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Understanding instruction words in academic essay titles

Posted in: essay-writing

Instruction or command words indicate what your tutor wants you to do in your written assignment. It's vital that you understand exactly what these instruction words mean so you can answer all parts of the essay question and provide a complete response.

Here's a list of some of the most common instruction/command words you'll see in essay questions (and examination questions as well), together with an explanation of what they mean.

Describe: Give a detailed account of…

Outline: Give the main features/general principles; don't include minor details.

Explain, account for, interpret: Describe the facts but also give causes and reasons for them. Depending on the context, these words may also suggest that you need to make the possible implications clear as well. For example: 'Explain X and its importance for Y'.

Comment on, criticise, evaluate, critically evaluate, assess: Judge the value of something. But first, analyse, describe and explain. Then go through the arguments for and against, laying out the arguments neutrally until the section where you make your judgement clear. Judgements should be backed by reasons and evidence.

Discuss, consider: The least specific of the instruction words. Decide, first of all, what the main issues are. Then follow the same procedures for Comment on, Criticise, Evaluate, Critically Evaluate and Assess.

Analyse: Break down into component parts. Examine critically or closely.

How far, how true, to what extent: These suggest there are various views on and various aspects to the subject. Outline some of them, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses, explore alternatives and then give your judgement.

Justify: Explain, with evidence, why something is the case, answering the main objections to your view as you go along.

Refute: Give evidence to prove why something is not the case.

Compare, contrast, distinguish, differentiate, relate: All require that you discuss how things are related to each other.  Compare suggests you concentrate on similarities, which may lead to a stated preference, the justification of which should be made clear. These words suggest that two situations or ideas can be compared in a number of different ways, or from a variety of viewpoints. Contrast suggests you concentrate on differences.

Define: Write down the precise meaning of a word or phrase. Sometimes several co-existing definitions may be used and, possibly, evaluated.

Illustrate: Make clear and explicit; usually requires the use of carefully chosen examples.

State: Give a concise, clear explanation or account of…

Summarise: Give a concise, clear explanation or account of… presenting the main factors and excluding minor detail or examples (see also Outline).

Trace: Outline or follow the development of something from its initiation or point of origin.

Devise: Think up, work out a plan, solve a problem etc.

Apply (to): Put something to use, show how something can be used in a particular situation.

Identify: Put a name to, list something.

Indicate: Point out. This does not usually involve giving too much detail.

List: Make a list of a number of things. This usually involves simply remembering or finding out a number of things and putting them down one after the other.

Plan: Think about how something is to be done, made, organised, etc.

Report on: Describe what you have seen or done.

Review: Write a report on something.

Specify: Give the details of something.

Work out: Find a solution to a problem.

Adapted from: Coles, M. (1995), A Student’s Guide to Coursework Writing,   University of Stirling, Stirling 

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Write a response

So wonderful can anyone get the information

Thanks Josphat!

This is a life saver, do you have a youtube channel where you talk about all this stuff? If so I would love to know about it 🙂 Rachelle

Hi Rachelle, Thanks for your comment. We don't have a youtube channel but stay tuned for more posts and also check out the new My-skills portal (go.bath.ac.uk/My-skills) for lots more skills support. Tom

Quite helpful. I would definitely check this before my next essay.

Thank you, Dan.

Very helpful now I understand how construct my assignments and how to answer exam questions

I have understood it clearly;)

it is very useful for us to understand many instruction word and what we need to write down

There are some define of some words,and I find that there do have many common things for some words,but not all the same.Such as compare, contrast, distinguish, differentiate, relate,they all need people to compare but foucs on different ways.

Very helpful. Listed most of the words that might be misunderstood by foreign students. Now I know why my score of writing IELTS test is always 6, I even didn't get the point of what I was supposed to write!

I have already read all of this. And it gave me a brief instruction.

There are varied instruction words in essay questions. It's a good chance for me to have a overview of these main command words because I could response to requirements of questions precisely and without the risk of wandering off the topic.

When i encounter with an essay title with these instruction words above,I should understand exactly what these words mean so that i could know what my tutor would like me to do in the assignments.Also,these words may help me make an outline and read academic articles with percific purposes.

These words are accurate and appropriate. It is really helpful for me to response some assignment questions and I can know the orientation of my answers . I can also use these words to make an outline of my essay. However, in my view, for some instruction words which are confusing and hard to understand, it is better to give an example to help us understand.

It's the first time for me to recognise these instruction words , some of them are really similar with each other.

it is very helpful to my future study. it will be better to have some examples with it.

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Glossary of Task Words

Understanding the meaning of words, especially task words, helps you to know exactly what is being asked of you. It takes you halfway towards narrowing down your material and selecting your answer.

Task words direct you and tell you how to go about answering a question. Here is a list of such words and others that you are most likely to come across frequently in your course.

Maddox, H 1967, How to Study , 2nd ed, Pan Books, London.

Marshall, L., & Rowland, F 1998, A guide to learning independently , Addison Wesley Longman, Melbourne.

Northedge, A 1997, The good study guide , Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

Essay and assignment writing guide

• Essay writing basics
• Essay and assignment planning
• Complex assignment questions
• Glossary of task words
• Editing checklist
• Writing a critical review
• Annotated bibliography
• Reflective writing
• ^ More support

Study Hacks Workshops | All the hacks you need! 7 Feb – 10 Apr 2024

Understanding your assignment questions: A short guide

• Introduction
• Breaking down the question

Directive or task words

Task works for science based essays.

• Further reading and references

It is really important to understand the directive or task word used in your assignment.

This will indicate how you should write and what the purpose of the assignment in. The following examples show some task words and their definitions.

However, it is important to note that none of these words has a fixed meaning. The definitions given are a general guide, and interpretation of the words may vary according to the context and the discipline.

If you are unsure as the exactly what a lecturer means by a particular task word, you should ask for clarification. 

Analyse : Break up into parts; investigate

Comment on : Identify and write about the main issues; give your reactions based on what you've read/ heard in lectures. Avoid just personal opinion. 

Compare : Look for the similarities between two things. Show the relevance or consequences of these similarities concluding which is preferable. 

Contrast : Identify the differences between two items or arguments. Show whether the differences are significant. Perhaps give reasons why one is preferable. 

Criticise : Requires an answer that points out mistakes or weaknesses, and which also indicates any favourable aspects of the subject of the question. It requires a balanced answer. 

Critically evaluate : Weigh arguments for and against something, assessing the strength of the evidence on both sides. Use criteria to guide your assessment of which opinions, theories, models or items are preferable. 

Define : Give the exact meaning of. Where relevant, show you understand how the definition may be problematic. 

Describe : To describe is to give an observational account of something and would deal with what happened, where it happened, when it happened and who was involved. Spell out the main aspects of an idea or topic or the sequence in which a series of things happened. 

Discuss : Investigate or examine by argument; sift and  debate; give reasons for and against; examine the implications. 

Evaluate : Assess and give your judgement about the merit, importance or usefulness of something using evidence to support your argument. 

Examine : Look closely into something

Explain : Offer a detailed and exact rationale behind an idea or principle, or a set of reasons for a situation or attitude. Make clear how and why something happens. 

Explore : Examine thoroughly; consider from a variety of viewpoints

Illustrate : Make something clear and explicit, give examples of evidence

Justify : Give evidence that supports and argument or idea; show why a decision or conclusions were made

Outline : Give the main points/features/general principles; show the main structure and interrelations; omit details and examples

State : Give the main features briefly and clearly

Summarise : Draw out the main points only; omit details and examples

To what extent... : Consider how far something is true, or contributes to a final outcome. Consider also ways in which it is not true.

Task Words:

How to write e.g., discuss, argue etc.

Subject Matter:

What you should be writing about.

Limiting Words:

May narrow or change the focus of your answer. (Important - they stop you from including irrelevant info)

Below are some examples of questions and tips on how you might think about answering them.

Compare acute and chronic pain in terms of pathophysiology and treatment

Compare  - Make sure you are comparing and not just describing the two things in isolation

Acute and chronic pain  - Subject matter

In terms of pathophysiology and treatment  - Important limiting phrase - focus ONLY on these things. Use them as a lens to highlight the differences between acute and chronic pain.

Tip : Assignments that ask you to compare two things can be structured in different ways. You may choose to alternate continually between the two things, making direct comparisons and organising your essay according to themes. Alternatively, you may choose to discuss one thing fully and then the next. If you choose the second approach, you must make the links and comparisons between the two things completely clear. 

With reference to any particular example enzyme, outline the key structural and functional properties of its active site

With reference to any particular example enzyme  - Important limiting phase - focus your answer on a specific example. Use this example to help demonstrate your understanding. 

Outline  - Factual description is needed. You must demonstrate your knowledge and understanding. 

The key structural and functional properties of its active site  - Subject matter

Tip : Assignments that ask you to outline or describe are assessing your understanding of the topic. You must express facts clearly and precisely, using examples to illuminate them. 

There is no convincing evidence for the existence of life outside our solar systems

There is  - Task words not so obvious this time. Try turning the title into a question: 'Is there any convincing evidence for...?'

Convincing  - Important limiting word- there may be evidence but you need to assess whether or not it is convincing. 

For the existence of life outside of our solar system  - Subject matter

Tip : Assignment titles that are on actually a question are often simply asking 'how true is this statement?' You must present reasons it could be true and reasons it might not be, supported by evidence and recognising the complexity of the statement. 

To what extent can nuclear power provide a solution to environmental issues?

Discuss  - Explore the topic from different angles, in a critical way (not purely descriptive)

Nuclear power  - Subject matter

Provide a solution to  - Limiting phrase: discuss ways it can and ways it can't- don't be afraid to take a position based on evidence.

Environmental issues  - Subject matter. Might be an idea to define/ discuss what could be meant by environmental issues? This might be important for your argument. 

