Type the five-beat skeleton for a 7-mark definition answer. Every definition question on this paper takes this shape, so type it until it is automatic.

Answer

1 CATEGORY what kind of thing is it? (an action / a property / a document) 2 DEFINITION the one sentence, in the register the paper uses 3 PARTS the named list, complete, in order 4 WHY the consequence of not having it 5 EXAMPLE one concrete case, with a name or a number in it

Produce the shape before you produce the content. Writing the five labels down the margin at the start of a definition answer costs fifteen seconds and stops the two failures that cap a good answer at four marks: a fluent paragraph with no named list, and a definition with no example. Beats 3 and 5 are the ones a rushed answer drops, which is exactly why they go on the page first.

Pressman 9e ch1 §1.1–1.2