Action words
DESCRIBE
If the task asks you to describe something, this would be expected in detail. It would require you to show in-depth knowledge of the topic or item being described. You may want to show wider knowledge through historical or comparison information. For example, to describe a period in history or describe a style of engineering, you would need to know who designed it, how it developed and the dates and key people involved. A description would usually be done in written work, but might also be done in practical work if you are being asked to describe something orally, that you are presenting as your own work, to explain why you made the decisions you did.
CRITIQUE
A critique is a piece of work, usually presented orally or written, requiring you to understand the strengths and weaknesses of something. This might be a design, a political policy or a business design for example. You should have awareness of things that were reported positively or negatively for the topic and be able to present why these were good or bad. This can be both from your personal perspective and also from the perspective of others who supported or criticised the policy/approach/design etc. Make sure to add references to others when you are referring to their critique!
REPORT
A report is most commonly written but can be combined with designs, practical work and oral tasks. A report requires you to have detail on the topic and scenario being discussed and give an introduction, method, and summary. Depending on the type of report, it is also possible that there will be data included as well. At the end, it is likely you would need to present your proposal or conclusion to the task. For example, a book report would be a summary of the book you read, with your opinion on the book. Whereas a report on a sports technique improving results would include a description of the sport and technique, the methods undertaken to test it, relevant data and your conclusion of whether it was successful or not.
PRODUCE
When you are asked to produce something, this usually involves written or digital work where you are relatively free to take it how you choose, within the parameters of the assignment detail. For example, producing a video of an area of the city which best represents smart urban planning would leave you to choose the part of the city you focus on and the style of the video that you want to record. If you are asked to produce a set of teaching materials that you might design for a six-year-old children’s English lesson, you would show your ideas behind the teaching methods. For any type of assessment task like this, you would need to have knowledge of experts and methods in the field to know which one you want to test yourself and then apply your own ideas.
DESIGN
Similar to ‘produce’, being asked to design something in your assignment task will give you creativity and freedom to take it where you like to. For example, to design a new type of clothing for nurses in fashion design, you would design it to be practical but to the aesthetic design and material that you wanted. This would test your knowledge of materials and freedom in clothing needed for that profession. If asked to design a system to connect a railway line over a road in engineering, you would think of how you would like this to be represented within your knowledge of civil engineering and the structures that are required.
SUMMARISE
A summary, similar to what we described in the lesson on summarising, is a way to present a brief or short representation of something else. A summary would most likely be a written piece of work. For example, in a marketing course, you might be asked to summarise a famous brand’s marketing strategy in a particular year or season. You would show your knowledge of the whole detail of the situation and would demonstrate your skills in being able to clearly present this as a synopsis without heavy detail, but still providing the overall picture of the wider story.