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How to properly answer a question

 

Your answer must open by restating the topic of the question.

 

For example, if the question is:

 

Is George the villain of the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck?

 

One should open the answer in this manner:

 

In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck George is a villain…

 

As you can see, the answer opens in such a way that it implies the question that was posed and immediately states the stance of your writing.

 

Often students will instead open an answer by writing something like:

 

Well, no he wasn’t…

 

Opening an answer in this manner is not only informal and sloppy; it leaves your reader confused about the topic of your writing. Writing must be precise and clear at all times. Any points of vagueness or ambiguity weaken and undermine your stance. You must therefore open by stating the essential information.

 

Using Quotations

When analyzing literature it is essential that you extract quotations from the text that you are analyzing/ interpreting. Quotations in this context serve as evidence/ proof of the claim/ argument being proposed in your work. Without quotes your argument can basically be distilled to ‘take my word for it’—which is an inadequate defense of any premise worth writing about in the first place.

 

Once the quote has been offered, your work is not finished. You must then explain to your reader what it proves and why.

 

Closing Sentences

The final sentence unavoidably doubles as the Closing Sentence. The closing sentence restates the stance/ main argument of the paragraph. For example, you might begin to close a paragraph in the following way;

 

Thus, it should now be evident that George was the villain of the novel…