Tip : If an assignment is asking a direct question, make sure your essay answers it. Address it directly in the introduction, make sure each paragraph contributes something towards your response to it, and reinforce your response in your conclusion. 

Discuss the issue of patient autonomy in relation to at least one case study 

The issue of patient autonomy  - Subject matter

In relation to at least one case study  - Important limiting phrase - don't just discuss the issue of patient autonomy in general; discuss it in the context of one or more case studies. You should use the case study to illustrate all of your points about patient autonomy. 

Tip : Assignments that ask you to discuss in relation to a case study, or to a placement or own experience, usually want to see a clear link between theory and practice (reality). 

• << Previous: Breaking down the question
• Next: Further reading and references >>
• Last Updated: Nov 13, 2023 4:28 PM
• URL: https://libguides.bham.ac.uk/asc/understandingassignments

Understanding Assignments

What this handout is about.

The first step in any successful college writing venture is reading the assignment. While this sounds like a simple task, it can be a tough one. This handout will help you unravel your assignment and begin to craft an effective response. Much of the following advice will involve translating typical assignment terms and practices into meaningful clues to the type of writing your instructor expects. See our short video for more tips.

Basic beginnings

Regardless of the assignment, department, or instructor, adopting these two habits will serve you well :

• Read the assignment carefully as soon as you receive it. Do not put this task off—reading the assignment at the beginning will save you time, stress, and problems later. An assignment can look pretty straightforward at first, particularly if the instructor has provided lots of information. That does not mean it will not take time and effort to complete; you may even have to learn a new skill to complete the assignment.
• Ask the instructor about anything you do not understand. Do not hesitate to approach your instructor. Instructors would prefer to set you straight before you hand the paper in. That’s also when you will find their feedback most useful.

Assignment formats

Many assignments follow a basic format. Assignments often begin with an overview of the topic, include a central verb or verbs that describe the task, and offer some additional suggestions, questions, or prompts to get you started.

An Overview of Some Kind

The instructor might set the stage with some general discussion of the subject of the assignment, introduce the topic, or remind you of something pertinent that you have discussed in class. For example:

“Throughout history, gerbils have played a key role in politics,” or “In the last few weeks of class, we have focused on the evening wear of the housefly …”

The Task of the Assignment

Pay attention; this part tells you what to do when you write the paper. Look for the key verb or verbs in the sentence. Words like analyze, summarize, or compare direct you to think about your topic in a certain way. Also pay attention to words such as how, what, when, where, and why; these words guide your attention toward specific information. (See the section in this handout titled “Key Terms” for more information.)

“Analyze the effect that gerbils had on the Russian Revolution”, or “Suggest an interpretation of housefly undergarments that differs from Darwin’s.”

Additional Material to Think about

Here you will find some questions to use as springboards as you begin to think about the topic. Instructors usually include these questions as suggestions rather than requirements. Do not feel compelled to answer every question unless the instructor asks you to do so. Pay attention to the order of the questions. Sometimes they suggest the thinking process your instructor imagines you will need to follow to begin thinking about the topic.

“You may wish to consider the differing views held by Communist gerbils vs. Monarchist gerbils, or Can there be such a thing as ‘the housefly garment industry’ or is it just a home-based craft?”

These are the instructor’s comments about writing expectations:

“Be concise”, “Write effectively”, or “Argue furiously.”

Technical Details

These instructions usually indicate format rules or guidelines.

“Your paper must be typed in Palatino font on gray paper and must not exceed 600 pages. It is due on the anniversary of Mao Tse-tung’s death.”

The assignment’s parts may not appear in exactly this order, and each part may be very long or really short. Nonetheless, being aware of this standard pattern can help you understand what your instructor wants you to do.

Interpreting the assignment

Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and jot down the answers on the assignment sheet:

Why did your instructor ask you to do this particular task?

Who is your audience.

• What kind of evidence do you need to support your ideas?

What kind of writing style is acceptable?

• What are the absolute rules of the paper?

Try to look at the question from the point of view of the instructor. Recognize that your instructor has a reason for giving you this assignment and for giving it to you at a particular point in the semester. In every assignment, the instructor has a challenge for you. This challenge could be anything from demonstrating an ability to think clearly to demonstrating an ability to use the library. See the assignment not as a vague suggestion of what to do but as an opportunity to show that you can handle the course material as directed. Paper assignments give you more than a topic to discuss—they ask you to do something with the topic. Keep reminding yourself of that. Be careful to avoid the other extreme as well: do not read more into the assignment than what is there.

Of course, your instructor has given you an assignment so that he or she will be able to assess your understanding of the course material and give you an appropriate grade. But there is more to it than that. Your instructor has tried to design a learning experience of some kind. Your instructor wants you to think about something in a particular way for a particular reason. If you read the course description at the beginning of your syllabus, review the assigned readings, and consider the assignment itself, you may begin to see the plan, purpose, or approach to the subject matter that your instructor has created for you. If you still aren’t sure of the assignment’s goals, try asking the instructor. For help with this, see our handout on getting feedback .

Given your instructor’s efforts, it helps to answer the question: What is my purpose in completing this assignment? Is it to gather research from a variety of outside sources and present a coherent picture? Is it to take material I have been learning in class and apply it to a new situation? Is it to prove a point one way or another? Key words from the assignment can help you figure this out. Look for key terms in the form of active verbs that tell you what to do.

Key Terms: Finding Those Active Verbs

Here are some common key words and definitions to help you think about assignment terms:

Information words Ask you to demonstrate what you know about the subject, such as who, what, when, where, how, and why.

• define —give the subject’s meaning (according to someone or something). Sometimes you have to give more than one view on the subject’s meaning
• describe —provide details about the subject by answering question words (such as who, what, when, where, how, and why); you might also give details related to the five senses (what you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell)
• explain —give reasons why or examples of how something happened
• illustrate —give descriptive examples of the subject and show how each is connected with the subject
• summarize —briefly list the important ideas you learned about the subject
• trace —outline how something has changed or developed from an earlier time to its current form
• research —gather material from outside sources about the subject, often with the implication or requirement that you will analyze what you have found

Relation words Ask you to demonstrate how things are connected.

• compare —show how two or more things are similar (and, sometimes, different)
• contrast —show how two or more things are dissimilar
• apply—use details that you’ve been given to demonstrate how an idea, theory, or concept works in a particular situation
• cause —show how one event or series of events made something else happen
• relate —show or describe the connections between things

Interpretation words Ask you to defend ideas of your own about the subject. Do not see these words as requesting opinion alone (unless the assignment specifically says so), but as requiring opinion that is supported by concrete evidence. Remember examples, principles, definitions, or concepts from class or research and use them in your interpretation.

• assess —summarize your opinion of the subject and measure it against something
• prove, justify —give reasons or examples to demonstrate how or why something is the truth
• evaluate, respond —state your opinion of the subject as good, bad, or some combination of the two, with examples and reasons
• support —give reasons or evidence for something you believe (be sure to state clearly what it is that you believe)
• synthesize —put two or more things together that have not been put together in class or in your readings before; do not just summarize one and then the other and say that they are similar or different—you must provide a reason for putting them together that runs all the way through the paper
• analyze —determine how individual parts create or relate to the whole, figure out how something works, what it might mean, or why it is important
• argue —take a side and defend it with evidence against the other side

More Clues to Your Purpose As you read the assignment, think about what the teacher does in class:

• What kinds of textbooks or coursepack did your instructor choose for the course—ones that provide background information, explain theories or perspectives, or argue a point of view?
• In lecture, does your instructor ask your opinion, try to prove her point of view, or use keywords that show up again in the assignment?
• What kinds of assignments are typical in this discipline? Social science classes often expect more research. Humanities classes thrive on interpretation and analysis.
• How do the assignments, readings, and lectures work together in the course? Instructors spend time designing courses, sometimes even arguing with their peers about the most effective course materials. Figuring out the overall design to the course will help you understand what each assignment is meant to achieve.

Now, what about your reader? Most undergraduates think of their audience as the instructor. True, your instructor is a good person to keep in mind as you write. But for the purposes of a good paper, think of your audience as someone like your roommate: smart enough to understand a clear, logical argument, but not someone who already knows exactly what is going on in your particular paper. Remember, even if the instructor knows everything there is to know about your paper topic, he or she still has to read your paper and assess your understanding. In other words, teach the material to your reader.

Aiming a paper at your audience happens in two ways: you make decisions about the tone and the level of information you want to convey.

• Tone means the “voice” of your paper. Should you be chatty, formal, or objective? Usually you will find some happy medium—you do not want to alienate your reader by sounding condescending or superior, but you do not want to, um, like, totally wig on the man, you know? Eschew ostentatious erudition: some students think the way to sound academic is to use big words. Be careful—you can sound ridiculous, especially if you use the wrong big words.
• The level of information you use depends on who you think your audience is. If you imagine your audience as your instructor and she already knows everything you have to say, you may find yourself leaving out key information that can cause your argument to be unconvincing and illogical. But you do not have to explain every single word or issue. If you are telling your roommate what happened on your favorite science fiction TV show last night, you do not say, “First a dark-haired white man of average height, wearing a suit and carrying a flashlight, walked into the room. Then a purple alien with fifteen arms and at least three eyes turned around. Then the man smiled slightly. In the background, you could hear a clock ticking. The room was fairly dark and had at least two windows that I saw.” You also do not say, “This guy found some aliens. The end.” Find some balance of useful details that support your main point.

You’ll find a much more detailed discussion of these concepts in our handout on audience .

The Grim Truth

With a few exceptions (including some lab and ethnography reports), you are probably being asked to make an argument. You must convince your audience. It is easy to forget this aim when you are researching and writing; as you become involved in your subject matter, you may become enmeshed in the details and focus on learning or simply telling the information you have found. You need to do more than just repeat what you have read. Your writing should have a point, and you should be able to say it in a sentence. Sometimes instructors call this sentence a “thesis” or a “claim.”

