Section Two Deciphering the Essay Question

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1 Department of Lifelong Learning: Study Skills Series A Complete Guide to Writing Essays Section Two Deciphering the Essay Question Before starting any research, doing any writing, or even any hypothesising, you must take apart the essay question word-for-word and check that you understand exactly what is being asked of you. You must be sure that you understand the task, not only in terms of content, but also in terms of how you are being asked to analyse issues. Skills Checklist Once you have completed Section Two, Deciphering the Essay Question, you should be able to: Identify directive words in an essay question Identify qualifying words in an essay question Identify specific tasks and scope in an essay question Rewrite an essay question to incorporate directive words, quantifying words scope, and interest Create an action plan for the remainder of the essay writing process, based on the essay question rewrite Make an informed judgement on the time required to complete the essay writing process. For the purpose of this section and the rest of this guide, the mock essay question in the box below will be used to help illustrate the essay writing process. However, if you already have an essay question, you might like to use your set question instead of the mock question below. You can therefore practice the writing process by using a real question from your real subject area. This will mean that you get started on your current essay right now. If you have any questions about how these activities apply to your current essay question, please feel free to contact your tutor or the Student Support Officer. So, for the purpose of demonstration, here is the mock essay question. Charles Darwin s ideas greatly influenced the work of experts in many other fields. Evaluate this statement and illustrate your response with examples at least three subject areas. 1

2 So what does this question mean, and how do you begin to understand all of the academic words contained in the question? There are four main steps for you to take now in order to fully understand your essay question; start your journey below. Step One Find the directive words At first, this question seems clear, but if you look more closely, it is peppered with academic jargon, and it is asking you to complete a number of tasks. To fully understand what is being asked of you, it is sometimes helpful to identify the directive words. These are academic jargon words that seem simple, but have very specific meanings. In the activity below you will find a list of directive words that was adapted from the work of Marshall and Rowland (1993) by Di Lewis (1999: 42) for her publication, The written assignment. Use these directive words to complete the Action Point Activity. Action Point Which of these directive words appear in the mock essay question, or your current essay question? Try the following activity in order to help you better understand your question 1. In the mock essay question, circle the directive words. 2. Now, rewrite your essay question in your own words, to reflect your new understanding of the task. A List of Directive Words Analyse Argue Compare Contrast Criticise Define Describe Differentiate Show the essence of something by breaking it down into its component parts and examining each part in detail. Present the case for and against a particular proposition. Look for similarities and differences between propositions. Place the two propositions in opposition in order to show the differences between them. Give your judgment about the merit of theories or opinions about the truth or facts, and back your judgment by a discussion of evidence. Set down the precise meaning of a word or phrase. Show that the distinctions implied in the definition are necessary. Give a detailed or graphic account of the characteristics of the subject. Show the difference between two things by determining their distinctions. 2

3 Discuss Enumerate Evaluate Explain Explore Illustrate Interpret Investigate Justify Outline Prove Relate Review State Summarise Trace Investigate or examine by argument, sift and debate, giving reasons for and against. Lister or specify and describe one by one. Make an appraisal of the worth of something, in the light of its apparent truth or utility. Include your personal opinion, supported by evidence. Make clear, interpret, and account for in detail. Thoroughly inquire into a topic by examining and analysing every aspect of it. Explain and make clear by the use of concrete examples or by the use of figure diagrams. Bring out the meaning of, and make clear and explicit; usually also giving your own judgment. Search, study and carefully survey all areas of the subject. Defend or show adequate grounds for decisions or conclusions. Give the main points or general principles of a subject, omitting minor details, and emphasising structure and relationship. Demonstrate truth or falsity by presenting evidence. Narrate or show how things are connected to each other and to what extent they are alike or affect each other. Review Make a survey of, examining the subject critically. Specify details fully and clearly. Give a concise account of the chief points or substance of a matter, omitting details and examples. Identify and describe the development or course of history of a topic from some point or origin. How did you go? Did you identify that the directive words were: Evaluate and Illustrate? To evaluate means that you need to say whether or not you think the statement is true (and to say how true you believe it to be), and use evidence to show why you agree or disagree. To illustrate means to explain and provide examples. You might have rewritten your essay question so it looked something like this: Say whether I agree or disagree that Darwin s ideas influenced the work of experts in many 3

