Essays and reports
Principles for developing effective essay and report assessments.
Essay (ESS) assessment mode is: A written composition with a specified word length, which, typically, on the basis of existing literature, proceeds to sustain a coherent argument.
Report (REP) assessment mode is: A description, review, summary or other account of activity, proposed activity or experience. This may include a report of a series of investigations undertaken as part of a research project.
This page provides principles and advice for developing effective assessments within these modes.
Developing effective writing assignments
The essay and report modes of assessment are quite flexible in terms of kinds of assignments you might ask you students to complete. Here we provide some general principles. For ideas and examples, see our guidance on developing writing tasks in the context of AI, on authentic assessment and flexible assessment, in assessment design.
General principles to help you to develop effective writing assignments
- Tie the writing task to specific pedagogical goals, particularly those articulated in the overall course goals (both learning outcomes and transferrable skills).
- Emphasise the rhetorical aspects of the task, such as the audience or the purpose of the writing situation (e.g. journal, blog, critical review).
- Break down the task into manageable steps. For an essay, students could write an outline, workshop thesis statements, draft introductions and conclusions, and develop body paragraphs.
- Be sure to make all elements of the task clear.
Clarify your expectations around:
- how long the piece of writing should be
- the conventions of the genre. For example, emphasise the importance of clarity, objectivity and accuracy in report writing
- the type of essay you are looking for (argumentative, persuasive, expository etc.) and what this includes
- how you would like the writing to be structured and formatted. For example, do reports require an executive summary? Can students use section headings in essays?
- what style of academic referencing you require
- how and when the work should be submitted.
Additional advice could include:
- essential content for introductions, including examples of effective thesis statements
- basic pointers on structuring paragraphs (topic sentences, evidence, analysis) and developing academic arguments
- links to existing support on essay writing and referencing, for example the Skills Hub
- linking to grading criteria on the assignment sheet.