So, if your instructor tells you to write about some aspect of oral hygiene, you do not want to just list: “First, you brush your teeth with a soft brush and some peanut butter. Then, you floss with unwaxed, bologna-flavored string. Finally, gargle with bourbon.” Instead, you could say, “Of all the oral cleaning methods, sandblasting removes the most plaque. Therefore it should be recommended by the American Dental Association.” Or, “From an aesthetic perspective, moldy teeth can be quite charming. However, their joys are short-lived.”

Convincing the reader of your argument is the goal of academic writing. It doesn’t have to say “argument” anywhere in the assignment for you to need one. Look at the assignment and think about what kind of argument you could make about it instead of just seeing it as a checklist of information you have to present. For help with understanding the role of argument in academic writing, see our handout on argument .

What kind of evidence do you need?

There are many kinds of evidence, and what type of evidence will work for your assignment can depend on several factors–the discipline, the parameters of the assignment, and your instructor’s preference. Should you use statistics? Historical examples? Do you need to conduct your own experiment? Can you rely on personal experience? See our handout on evidence for suggestions on how to use evidence appropriately.

Make sure you are clear about this part of the assignment, because your use of evidence will be crucial in writing a successful paper. You are not just learning how to argue; you are learning how to argue with specific types of materials and ideas. Ask your instructor what counts as acceptable evidence. You can also ask a librarian for help. No matter what kind of evidence you use, be sure to cite it correctly—see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial .

You cannot always tell from the assignment just what sort of writing style your instructor expects. The instructor may be really laid back in class but still expect you to sound formal in writing. Or the instructor may be fairly formal in class and ask you to write a reflection paper where you need to use “I” and speak from your own experience.

Try to avoid false associations of a particular field with a style (“art historians like wacky creativity,” or “political scientists are boring and just give facts”) and look instead to the types of readings you have been given in class. No one expects you to write like Plato—just use the readings as a guide for what is standard or preferable to your instructor. When in doubt, ask your instructor about the level of formality she or he expects.

No matter what field you are writing for or what facts you are including, if you do not write so that your reader can understand your main idea, you have wasted your time. So make clarity your main goal. For specific help with style, see our handout on style .

Technical details about the assignment

The technical information you are given in an assignment always seems like the easy part. This section can actually give you lots of little hints about approaching the task. Find out if elements such as page length and citation format (see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial ) are negotiable. Some professors do not have strong preferences as long as you are consistent and fully answer the assignment. Some professors are very specific and will deduct big points for deviations.

Usually, the page length tells you something important: The instructor thinks the size of the paper is appropriate to the assignment’s parameters. In plain English, your instructor is telling you how many pages it should take for you to answer the question as fully as you are expected to. So if an assignment is two pages long, you cannot pad your paper with examples or reword your main idea several times. Hit your one point early, defend it with the clearest example, and finish quickly. If an assignment is ten pages long, you can be more complex in your main points and examples—and if you can only produce five pages for that assignment, you need to see someone for help—as soon as possible.

Tricks that don’t work

Your instructors are not fooled when you:

• spend more time on the cover page than the essay —graphics, cool binders, and cute titles are no replacement for a well-written paper.
• use huge fonts, wide margins, or extra spacing to pad the page length —these tricks are immediately obvious to the eye. Most instructors use the same word processor you do. They know what’s possible. Such tactics are especially damning when the instructor has a stack of 60 papers to grade and yours is the only one that low-flying airplane pilots could read.
• use a paper from another class that covered “sort of similar” material . Again, the instructor has a particular task for you to fulfill in the assignment that usually relates to course material and lectures. Your other paper may not cover this material, and turning in the same paper for more than one course may constitute an Honor Code violation . Ask the instructor—it can’t hurt.
• get all wacky and “creative” before you answer the question . Showing that you are able to think beyond the boundaries of a simple assignment can be good, but you must do what the assignment calls for first. Again, check with your instructor. A humorous tone can be refreshing for someone grading a stack of papers, but it will not get you a good grade if you have not fulfilled the task.

Critical reading of assignments leads to skills in other types of reading and writing. If you get good at figuring out what the real goals of assignments are, you are going to be better at understanding the goals of all of your classes and fields of study.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Essays: task words

Written Assignments

Explore what different task words mean and how they apply to your assignments

You'll need to understand what your assignments are asking you to do throughout your studies. Your assessments use 'task words' that explain what you need to do in your work.  

Task words are the words or phrases in a brief that tell you what to do. Common examples of task words are 'discuss', 'evaluate', 'compare and contrast', and 'critically analyse'. These words are used in assessment marking criteria and will showcase how well you've answered the question.

None of these words have a fixed meaning. Your lecturers may have specific definitions for your subject or task so you should make sure you have a good idea of what these terms mean in your field. You can check this by speaking to your lecturer, checking your course handbook and reading your marking criteria carefully.

Task words and descriptions

• Account for : Similar to ‘explain’ but with a heavier focus on reasons why something is or is not the way it is.
• Analyse : This term has the widest range of meanings according to the subject. Make a justified selection of some of the essential features of an artefact, idea or issue. Examine how these relate to each other and to other ideas, in order to help better understand the topic. See ideas and problems in different ways, and provide evidence for those ways of seeing them. 
• Assess : This has very different meanings in different disciplines. Measure or evaluate one or more aspect of something (for example, the effectiveness, significance or 'truth' of something). Show in detail the outcomes of these evaluations.
• Compare : Show how two or more things are similar.
• Compare and contrast : Show similarities and differences between two or more things.
• Contrast : Show how two or more things are different.
• Critically analyse : As with analysis, but questioning and testing the strength of your and others’ analyses from different perspectives. This often means using the process of analysis to make the whole essay an objective, reasoned argument for your overall case or position.
• Critically assess : As with “assess”, but emphasising your judgments made about arguments by others, and about what you are assessing from different perspectives. This often means making the whole essay a reasoned argument for your overall case, based on your judgments.
• Critically evaluate : As with 'evaluate', but showing how judgments vary from different perspectives and how some judgments are stronger than others. This often means creating an objective, reasoned argument for your overall case, based on the evaluation from different perspectives.
• Define : Present a precise meaning. 
• Describe : Say what something is like. Give its relevant qualities. Depending on the nature of the task, descriptions may need to be brief or the may need to be very detailed.
• Discuss : Provide details about and evidence for or against two or more different views or ideas, often with reference to a statement in the title. Discussion often includes explaining which views or ideas seem stronger.
• Examine : Look closely at something. Think and write about the detail, and question it where appropriate.
• Explain : Give enough description or information to make something clear or easy to understand.
• Explore : Consider an idea or topic broadly, searching out related and/or particularly relevant, interesting or debatable points.
• Evaluate : Similar to “assess”, this often has more emphasis on an overall judgement of something, explaining the extent to which it is, for example, effective, useful, or true. Evaluation is therefore sometimes more subjective and contestable than some kinds of pure assessment.
• Identify : Show that you have recognised one or more key or significant piece of evidence, thing, idea, problem, fact, theory, or example.
• Illustrate : Give selected examples of something to help describe or explain it, or use diagrams or other visual aids to help describe or explain something.
• Justify : Explain the reasons, usually “good” reasons, for something being done or believed, considering different possible views and ideas.
• Outline : Provide the main points or ideas, normally without going into detail.
• Summarise : This is similar to 'outline'. State, or re-state, the most important parts of something so that it is represented 'in miniature'. It should be concise and precise.
• State : Express briefly and clearly. 

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Study Toolbox: Understanding Instructional Words in Essays, Assignments & Exams

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Before you can answer a question, you need to know what it means.  When you are trying to understand the question look for instructional words, words that tell you what to do.  Examples of these are analyse, describe and review. 

Understanding Instructional Words

This table provides a list of instructional words and explains clearly what they require you to do in your essay, assignment or exam.

• Printable copy of Understanding Instructional Words This is a printable version of the table above. It provides a list of instructional words and explains what each requires you to do in your essay, assignment, test or exam.
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Plan your writing

Interpret your assignment.

Planning how you approach your writing will make sure that you understand the task, can manage your time, and present a researched, structured and focused assignment.

Before you start writing, you need to understand what type of writing you are required to produce. For example, you might be asked to produce a report, an essay, an annotated bibliography or a literature review. This will shape how you will prepare, research and write your assignment. Take time to understand the conventions of each type of assignment and what is expected of you.

Understand instructional words

Instructional verbs in the assignment task will indicate how to plan your approach. Choose the instructional words that you have been given below to reveal what they mean.

Instructional verbs

Examine an issue in close detail and break it into its constituent parts. Look in depth at each part, consider the evidence, and show you understand the relationship between them.

Decide on the importance or usefulness of something and give reasons and evidence for your decision.

Identify similarities and differences between two or more things, problems or arguments. Draw a conclusion about which (if either) you think is preferable or more convincing.

Outline the meaning of a word, concept or theory as it is used in your discipline. In some cases it may be necessary or desirable to examine different possible, or often used, definitions.

Present factual information about something, using appropriate evidence to support your description.

Examine the arguments and the evidence to support them. Consider different sides of the issue and weigh up the implications of each argument.

Make an appraisal of the worth of something, an argument or a set of beliefs, in the light of its validity or value. This does involve making your own judgements, but they must be supported by an evidenced argument and justification.

Explain or clarify something using evidence, diagrams, figures, or case studies.

Provide adequate reasons for a decision or a conclusion by supporting it with sufficient evidence and argument; answer the main objections that are likely to be made to it.

Summarise the main features or the general principles of a subject, topic or theory.

