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What does the title mean?
Patterns of Organisation

Instruction Words

Instruction words (e.g. 'describe', 'analyse') are important, as you can see from these two titles:

  1. - 'Describe the main aspects of traffic congestion in Glasgow'
  2. - 'Analyse the main aspects of traffic congestion in Glasgow'

The instruction word 'describe' in question 1 means that the teacher is asking for a series of facts (which the student will have to interpret, and perhaps give an opinion about).

Click here for examples of instruction words in descriptive essays.

The instruction word 'analyse' in question 2 means that the teacher is also looking for some degree of judgement (the student will need to put forward some opinions, and probably take a position).

Click here for examples of instruction words in judgemental essays.

Warning! Some instruction words are ambiguous; 'discuss' and 'examine', for example, can be used for either descriptive or judgemental essays.

So how do we know what type of essay a teacher requires? We need to look at the context.