This week you wrote a three-paragraph informative report on antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. Now you'll read another student's piece and judge how strong it is. Working through how assessors evaluate scientific informative writing builds your ability to apply the same lens to your own work.
Part 1
The Assessor Scorecard for
Informative – Informative report
Strong informative reports combine accurate information with clear explanation. Assessors look at how well you select specific facts, organise paragraphs logically, pitch the explanation to your reader and use precise, accurate language throughout.
Ideas & Content
Information chosen to serve the task directly, with no repetition.
Specific facts — dates, mechanisms, examples — over vague generalisations.
Judgement about what to include and what to leave out.
Each sentence moving the reader's understanding forward.
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Information selection: choosing specific, relevant facts over generic restatements
Structure & Cohesion
Each paragraph addressing a clear purpose — define, explain, show consequence.
Sentences within a paragraph connecting through time, cause, example or contrast.
Progression from basic to complex across the piece.
Repetition and rambling avoided.
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Logical flow: each paragraph has a clear function and sentences connect smoothly
Audience & Purpose
Basic knowledge assumed, deep technical knowledge not assumed.
Biological processes explained without oversimplifying.
Key terms defined in context.
Abstract ideas made concrete through examples.
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Pitch to audience: explaining mechanisms clearly to someone with limited prior knowledge
Language Choices
Topic-specific terms — resistance, cell walls, natural selection — used accurately.
Technical terms explained where the reader needs help.
Active voice carrying most of the explanation.
Varied sentence length: short for key points, longer for connections.
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Precision and clarity: using exact terms and sentence structures that make ideas easy to follow
Conventions
Spelling, punctuation and grammar accurate enough not to distract.
Technical terms spelled correctly throughout.
Sentences with clear subjects and verbs.
Paragraphs properly separated; errors undermine credibility.
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Technical accuracy: correct spelling, punctuation and sentence structures
Part 2
Today’s Marking Targets
Task in one sentence
Write a three-paragraph informative report explaining what antibiotics are, how resistance develops, and why resistance matters as a global health concern.
Let’s Focus
Three strands matter most this week: Ideas & Content, Structure & Cohesion and Audience & Purpose. Ideas decides whether you choose specific facts over vague repetition. Structure decides whether paragraphs flow logically. Audience & Purpose decides whether a Year 8 reader can actually follow the science.
Ideas & Content
Strong writing this week shows itself through specific, well-chosen detail. Look for exact information — discoveries, dates, biological mechanisms explained precisely, concrete examples of resistance. Each sentence adds something new rather than restating what's already been said. Generic claims and repeated ideas signal weaker work.
What markers scan for
- Specific facts: Fleming's discovery, penicillin, named bacteria like MRSA.
- Mechanisms explained precisely, not just stated.
- Each sentence contributing new information.
- No unnecessary repetition or vague generalisations.
Score Bands
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Basic
Information is present but often vague or repetitive, mechanisms are stated without explanation, and concrete examples are few.
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Strong
Specific detail runs throughout, each sentence contributes new information, and examples support the explanations of resistance.
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Excellent
Precise information is woven seamlessly into explanation, technical terms are used accurately, and statistics and examples show why the topic matters.
Structure & Cohesion
Strong writing this week shows clear paragraph organisation and logical links between sentences. Each paragraph has a distinct job — defining, explaining mechanism, showing consequences. Sentences within a paragraph progress logically rather than jumping around. Transitions between paragraphs help the reader follow the line of thought.
What markers scan for
- Three paragraphs, each with a distinct job.
- Opening sentences that signal the new idea clearly.
- Sentences inside each paragraph building on each other.
- Transitions between paragraphs that feel natural, not forced.
Score Bands
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Basic
Paragraph organisation is unclear, sentences jump between ideas, and links between paragraphs are missing or weak.
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Strong
Three clear paragraphs each carry a distinct purpose, sentences link logically within paragraphs, and transitions between ideas are present.
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Excellent
The piece progresses logically from definition to mechanism to consequence, each paragraph develops fully, and connections feel natural and necessary.
Audience & Purpose
Strong writing this week explains biological processes to readers who have taken antibiotics but don't know how they work. Terms are explained in context. Everyday language sits alongside technical terms. Comparisons connect unfamiliar ideas to familiar ones. Explanations are detailed enough to build understanding, not so technical they lose the reader.
What markers scan for
- Scientific terms defined in context, not assumed.
- Everyday language used alongside technical vocabulary.
- Comparisons or examples linking unfamiliar ideas to familiar ones.
- Detail pitched to build understanding without overwhelming.
Score Bands
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Basic
Explanations are too vague or too technical, terms appear without definition, and the reader grasps general ideas but not the mechanisms.
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Strong
Scientific processes are explained clearly, technical terms are defined in context, and a Year 8 reader can grasp the mechanisms without prior study.
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Excellent
Processes are explained at just the right level, technical terms are used accurately, and comparisons or examples make abstract ideas concrete and memorable.
Now read · Student sample
What Antibiotics Are and Why Resistance Matters
Year 8 sample · \~250 words
Student sample for assessment
Written by a Year 8 student in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia.
Antibiotics are drugs that kill bacteria or prevent them from reproducing, saving millions of lives since their discovery. Scientists first found penicillin by accident in 1928, but antibiotics weren't widely used to treat infections until the 1940s, when they began to transform medicine. Antibiotics work in different ways depending on their type: some destroy the cell walls that protect bacteria, while others disrupt the machinery that allows bacteria to make proteins they need to survive. Because they target bacteria specifically, antibiotics don't work against viruses like the flu. Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria evolve the ability to survive antibiotics that once killed them. This happens through natural selection: when antibiotics are used, they kill most bacteria, but a small number with genetic variations survive and reproduce, passing their resistance to future generations. Resistance develops faster when antibiotics are overused or misused - for example, when people don't complete their courses of antibiotics or when farmers routinely feed antibiotics to livestock. Each time antibiotics are used unnecessarily, we speed up the natural process that allows dangerous bacteria to become resistant. The rise of antibiotic resistance threatens modern medicine itself. Already, bacteria like MRSA can survive multiple antibiotics, and the World Health Organisation identifies resistance as one of the greatest health challenges of our time, causing approximately 1.27 million deaths annually. If resistance continues to spread, routine surgeries and cancer treatments will become far more dangerous because doctors won't have effective ways to prevent infections. Although researchers are investigating new approaches like phage therapy, most of the last truly new class of antibiotics was discovered in the 1980s, meaning we're running out of options faster than we're finding solutions.
