speed up their AI-approval processes.

“My classes now require AI, and if I didn’t require AI use, it wouldn’t matter, everyone is using AI anyway,” Ethan Mollick, associate professor of management and academic director of the Wharton Interactive at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote on his blog that translates academic research into useful insights.

But big tech’s speed in delivering AI products to market has not always been accomplished with care. Social media platforms, for example, were once naïvely celebrated for bringing together those with shared interests, not realizing at the time that the platforms also brought together supporters of terror, extremism and hate.

Meta’s release of a ChatGPT-like chat bot several months before OpenAI’s product received a tepid response, which Meta’s chief artificial intelligence scientist, Yan LeCun, blamed on Meta being “ overly careful about content moderation ,” according to The Washington Post . (LeCun spoke with Inside Higher Ed about challenges in computer science in September.) Faculty members may need to help students learn to mitigate and address inherent, real-world harm new tech tools may pose.

“The gloves are off,” Steipe said of the huge monetary driver of the emergence of sophisticated chat bots. In higher education, this may mean that the ways in which professors assess students may change. “We’ve heavily been basing assessment on proxy measures, and that may no longer work.”

Professors may assess their students directly, but that level of personal interaction generally does not scale. Still, some are encouraged to find themselves on the same side, so to speak, as their students.

“Our students want to learn and are not in a rush to cede their voices to an algorithm,” Watkins wrote.

Such alignment, when present, may offer comfort to the heady disruption academics have experienced since ChatGPT’s release, especially as bigger questions—beyond how to assign grades—loom.

“The difference between the AI and the human mind is sentience,” Steipe said. “If we want to teach as an academy in the future that is going to be dominated by digital ‘thought,’ we have to understand the added value of sentience—not just what sentience is and what it does, but how we justify that it is important and important in the way that we’re going to get paid for it.”

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Dynamics of News Reporting and Writing: Foundational Skills for a New Age

Student resources, news writing assignments.

Assignment 1: What grabs you?

Description of Assignment: Basic news writing focuses on figuring out what is important and then giving that information to your readers. It sounds simple, and with a lot of practice, it can be. Problems tend to crop up when writers try to do too much, ignore some basic tenets of journalism and generally don’t think about the audience before writing.

Here's your chance to rate your local newspaper or online news site. Find today’s edition, set aside 40 min, and read it. Just read. Then, make a list of stories, then rank them from the story that interests you the most to that which interests you the least.

Consider what it is about each story that caught your fancy. Was it the writing style? Was it the subject matter? Did the story tell you something you didn’t know? Did it answer your questions?

And consider each story that you didn’t like. Was it poorly written or organized? Did it contain errors? Was it useless to you? Did it leave you with more questions than when you started reading it? Could you even get through it?

Be prepared to discuss these findings in class. Understanding what you value in a story will make it easier for you to write and report your own stories.

Public Domain Source Material: Your daily newspaper.

Assignment 2: What happened at work today?

Description of Assignment: The core of any good news story is the lead, which is where you try to give people as much of the most important information as possible. A good place to start is the 5W’s and 1H: who, what, when, where, why and how.

Now apply this to any variation of the age-old question asked in every household: How was your day? What happened at work today? What did you study at school today?

Think about starting with a core, and then add layer after layer of information as you move outward. Answer each of the 5W’s and 1H. Then start with a simple “noun-verb-object” structure that answers the question “Who did what to whom/what?”

Here’s an example: The owner and head chef of the restaurant where you work part-time as a server learned today that he was nominated for a national award. Even though it did not involve you directly, it was still one of the most exciting days you have experienced on the job, and you want to share it. So, break it down:

Who: The owner and head chef of Dante’s Café, Dante Gardot

What: Nominated for the prestigious “Outstanding Chef” award by the James Beard Foundation

When: About 3:05 p.m. today

Where: In the kitchen at Dante’s Café, in downtown Hallsville.

Why: For setting high culinary standards and serving as a positive example for other food professionals.

How: He learned by a text message from his wife that he was nominated when the list was published online at 3 p.m.

What are the most important elements of the 5W’s and 1H? In this case, it’s the “who” and the “what,” followed by the “where” and “why.”

Now, write it out: Dante Gardot, head chef at Dante’s Café, was nominated today for the prestigious “Outstanding Chef” award from the James Beard Foundation for setting high culinary standards and serving as a positive example for other food professionals.

Try it out with something that happened during your workday.

Assignment 3: Spoiler alert! Learning the inverted pyramid.

