Online assignment planner gives you tools for research and writing success

Sure, you have a good handle on what is due in your courses this term, but you could use a little help mapping out the important dates and locating relevant resources for your research and writing assignments. This is where the online assignment planner, a tool developed at Laurier, can give you a head start.

The assignment planner is an open source writing and research resource that helps you plot steps towards completing an assignment over a projected timeline. It breaks down the writing and research process into numbered steps, suggests the time it should take you to accomplish each step, and assists you in managing your time between now and the assignment due date.

Free and easy to use, the newly redesigned planner is intended to assist you in completing your assignments by focusing on small steps, which gives you sufficient time to work through the writing and research process.

This tool can support your success by helping you:

• Visualize how much time you have between today’s date and the assignment due date.
• Get a better sense of what you need to accomplish and clarify what the assignment is asking of you.
• Understand the demands of the writing and research process by breaking it down into steps.
• Connect with on-campus supports such as writing services and the Laurier Library.

Using the online assignment planner relieves you of the last-minute rush of writing assignments just before they are due and encourages you to become a stronger writer and researcher while honing your critical-thinking and time-management skills.

Samantha Schott, Laurier writing tutor and senior student in the Department of History, believes this new tool reflects and complements some of the advice students may receive during in-person tutoring sessions.

“The assignment planner really takes the steps that we as tutors encourage our students to follow and synthesizes them into a comprehensive, self-directed guide so students don’t feel as lost throughout the process,” says Schott.

“Most of what I do as a tutor is give guidance and break down how to get through the writing process,” says Schott. “Sometimes feeling confident is half the battle in writing an essay!”

Read Schott’s personal review of the new assignment planner and explore the variety of on-campus and online writing resources and supports offered to Laurier students.