that when you are in a pressured examination situation or pushed to
produce a coursework assignment?
Answer: Because it will pay off in the long run in terms of the relevance,
organisation and clarity of your essay.
Think about occasions when in everyday conversation you are asked
your opinion about something or about how to do something. Isn’t your
answer more likely to be well-received when you give the matter some
thought before you jump in with both feet?
It is the same with essays, whether they are for coursework assignments
or timed answers in classroom or examination situations. A little prior
thought which is transformed into brief notes will pay dividends.
WHAT ARE YOU BEING ASKED TO DO?
Whatever the form of the assignment you are given, you have to focus on
the specific task you are being asked to perform: not what you would like
the task or subject to be, but the actual task the question is asking you to
perform. Forget the fact that you know a great deal about particularaspects of a subject and focus your energies on answering on the exact
topic you have been asked about. You don’t make up the assignments you
are set, your examiners do! So give them what they want, not the answer
you would like to write, but the answer you’ve been asked to write.
That means reading the words of the question or the assignment with
great care. Remember, give the examiners what they want, a response to
the task they have set. Many a student has come a cropper by misreading
the assignment or question and banging down almost all they know
about a subject, regardless of whether it is relevant or
not. Your essay may be absolutely brilliant in its own
way, but if it’s not an essay written in answer to the
set task, then you can kiss a good grade goodbye.
Answer the specific question that is set, not some other
question that you might like to be answering. Relevance
is all!
EXAMPLES
• Consider this literature question.
Why does Shakespeare’s Hamlet delay carrying out his revenge for
the murder of his father?
What are you being asked to do here?
To help you decide that, a useful approach is to underline three or four
key words from the question. Why? Because that will focus your
thinking on the approach you need to take and concentrate your mind on
giving the examiners what they want.
Why does Shakespeare’s Hamlet delay carrying out his revenge for the
murder of his father?
Consider the words that have been underlined from the question.
Underlining ‘Why’ reminds you are being asked for an explanation of
Hamlet’s motives.
Underlining ‘Hamlet’ reminds you it is Hamlet’s motives for his
behaviour that are relevant, not the motives of some other character.
Underlining ‘delay’ reminds you the question is about the reasons for his
delay in carrying out the revenge.
Underlining ‘revenge’ focuses on the subject of the task that Hamlet has
been given.
• Consider this history assignment.
What were the origins of the First World War?
What are you being asked to do here? What is your task? How can you
give the examiners an answer in essay form that the examiners want? To
help you decide, underline key words from the question.
What were the origins of the First World War?
By underlining ‘origins’ and ‘First World War’, you have focused your
thinking on the events that led to the outbreak of the war, not some other
aspect of the war or the course of the war itself. You may know an
enormous amount about the First World War as a whole, but the only
relevant information you need to answer this question are the reasons for
the outbreak of the war. Don’t show off the breadth of your knowledge
just for the sake of it. Pick and choose well. Sift through the knowledge
you have and apply it in a relevant manner to the assignment.
• Consider this Media Studies question.
Should the government intervene to prevent different media
(newspapers, magazines, television and radio channels) from being
owned and controlled by a few media moguls?
Consider what you are being asked to do here. What are the key areas
you would need to focus on? Would these underlined words help you to
focus on the task that has been set?
Should the government intervene to prevent different media
(newspapers, magazines, television and radio channels) from being
largely owned and controlled by a few media moguls?
More words have been underlined than in the two examples above
because it is a longer and more complex question. The words
‘government intervene’ have been underlined to focus on who or what
should be or should not be intervening. The words ‘different media’
emphasises that you are being asked to consider several forms of media.
The words ‘owned and controlled’ reminds you the question is about
who holds the power in the media, and ‘few media moguls’ tells you to
deal with the question of media power residing in the hands of a few
people.
By underlining these key words, you should have focused your thoughts
on the specific question you have been asked to discuss.
Whether it be a coursework assignment or a question in a examination
paper, the best way to focus your thinking at the start is by underlining
the key words of the question or assignment.
Having read the question or assignment, always underline
the key words that will focus your thoughts on answering
the assigment appropriately and relevantly.
PRACTICE
1. In the following assignments or questions, underline the key words
that would help you focus on what exactly you are being asked to do.
a) Argue the case for or against the banning of smoking in all
public places.
b) Which is your favourite character from the set books you have
read? Give your reasons for your choice and an analysis of how
the character is represented by the author.
c) How did the Vietnam War expose some of the rifts in American
society of the 1960s and 70s?
d) What does the term ‘post-feminism’ mean and do you agree or
disagree that we are now living in a ‘post-feminist era’?
2. Look at some examination papers in different subject areas and
consider the questions. Underline the key words that would have
helped you answer them.
