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Understanding the essay question

Sometimes set essay questions can be difficult to interpret. You may not know exactly what you are expected to do. However, if you break the question down into parts, you will find it easier to answer.

Essay questions can generally be divided into two parts:

Glossary

trait A trait is a particular characteristic, quality, or tendency that someone or something has.

1The topic – this tells you the general area of your research.

2The focus – this tells you what you need to find out about the topic.

It is important to pay careful attention to the focus of the essay question because this indicates the boundaries of your research. The question ‘Is generosity an innate human trait?’ limits your discussion to the issue of whether human beings are generous by nature. You should not be tempted to discuss at length other issues such as whether generosity is morally good or bad.

Glossary

boundaries The boundaries of something such as a subject or activity are the limits that people think that it has.

Notice also that the question requires you to focus on generosity in humans. You may find it useful to make comparisons, for example to behaviour in animals. However, you should keep your focus on human beings.

Once you understand the topic and focus, you need to think about how you are expected to approach the question, that is, what you need to do to answer it.

Exercise 2

Choose the option a, b or c which best describes how you should approach the question.

Is generosity an innate human trait?

a You should answer ‘yes, it is’ or ‘no, it isn’t’ and give your reasons.

b You should evaluate the arguments for and against the notion that generosity is an innate hum an trait and come to a conclusion expressing your opinion.

c You should write everything that you have been able to find out about generosity in human beings.

Instruction words in essay questions

Sometimes essay questions contain an instruction word or expression which indicates the approach you should take.

In this case, you are instructed to make judgements about the media coverage. You might ask yourself: How good or bad was it? Or: To what extent was it fair, accurate, or thorough?

Notice how changing the instruction word changes the approach.

For example: Analyse media coverage of the 2008 banking crisis.

This question requires you to study media coverage in order to come to an understanding of why it was the way it was. This might involve looking for patterns or dividing it into categories in such a way that allows you to understand it more deeply. You might ask yourself questions such as: How frequently was the banking crisis mentioned in the news? Which aspects of the crisis were given most attention? What sort of language was used to describe the crisis?

Exercise 3

Instruction words often appear in the introductions to essays and reports. Complete the essay extracts below by underlining the most appropriate word in italics.

1 Section 1 will discuss/justify racial stereotyping with regard to the ‘big five’ personality traits. Section 2 assesses/examines the interplay between cultural stereotypes and media representations of minority ethnic communities.

2 This essay compares and contrasts/outlines the main components of the government’s poverty reduction strategy… A final evaluation will trace/assess the extent to which government measures to reduce child poverty have met targets set in 2000.

3 This study will trace/justify the one-thousand-year history of the Catalan language. It will then outline/compare and contrast Spanish policy on minority language protection with that of the Scottish government in relation to Gaelic.

4 This essay will argue that there is little evidence to justify/outline arguments in favour of state intervention.

Exercise 4

Eight common instruction words and expressions along with examples are given in the table below. Match each expression with the correct definition a–h.

Instructions	Definitions
1 Assess the European Central Bank’s response to the Eurozone financial crisis.	a Give a description or explanation of something
2 Compare and contrast social media use among young people in the United States and in China.	b Describe how something happened or developed
3 Discuss the principal factors that are commonly thought to influence a person’s choice of life partner.	c Describe the similarities and differences between two or more things
4 Examine the impact of management style on teamwork in organizations.	d Give reasons and evidence in support of an opinion
5 Give an account of the role of ribonucleic acid in protein synthesis.	e Investigate closely and in detail
6 To what extent should parents be held responsible for criminal acts committed by their children? Justify your view.	f Make a judgement about something, for example how good or bad it is
7 Outline the key components of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.	g Consider a topic from different points of view in order to reach a decision about it
8 Trace the history of the comic book.	h Describe the main features of something

Exercise 5

Write definitions for the instruction words in bold below.

