jacketpotato
10) How so I answer an essay question?
The key point to make is that you need to answer the question. Essay questions are not an invitation to write all you know about a particular topic. Be completely focused on the question. Trying to pre-prepare exactly what essay you are going to write in the exam is a really awful idea: the questions you get asked will vary in important respects each year: you need to be able to adopt an appropriate structure for the particular question. Uni exam questions generally look at something which is controversial. You need to have an awareness of what the controversy is, and for this it is often very helpful to have an idea of what different academics think. This means reading journal articles in addition to your textbook.
There are two main approaches I recommend for writing essays. You can also use a hybrid.
1) Extended list format.
If the question asks "Why", you run through the different reasons. If the question asks "Explain", you run through the different explanations. If the question says "What theories have been put forward to explain X", run through the different theories put forward to explain X.
You need to try and do three things. 1) Run through a reasonably wide variety of relevant reasons/theories/explanations, one to a paragraph; 2) evaluate how convincing the reason/theory/explanation is and point out any particular problems with that reason/theory/explanation; 3) In your conclusion compare the different reasons/theories/explanations and decide which one is the strongest. You may well find that they all have some merit but none of them are quite adequate.
You need to express and justify an opinion, preferably by reference to the academic literature. If the question asks "Why", consider which of the reasons are most important. If the question asks "Explain", consider which explanation is the most convincing. And so on.
2) Comparitive structure / split two-sided structure
This is often appropriate where the question gives you a controversial statement and says "discuss". It basically goes:
- Intro
- Section saying yes, the statement is right
- Section saying no, the statement is wrong
- Conclusion
In essence, you play devil's advocate. It is appropriate where there are two diamterically opposed viewpoints - for instance, one viewpoint might say that the decision in case X is good, one viewpoint says that the decision in case X is bad. You spend half the essay arguing that case X is good, and spend the other half arguing that case X is bad, and run through the different points that people might raise in support of each position. In your conclusion you compare the arguments and decide which side is more convincing.
3) Hybrid structure
At degree level, its probably best to use a mix of 1) and 2) for these controversial "Discuss" questions. This structure is particularly appropriate where the essay asks something that is very wide ranging and that involves a number of different themes. It is not appropriate if the essay is focused on a particular issue. So what you do is have a split structure in each paragraph, but organise the essay thematically. For example:
- Intro
- Section on legal certainty containing two short paragraphs. One says that the decision/theory/whatever is uncertain and that this is a problem, the other says that certainty isn't too much of a problem
- A section on whether the statement is desirable as a matter of principle. One paragraph saying yes, one saying no.
- A section on whether the statement is consistent with Human Rights. One paragraph saying yes, one saying no.
- Conclusion
What you are trying to do is split the essay into different themes or different areas of controversy, and are then playing devil's advocate within each theme or within each controversy. Your conclusion should draw these threads together and try to reach some sort of general conclusion. For instance, in the above example, you might conclude that legal certainty isn't too much of a problem, but that issues of principle and that issues of Human Rights are.
The important thing is that you should be able to note down a little plan like that BEFORE YOU START WRITING THE ESSAY. Before you start writing the question, just scribble down your structure before you start writing, and have some idea of the time you want to spend on each section.