Effectively Responding to Homework Questions
Step 1: Gather Information about the Assignment
What do you need to know in order to answer the questions completely?
Terms and Concepts:
Use your text to look up terms the instructor uses and write the page numbers on your assignment sheet or use a tool like PowerNotes to keep track of the definitions from online sources. Click here to learn more about Power Notes and how to use it for digital reading. Links to an external site.
Tasks and Action Items:
Look at the verbs (action words) your teacher uses and let that determine what kind of answer you give to the questions.
Click here to jump to a list of common academic verbs seen in assignments.
Step 2: Display your knowledge and insight
Make connections between your observations and concepts from your text.
Include specific examples.
Here is a sentence that models how you can put these ideas together in a response:
"[Observation] is an example of [term or concept from the text] because [reason or explanation]."
This kind of response not only shows that you've read the text, but also that you can apply it other concepts and make important connections.
Additional Resources
Check out this helpful resource from the UNC Chapel Hill Writing Center about understanding what your assignment is asking you to do.
Click on the image to download our A-List handout, which lists some of the verbs instructors tend to use and gives guidance on how to answer those types of questions.
Click below to download a set of bookmarks dealing with effectively managing homework assignments.
MGMTBookmarks032023.docx Download MGMTBookmarks032023.docx