and we are off!

Blast off!

So we are one week into the new school year and both the BTEC and GCSE business groups are up and running.

Those of you in the BTEC group should now have completed all of your UNIT 1 work and have submitted it to me for assessment. Those of you that have will be busily updating your work based upon my recommendations.

Overall the work is of a good standard but there is a common theme in that you do not put enough effort into your work in terms of content, detail and evidence. When I say there isn't enough content I am happy with those of you that do less content but have great quality. 

Sweeping Statements - No Evidence

However, far too many of you make sweeping statements but fail to back them up. For example if you are answering a question like 'more teenagers and young adults are choosing to live at home with their parents.' This question had a variety of responses, from the unbelievable - 'this won't affect my business', (even though they were the exact target market), to 'more people will shop as families'. 

The first answer is just lazy and the second shows a complete lack of understanding of how seemingly unrelated factors can have a positive or negative affect on your business. In both cases a quick bit of research would have resulted in far better answers. 

TIP: get in the habit of referencing any sources you use in your work. This will become more relevant as you progress through college and then University but it will stand you in good stead if you get into the habit now. Plus it will show me that you have researched and found evidence to support your arguments.

Slang and Colloquialisms

A lot of you write as you speak. For example 'the last 25 years has been a breeding ground for obesity.......this won't affect me as your head doesn't get fat.' I am sure that this could be written in a more business like way, for example, 'the last 25 years has seen an increase in obesity amongst the UK population. Figures released by obesity.org.uk, ( a registered charity website), states that:

"Chris Askew, Diabetes UK Chief Executive, said: “It’s disappointing that the Government has once again delayed the publication of its Childhood Obesity Strategy.......must include setting targets for manufacturers to make their products healthier; restricting marketing of unhealthy food and drinks to children; and introducing a 20 per cent tax on sugar-sweetened drinks. Without action we will continue to see high rates of devastating health conditions and increased costs to our already stretched health service.”

As you can see obesity is a government concern and I will be looking at ways in which I can help this situation in my business. I am unsure whether or not it will have an effect on my business but I will be keeping it in mind.'

Now this might not be the best example but hopefully you can see my point. Not only is my example written in a more business orientated way but a simple 2 minute research task gives my answer some gravitas.

Spelling, Grammar and Red Lines!

Without many exceptions the spelling and grammar in your work is fairly poor AND just in case you weren't aware the red lines produced by Microsoft Word are there to help you by highlighting spelling mistakes; plus other colours which highlight mistakes in your layout and grammar. DO NOT IGNORE THEM! I do not want to see work that has been printed before these errors have been addressed.

Headers & Footers

Whilst I am having a moan let's talk about headers and footers. They exist so that you can have names, page numbers and other elements appear automatically on your documents. USE THEM! I am seriously fed up receiving work that doesn't include names and page numbers, and it's only week one!

OK rant over. 

Finally, I will be talking to everyone of you individually over the next couple of weeks to make sure that you know where you are at, where you are going and how to get there. As usual if you want to comment feel free and if you have questions ask them below or ask me in person.

Have a great weekend :-)

Mr C