3 out of 5 times a student's essay is marked with a C; it is not because the piece was not well-written. Instead, it is because the essay failed to answer the topic in question. While the art of writing an essay depends mostly on creative skills, penmanship can fail to bring you the desired grades if you do not understand the essay question. Unless you know how to analyze an essay question, you will not be able to put in the relevant information in your essay. To save from hitting the bumpy road, our experts have jotted down all the necessary steps that you need to take to analyze an essay question accurately and write a comprehensive piece that touches all the facets of the essay topic. Read on to know more.
Here is a detailed guideline that will help you unearth the subtleties of a complex essay question so that you can deliver precisely what you have been asked for.
When you read the question aloud multiple times, you discover the intricate parallels of the essay questions. You will see that every time you read the essay question, you will be able to get more slants of the essay prompt. This will also help you come up with better thesis statements for your essay introduction.
Understand how the essay question has been framed. Quite often, students confuse a descriptive essay with a narrative prompt. So pay heed to the directive for action in the essay. If the essay question is “An Idyllic Village”, your approach should be that for a descriptive essay for the prompt is generic. However, if the question is “How did you enjoy a weekend in an idyllic village”, you need to go for a narrative slant where you are present in the scene.
There should an action verb in the essay question, and your piece should offer an answer that revolves around that verb. To decide which rhetorical strategy you will apply to answer the essay question, mark words such as "compare", "contrast", "criticize", “cause-effect”, “classify”, etc.
For a classification essay, you may have to submit a piece written according to the basic essay structure, i.e. the introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion. Or, you may have to provide a diagrammed piece. So analyze whether you need to give an evaluation, a summary, or a detailed analysis.
Let us take another essay question to understand this better. Say that your essay question is to describe what entails after you hear a knock on your door in stormy midnight. Note the adjectives used here: Stormy. So you need to describe not just a night, but a rough one. If you mention the moon in the sky, then you negate the stormy weather. Again, note that its midnight we are talking about. Your reaction is bound to differ when you hear a rap on the door at a wee hour in the night. So paying attention to the adjectives is imperative if you want to analyze the essay question right.
Do not miss out any of the above tips if you want to analyze the essay question perfectly. But then again, just knowing how to analyze the essay question isn’t enough. You also need to know how to answer the essay question accurately to score the best grades in your papers. To help you, we have a detailed guide for that too.
Here’s a table to help you understand how you need to frame your essay according to the varying requirements of the essay question.
Type of essay question |
Active Verbs/Directives |
Strategy or Slant |
|
|
|
Analysis or Explanation of Relationships (E.g., Cause/Effect essay) |
Explain, discuss or summarize Note: Do not express a personal opinion here. |
You need to · explain in detail · use critical analysis · use Cause/Effect · use Comparison/Contrast |
Synthesis or Application of principles (E.g., Persuasion essay) |
Analyze, evaluate, prove, justify, or illustrate Note: Do not express a personal opinion here. |
You need to · evaluate the principles that you have learned previously · form another example based on the same principles |
Factual Recall (E.g., Descriptive essay) |
Outline, list, or state items relating to the question |
You need to restate and summarize the points you have gathered. |
Opinion (E.g., Persuasive essay) |
Express your opinion here what you think about what has been asked in the essay question. |
You need to · State your opinion · prove it with examples · support the claims with data from credible sources |
Other than the above table, here are a few more things that you need to keep in mind to answer the essay question appropriately.
Do not cower in fear the next time you have to deal with a complicated essay question. Instead, follow these guidelines to write an essay that gives a fitting reply to the essay question.
If you have the prerogative to choose an essay question, then make sure you select a topic that is relevant and engaging at the same time. Here are certain things that you should keep in mind while choosing a good essay question to write your paper on.
1. Pick a topic that you have prior and in-depth knowledge about.
2. Choose a focused essay question that is specific about what it wants.
3. Take the path less travelled and zero down on a topic that is avoided by most.
4. Consider the audience you are writing for. As in, a serious topic for your professor but a casual question for a millennial audience.
5. Pick an essay question that has ample reliable data available on the internet and scholarly texts.
If you cannot think of any interesting topics to write elaborately on, here is a list of good essay questions that can help you make an impression.
1. What is the most crucial world problem that needs to be addressed?
2. Should cloning humans be banned?
3. Should organ donation be made mandatory?
4. How real is the hypothetical third world war?
5. Should the world be concerned about North Korea’s nuclear missions?
B. Family and Relationships
1. How does divorce affect the lives of children?
2. Can a single parent fulfil the duties of both the parents for a child?
3. Should surrogate parenting be allowed?
4. Do long-distance relationships survive the test of time?
5. How do grandparents affect our lives?
C. Technology and its gifts
1. How has social media changed our lives?
2. Will a robotic intervention mean danger to human lives?
3. How has the internet changed interpersonal relationships?
4. Mobile phones and cancer – are they interrelated?
5. Is technology making life at all better?
D. Education and Academia
1. Should college loans be changed to grants instead?
2. Should digital coursebooks replace textbooks?
3. Should gun control be made mandatory to curb mass school shootings?
4. Should sex education be made mandatory in schools?
5. How to train students against procrastination?
A good essay question can bring out the best of your creativity and give you a chance to show off your analytical skills. Just remember this – picking a good topic means winning half the battle. And when the essay question is given to you already, make sure you understand the depth of the question and analyze it thoroughly to write what is being asked.
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