Office Skills, Data Handling and Written Communication
Office skills, data handling and written communication tests the practical tasks of a public office: managing records, working with spreadsheets, presenting data honestly and writing clear, concise correspondence.
Records and office practice
Keep a register of incoming and outgoing correspondence, file documents under a consistent classification, and record version numbers and dates. Confidential material should be stored separately with access limited to authorised staff. Retention schedules state how long each record type is kept before disposal; disposal should be documented, not informal.
Data handling
Clean data before analysis: remove duplicates, standardise date and number formats, and validate entries with drop-down lists or range checks. Know the common spreadsheet functions: SUM adds a range; AVERAGE divides by the count of numeric cells; COUNT counts numbers; COUNTA counts non-empty cells; COUNTIF counts entries meeting one condition. Use absolute references ($A$1) when copying a formula that must keep pointing to the same cell. Choose charts by purpose: bar for comparisons, line for trends over time, pie for parts of a whole (only with few categories), scatter for relationships. Never truncate a bar chart's axis to exaggerate differences.
Written communication
Use plain language, active voice and short paragraphs. For a formal email, state the purpose in the subject line and first sentence, give the necessary background, then specify the action, owner and deadline. In minutes, record decisions, action points, responsible officers and dates - not a transcript of discussion. Summarise long reports by stating the conclusion first, then the supporting reasons.
Worked example
A spreadsheet lists 500 training applications, but some names appear twice and dates mix "12/03/2024" and "2024-03-12". What should you do first? Reasoning: inconsistent formats prevent reliable sorting and duplicate matching, so standardise the date column and remove exact duplicates. Then validate the cleaned list. Formatting the chart first would present unreliable numbers. The correct first step is data cleaning and validation.
Traps that cost marks
- Using COUNT instead of COUNTA when the range contains text.
- Copying a formula without absolute references, causing the wrong cell to be read.
- Choosing a pie chart for ten categories or a truncated axis that misleads.
- Burying the request in the final paragraph of an email.
- Writing minutes as a narrative rather than a record of decisions and actions.