How to Write Better Essays

abilities to analyse difficult concepts and arguments, to synthesise

ideas and evidence drawn from a range of different sources, to con-

struct consistent arguments, and to discuss and evaluate the ideas and

arguments of others.

These are not the ‘What’, ‘How’ and ‘Describe’ questions that would

be more appropriate for assessing our ability to recall information. This

would assume that there are right answers, whereas in fact there are

none at this level. As one tutor at the University of Oxford makes clear

in the guidance he gives to his students:

It is never a question of coming to the ‘right’ answer (though you can

expect a tutor to defend his or her position if it differs from yours) but

rather of demonstrating that you understand what the issue is about and

that you can produce a well-reasoned, balanced and critical argument

concerning it.^1

64 Interpretation of the Question

Practice exercise 6

Syllabus objectives

Get a copy of the syllabus for each of the courses you’re taking. Then,

underline the passages that describe the syllabus objectives. For this

exercise ignore the description of the course content, the topics the

course will be covering. You’re interested just in the abilities that the

course sets out to develop, which will be assessed in the examination.

See if you can assess what proportion of the marks in the examina-

tion will be awarded for the recall of knowledge and for the other abil-

ities. Some syllabuses will give the actual percentages, others are not so

helpful. If this is the case, then ask your tutor. Ultimately, of course, the

best guide is the type of question that’s set on the examination paper.

So, again, look at past papers.

Even so, we still have to show that we understand and can recall the

facts, the core knowledge at the heart of the subject. But for most

syllabuses that employ essays as a mode of assessment this comprises

as little as 30–40 per cent of the mark. Examiners want to see us use

our abilities, so even though we may come to a conclusion that the

examiner disagrees with, this should not affect our mark, because we’re

not working with a syllabus that assumes there are indisputable right

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