Y10W34PA - What Antibiotic Resistance Is

This week you wrote a three-paragraph explanatory piece about antibiotic resistance. Now you'll read another student's piece and judge how strong it is. Working through how assessors evaluate scientific explanatory writing sharpens your ability to apply the same lens to your own work.

Part 1

The Assessor Scorecard for

Explanatory – Explanatory Piece

An effective explanatory piece selects accurate information, organises it clearly and expresses it with precision so the reader gains genuine understanding. Assessors weigh how well each choice of content, structure and language serves the reader's need to know.

Ideas & Content

The right information chosen and explained with enough depth to show not just what but how and why. Accuracy throughout — no claims that are vague or incomplete. Key concepts explained, not just named.

  • Accurate selection: chooses the right information and explains how and why it matters.

Structure & Cohesion

Clear organisation that signals what each section covers and how ideas connect. A clear topic sentence opening each paragraph. No topics bleeding across paragraphs or leaving the reader to work out the focus.

  • Clear organisation: signals each section’s purpose so the reader can follow without effort.

Audience & Purpose

Pitched at the right level for its reader — neither over-simplified nor assuming too much prior knowledge. Jargon explained when it is used. A tone that is neither too casual nor too dense for the intended reader.

  • Ask whether a: reader unfamiliar with the topic would understand each explanation without needing to look anything up.

Language Choices

Precise, subject-specific vocabulary that builds credibility and clarity. No vague or informal language standing in for accurate terms. No ordinary words substituting for technical ones.

  • Subject vocabulary: uses accurate terms that build clarity, precision and trust.

Conventions

Accurate spelling and punctuation, especially with technical or proper nouns. Errors in factual content or terminology undermine the reader's trust. Sentence variety that supports clarity.

  • Technical accuracy: keeps terminology, spelling and sentence control reliable throughout.

Part 2

Today’s Marking Targets

Task in one sentence

Write a three-paragraph explanatory piece covering what antibiotic resistance is, what is causing it, and what the consequences and responses are.

Let’s Focus

Three strands matter most this week: Ideas & Content, Language Choices and Conventions. The depth of ideas decides whether concepts are genuinely explained with mechanism and significance. The precision of language decides how clearly mechanisms and causes are communicated. The accuracy of conventions — especially scientific terminology — decides whether the explanation is trustworthy.

Ideas & Content

Strong writing this week shows Ideas & Content applied consistently — not just in isolated moments. Assessors look for genuine depth that serves this task: concepts explained with mechanism and significance, not just named.

What markers scan for

  • Ideas & Content applied consistently throughout — not only in isolated moments.
  • The specific task and topic visibly shaping how the strand is demonstrated.

Score Bands

  • Basic

    Ideas & Content is present but applied inconsistently or only at a surface level.

  • Strong

    Ideas & Content is applied consistently, with genuine understanding of what this task requires.

  • Excellent

    Ideas & Content is applied with sustained precision throughout, shaped by the specific demands of this task.

Language Choices

Strong writing this week shows Language Choices applied consistently — not just in isolated moments. Assessors look for precision that serves this task: subject-specific vocabulary that communicates mechanisms and causes clearly.

What markers scan for

  • Language Choices applied consistently throughout — not only in isolated moments.
  • The specific task and topic visibly shaping how the strand is demonstrated.

Score Bands

  • Basic

    Language Choices is present but applied inconsistently or only at a surface level.

  • Strong

    Language Choices is applied consistently, with genuine understanding of what this task requires.

  • Excellent

    Language Choices is applied with sustained precision throughout, shaped by the specific demands of this task.

Conventions

Strong writing this week shows Conventions applied consistently — not just in isolated moments. Assessors look for accuracy that serves this task: correct spelling of scientific and medical terminology, since errors undermine trust.

What markers scan for

  • Conventions applied consistently throughout — not only in isolated moments.
  • The specific task and topic visibly shaping how the strand is demonstrated.

Score Bands

  • Basic

    Conventions is present but applied inconsistently or only at a surface level.

  • Strong

    Conventions is applied consistently, with genuine understanding of what this task requires.

  • Excellent

    Conventions is applied with sustained precision throughout, shaped by the specific demands of this task.

Now read · Student sample

What Antibiotic Resistance Is

Year 10 sample · \~300 words

Student sample for assessment

Written by a Year 10 student in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.

Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria evolve mechanisms that allow them to survive exposure to antibiotics that would previously have killed them. Resistance develops through natural selection: when a population of bacteria is exposed to an antibiotic, most die, but those with genetic mutations that confer resistance survive and reproduce. Over time, the resistant population expands and the antibiotic becomes less effective. Resistance can also spread between bacteria through a process called horizontal gene transfer, in which bacteria exchange genetic material directly. This means that resistance can spread not only within a species but between different species of bacteria. The main causes of antibiotic resistance are the overuse and inappropriate use of antibiotics in human medicine and in agriculture. In human medicine, resistance is driven by practices including the prescribing of antibiotics for viral infections, against which they have no effect, and the failure of patients to complete prescribed courses, which can leave resistant bacteria alive. In agriculture, antibiotics are used routinely in livestock production — both to treat and prevent disease and, historically, as growth promoters. This widespread use creates selection pressure on bacteria across animal populations and can transmit resistance to humans through food chains. The World Health Organization has identified antimicrobial resistance as one of the ten most significant global public health threats. The consequences of increasing resistance are serious and the responses required are wide-ranging. If currently effective antibiotics cease to function, routine medical procedures including surgery, chemotherapy and the treatment of common infections will become significantly more dangerous. Responses include the development of new antibiotics, the regulation of antibiotic use in both medicine and agriculture, and international coordination through initiatives such as the WHO’s Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance. Slowing the development of resistance requires both clinical behaviour change and structural reform to how antibiotics are produced, prescribed and used at a global scale.