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HOW TO WRITE A DEADLY ERT in the Persuasive Exposition Genre in Physics By Richard Walding – Griffith University INTRODUCTION This article is about completing an Extended Response Task in Queensland Senior Physics in the persuasive exposition genre. What is an Extended Response Task? An Extended Response Task (ERT) is an assessment instrument that requires you to respond to a “science question, statement, circumstance or issue”. It is essentially non-experimental, but will require research and use of secondary (someone else’s) data – although you may have to draw on primary (your own) experimental data. What is Persuasive Exposition? Persuasive exposition is just one type of genre. In a persuasive exposition ERT you have to argue for (or against) a statement usually called a thesis, focus or topic statement) and provide evidence to justify your claims. For example: Digital hearing aids are better than analogue ones. THE RESEARCH WRITING PROCESS There are two phases to preparing your ERT: The Research Phase, and the Writing Phase. You can’t do the writing without the research. THE RESEARCH PHASE 1.1 PREPARATION (a) What is the purpose of the background “stimulus” information? Your ERT is likely to be introduced with some background information. This will set the scene for the task by relating it to you personally and possibly putting it in a social context. The aim is to help you understand the task and guide you to your initial research. Here’s an example of a stimulus about airbag safety: You are a science reporter for the magazine “Science Nation”, a magazine similar to the “New Scientist” magazine, but focussing mainly on producing science articles clarifying issues for senior science students and the general public with an interest in science. Your editor has just asked you to produce an article to be titled “Air bags in cars - Myths Busted”. As your editor explains to you, there is some confusion in the public about the use of air