In my first article entitled 'How to teach essay writing, I addressed the opening sections of such a teaching session. In that article, I introduced a topic, stated the general objective or aims and discussed the following specific objectives.

Students should be able to: 'Tell how they benefit from essay writing' and 'identify the steps or stages involved in the process of writing an essay. In this second article in the series, I explain what is involved in teaching the various steps of writing an essay, introduced in the first article.

Specifically, I outline how to teach step 1 which is the analysis of an essay question or topic.

Step 1: Analyzing your essay question or topic



To encourage students' participation commence with a large or whole group discussion question: Do you think it is important to analyse your essay question, if 'NO', say why? If "YES" say why? (Give students 3 seconds to think!).


Make a note of students' suggestions and summarize and tell the students or visually display the summary of their suggestions.


Here are some reasons for a question or topic analysis to share with the students (if necessary).




Gives you a clear idea of what the question is asking.

Gives you an idea of what your teacher is looking for

Gives you a chance to begin to include your own thoughts


How to analyse the question:


Identify the keywords or concepts of the essay title.

These are what you will need to research, that is, what you are expected to write about.

Identify any built-in assumptions in the essay title.

Note limitations such as length of essay(1500, words or 500 words or a period of time included in a question such as, 'Examine keyboard improvisational techniques during the baroque period')


Here is an example: 'Discuss the connection between reflective teaching and critical literacy.

Keywords/concepts are underline in the topic.

Remember, nursing homework help these are words you will need to know the meaning of and this understanding should be fully displayed in your writing.

Built-in assumption: there is a link between reflective teaching and critical literacy

Discuss: The word discuss is a task word which indicates how you are to approach the question. To discuss is to give reasons for and against; investigate and examine by argument, present a point of view.

Your opinion must be supported by carefully chosen authoritative evidence.

Student activity: Question or topic analysis exercise (Small group work)

Teacher: Group students in five or more depending on the number of students in your class-- then show and tell them the following:


Construct an essay question

Discuss what you consider to be the keywords or concepts.

Analyse what you think are the main implications and/or assumptions of the questions.

Choose a group leader who will share the results of the activity with the whole class.


Teacher: Set your own time limit for this student activity.



In the next article, I will discuss and outline lesson content on how to teach step two, researching your essay topic and step three, planning your essay. I will discuss the reasons for research and how to research and reasons for planning and how to plan.

Good luck as you create your teaching session!












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