Analysing and answering essay-based exam questions
For the following activity, you can use questions from a specimen paper, past papers or even questions you have devised for yourself.
Activity 9
Exam questions for essay-based courses often contain ‘process words’. These require you to organise what you know about a topic in a particular way. The mark you obtain for your answer will, to a large degree, reflect your success in interpreting the instruction contained within the question’s process words.
Using Table 1, check out your understanding of a selection of ‘process words’. These are frequently found in essay-based exam questions. Note down what you think each word means. The meaning of the first process word is filled in as an example.
| Process word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Account for | Explain, clarify, give reasons for |
| Analyse | |
| Assess | |
| Compare | |
| Contrast | |
| Compare and contrast | |
| Criticise | |
| Define | |
| Describe | |
| Discuss | |
| Distinguish / Differentiate between | |
| Evaluate | |
| Examine the argument that | |
| Explain | |
| How far / To what extent | |
| Illustrate | |
| Justify | |
| Outline | |
| State | |
| Summarise | |
| What arguments can be made for and against this view? |
Discussion
When you have completed the table, have a look at Table 2 in the next section on ‘Process words’. This shows a completed version of the table. You can use it to compare with your answers.