1. science
2. geology
3. seismology
4. earthquakes

You only have to
write one this year
and two next year!
Scientific essays –
pack them full of
relevant case study
material and
answer the
question set!
How to write
GL3 essays
MARK
BAND
CRITERIA
FOR AS
2013
ESSAYS
Essays are
STANDARDISED
by this across
the choice
 “know
your stuff”
 Don’t leave much out
 Selecting relevant examples, to give
good contrast, factually correct and with
detail
 Diagrams used well
 Fluent, well expressed
 Logical
 Uses geological terminology
 Grammar, punctuation, spelling all good.
http://www1.aucegypt.edu/academic/writers/
“10 steps”
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1. Research: Begin the essay writing process by researching your topic, making yourself an expert. Utilize the
internet, the academic databases, and the library. Take notes and immerse yourself in the words of great thinkers.
2. Analysis: Now that you have a good knowledge base, start analyzing the arguments of the essays you're
reading. Clearly define the claims, write out the reasons, the evidence. Look for weaknesses of logic, and also
strengths. Learning how to write an essay begins by learning how to analyze essays written by others.
3. Brainstorming: Your essay will require insight of your own, genuine essay-writing brilliance. Ask yourself a dozen
questions and answer them. Meditate with a pen in your hand. Take walks and think and think until you come up
with original insights to write about.
4. Thesis: Pick your best idea and pin it down in a clear assertion that you can write your entire essay around. Your
thesis is your main point, summed up in a concise sentence that lets the reader know where you're going, and
why. It's practically impossible to write a good essay without a clear thesis.
5. Outline: Sketch out your essay before straightway writing it out. Use one-line sentences to describe paragraphs,
and bullet points to describe what each paragraph will contain. Play with the essay's order. Map out the structure
of your argument, and make sure each paragraph is unified.
6. Introduction: Now sit down and write the essay. The introduction should grab the reader's attention, set up the
issue, and lead in to your thesis. Your intro is merely a buildup of the issue, a stage of bringing your reader into the
essay's argument.
7. Paragraphs: Each individual paragraph should be focused on a single idea that supports your thesis. Begin
paragraphs with topic sentences, support assertions with evidence, and expound your ideas in the clearest, most
sensible way you can. Speak to your reader as if he or she were sitting in front of you. In other words, instead of
writing the essay, try talking the essay.
8. Conclusion: Gracefully exit your essay by making a quick wrap-up sentence, and then end on some
memorable thought, perhaps a quotation, or an interesting twist of logic, or some call to action. Is there
something you want the reader to walk away and do? Let him or her know exactly what.
9. Modern Language Association Style: Format your essay according to the correct guidelines for citation. All
borrowed ideas and quotations should be correctly cited in the body of your text, followed up with a Works Cited
(references) page listing the details of your sources.
10. Language: You're not done writing your essay until you've polished your language by correcting the grammar,
making sentences flow, incoporating rhythm, emphasis, adjusting the formality, giving it a level-headed tone, and
making other intuitive edits. Proofread until it reads just how you want it to sound. Writing an essay can be tedious,
but you don't want to bungle the hours of conceptual work you've put into writing your essay by leaving a few
slippy misppallings and pourly wordedd phrazies..
Not all of
these are
relevant to
writing an
essay in an
exam!
http://www1.aucegypt.edu/academic/writers/
“10 steps”
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3. Brainstorming: what are the key words? Describe? Explain?
What is the essay about?
5. Outline: Sketch out your essay before straightway writing it
out. Use one-line sentences to describe paragraphs, and
bullet points to describe what each paragraph will contain.
Jot down points you want to make (PLAN). Jot down
examples you could use? Play with the order (use arrows to
link points)
7. Paragraphs: Each individual paragraph should be focused
on a single idea. Begin paragraphs with topic sentences,
support with evidence, and expound your ideas in the
clearest, most sensible way you can.
8. Conclusion: Gracefully exit your essay by making a quick
wrap-up sentence.
10. Language: You're not done writing your essay until you've
polished your language by correcting the grammar, checking
spelling etc. You don't want to bungle the work you've put
into writing your essay by leaving a few slippy misppallings and
pourly wordedd phrazies.
KNOW YOUR STUFF!
 Well
that’s revision!
 Try making mind maps of your EXAMPLES /
CASE STUDIES
 Use one A3 page per topic, and collate
all the examples onto one page.
VENEZUELA DEBRIS FLOODS
When: December 1999
Worst hit?
Shanty towns on edge of city,
Vargas
Deaths: 30,000
Made homeless: 400,000
Homes destroyed: 90,000
Plantations, roads, highways destroyed and
airports closed for several days. What impact
did this have? Aid slow to arrive
This is a case
study done
on a
powerpoint
slide
Triggers:
December 1999 – heaviest rains in 100 years
What happened to the soils? saturated
And water ponded on surface
Then extreme rainfall 900mm
Flash floods  debris flows
Where was the water funnelled to this area?
