Expectations may be most clearly expressed in assessment criteria. What are the standards for performance or outcomes in your course or workplace? How will your paper or project be judged? If you will be graded or assigned points based on the presence, absence, or quality of specific features or components, these are also part of “what they want.”
Try turning your requirements or assessment criteria into a checklist or self-assessment questions for yourself. For example, you might convert the criteria in the previous example to these four questions:
If you worry about forgetting or skipping over the assessment details, try breaking out each expectation as a separate question:
Do I have an introduction? Is it clear? Is it compelling?