COMMAND VERBS The purpose of this guide is to give a definition of the command verbs used in your assessment booklets. Below are some examples of questions and answers which reflect the command verb. Meeting the command verb will support the sufficiency of your answer. Command Verb Meaning Examples Describe one piece of legislation which protects people from discrimination. A describe answer should be but not limited to 4/5 sentences in a paragraph. The answer should do the following: Describe • Provide a detailed account of the topic or item in a logical way. • Have content that covers all the relevant characteristics, qualities, or events asked in the question. Transforming Lives Through Learning The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and wider society. Under the Act there are nine protected characteristics which are age, gender, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnerships, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion/ belief, sex, and sexual orientation. A person should not be treated less favorably than another on the grounds of their characteristics. For example, not allowing a pregnant lady to apply for a promotion on the grounds that she is pregnant and may have maternity leave. That would be direct discrimination. Command Verb Meaning Examples Explain the need to develop working relationships with other teams. When answering an explain question your answers should be a minimum of 4/5 sentences in two paragraphs. The answer should do the following: Explain • Make the topic clear to the reader. • Reveal relevant information in more detail. • Use examples where possible to support your understanding. Working relationships with other teams is extremely important. Teams are likely to work together on different projects and rely on each other. Teams rely on communication between one another to support an effective workflow; if the workflow is disrupted this would have an impact on the business including customers. Where there are disruptions with workflow, teams should be able to work together to solve these. Good relationships in any organisation are based on trust and respect which contributes to team satisfaction and productivity. To answer an identify question correctly you should do the following: Identify • Recognise/name the key points or characteristics of what is being identified. Transforming Lives Through Learning Identify legislation which protects people from discrimination. The Equality Act 2010. The Act legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and wider society. Command Verb Outline Define Meaning Ideally an outline question will have 2-3 good sentences that does the following: • Outline the essential features not the detail • Summarise the main characteristics or points To define you should aim to be concise as possible with your answer. It should do the following: • Show or state clearly and accurately the meaning of (a word or phrase) Transforming Lives Through Learning Examples Outline steps you could take to protect yourself against cyberbullying Ensure your social media is for people you know and trust, don’t add anyone you don’t know. Make sure that your privacy settings are all correct for your personal preferences. You should also be careful where you share photos or videos of yourself and consider who can view them. Define the terms ‘mental health’ and ‘mental ill-health. Mental health is unique to individuals, as everyone is different. This includes adults, young people, and children. Mental ill-heath describes a group of conditions that affect a person’s ability to think, interact with others and cope with everyday demands in their life. Command Verb Meaning Examples Analyse how current legislation and guidelines for safeguarding inform policy and procedure for children and young people. When you are required to analyse a subject you need to examine in detail; aim for 4/5 paragraphs of detailed work. Your answers should do the following: Analyse • • • • Break the subject into separate parts Examine each part in detail Identify the main issues Show how the main ideas are related to practice and why they are important • Look to reference current events, legislation, research, or theory to support the analysis There are numerous legislations and guidelines in place for safeguarding officers and senior leadership to use when devising their company policies and procedures. Everyone has the right to be protected from harm and policies and procedures should clearly outline how to keep individuals safe and how to respond to individual protection concerns. In England, the Department for Education provide the key statutory guidance for anyone working with children and young people. This is called Working Together to Safeguard Children 2018. This document is recommended to set out how the company will keep children and young people safe. Section 57-62 should be used by the voluntary and private sector. Within the policies and procedures being written, it is important to use the guidance from the Department of Education that is provided on “what to do if you’re worried a child is being abused”. This helps to identify actions to take if you think a child is being abused or neglected. Safer recruitment and the carrying out of DBS check will help to identify and reject applicants who are not suitable to work with children and young people, including vulnerable adults, this is directly related to guidance from the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006. Transforming Lives Through Learning Command Verb Meaning Examples Evaluate national and local initiatives which promote healthy eating. An evaluation should be made up of multiple well written paragraphs. This answer should do the following: Evaluate • Consider the strengths and weaknesses, arguments for and against and/or similarities and differences • The writer should then judge the evidence from the different perspectives and make a valid conclusion or reasoned judgement • Apply current research or theories to support the evaluation when applicable National initiatives, such as Food for Life, which is run by the Soil Association, aims to support schools to serve fresh, nutritious lunches that are well sourced. The other aim of this initiative is to teach children where food comes from, to grow their own food and cook it whilst involving the parents. The shceme has so far been sucessful, and has expanded to hospitals and care homes. A review of this initiative showed that pupils undertaking the programme were twice as likely to eat no fruit or vegetables, when compared to pupils in schools not participating in the programme. Pupils were also 40% more likely to like or really like school meals whilst 45% of parents supported children eating more vegetables, as a result of the program. Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council run a local initiative called Eat Well Move More aimed to get families healthier. This offer is only available for families with overweight children aged between 4 - 16, and who live in Solihull. In the last year, the service has adapted its offer to be virtual due to COVID-19, meaning the initiative has not had the impact as in previous years. The service saw 82% of families involved in the program reduce weight and maintain a healthy weight for the next 12 months. Both initiatives are positive factors into promoting healthy eating due to the educational factor in both which results in the higher success rates, with the only drawback seen in the national initiative due to being selected schools across the country. Transforming Lives Through Learning Command Verb Meaning Examples Compare the advantages and disadvantages of using online meeting technology. To compare and contrast you need to use multiple paragraphs to explain why two or more subjects are similar and different. Your answer should have the following: Compare/Contrast • Review the subject(s) in detail – explaining the similarities and differences or advantages and disadvantages • Within each subject review you should identify the main factors or points Online meetings save considerable time and money. There is no need for people to travel or to book accomodation. It also reduces the danger of people being late for a meeting due to traffic. Salespeople, designers, manufacturers, directors can all sit in the same meeting and make their contributions and listen to the issues other departments may have. Another advantage is you can still do many things a face-to-face meeting can, such as share documents, files and photos. However, online meetings are at the mercy of internet connectivity, which will be different for each attendee, if the internet connection is poor it can be very difficult to follow or engage with the meeting. It can be awkward being in a remote place rather than in the same room where body language can play such a vital role; where a nod or shake of the head or raising the hand might indicate someone agrees with a point or disagrees or wishes to speak. This leads to people often talking over each other, causing people to miss out on opinions. Unless there is sufficient security protocol, technology can become vulnerable to hackers, whereas a face-to-face meeting is much harder to infiltrate. Transforming Lives Through Learning Command Verb Meaning Examples Justify your choice of brush. A justification should be a well-structured paragraph or two that shows the reader: Justify • Give a reasoned explanation for actions or decisions made • Your rationale should be underpinned by research, academic theory, data analysis or experience I have chosen to use a purple coloured silicone brush, instead of a wooden handled natural fibre brush, to apply egg wash to pastry. I prefer the bright colour of the silicone brush. It has a modern feel to it. I like to use kitchen gadgets that are easy to look after and the silicone brush is dishwasher safe. The brown wooden brush does not match the colour theme for my kitchen. The wooden brush cannot go in the dishwasher and I do not like spending time washing up by hand. Summarise your research on brushes. Summarise When you are required to summarise for an answer you should do the following: • Sum up or give a brief account of relevant information in own words • Ensure that the information is precise Transforming Lives Through Learning My research revealed that there are many types of brushes which can be used for hundreds of different jobs. They generally consist of bristles and a handle of some kind. They were first used as early as 250,000 years ago, to apply pigment to cave paintings. Today, a brush is still one of the most basic and versatile tools in use. Command Verb Meaning Examples Discuss how effective the use of core counselling skills have been in developing the helping relationship. Discuss Write an account giving more than one view or opinion. There should be some evidence of balance, though not necessarily of equal weighting. Transforming Lives Through Learning Within a recent counselling session, when I used silence I thought I wouldn’t get the outcome expected as I was concerned it would be awkward and feel like a long time, but actually it felt very naturally and gave the helpee room to really consider their thoughts before speaking, and also a moment to focus on their emotion experienced. When I used open ended questions I got the result I expected in that I received more information about the topic by asking what they thought was making them feel the way they did, as it made them contemplate this more. I found that ‘why’ questions however caused the helpee to get a little defensive and so in the future I will look at turning those into ‘what’ questions, for example rather that ‘why do you think?’ to ‘what do you think makes you ...’ so they don’t feel like they need to justify their feelings.’
