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| Writing Essay Answers for Tests |

Writing Essay Answers for Tests |
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While multiple-choice tests allow instructors to check your understanding and recognition of important subject matter, teachers will often ask you to write brief essays to test questions to show you can apply what you know.

Use the COSA formula to write brief essay answers to show your instructor your sound grasp of the course material. Study how to write essay answers by looking over the shoulder of a student just beginning to answer a test question.

Jennifer Dion is taking the course Teaching Kids to Read and Write. She's in a classroom with 49 other students who are also taking a brief-answer test. She has fifty minutes to answer this question:

Solveiga is a second grade student. She has been reading Angela's Airplane by Robert Munsch. This is easy reading for her. Briefly describe the process Solveiga follows as she quickly and easily reads about 95% of the words she encounters and the two procedures she falls back on when her eyes fix upon a word she does not immediately recognize. Finish by indicating what you would advise Solveiga to do if she still cannot identify the printed word.

Jennifer began the test by thinking about the COSA formula and how answering the question was quite similar to writing a brief process essay. She decided to jot down on the test paper the steps Solveiga would follow as she read. Jennifer knew that she had to write enough detail to convince her reader that Jennifer understood the process. Here are the notes she took to sketch the content of her answer:

phonic analysis (sounding out) of unfamiliar words
describe a concrete example of a word Solveiga might not recognize (e.g., okay in "Don't you think it's okay if I push just one more button?")
context analysis (guessing) unfamiliar words
recognizing a word automatically (probably "hearing" it and understanding its meaning)
smooth movement from one word recognition procedure to another
can't recognize a word? ask a buddy or just skip it and read on
most important is to continue to read for meaning because doing lots of reading makes you a better reader

As soon as Jennifer had noted the points she wanted to make, she thought about how to organize them. She recalled that chronological order is the best way to describe a process. She jotted these numbers onto her notes to guide her as she prepared to write her answer.

     5 • phonic analysis (sounding out) of unfamiliar words
     3 • describe a concrete example of a word Solveiga might not recognize (e.g., okay in "Don't you think it's okay if I push just one more button?")
     4 • context analysis (guessing) unfamiliar words
     2 • recognizing a word automatically (probably "hearing" it and understanding its meaning)
     1 • smooth movement from one word recognition procedure to another
     6 • can't recognize a word? ask a buddy or just skip it and read on
     7 • most important is to continue to read for meaning because doing lots of reading makes you a better reader

Jennifer knew that her instructor would begin to form an impression, an evaluation, of the answer the moment she looked at the test so Jennifer was careful to format the test in the style the teacher preferred.

Jennifer was almost ready to write her answer. She looked at her notes and outlined her description of the word recognition process. She decided she would write a paragraph for the first point, another for the automatic recognition of words, a third for using phonic analysis, a fourth for guessing, a fifth about what Solveiga would do if she couldn't decode the word, and a sixth, final paragraph about the value of lots of time spent doing easy reading and a reminder of the points she had made in her answer. Finally, Jennifer decided that the first sentence of the answer should be a clear statement of her thesis of how Solveiga would behave as she read.

Activity 1: Practice Writing a Brief Essay Answer to a Test Question

Before reading on, write a brief answer to the question posed to Jennifer. Then compare your answer to Jennifer's.

Answer to Activity 1

As Solveiga reads Angela's Airplane, she smoothly moves from one word recognition procedure to another.

During most of her reading, Solveiga briefly fixes her gaze on the next word in the book and almost instantly recognizes it automatically, probably hearing in her mind the pronunciation of the word and understanding its meaning.

When Solveiga looks at a word she does not recognize automatically (e.g., the word okay in "Don't you think it's okay if I push just one more button?"), she probably moves easily to guessing, predicting, or inferring the word she does not recognize in print.

If after intelligently guessing about the word's identity Solveiga still cannot read it, she will probably try to use phonic analysis.

If Solveiga still cannot recognize a word--after trying phonic analysis and guessing--her best response is to just skip the word or ask a buddy.

Solveiga should remember that her most important job is to continue to read for meaning and that missing a few words while reading easily will not significantly interfere with her understanding. If she just keeps doing lots of easy reading, Solveiga will soon recognize more words automatically, and use phonic analysis and guessing more effectively.

For further tips on preparing to write examinations, read figure 1: Steps to Effectively Answer Essay Questions.

Figure 1: Steps to Effectively Answer Essay Questions

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