Essay questions Archives

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. Analysing essay questions is the first thing you should do before you start answering them. You should read the question very carefully. Study it closely, and try to analyse its full meaning. Make an effort to understand the problem it is posing, the principal issue or concept behind it, or the topic it is asking you to explore.

2. One way you can help yourself in this is to write out the question fully and accurately on the papers you will be using for your essay plan.

3. Most questions contain within them (even if by implication both key terms and instruction terms. Let’s look at a couple of examples.

4. “Examine the significance of Iago’s role in Othello”

Examine here is an instruction term because it tells you to discuss the topic in a general manner.

Iago’s role is a key term because it sets
the limit of the question and is asking you to focus attention on this particular aspect of the play.

5. “Compare and contrast liberal-democracy and state-socialism as forms of government”

Compare and contrast are instruction terms because they indicate that you should be looking for any similarities and emphasising differences in the two systems of government.

The words liberal-democracy and state-socialism are key terms because they specify the two forms of government that should be examined.

6. Other typical instruction terms are – Discuss, Evaluate, Illustrate, Outline, Review, Trace, Explain – because they tell you what to do with the topic and which approach your answe to the question should take.

7. Most common problems in understanding questions usually arise from a failure to pay close enough attention to what they actually say. This often results in –

Answering the wrong question
Misunderstanding the question topic
Failing to see the emphasis of the question
Not following the instructions

8. Contrary to what many people think, questions are not set to catch you out, to surprise you with something new, or to be especially difficult and cause intellectual pain. In almost all cases they are set to give you the opportunity to show what you have learned in a course of study.

Buy Writing Essays — eBook in PDF format
Buy Writing Essays 3.0 — eBook in HTML format

More on How-To
More on writing essays
More on writing skills

sample from HTML program and PDF book

1. Any essay questions you have been asked to answer should be written out – both accurately and in full:

on the rough notes for your essay plan
on the first and final drafts of the essay itself

2. Doing this will help you to understand its key terms and its instruction terms and to keep the essay topic(s) in mind whilst you are planning and writing the essay.

3. It should also help you to relate each part of your argument to the question whilst you are in the process of writing the essay.

4. Some people find it useful to write out the question on a card. This is then kept propped up before them as a constant reference point and a reminder whilst they are planning and writing the essay.

5. When writing an essay, you should repeatedly refer back to the question and ask yourself – “Is my argument relevant to what has been asked for? Am I answering the question and following its specific instructions?”

6. Essays which do not start with the question written out in full are almost always those which wander off the subject in question. The reason for this seems to be that without the specific topics (and limits) set by questions before them, many students feel free to change the subject or treat it in a different way to that required. Do yourself a favour – always write out the question.

Asking questions

7. When writing an essay, try to avoid presenting your argument in the form of questions or ‘queries to yourself’. This too often has the effect of subtly changing the subject of the essay.

8. Avoid expressions such as – ‘but is this really true?’, ‘can we tolerate this any longer?’, or ‘but what would have happened if Thatcher had not ordered the invasion at that time?’

9. Remember that you have been asked to answer the question or discuss the issue which the essay rubric poses. It is your task to provide a response or an answer. You should be generating an argument which puts forward ideas and observations of your own on the topic(s) in question.

10. If you wish to make the point that something is a problem or that differences of opinion on the subject exist – then just say so. You should also say what those differences are, and go on to relate them to the question.

11. Be prepared to explain the problem or explore these differences of opinion, giving examples and explaining their relevance to the original question.

12. Do not include any observations on how difficult the essay question is to answer. Even if this is true, your task is to provide an answer. Remember that you should not normally include within an essay any comments on how you came to compose it. [The only exception to this is a report in which you have been asked to include such comments.]

13. In almost all cases, the golden rule is as follows:

Do not be tempted to raise questions in essays – unless you are going to answer them.

Buy Writing Essays — eBook in PDF format
Buy Writing Essays 3.0 — eBook in HTML format

More on writing essays
More on How-To
More on writing skills

Analysing essay questions

sample from HTML program and PDF book

Questions in essays

sample from HTML program and PDF book

Get in touch