Identifying what Assignment Titles and Exam Questions are actually asking you to do

One of the most common mistakes students make when doing written work for formal assessment is to ignore the instructions given by the assessor in the wording of exam questions or assignment titles. Thus, the questions might be:

Evaluate A. J. P. Taylor's contribution of our understanding of War. or
Discuss the relevance of behaviourist psychology to food marketing. or
Compare and contrast Darwin's explanation of the origin of species with that of Christian Fundamentalists.

but the student interprets each of these different instructions as: List everything you know about - A. J. P. Taylor or Behaviourism or Darwin or whatever.

It is extremely important that you actually answer the question that the assessor has asked; that you do what the assessor wants you to do. Good answers, that refer to all the right knowledge or use all of the right techniques and provide the assessor with plenty of evidence that you understand the material you are using to construct your answer, can be transformed into very good or excellent answers, and marginal failures into passes if they answer the specific question that was asked in the way that the question specified. In order to achieve this, you need to be able to interpret the assessor's instructions correctly. You may find the following list of verbs that are frequently used in exam questions and assignment titles along with a description of what (I think) they are asking you to do, helpful. NB This is not an exact science. Different members of staff may have slightly different interpretations about what they think each of these terms means. It is always safest to check with each individual assessor, before the assessment takes place.

Define: write down the precise meaning of a word or phrase. If there is more than one commonly used meaning, you would be expected to refer to them all.
Describe: provide a graphic or detailed account of events.
Criticise: assess or make a judgement on the merit of a theory or opinion or approach to some activity, description of an event, presentation of facts and the like. You are expected to base your judgement not simply on personal opinion or prejudice, but on reasoned, logical argument founded on accepted theory or agreed facts.
Evaluate: express an opinion about the worth or merit of something, explaining , in the process, the reasoning behind your opinion; the facts that support it; the logic of the arguments upon which it is based. Where appropriate you would quote supporting arguments from recognised academic authorities and the like.
Contrast: set two or more ideas, theories or concepts in opposition with each other in order to highlight the differences between them.
Explain: make explicit or plain, account for or give reasons for reaching, a given conclusion.
Compare: look for similarities and differences between specified concepts, theories, processes etc. In carrying this out you will be expected to make a judgement between the various ideas and come to a conclusion about which is preferable.
Interpret or Analyse: make the meaning of something clear and explicit. You would be expected to assess its value at the same time, basing your judgement not simply on personal opinion or prejudice, but on reasoned, logical argument founded on accepted theory or agreed facts.
Discuss: use reasoned argument to examine or investigate a concept, theory, approach etc. In the process you would be expected to assess the concepts'/theories'/approaches' value or worth, basing your assessment on reasoned, logical argument founded on accepted theory or agreed facts. This term is frequently used in questions or titles that appear to contain contradictions or paradoxes. For example :

'Companies are in business to survive and make profits. If a company can become the largest single supplier in a market, it can use its power to increase profits by, e.g. increasing prices. This is perfectly rational and desirable behaviour. Consequently, the activities of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, which is required to try to prevent companies gaining significant market power, are undesirable and irrational.'

Discuss the validity of this statement.

In those circumstances you would be expected to sift through data or debate the pros and cons of different (usually) conflicting theories or ideas.

If you are unsure about what I mean by 'reasoned' or 'logical' arguments' then I strongly recommend that you obtain and read Fairbairn and Winch's excellent book: 'Reading, Writing and Reasoning -A guide for students', The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press, 1991.

John Ramsay. Economics Division, The Business School. 13:07 02/09/96