{"id":15,"date":"2007-08-06T14:27:54","date_gmt":"2007-08-06T02:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/08\/this_isnt_an_english_class\/"},"modified":"2007-08-06T14:27:54","modified_gmt":"2007-08-06T02:27:54","slug":"this-isnt-an-english-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2007\/08\/this-isnt-an-english-class\/","title":{"rendered":"This isn’t an English class!"},"content":{"rendered":"

You’ve probably already heard this from your teachers – but it’s an important message, so read on…<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

The ability to write well is one of the most important skills you need, if you’re going to achieve well in the Scholarship Biology examinations. Don’t believe me? Have a look at the examiner’s report<\/a> for last year’s exam.<\/span><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For a start, last year, more students were planning their answers – setting their ideas out in a logical way that made writing structured essays much easier. OK, successful students showed that they had a wide, accurate knowledge of biological concepts – but they also showed critical thinking and discernment (the ability to recognise what was useful and relevant, and what they could omit). Their answers were coherent, precise, and logical – they didn't waffle. They didn't 'brain dump': their answers included only what was relevant to the question (not everything they knew about the wider area in biology). And their work was well written: good spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Good English does <\/span><\/em>matter! It's no use having all that information at your fingertips if you can't communicate this effectively to someone else.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>The examiner has gone on to describe what unsuccessful students did, and we can learn from this too. To maximise your chances of success, you need to:<\/font><\/span> <\/p>\n