Examiners' Report Tone and Style

Tone and style

These instructions contain advice and guidance on how to write a good report. Please read them before writing your report.

Overview

Intended audience

The reports are produced for teachers and should be written with this in mind. Teachers may then share the reports with future candidates, parents and Senior Leadership Team.

Please note the report is not an internal OCR document, but is primarily intended for teachers.

The long-term vision

OCR’s examiners’ reports will have the following strategic purposes:

Identify patterns of candidate performance – where they showed strengths and weaknesses.
Provide recommendations for future teaching and learning practices.
Provide links or summaries, where appropriate, to relevant OCR assessment research in order to build OCR’s credibility as an organisation of research and assessment experts.
Provide links, where appropriate, to available free and paid-for support documents/services.
Provide the drive for the live support process by identifying needs and opportunities to provide specific support when needed.

What are the benefits to the teachers and candidates?

A clear understanding of how candidates performed in general, and on specific questions, in an OCR assessment.
Guidance on how future cohorts can avoid the same misconceptions in future assessments.
Clarity on where to get access to existing support documents and services available for specific issues that have been addressed in the report.
An indication of likely future support that will be offered by OCR.

Version 11© OCR 2018

Plain English

Our documents should always be:

concise
to the point
consistent in style and quality
accurate.

Plain English is an important feature of our communications. It guides our tone and the language we use.

What is plain English? It is a message written with the reader in mind and with the right tone of voice that is clear and concise. The main advantages of plain English are:

it is faster to write
it is faster to read
you get your message across more often, more easily and in a friendlier way.

Here are the key principles to follow:

Keep your sentences short

Try to keep sentences under 15–20 words. This does not mean making every sentence the same length. Be punchy. Vary your writing by mixing short sentences with longer ones. Follow the basic principle of sticking to one main idea in a sentence, plus perhaps one other related point.

For example, this sentence:

In case the impression is given that the tendency was always to generosity, at the lower end, annotations which suggested that there was relevant argument or analysis being offered even if alternatives were not strongly suggested or the support was limited should sometimes have led centres to a higher mark.

Could be re-written as:

It was not always the case that marking was generous. At the lower end, annotations correctly identified relevant argument or analysis, even though support was limited or alternatives ignored. On occasions this should have led centres to a higher mark.

Use words that are appropriate for the reader

Choose everyday words that are easily understood. For example, write ‘have a conversation’, not ‘partake in a conversation’. Avoid using jargon/technical language that is difficult to understand.

Do not use colloquialisms like ‘kerfuffle’ or ‘waffle’.

Avoid abbreviations and acronyms

Tone of voice

All our communications should have a consistent tone of voice so that we send a coherent message to our customers. We have identified a tone that reflects our expertise in education, yet conveys warmth and collaboration.

Here are the key features of our tone of voice. Please apply them when writing the reports.

•Write in a professional, relaxed way.

•Display a depth of expertise, but remain warm.

•Share knowledge where possible, be collaborative.

•Strike a confident, assured tone.

•Always focus on the candidate experience.

•Be positive and supportive.

•Be clear, be engaging, be inspirational.

•Precise and economical – less is more.

Good practice

Think about the audience, and make sure that the report is unambiguous and accurate as well as being concise.
Ensure your writing is simply expressed and convincing, but not colloquial.
Remember the report is an OCR document, so it should be written in a relatively formal style with comments in the third person, and should not use points of emphasis such as exclamation marks at the end of statements, capitals, bold or underlining.
Remember that OCR provides statistical data, question papers and mark schemes to centres after each examination series so it is not necessary to refer to statistical analyses.

Set the right tone by:

beginning with positive statements that do not suggest criticism of teachers/teaching
Instead of using ‘but’ or ‘however’, consider using ‘and’ or start another sentence to put a second point in a positive way. For example: “Some of the responses were excellent with detailed arguments on either side of the debate, however many were too brief and lacked detail and balance”. This could be written as: “Many excellent responses contained detailed arguments on either side of the debate. Others needed to develop more detailed, balanced arguments in order to achieve high marks.”
avoiding the use of judgemental language to comment on performance such as; “surprising”, “astounding”, “shocking”, “disappointing”, “unbelievable”, “amazing”, “fantastic”
indicating how or why candidates achieved the mark(s) for the question instead of using the word “fail”or a synonymous expression. For example avoid:

“Many candidates failed to …”

“It was surprising to see that so many candidates failed …”

ensuring that the information provided is unambiguous. For example what may seem a normal light hearted comment can easily be interpreted as a slightly sarcastic or patronising one.

House style

Questions should be referred to as, for example, ‘Q3 (a)’.
Lower case for ‘examiner’, ‘centre’ and ‘candidate(s)’, assessment objectives.
Upper case for ‘A Level’, qualification title i.e. ‘Sociology’, ‘Paper #’, and ‘Level 3’

Avoid / Use
learner, student, pupil / candidate
assessor / examiner
assessment, exam, question paper / examination, moderation
unit / component
school, college, sixth form / centre
weak, poor / lower ability
strong / higher ability
failed / did not
(when writing the commentary for an exemplar…)example, answer / exemplar or response
awarded, graded / credited