SPARK: Student Papers and Academic Research Kit: Assignment Purpose

It is essential to consider the assignment in the context of the course. Your instructor typically has specific goals and purposes in mind when designing the tasks for an assignment, and part of your responsibility is to understand what those goals and purposes are.

Put yourself in the role of your instructor and consider:

• “How does this assignment relate to the course objectives?”  
• “Why am I being asked to do this assignment or to think about this topic/question in this way?”

By giving you this assignment, your instructor may be asking you to:

• Express ideas or concepts in your own words to demonstrate understanding
• Apply relevant concepts to a situation or phenomenon
• Analyze ideas and concepts, and consider relationships among them
• Evaluate a decision, perspective or a particular way of doing something
• Create new ideas or perspectives given a particular topic or issue