Description of Assignment: This drill will ask students to think of their three favorite movies or novels, and report them as news stories using summary leads and an inverted pyramid style. Please write at least four paragraphs per film or book. Don’t worry about giving away the ending! News stories generally require the writer to give up the goods at the start of the story. That way, the reader doesn’t get bored and miss the point of the story before moving on to the next one.

For example, here is a news story of Charlotte’s Web , by E.B. White:

Charlotte A. Cavatica, a barn spider who helped save Wilbur the pig from slaughter by extolling him with English words spun into her web at Zuckerman’s farm, died Friday at the county fair. She was 1.

Charlotte is survived by Wilbur, who rose to regional fame thanks to his dear friend’s cunning, and dozens of babies who emerged from her egg sac thereafter and departed before Wilbur could name them. The spiderlings who stayed with Wilbur were named Joy, Nellie, and Aranea.

Assignment 4: Birthday assignment

Description of Assignment: You may not remember it, but the day of your birth was very special for your parents. Interview your mother or father (or both) and ask them to recall what they experienced on the day you came into the world. At what time did your mother go into labor? Was it a natural birth, or did she have a C-section?

Shape their answers into the 5Ws and 1H format, and write a story reporting the events of your own birthday, using the inverted pyramid structure, as if it had been published in a family newsletter the day after your birth.

Assignment 5: Take note

Description of Assignment: Note-taking is an essential skill in reporting. There is no such thing (yet) as real-time transcription of every conversation. Even if there were, it would only be a record of what was said. It would not tell you anything about the way it was said. It would not remind you of the insights you had during the conversation.

Your notes represent your understanding of the material you are covering. Yes, it is important to get some colorful quotes, but it’s also important to make a record of the surroundings, what you see, feel, hear, and understand.

Every writer must develop their own note-taking style. Try writing as concisely--and as fast--as you can while still capturing the information you will understand later. Take time after an interview or event to review your notes and improve them while the memories are fresh in your mind.

Your assignment: Watch tonight’s evening news and take notes. Watch the first 15 min of the broadcast, just once through, without pausing.

Then recreate the broadcast from your notes--with direct quotes, nuance, and your own writing style. Describe the clips in as vivid detail as you can muster. Remember to get accurate spellings of names.

Public Domain Source Material: Watch live on TV or choose a past newscast:

If you are watching from 8 to 11 p.m. EDT, check out the new national broadcast on WGN America: NewsNation, which promises opinion-free reporting.

NewsNation: https://www.newsnationnow.com/news-nation-live/

NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/nightly-news-full-broadcast-september-4th-91163205732

CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/090420-cbs-evening-news/

Home » Assignment – Types, Examples and Writing Guide

Assignment – Types, Examples and Writing Guide

Table of Contents

Definition:

Assignment is a task given to students by a teacher or professor, usually as a means of assessing their understanding and application of course material. Assignments can take various forms, including essays, research papers, presentations, problem sets, lab reports, and more.

Assignments are typically designed to be completed outside of class time and may require independent research, critical thinking, and analysis. They are often graded and used as a significant component of a student’s overall course grade. The instructions for an assignment usually specify the goals, requirements, and deadlines for completion, and students are expected to meet these criteria to earn a good grade.

History of Assignment

The use of assignments as a tool for teaching and learning has been a part of education for centuries. Following is a brief history of the Assignment.

Ancient Times: Assignments such as writing exercises, recitations, and memorization tasks were used to reinforce learning.
Medieval Period : Universities began to develop the concept of the assignment, with students completing essays, commentaries, and translations to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the subject matter.
19th Century : With the growth of schools and universities, assignments became more widespread and were used to assess student progress and achievement.
20th Century: The rise of distance education and online learning led to the further development of assignments as an integral part of the educational process.
Present Day: Assignments continue to be used in a variety of educational settings and are seen as an effective way to promote student learning and assess student achievement. The nature and format of assignments continue to evolve in response to changing educational needs and technological innovations.

Types of Assignment

Here are some of the most common types of assignments:

An essay is a piece of writing that presents an argument, analysis, or interpretation of a topic or question. It usually consists of an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Essay structure:

Introduction : introduces the topic and thesis statement
Body paragraphs : each paragraph presents a different argument or idea, with evidence and analysis to support it
Conclusion : summarizes the key points and reiterates the thesis statement

Research paper

A research paper involves gathering and analyzing information on a particular topic, and presenting the findings in a well-structured, documented paper. It usually involves conducting original research, collecting data, and presenting it in a clear, organized manner.

Research paper structure:

Title page : includes the title of the paper, author’s name, date, and institution
Abstract : summarizes the paper’s main points and conclusions
Introduction : provides background information on the topic and research question
Literature review: summarizes previous research on the topic
Methodology : explains how the research was conducted
Results : presents the findings of the research
Discussion : interprets the results and draws conclusions
Conclusion : summarizes the key findings and implications

A case study involves analyzing a real-life situation, problem or issue, and presenting a solution or recommendations based on the analysis. It often involves extensive research, data analysis, and critical thinking.