Provide a thorough examination of a topic. You may be asked to draw your own conclusions.

To what extent

Explore and present the argument(s) for a particular topic and state the degree to which you agree with them.

Accordion 1

Sample accordion 1

Adapted from: Greetham, B. 2018. How to write better essays . 4th ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Scope and focus

Look at the assignment task to identify whether there is a specific aspect of the topic that you are being asked to focus on. For example:

• Is the topic or question limited to a certain time period, region, or group of people?
• Are you being asked to consider a particular angle (for example, political, social, economic aspects of the topic)?

If the assignment task does not include information about the scope or limitations of the topic, you should choose these yourself. Think about what key issues have been covered in your module and whether you could use any of these to produce a focused answer to the question.

If something in the assignment brief is unclear, check with your module leader as soon as possible before starting to plan your answer.

Watch this short video on how to plan and get started with your assignment.

Define your purpose and reader

The next step before writing is to clearly define the purpose of the writing and the audience.

Most formal academic writing at university is set by, and written for, an academic tutor or assessor. There should be clear criteria against which they will mark your work. Your tutor may ask you to write for different audiences such as a lay audience or your peers, so make sure you know who your intended audience is before you start writing.

Once you have a clear idea of what is required for your assignment, you can start to plan what you are going to write.

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It is important to understand what an essay question or assignment brief is asking of you. Before you start to research or write, it is worth spending time considering the wording of the question and any learning outcomes that may accompany it. Each assignment will generally have at least three learning outcomes which you must cover if you are to achieve a pass.

Breaking down an assignment question

Before you attempt to answer an assignment question, you need to make sure you understand what it is asking. This includes not only the subject matter, but also the way in which you are required to write. Different questions may ask you to discuss, outline, evaluate… and many more. The task words are a key part of the question.

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Types of Assignments

Cristy Bartlett and Kate Derrington

Introduction

As discussed in the previous chapter, assignments are a common method of assessment at university. You may encounter many assignments over your years of study, yet some will look quite different from others. By recognising different types of assignments and understanding the purpose of the task, you can direct your writing skills effectively to meet task requirements. This chapter draws on the skills from the previous chapter, and extends the discussion, showing you where to aim with different types of assignments.

The chapter begins by exploring the popular essay assignment, with its two common categories, analytical and argumentative essays. It then examines assignments requiring case study responses , as often encountered in fields such as health or business. This is followed by a discussion of assignments seeking a report (such as a scientific report) and reflective writing assignments, common in nursing, education and human services. The chapter concludes with an examination of annotated bibliographies and literature reviews. The chapter also has a selection of templates and examples throughout to enhance your understanding and improve the efficacy of  your assignment writing skills.

Different Types of Written Assignments

At university, an essay is a common form of assessment. In the previous chapter Writing Assignments we discussed what was meant by showing academic writing in your assignments. It is important that you consider these aspects of structure, tone and language when writing an essay.

Components of an essay

Essays should use formal but reader friendly language and have a clear and logical structure. They must include research from credible academic sources such as peer reviewed journal articles and textbooks. This research should be referenced throughout your essay to support your ideas (See the chapter Working with Information ).

If you have never written an essay before, you may feel unsure about how to start.  Breaking your essay into sections and allocating words accordingly will make this process more manageable and will make planning the overall essay structure much easier.

• An essay requires an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion.
• Generally, an introduction and conclusion are approximately 10% each of the total word count.
• The remaining words can then be divided into sections and a paragraph allowed for each area of content you need to cover.
• Use your task and criteria sheet to decide what content needs to be in your plan

An effective essay introduction needs to inform your reader by doing four basic things:

Table 20.1 An effective essay

An effective essay body paragraph needs to:

An effective essay conclusion needs to:

Common types of essays

You may be required to write different types of essays, depending on your study area and topic. Two of the most commonly used essays are analytical and argumentative .  The task analysis process discussed in the previous chapter Writing Assignments will help you determine the type of essay required. For example, if your assignment question uses task words such as analyse, examine, discuss, determine or explore, you would be writing an analytical essay . If your assignment question has task words such as argue, evaluate, justify or assess, you would be writing an argumentative essay . Despite the type of essay, your ability to analyse and think critically is important and common across genres.  

Analytical essays

These essays usually provide some background description of the relevant theory, situation, problem, case, image, etcetera that is your topic. Being analytical requires you to look carefully at various components or sections of your topic in a methodical and logical way to create understanding.

The purpose of the analytical essay is to demonstrate your ability to examine the topic thoroughly. This requires you to go deeper than description by considering different sides of the situation, comparing and contrasting a variety of theories and the positives and negatives of the topic. Although in an analytical essay your position on the topic may be clear, it is not necessarily a requirement that you explicitly identify this with a thesis statement, as is the case with an argumentative essay. If you are unsure whether you are required to take a position, and provide a thesis statement, it is best to check with your tutor.

Argumentative essays

These essays require you to take a position on the assignment topic. This is expressed through your thesis statement in your introduction. You must then present and develop your arguments throughout the body of your assignment using logically structured paragraphs. Each of these paragraphs needs a topic sentence that relates to the thesis statement. In an argumentative essay, you must reach a conclusion based on the evidence you have presented.

Case Study Responses

Case studies are a common form of assignment in many study areas and students can underperform in this genre for a number of key reasons.

Students typically lose marks for not:

• Relating their answer sufficiently to the case details
• Applying critical thinking
• Writing with clear structure
• Using appropriate or sufficient sources
• Using accurate referencing

When structuring your response to a case study, remember to refer to the case. Structure your paragraphs similarly to an essay paragraph structure but include examples and data from the case as additional evidence to support your points (see Figure 20.5 ). The colours in the sample paragraph below show the function of each component.

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Code of Conduct and Nursing Standards (2018) play a crucial role in determining the scope of practice for nurses and midwives. A key component discussed in the code is the provision of person-centred care and the formation of therapeutic relationships between nurses and patients (NMBA, 2018). This ensures patient safety and promotes health and wellbeing (NMBA, 2018). The standards also discuss the importance of partnership and shared decision-making in the delivery of care (NMBA, 2018, 4). Boyd and Dare (2014) argue that good communication skills are vital for building therapeutic relationships and trust between patients and care givers. This will help ensure the patient is treated with dignity and respect and improve their overall hospital experience. In the case, the therapeutic relationship with the client has been compromised in several ways. Firstly, the nurse did not conform adequately to the guidelines for seeking informed consent before performing the examination as outlined in principle 2.3 (NMBA, 2018). Although she explained the procedure, she failed to give the patient appropriate choices regarding her health care. 

Topic sentence | Explanations using paraphrased evidence including in-text references | Critical thinking (asks the so what? question to demonstrate your student voice). | Relating the theory back to the specifics of the case. The case becomes a source of examples as extra evidence to support the points you are making.

Reports are a common form of assessment at university and are also used widely in many professions. It is a common form of writing in business, government, scientific, and technical occupations.

Reports can take many different structures. A report is normally written to present information in a structured manner, which may include explaining laboratory experiments, technical information, or a business case.  Reports may be written for different audiences including clients, your manager, technical staff, or senior leadership within an organisation. The structure of reports can vary, and it is important to consider what format is required. The choice of structure will depend upon professional requirements and the ultimate aims of the report. Consider some of the options in the table below (see Table 20.2 ).

Table 20.2 Explanations of different types of reports

Reflective writing.

Reflective writing is a popular method of assessment at university. It is used to help you explore feelings, experiences, opinions, events or new information to gain a clearer and deeper understanding of your learning. A reflective writing task requires more than a description or summary.  It requires you to analyse a situation, problem or experience, consider what you may have learnt and evaluate how this may impact your thinking and actions in the future. This requires critical thinking, analysis, and usually the application of good quality research, to demonstrate your understanding or learning from a situation. Essentially, reflective practice is the process of looking back on past experiences and engaging with them in a thoughtful way and drawing conclusions to inform future experiences. The reflection skills you develop at university will be vital in the workplace to assist you to use feedback for growth and continuous improvement. There are numerous models of reflective writing and you should refer to your subject guidelines for your expected format. If there is no specific framework, a simple model to help frame your thinking is What? So what? Now what?   (Rolfe et al., 2001).

Table 20.3 What? So What? Now What? Explained.

The Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle

The Gibbs’ Cycle of reflection encourages you to consider your feelings as part of the reflective process. There are six specific steps to work through. Following this model carefully and being clear of the requirements of each stage, will help you focus your thinking and reflect more deeply. This model is popular in Health.

The 4 R’s of reflective thinking

This model (Ryan and Ryan, 2013) was designed specifically for university students engaged in experiential learning.  Experiential learning includes any ‘real-world’ activities including practice led activities, placements and internships.  Experiential learning, and the use of reflective practice to heighten this learning, is common in Creative Arts, Health and Education.

Annotated Bibliography

What is it.

An annotated bibliography is an alphabetical list of appropriate sources (books, journals or websites) on a topic, accompanied by a brief summary, evaluation and sometimes an explanation or reflection on their usefulness or relevance to your topic. Its purpose is to teach you to research carefully, evaluate sources and systematically organise your notes. An annotated bibliography may be one part of a larger assessment item or a stand-alone assessment piece. Check your task guidelines for the number of sources you are required to annotate and the word limit for each entry.

How do I know what to include?

When choosing sources for your annotated bibliography it is important to determine:

• The topic you are investigating and if there is a specific question to answer
• The type of sources on which you need to focus
• Whether they are reputable and of high quality

What do I say?

Important considerations include:

• Is the work current?
• Is the work relevant to your topic?
• Is the author credible/reliable?
• Is there any author bias?
• The strength and limitations (this may include an evaluation of research methodology).