4 other fields and prove my opinion using examples and other evidence. Is this the kind of re-write that you came up with? Now you might like to try this using your current essay question. Step Two Find the quantifying words Now that this part of the task is over, you must look for any quantifying words contained in the statement or essay question. A quantifying word is one that deals with how much, or how great, or to what degree. A quantifying word might ask you to think about the scale to which something was affected by an event or idea. The following essay question doesn t have a quantifying factor. Describe the ways in which the poor laws impacted on migration. This is a fairly simple question that asks you to simply list the ways in which the poor laws increased or decreased people s tendency to migrate. However, we could rewrite this question to make it more complex, see below. Discuss to what degree poor laws impacted on migration. This is a very different question, even though it looks very similar to the original task. In this question you are being asked to provide an argument showing that poor laws either did or did not impact on migration, and you are being asked to demonstrate this in quantitative manner. For example, as well as stating you argument clearly, you must also say how much poor laws were or were not to blame for an increase or decrease in migration. Were they a minor factor or a major factor, especially when compared with the other migration factors? Therefore, to what degree is a quantifying phrase. Action Point Let s return to our mock essay question Charles Darwin s ideas greatly influenced the work of experts in many other fields. Evaluate this statement and illustrate your response with examples at least three subject areas. and the rewritten version Say whether I agree or disagree that Darwin s ideas influenced the work of experts in many other fields and prove my opinion using examples and other evidence In the original question, can you see any quantifying words? If so, what are they, and how can you incorporate the quantifying factor into your rewritten question? Consider these questions and then edit your rewritten question to incorporate the quantifying factor. Did you identify the quantifying words? You were right if you said greatly and many. When answering the question, you will need to decide if Darwin s ideas greatly influenced other experts, or only mildly influenced other experts. You will also need to quantify the word many. You will need to 4

5 decide if his influence was very widely spread across a great number of subjects and fields, or if his influence only reached a small number of fields of study. You might like to rewrite the question so it now looks like this: Say whether I agree or disagree that Darwin s ideas influenced the work of others. Say how much he influenced others and how widely his influenced stretched. Prove my opinions by using evidence and examples. Step Three Identifying specific tasks and scope Your last step when deciphering the essay question is to look carefully for clues in the question regarding the exact task required of you. You can do this by identifying the set task, and by identifying the range that you must work within. You will need to ask yourself, is there any specific job that the tutor has set, and have they placed any limits on this? Again, let s look at the mock question. The tutor has been very clear to state that examples should come from at least three subject areas. So, while it is appropriate to make statements about the range of Darwin s influence in general terms, when talking about the depth of his influence, you will need to provide examples from three different subject areas. Also, you might like to look at the word influenced. Define what you think this means very clearly, for example, will you think that influence means to both positive adopt and actively discredit? Or will you only define influence to mean those experts who supported Darwin or incorporated his ideas into their own research? After completing these three steps, you should be able to rewrite the question in a way that you completely understand and that defines your task clearly. After incorporating the specific tasks and scope, your question might now look something like this: Say whether I agree or disagree that Darwin s ideas influenced the work of experts who agreed and disagreed with his theories. Say how much he influenced others and how widely his influenced stretched. Prove my opinions by using evidence and examples, but mostly from the fields of Literature, Environmental Studies, and History. IMPORTANT You might like to try these three steps using your current essay question. However, if you reach the final step and are unsure about the way you have interpreted your question, you should contact your tutor immediately. Do not start researching your topic until you are sure that you are clear about the task. Step Four - Moving from the question to the library: Developing a plan of action At this point, you may notice that your rewrite is looking less like the original question, and more like a series of steps you need to complete. Before going to the library, it is a good idea to sit down and formalise these steps so that you have a plan of action. Figure out what you need to achieve. For the mock question, your initial plan of action might be: 1. Read widely (skimming) about Darwin s life, ideas (look for references regarding width and depth of influence on other fields) 2. Look for references to Darwin in Literature, Environmental Studies, and History texts and 5