Case study structure:

Introduction : introduces the case study and its purpose
Background : provides context and background information on the case
Analysis : examines the key issues and problems in the case
Solution/recommendations: proposes solutions or recommendations based on the analysis
Conclusion: Summarize the key points and implications

A lab report is a scientific document that summarizes the results of a laboratory experiment or research project. It typically includes an introduction, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion.

Lab report structure:

Title page : includes the title of the experiment, author’s name, date, and institution
Abstract : summarizes the purpose, methodology, and results of the experiment
Methods : explains how the experiment was conducted
Results : presents the findings of the experiment

Presentation

A presentation involves delivering information, data or findings to an audience, often with the use of visual aids such as slides, charts, or diagrams. It requires clear communication skills, good organization, and effective use of technology.

Presentation structure:

Introduction : introduces the topic and purpose of the presentation
Body : presents the main points, findings, or data, with the help of visual aids
Conclusion : summarizes the key points and provides a closing statement

Creative Project

A creative project is an assignment that requires students to produce something original, such as a painting, sculpture, video, or creative writing piece. It allows students to demonstrate their creativity and artistic skills.

Creative project structure:

Introduction : introduces the project and its purpose
Body : presents the creative work, with explanations or descriptions as needed
Conclusion : summarizes the key elements and reflects on the creative process.

Examples of Assignments

Following are Examples of Assignment templates samples:

Essay template:

I. Introduction

Hook: Grab the reader’s attention with a catchy opening sentence.
Background: Provide some context or background information on the topic.
Thesis statement: State the main argument or point of your essay.

II. Body paragraphs

Topic sentence: Introduce the main idea or argument of the paragraph.
Evidence: Provide evidence or examples to support your point.
Analysis: Explain how the evidence supports your argument.
Transition: Use a transition sentence to lead into the next paragraph.

III. Conclusion

Restate thesis: Summarize your main argument or point.
Review key points: Summarize the main points you made in your essay.
Concluding thoughts: End with a final thought or call to action.

Research paper template:

I. Title page

Title: Give your paper a descriptive title.
Author: Include your name and institutional affiliation.
Date: Provide the date the paper was submitted.

II. Abstract

Background: Summarize the background and purpose of your research.
Methodology: Describe the methods you used to conduct your research.
Results: Summarize the main findings of your research.
Conclusion: Provide a brief summary of the implications and conclusions of your research.

III. Introduction

Background: Provide some background information on the topic.
Research question: State your research question or hypothesis.
Purpose: Explain the purpose of your research.

IV. Literature review

Background: Summarize previous research on the topic.
Gaps in research: Identify gaps or areas that need further research.

V. Methodology

Participants: Describe the participants in your study.
Procedure: Explain the procedure you used to conduct your research.
Measures: Describe the measures you used to collect data.

VI. Results

Quantitative results: Summarize the quantitative data you collected.
Qualitative results: Summarize the qualitative data you collected.

VII. Discussion

Interpretation: Interpret the results and explain what they mean.
Implications: Discuss the implications of your research.
Limitations: Identify any limitations or weaknesses of your research.

VIII. Conclusion

Review key points: Summarize the main points you made in your paper.

Case study template:

Background: Provide background information on the case.
Research question: State the research question or problem you are examining.
Purpose: Explain the purpose of the case study.

II. Analysis

Problem: Identify the main problem or issue in the case.
Factors: Describe the factors that contributed to the problem.
Alternative solutions: Describe potential solutions to the problem.

III. Solution/recommendations

Proposed solution: Describe the solution you are proposing.
Rationale: Explain why this solution is the best one.
Implementation: Describe how the solution can be implemented.

IV. Conclusion

Summary: Summarize the main points of your case study.

Lab report template:

Title: Give your report a descriptive title.
Date: Provide the date the report was submitted.
Background: Summarize the background and purpose of the experiment.
Methodology: Describe the methods you used to conduct the experiment.
Results: Summarize the main findings of the experiment.
Conclusion: Provide a brief summary of the implications and conclusions
Background: Provide some background information on the experiment.
Hypothesis: State your hypothesis or research question.
Purpose: Explain the purpose of the experiment.

IV. Materials and methods

Materials: List the materials and equipment used in the experiment.
Procedure: Describe the procedure you followed to conduct the experiment.
Data: Present the data you collected in tables or graphs.
Analysis: Analyze the data and describe the patterns or trends you observed.

