Understanding your assignment brief

Generally speaking, when you are provided with an architecture assignment brief, the brief will establish the main criteria for the assignment. You will usually be given details of the assignment, the learning objectives, intended learning outcomes, assessment requirements, deadline, presentation, and so on.

With student projects that are developed without a client focus, it is possible to consider the site or place as the client, and consider the needs of the site itself, and how the project design is going to meet those needs.

Since the brief will contain a lot of information, make sure you read it a couple of times to fully understand it. As you do this, you can even highlight key words that stand out to you or make a note of things that you don’t really get. Feel free to write down some initial ideas that may pop up as well. 

Once you have done all of this, put the brief to one side and come back to read it at a later point. Doing this will help some of those initial ideas breathe a little and at the same time ensure that you do not miss anything.

It is really important to extract from the assignment brief as much information as possible, and be aware not only of what is being asked of you, but also what is the expected outcome. Understanding this, will help you structure your assignment and time more efficiently.

Let’s look at each part in a bit more detail.

The main assignment information

The main assignment – what is being asked of you? What are you looking for? What information will you need to gather? What problem do you need to solve?

Pick out the keywords associated with the question or brief. Then make a list of alternative keywords that will help you in your search to find relevant information.

We found this really useful guide to process words. This was courtesy of the University of Westminster (https://www.westminster.ac.uk/library-and-it/support-and-study-skills/guides-and-tutorials/researching-your-assignments/understanding-essay-questions/understanding-process-words) and originally from the Student Study Support Unit at Canterbury Christchurch College.

Account for

Explain, clarify, give the reasons for. This is quite different from “give an account of…” which is more like “describe in detail”.

Analyse

Break an issue down into its component parts, discuss them and show how they interrelate.

Argue

Make a case, based on appropriate evidence and logically structured for and/or against some point of view.

Assess

Consider the value or importance of something, paying attention to positive, negative and disputable aspects, and citing the judgements of any known authorities as well as your own.

Comment on

This term asks for a combination of the criteria found in “analyse” and “assess”. Although it sounds as if it would be similar to “describe “or “summarise” it is asking you to be critical and evaluative in your approach.

Compare

Identify and discuss the characteristics or qualities two or more things have in common you will probably need to point out their differences as well. Quite often an essay will ask you to “compare” and “contrast”.

Contrast

Point out and discuss the differences between two things. You will probably need to identify their similarities as well. Quite often an essay will ask you to “compare” and “contrast”.

Criticise

Spell out your judgement as to the value or truth of something, indicating the criteria on which you base your judgement and citing specific instances and arguments as to how the criteria apply in this case.

Define

Make a statement as to the meaning or interpretation of something, giving sufficient detail as to allow it to be distinguished from other similar things.

Describe

Spell out the default aspects of an idea or topic, or the sequence in which a series of things happened.

Discuss

Probably the most common word to appear in essay titles and usually requiring analysis and evaluation of evidence as well as weighing up arguments and drawing conclusions.

Evaluate

Similar to “assess” in that you need to consider the value and importance of something and weigh up its different aspects, citing evidence and argument in support of your case.

Explain

Tell how things work or how they came to be the way they are, including perhaps some need to “describe” and to “analyse”.

To what extent

Explore the case for a stated proposition or explanation, much in the manner of “assess” and “criticise”, probably arguing for a less than total acceptance of the proposition.

Identify

Pick out what you regard as the key features of something, perhaps making clear the criteria you use in doing so.

Illustrate

Similar to “explain” but probably requesting you give specific examples or statistics to support your case.

Interpret

Clarify something or explain it, perhaps indicating how the thing relates to something else, or explaining a particular way of looking at it.

Justify

Express valid reasons for accepting a particular interpretation or conclusion, probably including the need to argue a case.

Outline

Indicate the main features of a topic or sequence of events, possibly setting them within a clear structure or framework to show how they interrelate.

Review

Survey a topic with the emphasis on “assess” rather than “describe”.

Summarise

Give the main points briefly, omitting details and illustrations.

Trace

Describe in narrative form the progress, development or sequence of events from some particular point.

Learning objectives and outcomes

Why are these important? The learning objectives and outcomes usually list what the student will have learnt or achieved by the end of the module or assignment. Being aware of these outcomes and objectives might inform the direction you take with your assignment.

Let’s say for example, one of the objectives is for the student to understand how a building fits into a local context. This is suggesting that during the assignment it will likely be important that you consider the local context when carrying out your research or design. How will you demonstrate that you have considered this? How will you present this information?

You get the idea….

Assessment requirements / presentation / deadline

Of course, this is the really important stuff. What do you have to produce, and by when?

Some assignment briefs will show how many credits each part of the assignment is worth. This is really useful as it can help you to understand which parts of the assignment carry more weight, and therefore focus more time on those areas.

If your assignment is asking for submissions in multiple media formats, for example, plans, an isometric, photographs, a model, design journal etc, I find it useful to sketch out a storyboard of how that might look. To make bullet points into a more visual storyboard can help you start to envisage what your final output might look like.

