I’m back again…
This is the fourth week of students arriving campus and there’s been a couple of activities already ranging from the Freshers Fayre, Careers fair and I’m sure a couple of other smaller social activities organised by different bodies within the University.
I totally agree with Fawziyyah about making sure you take care of your mental health because of the many things you need to juggle at Uni. So just before we head into the ‘heat’ of actual school work…I just thought I’d drop some lines or tips about writing assignments/coursework and working in groups if you had to (I did lots of group exercises on the MBA and trust me, you’d need a lot of ‘wisdom’ to navigate through)
For Assignments, some tips you’d need include:
- Setting your own deadline: Yes, it’s important you set your deadline a few days or weeks ahead of the main deadline. This way you are not pressured or stressed and you’d have time to proofread and make the necessary corrections before submission.
- Enhance your work with diagrams if possible: This might not apply for all departments but for the social sciences or business students, this would count. The word I used and deliberately so is ‘enhance’ because diagrams helps the reader understand and also shows that you understand what you’re doing.
- Use good layout and structure: Use appropriate font size and style. Some lecturers give students the font style and size, some don’t. Using Times New Roman or Calibri at fonts 12 and 11 respectively is safe. Some people use Century Gothic but at font size 11. Also make sure you ‘justify’ your work. You could use a dark blue font colour for your headers and underline as well. In summary, make your work look pleasing to the eye.
- Understand your assignment brief: This is possibly the most important of them all. If you do not understand the brief or instructions, ensure you speak with your lecturer or anyone else in class who might know. In Nigeria, I hardly would have thought of asking lecturers for help because you really don’t know what would come out of it but I noticed that this is different here. They are very willing to help so talk with them.
For group work, I have one major tip and it is:
- Add value to the group in your own little way. Even if you cannot contribute so much intellectually, use your strengths to support the group. If you’re good with writing or editing – ensuring there are no errors, PowerPoint slides designs, or just the one that ensures there’s peace within the team – Do something. You could also set up a WhatsApp group for the team, send reminders to team members or book a venue for a meeting. No matter how small you think your contribution is, it always adds up and you’re seen as a relevant group member.
That’s pretty much it…I hope these tips would be useful. Until I come your way again…xxx