VI. Discussion

Implications: Discuss the implications of your findings.
Limitations: Identify any limitations or weaknesses of the experiment.

VII. Conclusion

Restate hypothesis: Summarize your hypothesis or research question.
Review key points: Summarize the main points you made in your report.

Presentation template:

Attention grabber: Grab the audience’s attention with a catchy opening.
Purpose: Explain the purpose of your presentation.
Overview: Provide an overview of what you will cover in your presentation.

II. Main points

Main point 1: Present the first main point of your presentation.
Supporting details: Provide supporting details or evidence to support your point.
Main point 2: Present the second main point of your presentation.
Main point 3: Present the third main point of your presentation.
Summary: Summarize the main points of your presentation.
Call to action: End with a final thought or call to action.

Creative writing template:

Setting: Describe the setting of your story.
Characters: Introduce the main characters of your story.
Rising action: Introduce the conflict or problem in your story.
Climax: Present the most intense moment of the story.
Falling action: Resolve the conflict or problem in your story.
Resolution: Describe how the conflict or problem was resolved.
Final thoughts: End with a final thought or reflection on the story.

How to Write Assignment

Here is a general guide on how to write an assignment:

Understand the assignment prompt: Before you begin writing, make sure you understand what the assignment requires. Read the prompt carefully and make note of any specific requirements or guidelines.
Research and gather information: Depending on the type of assignment, you may need to do research to gather information to support your argument or points. Use credible sources such as academic journals, books, and reputable websites.
Organize your ideas : Once you have gathered all the necessary information, organize your ideas into a clear and logical structure. Consider creating an outline or diagram to help you visualize your ideas.
Write a draft: Begin writing your assignment using your organized ideas and research. Don’t worry too much about grammar or sentence structure at this point; the goal is to get your thoughts down on paper.
Revise and edit: After you have written a draft, revise and edit your work. Make sure your ideas are presented in a clear and concise manner, and that your sentences and paragraphs flow smoothly.
Proofread: Finally, proofread your work for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors. It’s a good idea to have someone else read over your assignment as well to catch any mistakes you may have missed.
Submit your assignment : Once you are satisfied with your work, submit your assignment according to the instructions provided by your instructor or professor.

Applications of Assignment

Assignments have many applications across different fields and industries. Here are a few examples:

Education : Assignments are a common tool used in education to help students learn and demonstrate their knowledge. They can be used to assess a student’s understanding of a particular topic, to develop critical thinking skills, and to improve writing and research abilities.
Business : Assignments can be used in the business world to assess employee skills, to evaluate job performance, and to provide training opportunities. They can also be used to develop business plans, marketing strategies, and financial projections.
Journalism : Assignments are often used in journalism to produce news articles, features, and investigative reports. Journalists may be assigned to cover a particular event or topic, or to research and write a story on a specific subject.
Research : Assignments can be used in research to collect and analyze data, to conduct experiments, and to present findings in written or oral form. Researchers may be assigned to conduct research on a specific topic, to write a research paper, or to present their findings at a conference or seminar.
Government : Assignments can be used in government to develop policy proposals, to conduct research, and to analyze data. Government officials may be assigned to work on a specific project or to conduct research on a particular topic.
Non-profit organizations: Assignments can be used in non-profit organizations to develop fundraising strategies, to plan events, and to conduct research. Volunteers may be assigned to work on a specific project or to help with a particular task.

Purpose of Assignment

The purpose of an assignment varies depending on the context in which it is given. However, some common purposes of assignments include:

Assessing learning: Assignments are often used to assess a student’s understanding of a particular topic or concept. This allows educators to determine if a student has mastered the material or if they need additional support.
Developing skills: Assignments can be used to develop a wide range of skills, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, research, and communication. Assignments that require students to analyze and synthesize information can help to build these skills.
Encouraging creativity: Assignments can be designed to encourage students to be creative and think outside the box. This can help to foster innovation and original thinking.
Providing feedback : Assignments provide an opportunity for teachers to provide feedback to students on their progress and performance. Feedback can help students to understand where they need to improve and to develop a growth mindset.
Meeting learning objectives : Assignments can be designed to help students meet specific learning objectives or outcomes. For example, a writing assignment may be designed to help students improve their writing skills, while a research assignment may be designed to help students develop their research skills.

When to write Assignment

Assignments are typically given by instructors or professors as part of a course or academic program. The timing of when to write an assignment will depend on the specific requirements of the course or program, but in general, assignments should be completed within the timeframe specified by the instructor or program guidelines.

It is important to begin working on assignments as soon as possible to ensure enough time for research, writing, and revisions. Waiting until the last minute can result in rushed work and lower quality output.

