Understanding the brief is the first stage in the process of academic writing.

Here are some tips for making sure that you start out with a confident perception of what is required of you.

• Read the brief several times to familiarise yourself with the wording of it.
   
• Ask for clarification of any part which seems obscure.
   
• Don't rest until you are completely confident that you know what it is asking of you.
   
• Highlight or underline those terms which you consider to be most crucial to your work.
   
• Break down the long brief into smaller components of meaning.
   
• Paraphrase the whole brief, expressing it to yourself in your own terms.
   
• Write it out in your own format and carry it around with you at all times.
   
• Prop it up in front of you during all your working sessions.