Question 2 requires you to evaluate the evidence that the trends you have identified were caused by changes to national educational policy. Here you need to present an argument.
Question 3 requires you to consider at least one other possible explanation for the trends you have identified. Here too you need to present an argument.
Tips
Writing your own essay question
Sometimes you may be asked to write you own essay question. This is more likely to be the case towards the end of your course when you have had some experience of writing research essays. To write an essay question you can follow steps which are similar to those involved in interpreting a set essay question. Select:
1 The topic: the general area you want to investigate.
2 The focus: what you want to find out about the topic.
3 The approach: how you are going to investigate it.
Choosing a topic
You will probably spend a lot of time and effort on your research, so it is important to pick a topic that interests you. However, your topic should also be relevant to your course. You need to use your essay assignment to demonstrate that you can think more deeply about an issue covered in your lectures and/or reading.
If you have difficulty identifying a suitable topic, try looking at your course outline and lecture notes. List the topics that are most interesting to you and that seemed important to your lecturers. Put your list away for a time. When you come back to it, see what grabs your attention most.
Narrowing the topic down
Once you have chosen a topic, you need to narrow it down until you have a focus. If you write about a topic without first identifying your focus, you will probably end up conveying a lot of information without examining it in any depth.
Glossary
impact The impact that something has on a situation, process, or person is a sudden and powerful effect that it has on them.
Before you start your research, you need to think about what aspect of the topic is most interesting to you. For example, if you want to write about the topic of the internet, you may decide to focus on: the impact of the internet on how people relate to others.
This is a good start, but the topic is still rather broad. One method for narrowing your topic further is to highlight the key words and list specific words under those categories:
For example: the impact of the internet on how people relate to others
Under internet you might list: online gaming, social networking, or access to information.
Under people: children between six and ten, adolescents, young men from disadvantaged backgrounds, people who spend more than five hours per day online, etc.
Under relate to others: form friendships, maintain face-to-face social networks, perceive authority figures, see themselves in relation to others, etc.
This method can generate more than one focus from which to choose:
| For example: | the impact of online social networking on how adolescents form friendships. |
| or: | the impact of online gaming on how children between six and ten see themselves in relation to others. |
However, make sure that you do not narrow your question down too much. If your focus is too narrow, you may not be able to find enough information to research it properly.
Imagine that you are interested in researching why some films become very successful .
Narrow down the highlighted key words.
1 What type of films could you focus on?
2 What are the different ways you could define ‘successful’?
Choosing an approach
Once you have identified your focus, you need to decide on your approach, that is, how you are going to investigate it. To do this, it is helpful to rewrite your focus as a question. Sometimes there are several possible questions. The type of question that you ask will determine your approach.
For example, you could write the phrase: the impact of online social networking on how adolescents form friendships as the question: Does online social networking affect how adolescents form friendships?
Glossary
notion A notion is an idea or belief about something.
This question requires you to present an argument. You need to evaluate the evidence for the notion that online social networking has an effect as well as the evidence against and come to your own conclusion.
Alternatively, you could rewrite the question as: How does online social networking affect the way adolescents form friendships?
This question assumes that there is an effect. Your task is to analyse and explain that effect.
When deciding your approach, it is helpful to consider the context of your assignment. Discuss your title with people who are familiar with your course. Do some preliminary reading to find out what sorts of questions other scholars are asking about the topic.
You may also find it useful to break your focus down into several related questions:
For example: Does online gaming affect the way children see themselves in relation to others?
If so, to what extent does online gaming affect …
In what ways does online gaming affect …
Write an essay question of your own following steps 1–4 below.
1 Choose a general topic that interests you.
2 Identify your focus – write down what aspect of the topic interests you most.
3 Narrow down