Academic essays part 4: exploring the question

This series aims to give all grades of nurses some useful tips on how to improve their academic writing when submitting work to a university. Previous articles have identified the reasons why someone may fail an assignment and the key points to follow to ensure that you will pass an assignment. Subsequent articles in the series will examine specific areas that will help all students construct and submit a successful piece of academic writing.

Whenever students start a new module and receive the course information, the part that most of them turn to first is the assignment question. Some read it and relax, feeling that it is something they are comfortable with, others become worried as they don't understand what is being asked, and a third group read the question and then interpret it in a way that misses key points of the assignment. Most students come to one of these conclusions in about 60 seconds. There are problems with each of these three common conclusions, which could easily result in the student achieving a lower grade than they might have done, or even failing the assignment completely.