As your assignment develops and you get closer to the end of the project you can start to make a more detailed storyboard of the expected output. This type of thing is particularly useful for design projects when you need to produce multiple sets of drawings, visuals and so on.

If it is a large assignment, with a deadline in the distant future, consider breaking it down into chunks, making milestones that you have to achieve by certain dates. This will help spread the work out, give you plenty of time to complete the assignment and not leave everything till the last minute.

So now you understand your project brief, you know what is required of you and what the output must be.

Marking Criteria / Grading Matrix

Sometimes, your university may even provide a matrix that will be used by your tutors to grade your assignments. Access to this can be beneficial as you will be able to identify the key criteria needed to get the best marks. 

If you are working on an assignment with a later deadline, you can set a milestone wherein you use the provided marking matrix and grade yourself. You can even get your friends or studio mates to grade your work. Doing this will help you see where your work stands and how you can improve it.

Thinking outside the box

As you start forming ideas and reflecting on your assignment brief, do not be afraid to push some boundaries and test your ideas. Student project briefs are meant to give you a starting point. Some university briefs may give you some flexibility as to what direction you take the project. But definitely consult your tutors for advice in this regard. 

Carry out your research

Depending on the type of assignment you are working on, it is easy to skip the research and start sketching out ideas and getting carried away with the fun stuff before really understanding the task in hand.

Check the assignment brief for any suggested or compulsory reference material that you should check out.

Next, start collecting information.

If you are a student, the chances are you will have access to a library with some sort of electronic database. This is a good place to start finding the resources you need. Every system is different, so if you aren’t sure how to access the information you are looking for, speak with your librarian, I’m sure they will be very happy to help.

Don’t forget there is more to life than just the internet! Yes, google comes up with some good results, but you need to expand your research beyond the comfort and ease of google. Make sure you consider books, journals, articles, audio, video as part of your research wherever possible. This will give you a much wider and valuable set of information to start your work from.

If the course you are enrolled in has been running for a few years, chances are the university will provide you with some previous year examples. These can act as guides and really help you visualise what is expected of you. Do be careful not to blindly follow these examples though, as the assignment brief for your year may have been altered.

Try to find case studies and precedents relevant to your assignment requirements. This will help you dive deep into real world responses that your assignment may be asking you to investigate.

Check out our helpful post on Precedent studies:

https://www.firstinarchitecture.co.uk/architecture-precedent-study-and-analysis/

Sources:

• Books
• Journals
• Newspapers
• Websites
• Archives
• Film and television programmes
• Market research
• Official publications (government etc)
• British Standards Institution
• Statistics
• Manufacturer information
• Previous year student work

Be careful not to spend too much time researching and not enough time actually doing. Limit your research to a certain amount of time, then get started. If you find you still need more information later, you can circle back and do a bit more research.

Make an outline

Call it what you will, a journey, road map, plan. Start looking at the bigger picture of the assignment, what topics are you tackling? Of course, the requirements of a plan or outline will vary wildly according to the type of assignment you are doing. A great start to an essay is usually a simple outline that helps you get from A to B. A studio design project might be a bit different.

Either way, make a bit of a plan, however loose it may be. Having a list of topics or titles can really help to get started when you are stuck on writing. Rather look at the broader picture first and then start fleshing out the details, instead of trying to get into the details straight away which can be daunting.

Be productive with your time

This is pretty obvious, but in a way it’s not. Sometimes you can get caught up on a tiny detail without realising you have lost hours to something that has a small part to play in the assignment as a whole.

Use your time wisely. You can read more about my productivity tips here.

https://www.firstinarchitecture.co.uk/work-smart-productivity-tips/

Give yourself the best working environment

You’ve read the brief, you know what is required of you. You’ve carried out your research, collected your data. Now you need to get started…

Distractions can be the perfect productivity blocker. So make sure you give yourself the working environment that you need. For some, this might be working in the busy studio, with your colleagues around you to bounce ideas. Others might need a quiet space to work alone, without distractions of social media, friends etc.

Do what works for you. Maybe you work better by minimising distractions. Switching off your email, putting your phone on silent, and playing some background music (that has no words!), can prove to be really helpful. Try to figure out your working style and identify your distractions so you can best combat them!

Remember – quality, not hours spent…

Make sure you are making good quality work, not just spending hours on something for the sake of it. Architects can be perfectionists, and it is easy to tweak, adjust, tweak for hours on end. Be aware, there comes a point where the tweaks you make won’t be having a positive affect on your overall mark, just a sap on your time. Stay focussed.

Keep checking the assignment brief to be sure you are covering all of the tasks that are being asked of you, and you have a plan to produce each of the items that form part of the assignment, whether it be drawings, models etc.

Review – later

If you are writing an essay, take time away from the assignment before coming back to make edits. You need to give yourself a break from writing before returning to read it through with fresh eyes.

If it is a big design project, then you will no doubt continue to review and edit as you work through your design solutions.