Analysing the question

To analyse any question effectively you need to consider the various parts that make up the question, in particular the task words, the information words and the limits.

Task words

The way the assessment details are written, the task words are not obvious, but you can identify them by re-writing the guidelines as directions. This will make clear exactly what you are required to do. For example, the guidelines for writing the report say that it should include a clear statement of focus of the interview...This becomes State clearly the focus of the interview...., the task words here being state clearly. Similarly a current description of the interviewee becomes Describe the interviewee as they currently are..., the task word being describe. See if you can identify the task words (and hence the task) in the other guideline statements.

Information words

There are information words in all of the guideline statements, for example:

an aspect of health care
focus of the interview
current description

What are the other information words, that tell you what you are to write about?

Limits

Some limit words tell you just what aspect of the information you should limit yourself to. For example, the interview should be15 minutes long; the person should be over sixty years of age; the description should be current. What other limit words can you identify?

Other limits refer to the length of the report (and hence to its various parts). You are limited to 1000 words and to a particular due date. What other limits are there?

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