Command Words
• They are words designed to trigger the kind of answer the assessor is looking for.
• The command word tells you what approach to adopt in writing your answer Command word

Meaning

•Analyse

Examine something in detail in order to discover meaning, essential features .
Judge the worth or importance

•Assess or Appraise
•Discuss

•Examine

Give both sides of an argument
(for and against) and come to a conclusion Investigate in detail, offering evidence for and against

•Evaluate

•Explain
•Justify
•Choose/ select an organisation of your choice Judge or asses the worth /importance of something Give a detailed account including how and why Take a stance and give defend your opinion/choice Think of an organisation that you know well enough to write about in your answer

•Contrast
•Identify
•Apply

•Define
•Describe
•Compare

Point out only the differences between two or more items
List and name the main elements of something Explain how something could be used in practice .e.g a theory
State precisely the meaning of a given word Give an account
Find the similarities and difference between two or more things

Final note
• Of all the possible mistakes to make in exams or assignments, misunderstanding a command word is perhaps the most common and potentially most serious.
• Respond to each command word and build your answer around it.

The importance of referencing

• In any assignment it is absolutely necessary to give credit to others’ ideas. Any ideas borrowed from another source must be referenced.

Importance of referencing:
• Proof of reading other sources
• Acknowledgement of other’s work
• Reduces chance of plagiarism

• Cutting and pasting ideas from the internet is PLAGIARISM.
• Cutting and pasting work from the internet AND citing the work is PLAGIARISM.

3 fundamental rules:
A referencing :
1. is needed when citing or using someone else’s work
2. must be included when using quotes, copying images, diagrams and summarising someone’s work