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Purposes for Asking Essay Questions

By Function

To ask the student to

• summarize writing
• address a thesis presented in the question
• manipulate data presented in (or prior to) the question
• manipulate a quandary posed in the question
• analyze a problem

By Type of Reasoning that is Promoted

To ask the student to

• test knowledge
• test comprehension
• promote higher order reasoning such as application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation

Characteristics of Effective In-Class Exam Questions

Specific Topic: Vague questions promote waffling and keep students from doing their best.

Topic Appropriate for Task: Demands of question should fit time allocation and type of response required.

Succint Questions: Better that students use time writing answers than deciphering questions.

New Information Nested in Old: New information introduced for the exam can be more effectively manipulated if the methodology being called upon is familiar.

Precise Language: Pay attention to the specific types of writing required of students.

Familiar Language: Introduce terminology prior to the exam.

Checklist for Designing and Evaluating Essay Exams

• Does this type of essay exam fit my course goals?
• Does the content of the questions match the purpose of the exam? To measure what students have learned? To prompt them to make new connections?
• Are the questions specific, demanding precise knowledge?
• Are questions brief, clear, and easy to understand?
• Are questions worded so as to suggest strategies for answers?
• Can the questions be answered satisfactorily in the allotted time?

Key Words in Essay Exams

Condensed from Writers, Inc.: A Guide to Writing, Thinking & Learning.

Analyze: to break down or put together aspects of a whole in order to determine its nature.

Apply: to put information to a special purpose.

Classify: to place similar persons or things together in a group.

Compare: to bring out points of similarity and difference, with emphasis on similarities.

Contrast: to stress differences.

Criticize: to point out the good points and the bad points of a situation or idea.

Define: to give a clear, concise identification of the class to which a term belongs and how it differs from other things in that class.

Describe: to recount or create a word picture in sequence or story form.

Diagram: to organize in a pictorial way flow chart, a map, or some other graphic.

Discuss: to examine and talk about an issue from all sides.

Enumerate: to write in list or outline form a set of related facts, ideas, or issues.

Evaluate: to make a statement of negative and/or positive worth and to back the statement with evidence.

Explain: to bring out into the open, to make clear, and to clarify.

Illustrate: to show by means of a picture, a diagram, or some other graphic aid, or to call forth specific examples or instances which create a verbal picture of a law, rule, or principle.

Interpret: to explain, translate, or show a specific application of a given fact or principle that is beyond previously cited examples or instances.

Justify: to tell, in a largely positive form, why a position or point of view is proper.

List: a formal numbering or sequencing.

Outline: to organize a set of facts or ideas in terms of main points and sub points.

Predict: to state what is likely to occur based upon the best current information or inference.

Prove: to give logical evidence as a base for clear, forthright argumentation.

Relate: to show how two or more things are connected because of similar characteristics or reasons.

Review: to examine or to summarize in chronological or in decreasing order of importance key characteristics of an overall body of facts, principles, or ideas.

State: to present a concise statement of a position, fact, or point of view.

Summarize: to present the main points of an issue in condensed form.

Synthesize: to put together parts to form a whole (possibly more complex than the sum of the parts).

Trace: to present in step-by-step sequence a series of facts which are somehow related either in terms of time, order of importance, or cause and effect.