Essay questions provide keywords that guide students about the details they are required to present in their essays. A student needs to identify the keywords and use them to create an attractive essay topic. It helps them use the right sources that will help answer the essay question in the entire text.
Essay questions assess the understanding of a student and their critical thinking ability while handling the question. The question also assesses the writing skills of a student and whether they can stay within the topic/question. Lecturers assign different types of essay questions throughout the course time.
What Is The Purpose of Essay Questions In Academic Writing?
Lecturers design different essay questions to achieve four main purposes from students. The process of writing an essay may seem daunting to many students but professionals from college paper writing service can help write quality papers.
- Testing Factual Recall Abilities of a Student: In the classroom, students are taught many things but lecturers expect them to recall the main facts of a subject. It requires the learners to use cognitive skills to remember detailed facts and argue them out in a paper.
- Testing Analysis Ability: Learners should develop abilities to explain things and show how they are interrelated. This is achieved through wide research knowledge using the right sources.
- Synthesis Ability: Apart from analysis ability, lecturers test whether their students understand how to apply research or what they have learned in real-life situations. They should successfully transfer principles they have learned in the past and use them in current research and writing.
- Ability to Give Opinions: After researching and writing, the learner should have the ability to think beyond the classroom and provide practical opinions based on their research.
Types of Essay Questions in Academic Writing
The main types of essay questions are based on the 4 areas of testing applied by lecturers to students. When approaching each question, the student needs to understand what type of question it is and the response expected. For better understanding, the writers need to study several essay questions examples to get ideas for different question designs. The main issues to consider are as follows:
- What is the question asking?
- What kind of information is required?
- What is the best approach to answering the question?
The Four Common Types of Questions to Expect
Identify Questions: To identify means to recognize something or someone beyond any doubts. The lecturer may ask a question like “identify what species this seedling belongs to.” You may not be required to provide a fully detailed response. Giving short response answers can make the lecturer fully satisfied. The type of questions under this category can be:
- State the main attributes
- Summarize the concept/idea
- Describe the meaning
- List the features
Keywords for this question to note are:
- State
- List
- Differentiate
- Summarize
- Define
- Characterize
Compare Questions: When answering essay questions that require providing comparison, you are required to give pride to the following:
- Compare two or more subjects
- Discuss their similarities
- Provide details of their differences
- Explain how they are connected
Examples of compare questions:
- Should medics prescribe chemical drugs or not?
- How does modern culture differ from 1900s culture?
- What makes invasive species thrive better in foreign habitats?
Keywords for comparing questions
- Relate
- Compare
- Contrast
- Differentiate
Explain Questions: These types of questions require writers to research deeply and provide detailed information about the question. Writers should have the ability to develop the best topics even if the lecturer provides short essay questions to them.
Types of explaining essay questions to expect
- Analyze the relationship between the development of cities and pollution
- Examine the effects of culture on civilization growth
- Clarify how poverty is related to a lack of education
- Identify the main effects of cloning on the health of organisms
Keywords for explaining questions
- Justify
- Discuss
- Define
- Illustrate
- Assess
- Elaborate
Argue Questions: Argue questions require writers to understand the question and take a position. There are many short essay questions examples a student can consider studying for ideas.
Types of argue questions
- Should equality between men and women be promoted?
- Should college education be free?
- Should some rules govern the dress code while in public?
Keywords for argue questions
- Prove
- Justify
How to Answer Essay Questions
The most important thing when answering essay questions is to understand the question. You need to read the question between the lines and severally before answering. Look for the key verbs in the question, such as contrast, define, clarify, and solve. Based on the verb in question, brainstorm the expected answer. Highlight the keywords and decide how you will answer the question. You can either restate the question or use a thesis/topic question to answer it. When answering it, follow the guidelines of academic writing, such as citations, margins, and fonts.
General Rules When Answering an Essay Question
Most essays consist of five paragraphs although there are longer ones. No matter the length of your essay, you must remember they all contain a title, introduction, body, and conclusion. The common spacing rule is double spacing but some lecturers may request single-spaced essays.
Analyzing the question may require you to take time in brainstorming or research where you study several essay questions examples. Record the information as you research and develop an essay topic from it. Based on the topic, identify the best sources to use and research further. Develop your thesis statement and ensure it answers the essay question.
The rest of the essay should not detour from the essay statement because it answers the key question. Each point in the body should connect back to the thesis and provide a broader view of the question. The conclusion restates the thesis statement and provides your final opinion on the points discussed in the body.
Conclusion
Essay assignments contain essay questions that test several things in a student. They test the student’s ability to recall facts and discuss them in writing. It tests the learner's skills in analyzing the question and proving a synthesis based on situations outside the question. Some questions may require a restricted response, while others allow a broad-based response. The student must understand the question, do research and provide relevant answers as expected.