Literature Reviews

It is easy to get confused by the terminology used for literature reviews. Some tasks may be described as a systematic literature review when actually the requirement is simpler; to review the literature on the topic but do it in a systematic way. There is a distinct difference (see Table 20.4 ). As a commencing undergraduate student, it is unlikely you would be expected to complete a systematic literature review as this is a complex and more advanced research task. It is important to check with your lecturer or tutor if you are unsure of the requirements.

Table 20.4 Comparison of Literature Reviews

Generally, you are required to establish the main ideas that have been written on your chosen topic. You may also be expected to identify gaps in the research. A literature review does not summarise and evaluate each resource you find (this is what you would do in an annotated bibliography). You are expected to analyse and synthesise or organise common ideas from multiple texts into key themes which are relevant to your topic (see Figure 20.10 ). Use a table or a spreadsheet, if you know how, to organise the information you find. Record the full reference details of the sources as this will save you time later when compiling your reference list (see Table 20.5 ).

Overall, this chapter has provided an introduction to the types of assignments you can expect to complete at university, as well as outlined some tips and strategies with examples and templates for completing them. First, the chapter investigated essay assignments, including analytical and argumentative essays. It then examined case study assignments, followed by a discussion of the report format. Reflective writing , popular in nursing, education and human services, was also considered. Finally, the chapter briefly addressed annotated bibliographies and literature reviews. The chapter also has a selection of templates and examples throughout to enhance your understanding and improve the efficacy of your assignment writing skills.

• Not all assignments at university are the same. Understanding the requirements of different types of assignments will assist in meeting the criteria more effectively.
• There are many different types of assignments. Most will require an introduction, body paragraphs and a conclusion.
• An essay should have a clear and logical structure and use formal but reader friendly language.
• Breaking your assignment into manageable chunks makes it easier to approach.
• Effective body paragraphs contain a topic sentence.
• A case study structure is similar to an essay, but you must remember to provide examples from the case or scenario to demonstrate your points.
• The type of report you may be required to write will depend on its purpose and audience. A report requires structured writing and uses headings.
• Reflective writing is popular in many disciplines and is used to explore feelings, experiences, opinions or events to discover what learning or understanding has occurred. Reflective writing requires more than description. You need to be analytical, consider what has been learnt and evaluate the impact of this on future actions.
• Annotated bibliographies teach you to research and evaluate sources and systematically organise your notes. They may be part of a larger assignment.
• Literature reviews require you to look across the literature and analyse and synthesise the information you find into themes.

Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford.

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001). Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Ryan, M. & Ryan, M. (2013). Theorising a model for teaching and assessing reflective learning in higher education.  Higher Education Research & Development , 32(2), 244-257. doi: 10.1080/07294360.2012.661704

Academic Success Copyright © 2021 by Cristy Bartlett and Kate Derrington is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Justification (Typesetting and Composition)

Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms

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In typesetting and printing, the process or result of spacing text so that the lines come out even at the margins .

The lines of text on this page are left-justified— that is, the text is lined up evenly on the left side of the page but not on the right (which is called ragged right ). As a general rule, use left justification when preparing essays, reports, and research papers.

Pronunciation: jus-te-feh-KAY-shen

Examples and Observations

" Research papers follow a standard presentation format...Do not right- justify (align) your paper. The right margins should be ragged. Your computer will automatically justify your left margin." (Laurie Rozakis, Schaum's Quick Guide to Writing Great Research Papers . McGraw-Hill, 2007)

Manuscript Guidelines (Chicago Style)

"To avoid the appearance of inconsistent spacing between words and sentences, all text in a manuscript should be presented flush left (ragged right)--that is, lines should not be 'justified' to the right margin. To leave enough room for handwritten queries, margins of at least one inch should appear on all four sides of the hard copy." ( The Chicago Manual of Style , 16th ed. The University of Chicago Press, 2010)

Full Justification

"Left- justified margins are generally easier to read than full-justified margins that can produce irregular spaces between words and unwanted blocks of text. However, because left-justified (ragged-right) margins look informal, full-justified text is more appropriate for publications aimed at a broad readership that expects a more formal, polished appearance. Further, full justification is often useful with multiple-column formats because the spaces between the columns (called alleys ) need the definition that full justification provides." (Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, and Walter E. Oliu, The Business Writer's Handbook , 7th ed. Macmillan, 2003)

Justification on Resumes

"Do not set full justification on an ASCII resume . Instead, left justify all lines so the right margin is ragged." (Pat Criscito, How to Write Better Résumés and Cover Letters . Barron's Educational Series, 2008)

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Definition of justify verb from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

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• 3 justify something ( technology ) to arrange lines of printed text so that one or both edges are straight

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How to Write a Good Justification Essay

A justification essay is a common assignment at high school and college. Students are supposed to learn how to persuade someone in their points of view and how to express their thoughts clearly. This job is quite difficult, so you are able to improve your justification essay writing skills with the help of our professional writing guidelines.

Step One: Research Your Topic

If you want to persuade someone in the relevance and importance of your subject, you should be able to describe it in the best way. Your primary duty is to research your topic well and collect as many useful facts about it as possible. You will have to look through several books, periodicals, articles in the Internet, etc. to accumulate enough facts and arguments about your subject. Try to note all essential ideas to avoid losing them.

Step Two: Write an Outline

One cannot complete a good justification essay if he does not plan the process of writing carefully. You should plan your essay accurately and build a sound and informative piece of writing. Your outline contains all sections of your essay, all ideas, concepts, solutions and decisions. If you write down an informative outline, you will not miss any important point. You should also think about the structure of your justification essay. It should start from an introduction, proceed with the main body and finish with a denouement.

Step Three: Prepare a Sound Introduction

A good introductory part should clarify the choice of your topic, its relevance and importance. You should write in the most understandable and precise manner if you want to attract reader’s attention and to make him accept your point of view. You are able to improve your introduction with the help of bright quotations and a brilliant thesis statement that describes the whole idea of your analysis to your audience.

Step Four: Compose the Main Body

The main body of your justification essay should contain all essential ideas and quality arguments that support your opinion about the subject. Remember that you have to justify why you think in the definite way. Teachers often assign controversial topics in order to make students take the definite side in this discussion. Your duty is to prove to your audience that your point of view is better. You are able to present arguments starting from the least important ones and proceeding with the most essential arguments.

Step Five: Make a Good Conclusion

When you summarize your justification essay, you should enumerate its key points in brief. Moreover, you are able to write the final comment on your subject in order to leave space for suggestion to your readers.

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Understanding Writing Assignments

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This resource describes some steps you can take to better understand the requirements of your writing assignments. This resource works for either in-class, teacher-led discussion or for personal use.

How to Decipher the Paper Assignment

Many instructors write their assignment prompts differently. By following a few steps, you can better understand the requirements for the assignment. The best way, as always, is to ask the instructor about anything confusing.

• Read the prompt the entire way through once. This gives you an overall view of what is going on.
• Underline or circle the portions that you absolutely must know. This information may include due date, research (source) requirements, page length, and format (MLA, APA, CMS).
• Underline or circle important phrases. You should know your instructor at least a little by now - what phrases do they use in class? Does he repeatedly say a specific word? If these are in the prompt, you know the instructor wants you to use them in the assignment.
• Think about how you will address the prompt. The prompt contains clues on how to write the assignment. Your instructor will often describe the ideas they want discussed either in questions, in bullet points, or in the text of the prompt. Think about each of these sentences and number them so that you can write a paragraph or section of your essay on that portion if necessary.
• Rank ideas in descending order, from most important to least important. Instructors may include more questions or talking points than you can cover in your assignment, so rank them in the order you think is more important. One area of the prompt may be more interesting to you than another.
• Ask your instructor questions if you have any.

After you are finished with these steps, ask yourself the following:

• What is the purpose of this assignment? Is my purpose to provide information without forming an argument, to construct an argument based on research, or analyze a poem and discuss its imagery?
• Who is my audience? Is my instructor my only audience? Who else might read this? Will it be posted online? What are my readers' needs and expectations?
• What resources do I need to begin work? Do I need to conduct literature (hermeneutic or historical) research, or do I need to review important literature on the topic and then conduct empirical research, such as a survey or an observation? How many sources are required?
• Who - beyond my instructor - can I contact to help me if I have questions? Do you have a writing lab or student service center that offers tutorials in writing?

(Notes on prompts made in blue )

Poster or Song Analysis: Poster or Song? Poster!

Goals : To systematically consider the rhetorical choices made in either a poster or a song. She says that all the time.

Things to Consider: ah- talking points

• how the poster addresses its audience and is affected by context I'll do this first - 1.
• general layout, use of color, contours of light and shade, etc.
• use of contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity C.A.R.P. They say that, too. I'll do this third - 3.
• the point of view the viewer is invited to take, poses of figures in the poster, etc. any text that may be present
• possible cultural ramifications or social issues that have bearing I'll cover this second - 2.
• ethical implications
• how the poster affects us emotionally, or what mood it evokes
• the poster's implicit argument and its effectiveness said that was important in class, so I'll discuss this last - 4.
• how the song addresses its audience
• lyrics: how they rhyme, repeat, what they say
• use of music, tempo, different instruments
• possible cultural ramifications or social issues that have bearing
• emotional effects
• the implicit argument and its effectiveness

These thinking points are not a step-by-step guideline on how to write your paper; instead, they are various means through which you can approach the subject. I do expect to see at least a few of them addressed, and there are other aspects that may be pertinent to your choice that have not been included in these lists. You will want to find a central idea and base your argument around that. Additionally, you must include a copy of the poster or song that you are working with. Really important!

I will be your audience. This is a formal paper, and you should use academic conventions throughout.

Length: 4 pages Format: Typed, double-spaced, 10-12 point Times New Roman, 1 inch margins I need to remember the format stuff. I messed this up last time =(

Academic Argument Essay

5-7 pages, Times New Roman 12 pt. font, 1 inch margins.

