The assessor in your head

The last part of reading the standard is understanding who reads your evidence. An assessor reads dozens of portfolios. They are looking for the criteria, quickly, and they have learned to distrust certain things: generic language that could be about any project, claims without specifics, and, increasingly, writing that reads as AI-generated, because it is smooth and says nothing.

Build the assessor in your head. Before every paragraph you write, ask: which question does this answer, and where is the specific? If a paragraph does not answer a question from your checklist, it is not evidence; it is narrative. If it has no specific, a name, a number, a date, a decision, it is not evidence; it is a claim.

This is the standard the rest of the course holds you to. Every piece of evidence answers a question and contains a specific.

In practice. An assessor described the tell she sees most: "I was responsible for ensuring stakeholders were engaged throughout the process." No stakeholder is named, no engagement described, no outcome given. It could be pasted into any portfolio in the country. She marks it as no evidence and moves on.

At your desk. Take one paragraph of evidence you have already written, or a draft. Ask: which question does it answer? Where is the specific? If either is missing, rewrite it until both are there.

Write it down.

• The paragraph I tested:
• The question it answers:
• The specific I added: