Different types of essay question you might encounter

• Essay questions are worded in a variety of different ways. It is important for you to realise that each question requires some kind of analysis and interpretation, in order to determine an appropriate way of responding to it. Here are some of the different kinds of essay question which you might encounter:
  

  - A direct question:

Is Dr. Faustus a morality play without a moral?

To what extent does Richardson manage to preserve in his novel Pamela the guilty pleasures of reading someone else’s letters?

Do you consider the love poetry of this period to be misogynistic?

- A critical proposition and an invitation to discuss it:

'Satire, in order to succeed, must give offence.' Do you agree?

'Morality structure provides a dramatic form for the exposition of a moral argument.' Discuss with reference to Everyman and/or Dr. Faustus.

- A direct instruction to examine a particular subject/issue (inviting you to think about the place of something specific within the larger text):

Discuss the importance of the device of soliloquy in one or two of the Renaissance tragedies you have studied.

Compare the ways which two of these novelists use out of doors scenes: Fielding, Shelley, Austen, Charlotte or Emily Bronte.

Discuss the representation of women in the poetry of this period (1550-1750).

- A general question which specifies a text, author or genre for you to write about but which does not indicate any particular issue to look at, such as:

Write an essay on Milton's Paradise Lost.

• As you can see, these different types of essay question vary in terms of how specifically they define what it is that you are required to look at in your essay. The first two types of question listed above suggest specific issues which your essay will need to discuss and also introduce a particular critical point of view on those issues which you are expected to respond to in some way. Essay questions which are like the third and fourth types listed above are much more open ended, and require you to do more initial thinking to work out the exact subject and scope of your essay.

• Regardless of the way in the essay question is worded, each one requires you to analyse and interpret it before you can commence writing the essay: do not just assume you know what it means and rush into giving an answer.

What's in this part of the guide		Analysing the essay question