Minimum of five cited sources: 3 must be from academic journals or books

• Design Plan due: Thurs. 10/19
• Rough Draft due: Monday 10/30
• Final Draft due: Thurs. 11/9

Remember this! I missed the deadline last time

The design plan is simply a statement of purpose, as described on pages 40-41 of the book, and an outline. The outline may be formal, as we discussed in class, or a printout of an Open Mind project. It must be a minimum of 1 page typed information, plus 1 page outline.

This project is an expansion of your opinion editorial. While you should avoid repeating any of your exact phrases from Project 2, you may reuse some of the same ideas. Your topic should be similar. You must use research to support your position, and you must also demonstrate a fairly thorough knowledge of any opposing position(s). 2 things to do - my position and the opposite.

Your essay should begin with an introduction that encapsulates your topic and indicates 1 the general trajectory of your argument. You need to have a discernable thesis that appears early in your paper. Your conclusion should restate the thesis in different words, 2 and then draw some additional meaningful analysis out of the developments of your argument. Think of this as a "so what" factor. What are some implications for the future, relating to your topic? What does all this (what you have argued) mean for society, or for the section of it to which your argument pertains? A good conclusion moves outside the topic in the paper and deals with a larger issue.

You should spend at least one paragraph acknowledging and describing the opposing position in a manner that is respectful and honestly representative of the opposition’s 3 views. The counterargument does not need to occur in a certain area, but generally begins or ends your argument. Asserting and attempting to prove each aspect of your argument’s structure should comprise the majority of your paper. Ask yourself what your argument assumes and what must be proven in order to validate your claims. Then go step-by-step, paragraph-by-paragraph, addressing each facet of your position. Most important part!

Finally, pay attention to readability . Just because this is a research paper does not mean that it has to be boring. Use examples and allow your opinion to show through word choice and tone. Proofread before you turn in the paper. Your audience is generally the academic community and specifically me, as a representative of that community. Ok, They want this to be easy to read, to contain examples I find, and they want it to be grammatically correct. I can visit the tutoring center if I get stuck, or I can email the OWL Email Tutors short questions if I have any more problems.

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to show (an act, claim, statement, etc.) to be just or right: The end does not always justify the means.

to defend or uphold as warranted or well-grounded: Don't try to justify his rudeness.

Theology . to declare innocent or guiltless; absolve ; acquit

to make (a line of type) a desired length by spacing the words and letters, especially so that full lines in a column have even margins both on the left and on the right.

to level and square (a strike).

to show a satisfactory reason or excuse for something done.

to qualify as bail or surety.

Printing . (of a line of type) to fit exactly into a desired length.

Origin of justify

Other words for justify, other words from justify.

• jus·ti·fi·er, noun
• jus·ti·fy·ing·ly, adverb
• pre·jus·ti·fy, verb (used with object), pre·jus·ti·fied, pre·jus·ti·fy·ing.
• re·jus·ti·fy, verb (used with object), re·jus·ti·fied, re·jus·ti·fy·ing.

Words Nearby justify

• justification
• justification by grace, through faith
• justification by works
• justificatory
• justify the ways of God to men, to
• just in case
• Justinian Code

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use justify in a sentence

Agencies need to be able to quickly justify why performance has changed and what steps can be taken to address these fluctuations — positive or negative.

Attorney Frank Crivelli, who said he negotiated contracts on behalf of police unions in at least 40 towns, said the dangers and challenges of police work justify the price in New Jersey.

I planned to explore questions about journalistic ethics and whether the ends of getting a scoop that might change history and save lives can ever justify lying to a source.

Why America is 'flying blind' to the coronavirus mutations racing across the globeStates cannot point to hard data to justify aggressive measures to contain the spread of dangerous mutations.

GameStop’s share price, which approached $500 at one point, had clearly become untethered from the financial metrics that traditionally justify rising prices.

Does the sending of the message “ justify ” the tragedy that caused it?

No more allowing people to justify their bigotry by spouting a cherry-picked Bible verse.

This story was used by some third-century North African Christians to justify the practice of women performing baptisms.

Like many other Pakistani Taliban, Jamal has his own horror stories to tell, which he believes can justify any bloody retribution.

With women put in front of the public to justify staying with bad men, we see these justifications in full bloom.

But this is quite enough to justify the inconsiderable expense which the experiment I urge would involve.

He may be a lessee, agent, or having such possession and control as would justify him in thus acting.

Put me in remembrance, and let us plead together: tell if thou hast any thing to justify thyself.

Does the experience of the last ten years justify the country in placing confidence, on such a point, in a Whig Ministry?

Should the alliance between the two professions be questioned, the following case will justify our assertion.

British Dictionary definitions for justify

/ ( ˈdʒʌstɪˌfaɪ ) /

(often passive) to prove or see to be just or valid; vindicate : he was certainly justified in taking the money

to show to be reasonable; warrant or substantiate : his behaviour justifies our suspicion

to declare or show to be free from blame or guilt; absolve

to show good reason in court for (some action taken)

to show adequate grounds for doing (that with which a person is charged) : to justify a libel

(also intr) printing computing to adjust the spaces between words in (a line of type or data) so that it is of the required length or (of a line of type or data) to fit exactly

Protestant theol to account or declare righteous by the imputation of Christ's merits to the sinner

RC theol to change from sinfulness to righteousness by the transforming effects of grace

(also intr) law to prove (a person) to have sufficient means to act as surety, etc, or (of a person) to qualify to provide bail or surety

Derived forms of justify

• justifier , noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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Definition of justify

transitive verb

intransitive verb

maintain , assert , defend , vindicate , justify mean to uphold as true, right, just, or reasonable.

maintain stresses firmness of conviction.

assert suggests determination to make others accept one's claim.

defend implies maintaining in the face of attack or criticism.

vindicate implies successfully defending.

justify implies showing to be true, just, or valid by appeal to a standard or to precedent.

Examples of justify in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'justify.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Middle English justifien , from Anglo-French or Late Latin; Anglo-French justifier , from Late Latin justificare , from Latin justus — see just entry 1

14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1a

Phrases Containing justify

• justify oneself

Dictionary Entries Near justify

justifying space

Cite this Entry

“Justify.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/justify. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of justify, legal definition, legal definition of justify, more from merriam-webster on justify.

Nglish: Translation of justify for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of justify for Arabic Speakers

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Justify , justified , justification , or full justified is text that is both left-aligned and right-aligned. For example, this paragraph of text is justified. As you can see, there is no ragged edge on either the left or right side of the text. To make both sides of the text straight extra spacing is added between each of the words.

The last line of the paragraph is always left-aligned, as seen above.

The term "justify" is not a synonym for "align" or "alignment." These terms have different meanings. See the alignment definition for its meaning.

What is the keyboard shortcut for justify?

In Microsoft Word , use the Ctrl + J keyboard shortcut to justify any text. In Google Docs , use the Ctrl + Shift + J keyboard shortcut.

Related information

• How to align text in Microsoft Word, Writer, and Google Docs.
• How to align text in Microsoft Excel, Calc, and Google Sheets.
• How to align text on a web page in HTML or CSS.

Center , Left align , Margin , Right align , Typography terms , Word processor terms , Word wrap

• Cambridge Dictionary +Plus

Meaning of justify in English

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• How can you justify the employment of capital punishment ?
• New evidence from a self-confessed liar was not enough to justify a retrial .
• Manufacturers need large sales to justify offering a big variety in export markets .
• We are duty bound to justify how we spend our funds .
• They haven't been given these rights for all eternity - they should justify having them just like most other people have to.
• account (to someone ) for something
• accountability
• adumbration
• demythologize
• inexpressibly
• justificatory
• lay something out
• mansplaining
• undefinable

justify | American Dictionary

• justification

Examples of justify

Translations of justify.

Get a quick, free translation!

Word of the Day

to change a document in order to deceive people

Sitting on the fence (Newspaper idioms)

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‘Harvard Thinking’: Facing death with dignity

In podcast episode, a chaplain, a bioethicist, and a doctor talk about end-of-life care

Nothing is certain except death and taxes. Yet when it comes to death, trying to avoid that certainty has created a culture of discomfort and poor care when it comes to helping people face the end of their lives.

“Death is hidden from us,” said Tracy Balboni in this episode of “Harvard Thinking.” She’s a radiation oncologist and physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “But death will come. As far as I know, no one has avoided it. And yet we’re largely divorced from how to embrace that as families, as communities, in a way that is honoring of both the person who is dying as well as the individuals who are losing a loved one.”

For good reason, healthcare tends to be highly specialized. But the terminally ill often face a confusing mix of messages from their different providers. Mildred Solomon , a professor at Harvard Medical School and president emerita of The Hastings Center said that clinicians should think about care more holistically.

“We need integrative team-oriented care, and we need some triggers for when such team care is especially important,” Solomon said. “When we just ask [the patient], ‘What do you want to do?’ That’s an irresponsible interpretation of autonomy.”

Chris Berlin , an instructor in ministry and spiritual care at Harvard Divinity School, said that chaplains can provide spiritual support. Their role is not to make decisions for the patients, but to walk alongside them and help them navigate such an uncertain time.

“In Buddhism, we have this term Kalyāṇamitra , which literally means spiritual companion. It’s like a friend on the path,” he said. “That is how I think of spiritual care.”

In this episode, host Samantha Laine Perfas speaks with Balboni, Solomon, and Berlin about what end-of-life care is, and what it could be.

Share this article

Chris Berlin: I believe that dying itself is not the hard part, but it’s struggling to keep living, and that’s where a lot of the pain is. The body does everything it can to keep going until it can’t anymore.