1 Comment on the key components of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

2 Illustrate the impact of management style on teamwork in organizations.

3 Relate the principal factors that are commonly thought to influence a person’s choice of life partner to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Describing versus presenting an argument

Some essay questions require you to describe, that is, to display knowledge without necessarily giving your opinion about it.

For example: Which regions of the world are most seriously affected by conflict over access to water resources?

This question asks you to list and describe the parts of the world where there are the most serious conflicts over lack of water.

Other questions require you to present an argument, that is, to give your opinion backed by supporting evidence.

Glossary

supporting evidence Supporting evidence is information that is used to prove something.

notable Someone or something that is notable is important or interesting.

For example: How can conflicts over Nile River water resources best be resolved?

To answer this question you need to give your opinion about the best way or ways to deal with conflicts over access to Nile River water. You need to give reasons for your opinion and supporting evidence, that is, examples and data to prove your point. You also need to show that other ways of dealing with the problem are or have been less effective.

Often essay questions ask you to both describe and argue.

For example: What have been the most notable conflicts over water resources over the last ten years and what are the most effective approaches to resolving these types of disputes?

To answer this question you have to list and describe and present an argument based on your evaluation of the evidence. Be careful! It is often easier to describe than to evaluate. Less experienced students often focus too much on displaying information and not enough on developing an argument. Instruction words can also be categorized in terms of whether they require mainly description or mainly argument in the response.

Tip

Remember that to achieve higher marks it is usually necessary to critically evaluate information and present a strong argument.

Exercise 6

Look again at the instruction words a–l below and answer questions 1–3.

a assess		b compare		c contrast		d discuss		e examine		f give an account
g justify		h outline		i trace		j comment on		k illustrate		l relate

1 Which require mainly description?

2 Which definitely require you to give your opinion?

3 Which instruction word is most common?

Note that the answers given in the answer key are suggestions only. In practice, you should interpret each assignment task in the context in which it has been set. Remember that certain instruction words, for example, ‘compare and contrast’, sometimes require a more descriptive response and sometimes a more evaluative response.

For example: Compare and contrast horizontal axis design wind turbines and vertical axis design wind turbines.

This instruction requires a straightforward description of the similarities and differences between two types of wind turbine.

For example: Compare and contrast electricity generation from wind power versus electricity generation from hydropower in terms of efficiency, value for money and environmental impact.

Here you have to describe the similarities and differences between two forms of electricity generation in order to make judgements about them.

Understanding long and complex essay assignments

Sometimes essay assignments can be wordy and complex. However, these too can be broken down into parts:

Glossary

preamble A preamble is an introduction that comes before something you say or write.

1 The preamble: background information about the context of the question.

2 The question (or questions): what you need to find out.

The preamble gives you important information about the topic and its limitations. Notice that you need to focus your discussion on secondary school pupils (not primary school pupils or university students) and their performance in three subjects: language, mathematics and science.

Note that there are several questions that need to be answered.

Question 1 requires you to describe similarities and differences and to analyse the two sets of figures in order to identify the most significant trends.

Question 2 requires you to evaluate the evidence that the trends you have identified were caused by changes to national educational policy. Here you need to present an argument.

Question 3 requires you to consider at least one other possible explanation for the trends you have identified. Here too you need to present an argument.

Tips

Divide long assignment instructions into parts: the preamble and the question or questions.

Study the preamble for information about the topic.

Analyse each question separately.

Make sure you answer each question when you do your research.

Writing your own essay question

Sometimes you may be asked to write you own essay question. This is more likely to be the case towards the end of your course when you have had some experience of writing research essays. To write an essay question you can follow steps which are similar to those involved in interpreting a set essay question. Select:

1 The topic: the general area you want to investigate.

2 The focus: what you want to find out about the topic.

3 The approach: how you are going to investigate it.

Choosing a topic

You will probably spend a lot of time and effort on your research, so it is important to pick a topic that interests you. However, your topic should also be relevant to your course. You need to use your essay assignment to demonstrate that you can think more deeply about an issue covered in your lectures and/or reading.

