By Dr Augustine Tirivangana

LAST week we focused on matters of interpretation which centred on identifying and delineating instruction word(s), content words and special conditions.
You will also remember that I promised that I would give you a list of common instruction words for your further practice.
That is exactly what I am setting out to fulfil.
Take note, however, that this list may not be exhaustive although I am sure it will go a long way in helping you interpret ‘A’ Level questions in a variety of disciplines including of course Literature in English, History and Divinity, just to mention a few.
1.1. List of commonly used instruction words
Source: Standard College Dictionary
1.2. Bloom’s Taxonomy of cognitive objectives (instruction words)
Benjamin Bloom was an educational psychologist.
Bloom’s Taxonomy was created in 1956 under the leadership of educational psychologist Dr Benjamin Bloom in order to promote higher forms of thinking in education, such as analysing and evaluating, rather than just remembering facts (rote learning).
He identified three ‘domains’ of educational activities or learning (Bloom, 1956), namely; ‘cognitive’: mental skills (Knowledge); affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (Attitude or self) and psychomotor: manual or physical skills (Skills)
His taxonomy of cognitive objectives is helpful in shedding light on levels of intellectual engagement sought for by the different types of instruction words. Although the instruction words above are arranged alphabetically for ease of reference, care has been taken in the explication of each to indicate whether the level of intellectual engagement is low, medium or higher order.
This information is useful in guiding you to determine the pitch of your answer.
Bloom believes in the following hierarchical order of pitching an essay:
1. Knowledge level – which requires simple recall of facts as in listing.
2. Comprehension level – which requires demonstrating clear understanding of concepts involved. The best way to demonstrate this skill is to paraphrase or to say the same in your own words.
3. Application level – which requires you to contextualise or to demonstrate how a concept which works in one instance can (or fail to) apply in another.
4. Analysis level – which requires you demonstrate your knowledge of the constituent parts (elements) of a concept/poem or text including determining the function of each element of a whole.
The exercise of analysing involves some kind of dissection.
5. Synthesis level – which requires you to compile or put together discrete elements of a larger whole back into meaningful wholeness.
To do so you need to know the place of each minute detail the way a motor mechanic rebuilds the engine parts back into life.
In synthesis there is also a silent instruction to avoid verbosity (wordiness), but to stick to essentials with deftness and dexterity.
6. Evaluation level – which requires you to go beyond identifying essential elements of a larger concept, but to proceed and weigh each against a set of criteria such as applicability (i.e. how applicable is this element in a different scenario) and fitness for purpose (i.e. how appropriate is that element for that purpose).
Evaluation also silently invites you to give a personal opinion but of course with some justification.
In Bloom’s categorisation above, 1 and 2 are generally considered lower level; 3 and 4 medium level; and 5 and 6 higher level. These three levels tell you about the intellectual faculties you have to marshal.
Every instruction word tells you something about the level of intellectual engagement expected of you.
In other words the instruction word tells you more than just the boundaries of its meaning; it also tells you about the intellectual pitch as well as the depth of coverage expected.
1.3. Conclusion
I am sure this discussion has helped you understand the limits of discussion provided by instruction words.
Need I reiterate that knowledge of such boundaries is important in guiding you against redundancy or going off topic?
This has serious implications for organisation of essays.
In our next submission we tackle the latter, paying particular attention to planning the essay outline and demonstrating skills of structuring paragraphs (including introductory, body and concluding paragraphs).
As stated in last week’s submission, the coming discussion will also give a list of discourse markers which bring about coherence of ideas and cohesion of text; thus making your essay speak to any examiner with force and economy.