The Tao of the Midnight Assignment

Time pressure has always been a problem for OU students (Who am I
kidding? All students.) Perhaps it is becoming more prevalent as
students try to maximise their investment, juggling work, family and one
or more modules. I have known students work full time and do two
modules, which is effectively full time study. “Foolhardy” is a word
that springs to mind, but they do seem to survive, and even prosper.
Inevitably there are times when there is no time, when a book has to be
read, a forum digested, an online session devoured, and an assignment
produced in the space of three days, or less. So this post is about the
best way of approaching an assignment when you have limited time.



Using your time 

When you have time available, concentrate. Richard Nixon, famous for
Watergate, did have some good qualities. One of them was an ability to
focus. Like all managers he rarely got more than a few minutes for any
one decision, but he had an immense ability to concentrate. He would be
given a problem and he would focus fully on it for the few minutes he
had, till he reached a decision. Then he would put that one out of his
mind, and focus fully on the next one. This is an admirable trait for an
OU student to copy. If you have only half an hour now, don't try to
pack too much in to that half hour. Decide what you can do properly in
that time, then focus fully on it. You may not cover as much ground, but
what you do you will do well.



- go fast and slow. Something being urgent doesn't mean it has to be
done as fast as possible. That may sound paradoxical, but let me
explain. Some points in the genesis of an assignment are pivotal.



Reading the question



Planning the reading



Planning the assignment



Writing it



Submitting it



Each of these needs your concentration when you get to it, and you need
to think about the thing you are doing rather than thinking about the
time you don't have available.



Reading the question

Let's say you have an assignment due in four weeks time, and little
study time available. At the beginning of the sequence of work, read the
question that you will be answering in four weeks time. Do spend some
time with it. Make sure you understand what the question wants. If it is
short enough, print it out in very big type and stick it where you can
easily see it. For OU students, read the guidance or student notes that
come with the question. They usually point you to key parts of the
module material. Then you know what you need to read. Don't start
reading till you are sure you have grasped what the question is about.





Planning the reading

It still amazes me how many university students fail to read
intelligently. They start at page 1 and work their way to the end of the
chapter, then go on to the next chapter.....  If you're in time trouble
you need to decide what to read - the stuff that you need for the
assignment. So do some planning. Be realistic about the amount of time
you will have available to read, and list the chapters and sections you
need in order: essential, important, desirable. Before you start reading
the essential stuff, look at the context. Take note of the chapter
introduction, and its structure. This is important for understanding,
and it will dictate how you read. It is different in different books.
One module I teach on has aims at the start of each chapter, so I tell
my students to spend some time with the aims so that they are clear
about what they will be reading. Then when they have finished the
chapter, they go back to the aims and determine how far the aims have
been achieved. I recommend writing a reflective paragraph or two about
that. On another module the chapters do not have an aims section at the
beginning, but each section has an excellent summary at the end. So I
recommend reading the book backwards. Read the section summary first, so
that you know what the section is about, then read the section, then
compare what you have read with what the summary says. Whatever the
structure of the chapters is, there will be some natural method of
appraising it, then reading it, then reflecting on it.



The point about doing this in a hurry is that you can't hurry learning
too much. It is very important not to compromise this process -
appraise, read, reflect - just because you have limited time. You will
do better to read one section thoroughly and use it well in your
assignment, than to read two sections hurriedly and make only shallow
use of them. So that is the business about going fast and slow. You have
a limited amount of time, so you will feel rushed. But do not rush.
Whatever the time is that you have available, slow down when you reach
it so that you make best use of it.





Planning the assignment

You have done the reading. You still need to plan the assignment. All
the advice about planning still holds. Collect together your theories
and your evidence. Figure out what the answer to the question is going
to be, and then figure out how your argument gets you there. Like the
other parts of the process, this needs time. You may have only half an
hour for it, but you should still do it. And in that half hour you
should focus utterly on what the question is and how the evidence bears
on it. Let it take you off the topic if it will: that way learning
occurs which will emerge in the assignment, even if you don't see it
there.





Writing it

Everyone is different. Everyone has their own writing method. Some
methods work better than others under time pressure. For what it's
worth, if you have been staring at a blank sheet for five minutes, and
can only think about the time ticking away, I suggest employing the
fifteen minute method. You have done the plan, so you know what you're
writing about. If you have a timer, set it for fifteen minutes. Start
writing. It doesn't matter if it is not grammatical, logical or even
coherent, just write. When the buzzer buzzes, stop writing, and set the
timer again for ten minutes. Spend ten minutes editing what you have
written.



If you are then part way through the assignment, give yourself a break
then do more fifteen minute writing sessions and ten minute edits, until
you finish or until you run out of time.





Submitting it

The submission process has its own importance. Submission includes
things like spell check, proof read, add the references (in the correct
format). Read through the question and make sure you have answered all
the bits. On one module I teach, the students have to write around 50
words of reflection on two questions they are given with each
assignment. They do not get marks for the quality of the reflection, but
they lose five marks if the reflection is not there. It takes two
minutes to write 50 words, but so many students forget to do it, and
lose five marks. It is not that they don't want to, they do just forget.
So, even when you're in a hurry - in fact especially when you're in a
hurry - take a few minutes to read right through the question, every
paragraph, every word of it, and make sure you have done everything you
are required to do, before you press the submit button.