Structuring and supporting the decision

Overview

How an extended answer is organised, what a fully worked evidence sentence contains, the language weighing actually requires, and what a conclusion has to do that the body has not.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   How should an extended decision-making answer be organised?

   Model answer

   Open by establishing the role, the problem and the criteria you will judge by. Work through the options against those criteria, bringing in evidence from across the resources as each point requires. Set out the conflicting values and the trade-off they create. Explain which alternatives are rejected and why. Then give the recommendation, its justification, the mitigation for those who lose and any conditions. Organising by argument rather than by resource is the key decision.

2. 2

   How should you refer to the evidence you are using?

   Model answer

   Point to the specific resource and the specific detail within it - the figure, the feature, the statement - not to the booklet in general. Naming the source also lets you weigh it in the same breath: the developer's own assessment puts the figure at 500 jobs, while the independent study suggests around 300. Vague appeals to what the resources show carry no weight because the reader cannot check them.

3. 3

   What does a fully worked evidence sentence contain?

   Model answer

   Four things: the claim, the specific evidence for it, the geographical reasoning that links them, and the implication for the decision. For instance - the eastern site is the more exposed choice, since the map shows it lies below the 5 m contour within the floodplain, where a rising channel would inundate it first, so building there would require defences that the costing does not include. Each element is doing work the others cannot.

4. 4

   Why is quoting a figure without interpreting it a wasted opportunity?

   Model answer

   Because the number by itself does not tell the reader what it means for the choice. Stating that the scheme costs 14 million pounds says nothing until it is set against what it delivers, against the alternatives, or against the budget available. Every figure you use should be followed by a comparison or a consequence, otherwise it is decoration lifted from a table.

5. 5

   What kind of language does weighing evidence actually require?

   Model answer

   Comparative and conditional language that shows one thing being measured against another: outweighs, on balance, more significant than, only if, whereas, although this holds for the short term. Flat assertions and a chain of separate statements read as a list, however good the evidence in them. The wording is where the weighing becomes visible to the reader.

6. 6

   How do you keep the criteria and the role visible through a long answer without repeating yourself?

   Model answer

   Signpost at the point of each judgement: because deliverability within the stated timescale is the priority here, the phased option is preferred. That ties the point to the criteria and to the role's priorities in a single clause, so the thread runs through the answer without a paragraph restating your position. It also makes each judgement traceable back to a declared standard rather than to taste.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

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Six ways to work the same material.