Thank you for continuing your journey with us in Task two of the writing section.
Right now we're going to cover a very, very important topic, which is question analysis.
So we need to understand the problem.
Students very often mess up their score for two main reasons before the writing process starts.
One is question analysis and the other is outlining.
When a student fails to do a proper question analysis and fails to do a fundamental outline before starting
the writing process.
That often results in low scores on the rubric in terms of task, development and coherence.
Doing a proper analysis is critical to scoring well, so that's what I'm going to cover in this particular
lecture.
So when it comes to question analysis in this lecture section, we're going to talk about reasons why
students get poor essay scores.
What does it mean when a person tells you to read a question carefully, the question analysis process,
and then giving you an opportunity to practice question analysis.
So some reasons why students get really low scores.
Number one, failing to take the time to read the question or in other words, failing to take time
to analyze the question, to do a proper analysis of the question.
Number two, your writing focus is about the general topic of the question and not the limiting language
writing about the wrong question type.
And number four, not recognizing the question restriction or not recognizing the limiting language
of an essay question.
Every essay question has limiting language has restricting language.
They're never going to tell you.
Write an essay about the Internet.
Right.
It will be some specific aspect of the Internet, social media giving information, online privacy,
criminality, some specific aspect of the Internet, not the general topic of the Internet.
So when you look at a question, you need to understand the question restriction.
So let's talk about just the concept of question analysis.
When you write an essay, when you answer a question, you must demonstrate understanding.
Understanding is what relates to task development and task achievement.
So to do that, you need to correctly identify the focus of the question.
You must deal with that focus consistently with with throughout the entire essay that you're writing.
You must answer that question.
Examiners complain all the time that students don't answer the question.
The only answer parts of it.
Or they talk about it in a very general way.
So question analysis is critical.
So let's talk about the process.
And on the exam, you would mentally do this question analysis process.
However, you can also write it down on your on your note paper or whatever.
I like to write it down because having it in front of me allows for me to stay focused and stay inside
the box of the question.
So a basic question analysis involves three parts.
Number one, what is the general essay topic?
The macro topic.
Number two, what is the restrictive limiting keyword or what are the restrictive limiting key words
in a question?
That's the micro topic like I talked about before, the internet might be the macro topic.
Giving or providing personal information online could be the micro topic, the limiting language.
And lastly, part three, a basic question analysis involves recognizing the instruction or direction
words agree or disagree.
Discuss both sides, advantages or disadvantages, problem or solution.
Now for this class, we're going to talk about two other aspects of question analysis, and that involves
the question parts, because often on the exam, students mess up.
How many parts are to a question?
A question can have one part, two parts, three parts.
And when you don't write about all parts of the question, that really messes up your score.
Also, we're going to discuss how students mess up or confuse answering a question.
I think it's really important for you to look at and for us to examine what are different ways the students
mess up the question so that you don't make those same mistakes.
So here's an example of two questions we have here.
Some people think that being creative during your time off is helpful.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this and give your opinion.
Right.
Also, we're looking at how do students mess up answering this question.
The second question is some people believe that to reduce industrial pollution, a tax should be imposed
on companies, while others believe that different measures should be taken to solve the problem.
Discuss both sides and give your opinion.
So this is what a proper analysis would look like.
For the first question, the general essay topic is free time.
What do you do during free time?
The restriction being creative, the instruction or direction words are advantage disadvantaged opinion.
This has three parts.
For our second question.
The general topic is pollution.
That's the macro topic.
Now we have our restricting language about pollution.
We're talking about reduction, industrial pollution, tax companies and other solutions.
Other measures are instruction or direction.
Words discussed both and opinion.
Again, three parts.
Finally, how do students mess up answering the question for our first one?
One way is by discussing something other than being creative during free time.
You are limited to only talking about the advantages, disadvantages and your opinion about being creative
during your free time.
If you talk about any other thing, any other aspect other than being creative, you are wrong.
For our second one.
One way the students mess up is by not discussing both sides in a balanced way.
In addition, I've seen this many times before talking about pollution outside of an industrial pollution
context.
The question is clearly talking about reducing industrial pollution.
If you talk about any other type of pollution that's not industrial, you have messed up the question.
And finally, failing to clearly expand an opinion.
Too many times I see students writing one sentence opinions to sentence opinions.
Give a fully explained opinion if you want to score well.
Okay.
So coming up next, we're going to go ahead and move through some question analysis, practice.
This is a practice opportunity for you.
We're going to do this in this lecture.
I'm going to show you the question and then you're going to do an analysis.
And you should try to talk about or write down how you think a student would mess up the question.
So let's get started.