Dissecting the Prompt

The Secret to Building a Great Essay Answer

Prof. Randee Baty at The Lukeion Project

    The farther you progress in school, the more likely you are to encounter the dreaded essay question on a test. Essay questions make students long for the days of multiple choice and fill in the blanks. For some students, the words “essay question” alone strike fear in them. However, there is a method for answering essay questions that will remove much of the concern when your teacher tells you the next exam will contain one of these beasts. Yes, studying is the most necessary part of preparing for any test, but the next key step in dealing with an essay question is to properly dissect the prompt.

    Much, probably most, of the time, when students do poorly on the essay portion of an exam, it comes down to not having answered the question that was asked. You may have plenty of valuable information on the topic, but if it doesn’t answer the correct question, the grade will not be what the student is looking for. Two issues tend to crop up. The first is not answering all parts of the question, and the second is not actually answering the question at all. Let’s get specific with some examples on how to properly dissect a prompt. This first example is from a previous AP Literature and Language exam.

    Choose a character from a novel or play of recognized literary merit and write an essay in which you (a) briefly describe the standards of the fictional society in which the character exists and (b) show how the character is affected by and responds to those standards. In your essay do not merely summarize plot.

    First, notice that you are writing about a character. You aren’t writing about setting, theme, the author, your likes or dislikes, or whether you disagree with the work. You are writing about a character, so you answer must directly talk about one character all the way through. Don’t get distracted by other aspects of the novel or play.

    Second, you are asked to briefly describe the standards of that character’s society. “Briefly” probably means about two sentences or three at the most. Again, don’t get distracted by giving commentary on whether those standards were good, bad, or otherwise. You are only asked to describe them as background for the second part of the question. If you don’t give this information, you will have missed one of the key elements of the question, so give the brief description.

    Third, show how your character is affected by or responds to those standards. I’ll say this one more time. You are not being asked what you think of those standards. You are writing about your character’s reaction to them. This is the heart of the question. Stay relentlessly focused on what is actually being asked in the question, and don’t allow yourself to move off-topic into areas the professor hasn’t asked about. 

 Our second example is from a former AP US History Exam:

Evaluate the extent to which the migration of European colonists and the resulting encounters with American Indians affected social patterns in the period from 1495 to 1650.

    First, notice a word that professors love right at the beginning of the question. “Evaluate.” This is not “describe” or “review” or anything that would bring about a simple recitation of the facts. This word, right here as the first word of the question, tells you that you will be giving an analysis. Facts won’t be enough. Prepare to take the question apart and dig in.

    Second, notice that you are looking at the migration of European colonists. Talking about British colonists wouldn’t be enough. You’ll need to cover more than just one country, and you would need to talk about their movements. “Migration” is necessarily about movement.

    Third, you will talk about specific encounters in a specific time period. What is happening today with Native Americans isn’t relevant. We’re talking about the effect on social patterns only from 1495-1650.

    Last, social patterns is the heart of the question. Address social patterns as specifically as possible. It’s just a matter of reading the question thoroughly and actually answering the prompt.

Final Tips:

    Once you have analyzed a prompt and know exactly what you are being asked to answer, you can confidently begin to craft that answer. Creating a quick outline for yourself is one of my strongest recommendations. Once you read a prompt, many ideas may jump into your brain, but once you start writing, they will begin to fade. Before you write the first word of your answer, jot those ideas down on a piece of scratch paper before they disappear. This takes about 30 seconds, so don’t worry that you won’t have enough time to write if you do this. Having those ideas jotted down in a quick, informal outline will keep you on track as you start to write. Glance over at that list as you finish each point and confidently move on to the next one. The regret of thinking “I forgot that one point I wanted to make” as you walk out of the exam will rarely happen if you take those 30 seconds to write down your first ideas as they come.

    Leave yourself at least a couple of minutes to proofread your answer at the end. Again, students worry that they will run out of time, and you may, but if the answer isn’t grammatically correct and easy for the professor to follow, it won’t matter how much you write. Proofread your answer.

    You can reach a point where essay questions aren’t scary at all if you study and go into the exam with a plan. Dissect the prompt to ensure that you answer every part asked and that you actually answer the question the professor is asking. Professors will love you for it.