Defining Research Needs

Understand the Assignment

Instructors convey assignments in a variety of ways. Some give oral instructions. Others provide written directions on a syllabus or web page. Some outline the major requirements, while others go into detail and supply examples of the projects or papers they want you to produce.

To do well on an assignment, you must understand it completely. To do that, you must think about:

• the assignment description,
• your intended audience, and
• the library resources you need.