Andes steep slopes directed water
What happened to land in the 1980’s and
1990’s?
Large areas cleared/deforested to make way
for urban areas
What knock on effect does this have?
No interception of rainfall, no roots to bind soil
What were the shanty
towns like?
No urban planning
restrictions
Flimsy
Precariously perched
shacks
Why did people build
there?
Can’t afford to live
anywhere else
Consequences:
Need to plan urban developments carefully
Not place them in areas prone to landslides
Here’s a hand written one
Key words:
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DESCRIBE
Provide a word picture of a feature, pattern,
process or idea “tell us what it looks like”
EXPLAIN
Account for / give reasons / how does it work?
Provide the cause of a feature, process or pattern.
Explanation usually requires an understanding of a
process. It is a higher level skill than description
and this is reflected in its greater mark weighting in
examination questions. Basically “WHY?”
DIAGRAMS
 Are
often a really easy way to describe
something!
 WJEC AS/A2 Geology Examiners
encourage you to put diagrams in ….
PLEASE!
AS tend to use “describe” and “explain”.
A2 steps up a level …..
 TO
WHAT EXTENT? / ASSESS / EVALUATE /
DISCUSS
 These commands are evaluative. You
need to consider the evidence
connected to an issue or problem, and
make reasoned judgements and present
a viewpoint. This is the highest-level skill
required at A2 level and is widely used in
extended writing questions
PLAN FIRST!
 Read
the three choices.
 Which do you think is best for YOU?
 Just jot down examples, anything relevant you can
think of for it
3 minutes
 BRAINSTORM / MIND MAP
 THEN …..
 Try to link things. Is “X” really relevant? Is “Y” the
best case study? How much detail do you know
about “Y”?
2 minutes
 If at the end of that you don’t have much more
than 2 things written down – perhaps you’ve
picked the wrong essay!
 Better to find out now than after 20 minutes of
struggling to write it! Pick again! Repeat process!
DESCRIBE:
 What
does it look like?
 What is it’s behaviour?
 What factors?
 Where is it?
 What is the scale / size?
 What properties does it have?
 These are EASY to answer questions ….
GL3 May 2003 Q4
Q.4 (a) Describe the distribution of
earthquake epicentres around the world.
 Key
word = DESCRIBE
 Tell the examiner where they are, what
they look like
 Do not tell the examiner why they are
there!
GL3 May 2003 Q4
Q.4
(a) Describe the distribution of earthquake epicentres
around the world.
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Definition of epicentre
Narrow zones (few hundred kms wide, thousands of kms long) in
oceans (MAR)
Wider zones on continents (Himalayas - Asia)
Associated with belts of mountains, ocean ridges, volcanoes,
rift valleys, island arcs, trenches. (e.g. Himalayas/ Atlantic,
Circum-Pacific)
Associated with plate boundaries - crustal tension /
compression
Divergent (constructive) - plates moving apart (MOR/rift valley),
shallow EQ (Mid Atlantic Ridge, East Pacific Rise)
Convergent (destructive)- plates coming together (trenches,
fold mts) Benioff zone, 45°, subduction zone (Japan, Peru-Chile)
Conservative - plates sliding past - friction (San Andreas)
Mid plate (Hawaii)/volcanic origin – moving magma generates
EQ.
GL3 May 2003 Q4
(b) Explain how two of the following monitoring
methods might be used to predict earthquakes:
 (i) Groundwater levels and pressure
Sneaky! Not the easiest
choices to choose from!
 (ii) Tilting and ground elevation
 (iii) Seismic activity
[15]
 Important
to think which you can talk most about
for 8 marks each! Choose wisely!
 EXPLAIN is key word – must say how it works to
predict an earthquake
(i) Groundwater levels and pressure –
 Water in pores migrates into cracks prior
to earthquake (dilation) water levels
decrease.
 Water levels increase as more water
diffuses prior to earthquake. Pore pressure
changes with water diffusion.
 Earthquake following increase in well
levels/pore pressure.
 Credit actual examples
(ii) Tilting and ground elevation expansion of ground (by opening of microcracks
formed by stress) prior to an earthquake.
 Recorded by changes in angles of slope and
elevation .
 Use of tiltmeters/laser beams to accurately measure
variation across faults.
 EDM (electronic distance measurements) from
known fixed points.
 Credit actual examples
(iii) Seismic activity –
 Variation in the seismic rate. Increase in the
background rate of minor earthquakes prior to a
major quake.
 Seismic gap.
 The Measurement of the velocities of P and S waves
passing through and area.
 Reduction indicates influx of water into rock as
micro-fractures open.
 On returning to normal, pore pressure rises = quake.
 Rate of return to normal = Prediction of timing
imminent.
 Duration of anomaly = predicted magnitude of
quake.
Which of the three would you
choose?
 It’s
personal choice!
 Depends on your revision!