2012 KCSE TIP 2 (REPORT WRITING)

1. You are the secretary of four-member committee investigating the cause of dismal performance by your school at KCSE Exam results just released. You committee is mandated to also find how to improve the performance in future. Write a report highlighting the causes, findings and recommendations to your Principal. Question is courtesy of Buramu District Mock 2012. The Introduction answers the questions who the report is being written for, who make up the committee making the investigations. Further, it lists all the members of the committee and specifies their designations as well as when the report is due. It is also in the introduction that you will specify the objectives of the committee. The introduction will be followed by the body which will have a subtitle as closely related to the task as possible. The findings will be listed in this section as sub – titles. You will need to mention at least two findings. Below each sub – title of the findings you will write a paragraph clearly spelling out what you found out. This section will then be followed by the conclusion which will summarise your findings (tell them what you have told them). The conclusion will then be followed by the recommendations. These will derive directly from the findings. If you had two findings, we will expect two recommendations. To complete your report, you will have the name of the institution on the right hand side and below it the date of submission. On the left hand side you will have your designation, in this case secretary, and your name. Make sure that the name you have here corresponds to the secretary’s name you listed in the introduction. That’s it. Below find a sample answer to the above question. Take note that I have taken the liberty to put all the titles and sub-titles in upper case. This is because the blog does not allow for formatting. Read each of those sub-headings as a separate paragraph. If you are able to download it, then reformat them into paragraphs and remove the capitalization of the sub-headings. It is only the title that appears fully in upper case and should be underlined. The rest can be in bold but do not underline them.  REPORT ON THE CAUSES OF DISMAL PERFORMANCE AT ALWALA MIXED SECONDARY SCHOOL IN THE 2011 KCSE INTRODUCTION The Principal of Alwala Mixed Secondary School asked the academic committee to investigate the cause of the school’s dismal performance in the 2011 KCSE. Further, the committee was to give recommendations on how to improve the school’s performance in future national exams. The four member committee was made up of: 1) Mr. Jack Oulo, Deputy Principal – Chairman 2) Mr. David Acholla, Director of Studies – Member 3) Ms. Tabitha Odhiambo, HOD Career Guidance – Member 4) Ms. Joyce Rachuonyo, Examinations Officer - Secretary The committee was constituted on 1st March 2011 and the report was due on 14th March 2012 CAUSES OF DISMAL PERFORMANCE IN KCSE 2011 AT ALWALA MIXED SECONDARY SCHOOL a) Syllabus not covered in some subjects The students were ill prepared for the exams. The syllabus was not completed in three subjects, namely English, Maths and Kiswahili. Students therefore sat the exam without sufficient content. b) Little exposure to quality examinations The students sat only one exam that tested all the papers examined at KCSE. This was the Kisumu West District Mock. Many students therefore did not know what topics are examined in which paper. Further, the students sis not understand the rubrics of the papers they sat resulting in time wastage while answering more questions than the papers demanded. CONCLUSION In view of the foregoing, it was impossible to expect a better result from the students. The students did the best they could under the circumstances they found themselves in because the core subjects were taught poorly yet they counted in the students grading. RECOMMENDATIONS The committee recommended that: a) Teachers should complete the syllabus before the district mock. b) The form fours should sit an examination similar to KCSE in first term. Besides the District Mock the students should sit a pre- mock in second term. Finally they should sit for a post – mock exam in third term. Alwala Mixed Secondary School 14/3/2012 Ms. Joyce Rachuonyo Secretary

Adverbs of Manner

Adverbs of Manner Objective: Write sentences using adverbs of manner Adverbs of manner tell us how something is done. Think about your teacher in class. Sometimes your teachers speak loudly and sometimes they speak softly. Loudly and softly are adverbs of manner. They tell us how the teacher is speaking. Most adverbs of manner have opposites. In this lesson we shall look at a few adverbs of manner and construct sentences with them. Use the following adverbs to complete the sentences below: slowly, sadly, softly and carelessly. 1) The girl walked__________ . 2) The teacher spoke ______________ . 3) The boy wrote ___________ . 4) The lost girl spoke _____________ . The following adverbs are the opposites of the adverbs you have used above: quickly, happily, loudly and carefully. Use them to complete the following sentences. 1) When the lunch bell rung, the children put their books away ____________ . 2) The children who won the game sang ________________. 3) The boy who won the writing competition wrote _______________. 4) The actors in the big hall spoke ___________________. You will have noticed that these adverbs all end in –ly. But it is not true that all adverbs end in –ly. There are three adverbs that we should look at that do not have the same ending: fast hard and well. These adverbs do not just end differently, but they are also difficult to use. The word fast can be used instead of quickly. 1) The girl walked fast. 2) The river is moving fast. 3) Slow down, you are walking too fast. The other word we shall look at is hard. 1) The top student in my class studies hard. 2) The rough boy hit his friend hard. 3) Learn to kick the ball hard. Remember that the word hardly exists but it does not mean the same thing as hard. It is therefore wrong to say that, “The top student in my class studies hardly” or “The rough boy hit his friend hardly”. Finally let us look at the word well. Use well when you mean that you are happy with what you are talking about. 1) Our football team plays well. 2) My students read well. 3) The school choir sang well. 4) I like this machine, it works well. The opposite of fast is slowly and that of hard is gently. The opposite of well is badly or poorly. Now use these opposites to make sentences of your own. A final word to remember, adverbs of manner have opposites, if you want to know your adverbs then you must learn each adverb and its opposite. I hope that you have enjoyed this lesson. Now practise writing your own sentences using all the adverbs that you have learned today.