Samantha Laine Perfas: Death is inevitable. And yet it’s something we struggle to deal with culturally, socially, and in our medical establishments. Many face long deaths in hospitals, while others wrestle with whether or not to undergo life-extending treatments. How do we confront death — as patients, counselors, and healthcare professionals — in a way that honors the fullness of life?

Welcome to “Harvard Thinking,” a podcast where the life of the mind meets everyday life. Today, we’re joined by:

Tracy Balboni: Tracy Balboni, a physician, a radiation oncologist. I practice at the Dana Farber and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and I’m affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

Laine Perfas: She’s also a researcher who focuses on the role of spirituality in the care of patients with life-threatening illness. Then:

Berlin: Chris Berlin, I am an instructor in ministry and spiritual care and counseling and Buddhist ministry at Harvard Divinity School.

Laine Perfas: He was also a clinical chaplain at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and teaches at Harvard Extension School, including courses in mindfulness, compassion, and enlightenment. And finally:

Mildred Solomon: Millie Solomon, I’m a professor of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Laine Perfas: For the past 20 years, she’s mentored Harvard-affiliated healthcare professionals in bioethics. She’s also the president emerita of The Hastings Center, an international bioethics research institution.

And I’m your host, Samantha Laine Perfas, and a writer for The Harvard Gazette. In this episode, we’ll explore how to improve end-of-life care.

I wanted to start the conversation with Americans’ attitudes towards death. There’s a lot of uncertainty at the end of life. How do you all approach end-of-life care in your various roles?

Berlin: You used the word “uncertainty,” and from the standpoint of chaplaincy, one of the roles that I’ve tried to play is encouraging people to exercise their sense of choice. People who are at the end of life are juggling so many things. And a lot of that has to do with worrying about their families. If there are pain issues, then it can be really confusing to know where someone is and what their choices are. And yet we also encourage them and their families or their healthcare proxies to make choices that actually really honor quality of life. I think everyone is on board with that in the hospital system, and yet people don’t always know what their choices are, and there may be competing commitments on the part of family and the patient’s wishes. I think helping people sort out the issues, and slowing things down, if that’s possible, to think through what values a person has so that they still have a sense of agency and choice, even at the end of life.

Balboni: I’ll just add to that, from my perspective as a clinician in this setting, that it seems that there’s little language or mode of communication on the part of patients and families. So they get suddenly thrown into this world of facing their own death and have, oftentimes, little preparation, little consideration of that reality. Little reflection on what those values are. They’re coming into the medical system where the clinicians have also no language, for the most part, to be able to even interface with those realities with that patient. We’re very well-versed in the language of the empirical sciences, technology, we’re good with that. We’ve got all those tools in our toolbox, but we have minimal tools, if I’m generous, to really be able to engage on this level of values, of what’s sacred to you of how to approach dying well. But then there’s also the larger realities of our culture, in which, you know, death is hidden from us. Not too long ago, we experienced death in our own homes, and now we’ve entered into a time where death is largely removed. Most people die in institutions. They don’t die in their homes. Fortunately, because of biomedicine we live longer, which is a good thing. We celebrate that. But death will come. As far as I know, no one has avoided it. And yet we’re largely divorced from how to embrace that as families, as communities, in a way that is honoring of both the person who is dying as well as the individuals who are losing a loved one.

Laine Perfas: Yeah, and I do want to talk more about the spiritual component of the conversation, but I think it could be helpful to talk first about our inability to talk about death. I’m curious where you think that comes from when it is such a natural part of the life process.

Balboni: I would say that talking about spirituality and being able to talk about death are intricately intertwined, because you can’t be speaking about these issues with patients unless you yourself have reflected on what that means for your own life, for the life of your loved ones, as well as for the patients in front of you. Because, like the water around the fish, we’re immersed in a culture that so denies death, our value is based on the here and now and our material presence here. And you can see how that concept has infiltrated our psyches and dictates how we approach these issues, both within ourselves and within our care of patients. I think it’s really beginning there, and that has to begin in medical education where we reflect on our own sense of who we are, what’s beyond ourselves when we die, and begin to wrap our minds around what that means for ourselves that we then begin to be able to honor and respect and bring up these issues with patients themselves.

Berlin: Yeah. I think at Harvard Divinity School one of the things that we do there is train our students who are going into chaplaincy not just to provide emotional and spiritual support to patients, families, and staff, but to use themselves as instruments, to Tracy’s point, about doing the work ourselves. One of the courses that I co-teach with my colleague Cheryl Giles is “ Compassionate Care of the Dying: Buddhist Trainings and Techniques .” And the first writing assignment for our students is to write your own obituary as if you were dying now. Many of our students are on the younger side, in their 20s and some in their 30s. It’s non-intuitive for them at this point in their lives to be contemplating their own deaths. And yet, the heartiness they bring into this, because we’re helping them process the experience of writing their obituary. And so it’s a process of getting used to it so that we can lean in and we can be present compassionately with someone at the end of life, as opposed to recoil in fear and yet still trying to be helpful, which isn’t helpful, right?

Solomon: I really like that Chris brought in the word “compassion.” And I want to talk about compassion beyond the doors of the hospital, too. I also want to talk about a compassionate society. And the fact that, yes, there are a lot of hard and uncertain decisions that need to be made at the individual level about whether a treatment is in my best interest or comports with my values. But at the same time, we have an aging society with many people who are alone, socially isolated, impoverished. As we have gotten better at managing chronic illness, we have more disability and frailty. The care of somebody frail and old is extraordinarily expensive, if it’s even available. I think it’s been estimated that there are 5 million people with Alzheimer’s, and 15 million people caring for them. Many of those are family members who’ve given up their jobs. Just taking that, where is the compassion in our society to try to support these families and their loved ones? What does a compassionate society owe its most vulnerable people, and what kinds of new financing systems, what kinds of new ways to organize a nursing home, long-term care, how to promote home health aides with a decent living and benefits? All these things are a part of our compassion as a society.

Laine Perfas: Why have we not already begun to invest in some of those things that would actually help end-of-life care for the type of patients you were talking about?

Solomon: We don’t even have universal healthcare in the United States. So our whole framework is highly individualistic, and very limited in the kinds of programs that we support as a nation. If a family is struggling with an elder person, it’s because of them or they didn’t save their money early enough. It’s not seen at a population level as a way that we can all help each other. I think that’s really at the heart of it. Society has put very little into universal healthcare or the social support that people need.

Berlin: The elephant in the room is probably that it’s just not profitable, right? The economics of it, for some reason, are hard to justify. I also feel like, you know, so much of our society is geared toward youth and resources for people who are trying to build lives and such that it can be a hard sell, I think, to invest in aging populations. And that’s a concern. There are other cultures that are taking on the model of the West, North America in particular and in Europe, the more they’re adopting our kind of economic model and the healthcare system, the more we’re starting to see people taken out of the home and into institutions. And then who’s going to pay for it? It’s turning into a global phenomenon as societies prosper, and it’s a huge concern. The world’s population is increasing, not decreasing. There is going to need to be something there for those who can’t afford to live in a really nice senior living facility, with graduated stages of care.

Balboni: You need structures that support these systems and they aren’t present, or the ones that are present are super fragmented and/or are just so expensive, it’s beyond the reach of the vast majority of the population. We do live in a highly individualistic culture, and that’s part of what, Chris, I think you were describing. It’s important to uphold what’s beautiful there; what’s beautiful there is honoring the beauty and uniqueness of each individual person and enabling us to be our own agents. But the potential dark side of that is that it’s to the detriment of whole communities, that you lose community connection. And honestly, that actually ends up harming the individual in the end. In the past we had much stronger structures for communities of meaning that were shared across generations. Largely, these were spiritual communities that performed that function. And we’ve lost that. And if you could imagine, those communities were what took care of the family that had the elderly person who was frail or, you know, you had whole communities that would come around those individuals and also learn about and be sensitized to those needs because they actually have that person in their midst. Those need to be called back. Because we’re by nature communal people, in being just little individuals isolated and just on social media, I don’t think that’s who we are as human beings. We need each other. We need those presences and structures to be able to really be places that honor even our most vulnerable.

Laine Perfas: It sounds like all of you embrace the spiritual aspect of end-of-life care in your work. How is that a different mindset than a traditional medical approach?

Berlin: Part of it perhaps is how we see the patient. We look through our various lenses as providers. If I were a, let’s say, medical doctor going in to visit a patient, I would probably focus more on their condition, how they’re doing today, and so on. As a chaplain, when I enter a room, I’m going in really attending to the experience that the person is having. I have that luxury as a chaplain, and it feels like a privilege, to enter in if somebody wants to talk to me. Because they don’t always want to and I take no offense to that. I get it. But if I’m able to create a space where I can just check in, get to know them, we don’t have to talk about religion, but I’m wanting to learn about you and what are your values? What makes you feel alive, spiritually alive? And how is your connection to that going? Part of the healing that we seek to foster in others, it’s not physical healing, obviously. But it’s really that inner healing of soul, spirit, mind. What is left unnamed that may be naming it, they might feel a sense of companionship. In Buddhism, we have this term Kalyāṇamitra , which literally means spiritual companion. It’s like a friend on the path. And I love that. That is how I think of spiritual care.

Balboni: I loved hearing that description, Chris, and I love the fact that you create this space, and I would say that for clinicians, this idea of creating space is really a key one. I think there’s a tendency to think that I have to be trained as a chaplain to provide spiritual care, as a physician or nurse, but really it’s all about creating space.

