Business Studies
Answer Writing for Business Studies: The Keyword Method
The marking scheme rewards specific phrases. Here is how to build an answer around them without turning it into a list of disconnected words.
Business Studies students write long, thoughtful, well-argued answers and score sixty-eight. The reason is almost always the same: the answer explains the idea in the student's own words, and the marking scheme is looking for the textbook's.
How the marking scheme actually reads
A six-mark question is typically split into three points of two marks each, and each point has a heading term plus an explanation. The heading term is non-negotiable. The explanation can be in your own words.
Build the answer in three passes
- Write the heading terms first, underlined, one per line. This is the skeleton and it takes thirty seconds.
- Add one sentence of explanation under each. Not three sentences — one.
- If the question says 'with an example', add the example as a separate short line so the examiner can see it without hunting.
The result looks sparse compared to what you were writing before. It also scores higher, because every mark the scheme allocates is visible on the page in under ten seconds of reading.
