College Assignment Terms

Instructors use key terms to direct students toward particular goals for an assignment. The instructor chooses the term in order to specify exactly what result or product he or she wants students to gain from completion of the assignment. To understand the assignment's goals and to complete the requirements, students must understand the term's meaning.
Analyze	Break your subject into its parts and discuss the relationship or function of those parts.
Argue	Present convincing evidence in favor of or against an idea, proposal, method, law, rule, program, etc.
Classify	Place your subject into its general category, and show how it is unique to distinguish it from others in that category.
Compare	Show how your subject resembles other things or ideas.
Contrast	Show how your subject is different from other things or ideas.
Debate	Take one side of an issue and, by responding to the points made by the other side, offer convincing evidence that your side, your stand, is the most reasonable one.
Discuss	Talk or write about problems or issues your subject raises. What factors are most important? Look at your subject from several different points of view.
Disprove	Provide evidence to contradict or undermine an idea or assertion.
Evaluate	Think critically about your subject. What criteria will you use to judge it? How well does it meet the standards of the criteria? How does it compare to similar subjects? What is its value?
Examine	As in analyzing, break the subject into its parts and discuss their relationship or function.
Explain	Show what your subject does or how it operates, giving background information about it, and placing it in its political to historical context.
Identify	Show the meaning and significance of a particular term, name, or idea, giving as much specific detail as possible to distinguish it from all others.
List	Name a group of related ideas or objects by numbering them and writing in list form.
Persuade	Take a clear stand on an issue or subject, and explain why you believe what you do about your subject. Use evidence to convince others to agree, or provide good, logical reasons for someone to think or act in a particular way.
Review Literature	Examine a field or subject or issue to discover what the key issues and concerns are and what positions have been taken by other researchers.
Survey	Measure opinion on a question by using a method that guarantees an adequate, random, and representative sample of the population.

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