I remember one patient I cared for from the time of her initial diagnosis to the time when she passed away, a wonderful woman, actually an energy healer. I had asked her about her spiritual history, and it’s interesting because my having just asked one little question, she said, “That’s an OK thing for you to talk to me about.” We had multiple conversations, and I remember one time being in the hospital and seeing her because she was admitted because of her metastatic cancer and was getting near the end of life. She hated coming into the hospital and she said to me, “I feel like all my energy is sapped out of me when I come into this place because it feels like this place is screaming at me: All I am is a body full of tumors that are killing me.” And I felt like she was naming what we’re talking about. “All I am is a body full of tumors that are killing me.” No one’s seeing who she is. It was that I had opened this space for her to be able to express some of these experiences that she was having that allowed those subsequent conversations. But it was such a small investment on my part, one question, and that allowed for a spiritual care trajectory for her whole care. And ultimately, she actually went into hospice care in the end. Of course, when she was in hospice, I visited her in hospice and she said to me, “Why can’t all of medicine be like this?” Because it is integrated in hospice. That’s the model in hospice. I think one common misperception is that spiritual care on the part of nonprofessional spiritual care providers is it’s going to be some huge thing that’s going to take all your time and require you to go beyond professional boundaries. No, no, no. It’s patient-centered. It’s simple questions. It’s opening a door. It’s creating a space that says, “I see this aspect of you. It’s OK for you to raise this as part of your care.”

Solomon: Obviously you guys are special and the people who’ve gotten the special training are extraordinary. But the fact is that very few people have access to this exquisite care. In my view, one of the reasons, it’s a really big reason, is how specialized modern medicine is. And so the nephrologist sees you about your kidneys and the cardiologist sees you about your heart and they all come in at separate times. I’ve done a lot of research on this. Even in the very best hospitals no one’s taking responsibility for helping the patient navigate what’s in their best interest. They might think that each of the things that each specialist is recommending is going to be a fix for their longer-term problem, when in fact most of the time what’s being offered for somebody who’s really terminally ill is probably not going to change the outcome. But how do we break the cycle, in terms of systems thinking, how can we change ourselves?

Balboni: Millie, what you’re naming is, I mean, I function in that system. I’m highly specialized. You know, in the past, we had one person that did everything. It’s just not feasible anymore. Some of it is just the practical reality of the complexity of medicine and of various techniques and technologies and all this sort of thing, which are, in and of themselves, so good, beautiful and good. But you’re right that it creates these silos of specialties and these poor patients and families are lost between them and they’re not necessarily communicating with each other, I think. How to actually begin to build bridges? There’s much thought that needs to go into that. And I can see even in my own practice, some examples of how this has worked, like creating early, these little communities of clinicians that are helping carry patients and families. And within my own world, we take care of a lot of patients with metastatic cancer. They’re usually admitted to the hospital. They usually have to get seen right away. It’s often an urgent setting. Recognizing that these were the patients with the greatest need for complex care coordination, for communication with their medical oncologist, with their primary care physician, we created a team-based structure with representatives from those groups in order to care for those patients. That’s one small example. I think there’s an increasing recognition that it’s just not feasible for one person to do it. It has to be a team approach, but you need structures that enable it.

Solomon: The insightful CEO out there who’s listening to us might want to develop some pilot examples because that’s what we need. We need integrative team-oriented care and we need some triggers for when such team care is especially important, in my view anyway. Certain kinds of diagnoses should automatically trigger some sort of, “Let’s try to together figure out how we’re going to guide this patient.” Because when we just ask them, “What do you want to do?,” that’s an irresponsible interpretation of autonomy.

Berlin: It needs to be an informed thing. Everyone has a right to all the information. I also think that how medical students are trained really can make a difference, and it can start right then and there in the training process. One of our courses taught by Gloria White-Hammond at Harvard Divinity School is a joint HDS and HMS, Harvard Medical School, course that’s very popular and our Divinity School students will go over to the Medical School and they’re in a class with medical students and they’re all having conversations together. That’s a really generative environment to see, oh, how might we conceive of the terrain that we’re all working in together as collaborative. So part of it, I think one of the solutions to the siloing of our work is conversation, is awareness, advocacy, and mutuality, interdisciplinary talks. I think there are a lot of creative ways to do this, and that allows for more diverse voices to be heard.

Laine Perfas: When you look at different settings like clinical, educational, where are you most encouraged by steps that are being taken to address some of the shortcomings we’ve talked about?

Berlin: I think one of the benefits to having an institution, especially like the Harvard medical system, is that we actually have a team where at least the goals are that of being an ecology of care. There are social workers on call. There are chaplains on call. There are palliative care specialists. The resources are there and we talk to each other, ideally. We can read each other’s medical records. Not a lot of people know that, but chaplains also write in progress notes. And that was something that I think, I’m glad, Tracy, you brought up that bit about the cultural shift in the last couple of hundred years, because if you consider who was in the home as somebody was dying, usually it was a clergyperson who was available in the community, as well as the kids, the grandkids, the siblings, cousins. You had this very sort of holistic way of dying in which it wasn’t denied this was a part of life.

Solomon: Sam, one of the success stories of the last 15 years has been the establishment of palliative medicine. I think Tracy is a perfect example of that and with the growth of palliative medicine, a real commitment to the team that Chris just described.

Laine Perfas: For those who aren’t familiar, can we define palliative care?

Balboni: So palliative care is a specialty within medicine that focuses on supporting patients and families, through both curative and non-curative treatments. I think one frequent misunderstanding of palliative care is that it’s only at the very end of life. No, it is throughout the continuum of care, particularly in chronic and serious illnesses. And it’s all about upholding the quality of life with a biopsychosocial spiritual model, for both patients and their families.

Solomon: And sometimes that means guiding people to take very quote-unquote “high-tech” interventions because they improve quality of life and reduce suffering. Sometimes it’s to help people say no to treatments that are not going to be effective, that experts think are just going to create burdensomeness that is unnecessary and harmful. So that is one of the big positive stories of what’s happened in, I don’t know, about the last 15 years or so. The growth of palliative medicine as a subspecialty of medicine, with people like Tracy and others who have training that didn’t exist 20, 25 years ago.

Laine Perfas: Thinking about everything that we’ve talked about, there might be people listening to this episode who are either going through their own end-of-life care or have loved ones who are reaching that stage in their own lives. Do you have any thoughts you’d want to share with them about how to navigate this space or how to think about it more holistically? I have a very mundane suggestion, but I think it could be powerful. Since doctors’ language often obscures the fact that somebody is in their final phase of life, I think family members can actually open the conversation and put doctors at ease. Things like, let your doctor know that you think maybe this is a final period of your life and that you would like their help in understanding what’s lying ahead. They don’t have a crystal ball. But they do have enough experience to know that this could go this way and it might be like this, or it could go this way and it might be like that. And these are some of the things you might want to think about as you’re figuring out how you want to live your life to its fullest in the time that you have remaining.

Balboni: Actually, Millie, I would just echo much of what you’ve said and just say that it’s feeling free to be asking those questions and also to be asking them over and over again. Because there are always uncertainties, but things become clearer over time. The clinicians have more information. It’s helpful to hear from differing clinicians’ perspectives, from the nurse, for example, sometimes the nurse knows better than the doctors do, particularly those most involved in bedside care can sometimes be the most aware of really what’s going on with the person. I think it’s also helpful for patients and families because understanding these things is not something that’s a one-time deal. Our minds cannot take in this information at one time and just be done. Your mind and heart cannot integrate that information quickly. It’s something that you actually need time and processing and multiple conversations. Clinicians should be doing that. They should be having those conversations over time, but also patients and families can ask for that.

Berlin: As a chaplain, I have so many things that I would want to say to someone who is in this part of their lives, but just a few things I think that maybe are helpful. First of all, one of the questions that has always impacted me is, where is the effort? Where is the effort in what you might be struggling with? So, for example, I had a patient, we’ll call her Mary, who was putting so much effort into making sure everyone in the family would be OK, to the point where she was exhausting herself with concern. As a mother, she had a 12-year-old daughter that she was worried about. And for me, the role was just to say, she will figure it out. Trust the resilience of your daughter, of your husband, of the people who love you, that they will have what they need and she will have what she needs as she grows older. Also, grieving together. Grieving with your loved ones is OK so that people aren’t grieving by themselves. You can share the experience of anticipating the goodbyes. In hospice, there are four things that are often helpful, I think, in reconciling family members who maybe have unresolved issues. And the first is to communicate “I love you.” The second is to convey gratitude, “Thank you.” And then the third and fourth, “I forgive you,” and “Do you forgive me?” This can go such a long way.

And, the last thing is allowing the death experience to be also a process of discovery. The great Joan Halifax, who wrote a wonderful book called “Being with Dying,” It’s a Buddhist approach to how to be with people who are at the end of life. It’s a deep spring and we can’t know what it’s like. Just allow it to be whatever it will be. It will not be what your worst fears tell you it will be, most likely. I also believe that dying itself is not the hard part, but it’s struggling to keep living, and that’s where a lot of the pain is. And the body does this too. The body does everything it can to keep going until it can’t anymore. And maybe that’s the hard part. The Carlos Castañeda story of “Don Juan” encourages all of us to take death as an adviser. And that always stuck with me. Just let that really impact the time you have left to make your life meaningful and not fearful. Recognize how precious and open the present moment is to be able to experience life along the way.

Laine Perfas: Thank you all for joining me today and having this really great conversation.

Berlin: Thank you.

Balboni: Thank you. Wonderful to be with you all.

Solomon: Take care.

Laine Perfas: Thanks for listening. For a transcript of this episode and all of our other episodes, visit harvard.edu/thinking. And if you found this conversation helpful, share it with a friend. This episode was hosted and produced by me, Samantha Laine Perfas. It was edited by Ryan Mulcahy, Paul Makishima, and Simona Covel, with additional production support from Christy DeSmith. Original music and sound designed by Noel Flatt. Produced by Harvard University.

Recommended reading:

• ‘Why is God doing this to me?’ by The Harvard Gazette
• How death shapes life by The Harvard Gazette
• Being with Dying by Joan Halifax
• On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

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