HOW TO ANSWER ESSAY AND SHORT ANSWERS QUESTIONS

ESSAY QUESTIONS:
Essay question are the most dreaded by many students.Many students feel they must write a lot in other to be awarded the most possible points.this is far from the truth.Teachers are generally looking for per-determined,very specific information.Your grade is determined by the amount of that information your essay provides.Essay questions should be answered in three parts.

The first paragraph should answer the question directly,telling your teacher what points the essay will contain.Then you should devote one paragraph to each point.Finally,your last paragraph should summarize your answer by restating your major points.

Many students find answering examination questions difficult and disorienting.often,this anxiety arises from a lack of proper guidance. i offer below some friendly advice,applicable to most classes,on how to write good answers to examination questions.

HOW TO WRITE A GOOD ANSWER

1.Before you start writing an answer{and this applies equally to short and long essays},read the question carefully.What is the question really asking? What kind of issues is it asking me to address? What absorption lie behind the question itself? If you don't take the time to figure out what is being asked,you wont write an accurate answer.

2.Figure out what you know: what are the most useful sources of information i can use to answer this question?what data or evidence best supports my arguments?is this questions looking for specific answers or an arguments?

3.Organize and outline: when writing a longer essay,you decide before you start writing how you will present the information you know in a way that will best answer the question.if you just start writing,you will not be making an arguments A helpful model to follow is the classical essay style;opening this paragraphs body of arguments,conclusion.A no argument or badly organized one usually means a bad score.

4.Essays are not a matter of opinion: While a long essay question is an opportunity for you to present an argument,the argument should reflect your deep understanding of the course material in a manner demonstrating both familiarity and comprehension.Thus,your opinion should be one that reflects the development of a reasonable level of expertise in the main themes of the course.its the evidence of deeper understanding that professors looks for in a good answer.

ESSAY WRITING HABITS LEADING TO POOR PERFORMANCE.

1.The jargon-Master:The person has learnt lots of funny new vocabulary words during the semester,most of which they don't fully understand and hopes to mystify the reader with their impressive display of verbiage.While this person often employs this strategy to fascinate their roommates,their professor actually knows what the words means.

2.The mind dumpers:This person has accumulated vast quantities of information, but has no sense of what is importance or relevant.they are determined to inflicts all of this information upon the instructor,no matter what the question asks.Usually this person has spent a day cramming information into the recesses of their brain,but has not develop a real understanding of it.this problem can be avoided by careful reading the question and studying ahead of time.

3.The magician:The persons skills lies in their ability to transform the question asked on the exam into the question thy have prepared themselves to answer.

4.The mimic: This persons seems to believe that the instructor has a short memory.They repeat the question in their answer,just to remind the feeble minded professor of the topic.This strategy has four drawbacks.One,it wastes valuable time writing unnecessary words.Two, it usually indicates a lack of organization.There,this person often forgets to answer the question, thinking that rephrasing it is not enough.