Breaking it Down: Understanding the Question Leads to a Better Answer
"Discuss three ways Roosevelt’s New Deal changed the role of
the federal government in America.”
“Should George have taken Lenny’s life at the end of the book?
Justify your answer by citing specific material from Of Mice and Men.”
“Identify the various stages of the water cycle and describe what
happens at each of these stages.”
The dreaded essay question! That looming empty space on the test page,
waiting malevolently for evidence that you can actually talk about what
you have learned.
Some students will take a quick glance at what the question seems to
be about, and then quickly and incoherently unload whatever stray facts
come to mind. Others will ponder painfully, start, stop, and start again.
Strategies that help them analyze questions and understand how to approach
writing essay answers will give them a better handle on succeeding on
these test items.
The Strategy
Initially, students need help in dissecting essay questions so they can
verbalize to themselves exactly what is being asked of them. Then they
can take stock of what they know and determine how they can organize that
knowledge into an appropriate answer. Dissecting essay questions involves
the following steps.
Step 1: Start by brainstorming with students about what makes
essay questions difficult. Have them work with partners for a couple of
minutes to jot down problems and frustrations they experience when writing
essay answers. You’ll likely hear that essay answers take more work,
students aren’t sure what to write, they have trouble getting started,
the questions sap a lot of time during the test, and essay questions require
a lot of thinking. Some students will probably express a general concern
about their abilities to express themselves through writing.
Step 2: Next introduce the Question Dissection protocol. Emphasize
that essay questions contain considerable direction about how to structure
an acceptable answer, but students often overlook some of these clues.
The QD protocol leads students through a rapid step-by-step analysis of
an essay question. As you present the protocol, model using an essay question
that relates to material which students are currently studying (see box).
- Verb - Introduce typical test verbs that you plan on using on your
exams. Discuss, compare, contrast, describe, explain, criticize, evaluate,
summarize: all are commonly occurring test verbs that are often taken
for granted. Yet students may not be at all clear as to what type of
essay each of these verbs implies.
- Topic - Once students realize the type of answer that is mandated
by the question, they need to zero in on the knowledge domain that is
being tested. What segment of their learning needs to be recalled and
showcased in this question?
- List - Every essay question requires the listing, and elaboration,
of some type of information. It might be the causes for something, the
reasons why something happened, the ways something influenced, the steps
to, and so on. Identifying the list helps students narrow their focus
within the topic being tested.
- Number - Does the question specify or imply a certain number of things
that should be listed in your answer? Would a single reason, cause,
method, etc., be sufficient, or does the question request or imply multiple
items in the listing? If multiple, is a set number given (“three
reasons”) or is it open (“the causes” or “some ways”)?
- Order - In what order do you need to talk about the things you are
listing in your answer? Some questions will allow you to talk about
the information in whatever order you choose (random), but others imply
a sequence (“describe the steps you would follow to determine if
a substance is an acid or a base”).
- First Sentence - Once you have dissected the question so that you
clearly understand your task, begin your essay by rewriting the question
so that it becomes the first sentence of your answer. This gives students
momentum to begin writing and helps them deal with structuring an organized
response to the question.
Step 3: Students will need a great deal of modeling of Question
Dissections so that this strategy becomes an automatic response to tackling
essay questions. When this protocol is first introduced, it would be helpful
to include a prompt box on the exam so that students could quickly fill
in the information in the prompt box for the first five steps of the protocol
before they start writing their answer.
“Evaluate the effectiveness of three of the tactics used by the
civil rights movement to improve conditions for African-Americans in the
1950’s and 1960’s.”
- Verb - What is the test verb that you must use to organize your answer?
evaluate
- Topic - In what topic area are you asked to demonstrate your knowledge?
civil rights movement
- List - What things are you asked to list and talk about in your answer?
tactics used to improve conditions
- Number - How many things are you asked to list in your answer?
• single or multiple? multiple
• set number or open number? set number: three - Order - In what order do you need to list information in your answer?
• random or sequential? random - First Sentence - Rewrite the test question so it is the first sentence
of your essay.
“Three tactics used by the civil rights movement to improve conditions
for African-Americans in the 1950’s and 1960’s were . . . The
first tactic was effective in the following ways . . .”
Posted February 22, 2000