Instruction verbs in essay questions - University of Kent.
Essays definition, a short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative. See more.
Words to Watch for in Essay Questions The following words are commonly found in essay test questions. Understanding them is essential to success on such questions. If you want to do well on essay tests, then study this page thoroughly. Know these words backward and forward. To heighten your awareness of them, underline the words when you see them in a test question. Discuss: Consider and.
Planning and writing your essay. page for the meanings of some common question words. Isolate the key words in the question. Here is a way to help you do this. Box and underline Use this technique to identify exactly what you have to do to answer an essay question. It is particularly useful in an exam when you may be feeling pressurised by time and need to be certain that you focus upon.
Analysing essay titles. Before you write an essay it is important to fully analyse the title in order to understand exactly how you need to answer it. (If you have to create your own essay title, make sure you include all the elements of an essay question included in this page). Picking the essay title to bits. Read the title carefully, several times. Underline the key words and phrases.
Understanding Essay Questions. To take the example above, an essay question may be broken up like this: Describe the five most important moments in the 2010 Football World Cup grand final between Spain and the Netherlands. Topic: the 2010 world cup grand final Instruction: describe Focus: the five most important moments in the game In your essay, you should follow the instruction and focus.
Help with understanding essay questions: 21 terms and phrases explained In most subjects, understanding and answering essay questions is a key academic skill. At an advanced level of study, this requires not merely the description or repetition of knowledge itself, but the analysis, evaluation and interpretation of knowledge.
An essay question might expect you to take one of the following approaches. Make an argument by examining competing positions. This type of essay requires you to make a balanced and well-argued case for the strength of one position over another. Present an unbiased discussion. You might do this by comparing and contrasting things (such as arguments put forward by individual scholars). Explain.