6 3. interdisciplinary sources Find and record two examples each from Literature, Environmental Studies and History where Darwin influenced a particular theorist To get started you might also like to make notes about what you already know and how you already feel about the essay topic. You might have read about Darwin in your lecture notes or distance learning materials. Start with these resources, and then move on to the library. But do remember that as you read and think more about the topic, you might edit the question and you might change your task list and your opinions. This is a normal part of the research process just be sure to record the changes! Where do I go from here? Before moving on, take a little time to think through what you have learnt in this section. Think about the four steps you need to take when deciphering your essay question, and remember that if you need help with this process, your tutor is only a phone call away. If you wish, you may now move on directly to the next section that deals with using the Library, resources, and note taking. However, below this box you will find some additional (but optional) information regarding time management. If you have never completed an essay before and you are wondering how much time you need to set aside, it would be a good idea to complete the activity below. Either way, please take the time to revisit the Section Two Checklist, to ensure that you have understood everything in this section. Time Management: How long does the process take? By now, you may be realising that there is a lot more to essay writing than the writing! This section has outlined a process for deciphering your essay question, as this is part of the preparation. In the following sections you will be introduced to many new processes such as researching, writing, editing, and submission. All of these processes take time, and you need to know how much time to set aside to complete all of the tasks involved. Although it may seem a little premature, the following Action Point and case study are provided to help you start thinking about your time commitments and how this will impact on your essay writing. This section of the Guide is certainly optional, but may help you plan your studies more carefully. For each essay you will be given a due date. It is important that you submit your essays in time and that you work with the due date programme because: Due dates help you to manage your time Due dates help to spread out your workload in manageable bites Due dates are designed so that tutors can mark your work and get it back so that you can use their feedback in time for your next essay If you cannot submit your essay in time, please see Section Six for further information, but at this stage, use the information below to begin to plan your time. 6

7 Action Point Do you have a diary or a personal organiser? Go and get it, and while you re there, grab your course materials, too.look up the due dates for every piece of assessment for every module that you are attempting. 1. Write down all of the due dates into your diary now. Are there any clashes between essays or clashes with other important, scheduled events? For example, if you have three essays due in the same week, you may be able to talk with your tutors and change some of the dates around or you may be able to start one of your essays early. If your essay due dates clash with other important events such as family holidays or work events, you may need to highlight these now so that you can complete your essay before the due date, or organise another due date with your tutor. 2. Work backwards from each due date, and set yourself some mini deadlines. For example, if your first assessed essay is due on the 5 December, then your mini deadlines might look like this: Preparation (refining question, creating minitasks) Researching Writing Editing and Presentation Final due date: 1 5 November 5 16 November November 29 November 3 December 5 December (post by 3 December) You can see by this chart, it may take you over a month to complete an essay, so it is very important to start early, and to complete the mini-tasks on schedule. 3. Now, schedule into your diary time for all of the essay-related tasks you have identified. Think about all of your other commitments and write these into your diary. Think about your work, your household commitments, and family events, and then try to schedule in time for your essay preparation, research, and writing. Sometimes it may be important to let other people know when you won t be available. For example, you may need to arrange for your family or friends to baby sit, or you may need to arrange evening car parking near the library. You may even need to think about venues very seriously. For example, will you get more done if you take your books and go to the local library, or can you count on your family to leave you to study in peace? A case study Busy Barbara A typical mature student might have to schedule essay writing in around work and a family. Barbara, our mature age student, is 38 with 2 school-aged children and she works 4 days a week for an insurance company. She has an essay due on 5 December, therefore her preparation schedule and diary might look like this: 7

8 Sat, 1 Nov Midday until 3pm Mon, 3 Nov 4.30pm Wed, 5 Nov 5pm 7pm Thu, 6 Nov 5pm 7pm Wed, 12 Nov 9am 3pm Thu, 13 Nov 9pm 10pm Fri, 15 Nov 8pm 9pm Take books to local library for general background reading and for work on essay question Telephone tutor to check interpretation of essay question and my proposed approach Look up required books on Exeter Uni s Library on-line catalogue from home computer (ask husband to take kids to the pool) Stay back at work late and look up electronic resources and journals My day off work from home, note-taking from books, lectures, and journals while kids are at school Organise notes into different categories (at home) Put together final essay order with examples from notes (at home) 15 & 16 Nov Away in London for Mum s birthday Wed, 19 Nov 9am 3pm Sun, 23 Nov 11am 4pm Mon, 24 Nov 4.30pm Wed, 26 Nov 9am 2pm Sat, 29 Nov 10am 3pm Mon, 1 Dec 8pm 11pm Tue, 2 Dec My day off - Essay writing time Essay writing time (husband and kids at his Mum s) Telephone tutor to discuss progress and to check final arguments My day off writing again finish 1st draft. (work from home) Edit essay, finish 2nd draft (work at local library, as kids have friends around at home husband in charge!) Make final changes and print essay. Fill in a Form A and put this with essay and receipt card ready for posting (work at home) Send essay in post during lunch break This may seem a bit over-the-top, but early organisation can help you to keep to schedule. Also, by having a schedule, you will know for your next essay how long it takes you to complete each task. For example, you may find that it takes you longer to prepare and write than it does to research and note-take. If write down your plan, and your actual achievements, you will be better organised for your next essay and will have clearer expectations of yourself. However, if events don t run to schedule, keep in contact with your tutor. We can be flexible with deadlines; please see Section Six for more detail. 8