If you have difficulty identifying a suitable topic, try looking at your course outline and lecture notes. List the topics that are most interesting to you and that seemed important to your lecturers. Put your list away for a time. When you come back to it, see what grabs your attention most.

Narrowing the topic down

Once you have chosen a topic, you need to narrow it down until you have a focus. If you write about a topic without first identifying your focus, you will probably end up conveying a lot of information without examining it in any depth.

Glossary

impact The impact that something has on a situation, process, or person is a sudden and powerful effect that it has on them.

Before you start your research, you need to think about what aspect of the topic is most interesting to you. For example, if you want to write about the topic of the internet, you may decide to focus on: the impact of the internet on how people relate to others.

This is a good start, but the topic is still rather broad. One method for narrowing your topic further is to highlight the key words and list specific words under those categories:

For example: the impact of the internet on how people relate to others

Under internet you might list: online gaming, social networking, or access to information.

Under people: children between six and ten, adolescents, young men from disadvantaged backgrounds, people who spend more than five hours per day online, etc.

Under relate to others: form friendships, maintain face-to-face social networks, perceive authority figures, see themselves in relation to others, etc.

This method can generate more than one focus from which to choose:

For example:	the impact of online social networking on how adolescents form friendships.
or:	the impact of online gaming on how children between six and ten see themselves in relation to others.

However, make sure that you do not narrow your question down too much. If your focus is too narrow, you may not be able to find enough information to research it properly.

Exercise 7

Imagine that you are interested in researching why some films become very successful .

Narrow down the highlighted key words.

1 What type of films could you focus on?

2 What are the different ways you could define ‘successful’?

Choosing an approach

Once you have identified your focus, you need to decide on your approach, that is, how you are going to investigate it. To do this, it is helpful to rewrite your focus as a question. Sometimes there are several possible questions. The type of question that you ask will determine your approach.

For example, you could write the phrase: the impact of online social networking on how adolescents form friendships as the question: Does online social networking affect how adolescents form friendships?

Glossary

notion A notion is an idea or belief about something.

This question requires you to present an argument. You need to evaluate the evidence for the notion that online social networking has an effect as well as the evidence against and come to your own conclusion.

Alternatively, you could rewrite the question as: How does online social networking affect the way adolescents form friendships?

This question assumes that there is an effect. Your task is to analyse and explain that effect.

When deciding your approach, it is helpful to consider the context of your assignment. Discuss your title with people who are familiar with your course. Do some preliminary reading to find out what sorts of questions other scholars are asking about the topic.

You may also find it useful to break your focus down into several related questions:

For example: Does online gaming affect the way children see themselves in relation to others?

If so, to what extent does online gaming affect …

In what ways does online gaming affect …

Exercise 8

Write an essay question of your own following steps 1–4 below.

1 Choose a general topic that interests you.

2 Identify your focus – write down what aspect of the topic interests you most.

3 Narrow down the topic by replacing very general words with more specific words.

4 Rewrite your focus as a question.

Remember

Learn how your essay will be marked.

When you receive your assignment, plan what you are going to do when.

If you are new to research, aim to spend about 50% of your time gathering information and 50% writing.

Prepare adequately by thinking carefully about your essay question.

For set essay questions, notice the limits of the topic and identify the approach you need to take – make sure you know how much you need to describe and how much you need to argue.

Divide long or complex essay questions into parts – analyse each part separately.

To write your own essay question, identify a topic and a focus – make sure your focus is not too broad or too narrow.

Decide how you are going to approach your research topic by rewriting it as a question.

2 Accessing information

Aims

find information in the library

use databases

search effectively with key words

make the most of the library

make good use of the internet for research

Quiz

Self-evaluation

What do you think is the most useful way to find information for an essay? Rate the activities below from 1 = least useful to 4 = most useful.

1 Go to your university library.	agree | disagree | not sure
2 Surf the internet using a search engine such as Google™.	agree | disagree | not sure
3 Look through your course reading list and handouts.	agree | disagree | not sure
4 Use an academic database.	agree | disagree | not sure