5 Understanding an assignment title
Earlier, you read the assessment brief that Sarah responded to when she wrote her answer, which you also looked at. The assessment was a case study on the UK bakery chain Greggs plc (public limited company). The original company was founded by John Gregg in Newcastle in 1939. As of writing in 2026, the bakery chain sells on-the-go food, including sandwiches, baked goods and coffee. You are now going to examine the assessment brief yourself.
Activity 5
Read this question, which is a typical assignment question from a university Business and Management course. List the key concepts and the instruction words in the box below.
Using a SWOT analysis, critically examine the internal and external environment of Greggs, a UK bakery chain, as described in the case study by Gill (2023). Finish your analysis by providing recommendations to Greggs about the important issues it needs to address and the actions it needs to take for business success.
Word count: 900 words
Answer
Key concepts:‘SWOT analysis’; ‘internal and external environment’; ‘case study’; ‘business success’
Instruction words: ‘Using’; ‘critically examine’; ‘Finish your analysis by providing recommendations’ (Note: although ‘word count’ is not an instruction word, it does mean ‘limit your writing to’ the length stated.)
Discussion
The instruction words tell you what to do: they inform you about framework you need to use; and they ask you to ‘critically examine’ and to provide ‘recommendations’. Identifying the instruction words in an assessment question is a crucial first step towards writing a good answer. Also, you should always note the word limit for the assessment.
The key concepts, described in the answer, are specific terms with specific meanings relating to a business context.
Approaching a SWOT analysis assessment
When you are given an assessment question like this, you need to take the following steps:
- Analyse the assessment question/ prompt
- Read, watch or listen to the case study text(s).
- Select the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats mentioned in the text and put them into a SWOT table in concise note form (bullet points).
- Decide on your recommendations for the business (based on your notes).
- Write up your assessment, reporting on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats you noted down and including your recommendations based on these.