It is also important to prioritize assignments based on their due dates and the amount of work required. This will help to manage time effectively and ensure that all assignments are completed on time.

In addition to assignments given by instructors or professors, there may be other situations where writing an assignment is necessary. For example, in the workplace, assignments may be given to complete a specific project or task. In these situations, it is important to establish clear deadlines and expectations to ensure that the assignment is completed on time and to a high standard.

Characteristics of Assignment

Here are some common characteristics of assignments:

Purpose : Assignments have a specific purpose, such as assessing knowledge or developing skills. They are designed to help students learn and achieve specific learning objectives.
Requirements: Assignments have specific requirements that must be met, such as a word count, format, or specific content. These requirements are usually provided by the instructor or professor.
Deadline: Assignments have a specific deadline for completion, which is usually set by the instructor or professor. It is important to meet the deadline to avoid penalties or lower grades.
Individual or group work: Assignments can be completed individually or as part of a group. Group assignments may require collaboration and communication with other group members.
Feedback : Assignments provide an opportunity for feedback from the instructor or professor. This feedback can help students to identify areas of improvement and to develop their skills.
Academic integrity: Assignments require academic integrity, which means that students must submit original work and avoid plagiarism. This includes citing sources properly and following ethical guidelines.
Learning outcomes : Assignments are designed to help students achieve specific learning outcomes. These outcomes are usually related to the course objectives and may include developing critical thinking skills, writing abilities, or subject-specific knowledge.

Advantages of Assignment

There are several advantages of assignment, including:

Helps in learning: Assignments help students to reinforce their learning and understanding of a particular topic. By completing assignments, students get to apply the concepts learned in class, which helps them to better understand and retain the information.
Develops critical thinking skills: Assignments often require students to think critically and analyze information in order to come up with a solution or answer. This helps to develop their critical thinking skills, which are important for success in many areas of life.
Encourages creativity: Assignments that require students to create something, such as a piece of writing or a project, can encourage creativity and innovation. This can help students to develop new ideas and perspectives, which can be beneficial in many areas of life.
Builds time-management skills: Assignments often come with deadlines, which can help students to develop time-management skills. Learning how to manage time effectively is an important skill that can help students to succeed in many areas of life.
Provides feedback: Assignments provide an opportunity for students to receive feedback on their work. This feedback can help students to identify areas where they need to improve and can help them to grow and develop.

Limitations of Assignment

There are also some limitations of assignments that should be considered, including:

Limited scope: Assignments are often limited in scope, and may not provide a comprehensive understanding of a particular topic. They may only cover a specific aspect of a topic, and may not provide a full picture of the subject matter.
Lack of engagement: Some assignments may not engage students in the learning process, particularly if they are repetitive or not challenging enough. This can lead to a lack of motivation and interest in the subject matter.
Time-consuming: Assignments can be time-consuming, particularly if they require a lot of research or writing. This can be a disadvantage for students who have other commitments, such as work or extracurricular activities.
Unreliable assessment: The assessment of assignments can be subjective and may not always accurately reflect a student’s understanding or abilities. The grading may be influenced by factors such as the instructor’s personal biases or the student’s writing style.
Lack of feedback : Although assignments can provide feedback, this feedback may not always be detailed or useful. Instructors may not have the time or resources to provide detailed feedback on every assignment, which can limit the value of the feedback that students receive.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

Research Process – Steps, Examples and Tips

Purpose of Research – Objectives and Applications

Research Summary – Structure, Examples and...

Research Contribution – Thesis Guide

Literature Review – Types Writing Guide and...

Chapter Summary & Overview – Writing Guide...

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Michael Cole On 'Special Assignment,' Misses WWE SmackDown

A rare off-night for Michael Cole.

Wade Barrett filled in for Michael Cole on the October 18th episode of WWE SmackDown. Graves noted that Cole was on "special assignment."

Graves took the lead on play-by-play commentary while Barrett provided color commentary.

Barrett is typically on WWE Raw where he joins Joe Tessitore.

No Michael Cole tonight Its Graves & Barrett #SmackDown pic.twitter.com/RrlUTwqV2k — ------------ -------- ----#------------------ (@Rlop1234Goat) October 19, 2024

Cole has missed three shows since joining WWE

Fightful will provide more details on Cole's absence if and when they are known.

Fans can find Fightful's coverage of WWE SmackDown by clicking here . Check out the post-show podcast for a full review by clicking here.

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10 Easy Steps: How to Write Assignment in 2024 2024

VIDEO

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News Assignment
English news assignment, Grandma hypnotized
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किन्नर को पीटने का वीडियो वायरल
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