Lecturer Y. Chorfi
Writing Class
2nd Year Students
Academic Year 2019/20
Analysing & Answering the Assignment Question
“It’s not enough to be busy … The question is: What are you busy about?” H.D. Thoreau
Reckless writing is the result of students being eager to hand in response or timed
essays. They too often take, for instance, the assignment question for granted, and take
only a pass at analysing it. Indeed, understanding the key words of an assignment question
is of paramount importance as failing to interpret the prompt may lead to a coherent piece
of writing framed with well-structured sentences, shaped with beautiful vocabulary, but it
may lack unity. It is really vain to write an essay that misses the point! Consequently, one
of the steps that should be followed by students for a good timed writing is to read the
question carefully (Murray 2012; Wyrick 2011).
How to read an assignment question?
Let’s say you are in class ready to write. The first thing you have to do is to read the
assignment carefully. When reading the assignment, three elements have to be identified:
the subject, limiting words and direction words (Murray 2012). The subject: all assignment
questions do have key words that tell you the theme of the question. Limiting words: they
are words which indicate the topic of the general subject you will focus on particularly; they
limit the scope of your discussion. Direction words: these are words which tell you what to
do within the topic, in other words which method of development you might use to
organize your response or timed essay.
In the examples below the subject is underlined, the limiting words are double
underlined and the
direction
Using examples, explain
words are boxed:
the differences between lexical ambiguity and structural
ambiguity. (Method of development: Contrast analysis by examples) (Murray, 2012, p. 47).
Explain
President Truman’s reasons for bombing Japan during World War II and then
defend or attack Truman’s decision. (Method of development: Causal analysis and argument)
(Wyrick, 2011, p. 447).
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Task 1
Analyse the following assignment questions by identifying subject, limitation word(s)
and direction word(s)
1. Using examples, explain the difference between a pidgin and a creole and discuss some of
the factors that lead to the development of pidgins.
2. Describe what we can learn from the language of brain-damaged people about how
language processing occurs.
3. Explain, with the help of examples, how we express politeness through the structure of
what we say or write.
4. Discuss the role of motherese in child language acquisition.
Source (Murray, 2012, p. 48).
References
Murray, N. (2012). Writing essays in English language and linguistics: Principles, tips and
strategies for undergraduates. Cambridge University Press.
Wyrick, J. (2011). Steps to writing well with additional readings (8th ed.).
Wardsworth Cengage Learning.
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