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Series 01

The hardest subjects, explained

The units that fill our inbox every semester, pulled apart to show why they are hard and which part is actually worth the effort.

Series 02

Assignment breakdown

A real brief, read line by line. What each instruction verb demands, where the marks sit, and the trap most students walk into.

Series 03

Understanding the rubric

Marking criteria in plain words. What a marker is looking for on each line, and the difference between a credit and a distinction.

Series 04

Complex concepts made clear

One hard idea per piece, explained the way a good tutor would say it out loud, with the jargon translated rather than repeated.

Reading the task

One word in the brief decides what the whole piece does

Most briefs turn on a single instruction verb, and most lost marks come from answering a different one. Here is what each of them actually asks for.

The verb	What it asks for	Where marks go missing
Analyse	Break the thing into parts and show how the parts relate to each other.	Describing the parts one after another and never connecting them.
Evaluate	Weigh it against stated criteria and arrive at a judgement you are willing to defend.	Listing strengths and weaknesses, then declining to say which side wins.
Critically discuss	Put competing positions against each other, then say where you land and why.	Summarising what three authors think and calling the summary a discussion.
Compare and contrast	Hold both cases to the same set of criteria so the differences mean something.	Two separate essays glued together, each describing one case on its own terms.
Justify	State the choice, then give the reasoning and the evidence that make it the better one.	Explaining what you did instead of why that was the right thing to do.
Apply	Use the framework on the facts of this case and let it produce a conclusion.	Reciting the framework in full, then mentioning the case in the last paragraph.
Reflect	Link what happened to what you now understand, through a model your unit named.	A diary entry with feelings and no theory, or theory with no actual incident.
Synthesise	Build one line of argument that several sources together support.	A paragraph per source, in the order you happened to read them.

If the brief uses two of these, the piece has two jobs and the word budget has to be split between them before any writing starts.

Rubric language

What the criteria mean in plain words

Marking criteria are written for markers, not for students. These are the phrases that turn up on almost every rubric, and what a marker is looking at when they tick one.

On thinking

Critical engagement: You questioned the source rather than reporting it. Whose data, what assumptions, what it leaves out.
Depth of analysis: You kept asking why past the first answer, instead of restating the question in longer words.
Synthesis: Several sources pulled into one argument of yours, not a queue of summaries.

On evidence

Breadth of reading: More than the unit readings, and the extra sources were actually used, not just cited.
Currency and quality: Peer reviewed where it matters, recent where the field moves, and the right source for the claim.
Justification: Every claim traceable to something: data, a source, or reasoning laid out on the page.

On craft

Coherence: Each section follows from the one before it, and the reader never has to reconstruct your order.
Academic tone: Precise and measured. Hedged where the evidence is thin, firm where it is not.
Consistent referencing: One style, applied the same way in the text and in the list. The cheapest marks on any rubric.

Send a brief

Tell us what the task actually asks

Send the brief, the rubric and the deadline. You get back a plan for that specific task, a quote for that scope, and nothing added later.

The assignment brief and the marking rubric
Word count, unit code and due date
Lecture slides or readings, if the task leans on them
Anything already drafted, however rough

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