Helping students convert assignments into articles: tips for teachers

The student may spend a lot of time and effort on an assignment or essay, and when the lecturer makes this comment about the finished product, may go ahead and submit it to a journal editor. If the editor returns the work with the comment 'our readers would be most interested in your work but it needs to be presented as a journal article', the student rarely feels able to spare the time or make the effort to rewrite and resubmit, and the work is never published. The article and the assignment could, however, be produced simultaneously, and below are some suggestions as to how this could be achieved.