Define your topic

An assignment is usually presented in the format below:

" It has long been recorded that television advertising can have a detrimental effect on the wellbeing of children in our society. They become set on an idea that they must have this brand of jeans, or consume a particular brand of soft drink, in order to become popular. Discuss, ensuring that you make reference to both books and journals."

In order to find the most relevant information for this assignment, begin by identifying the key concepts. A good technique for finding the key concepts is to reword the question. For the example above, you may want to first break it up into two sentences:

1. Television advertising can have a detrimental effect on the well being of children in our society

2. Children become set on the idea that they need to buy brands in order to become popular

These two sentences may then become one sentence:
" Discuss the effect of television advertising on children"

Identify keywords