Writing Good Examination Answers for Humanities
Most of the students suffer heavily in examinations as they fail to frame their answers well. Thus despite writing good contents they end up in getting poor marks. Here are some tips for securing better marks by formatting the answers well.
Form Matters Even More Than Content
I have seen the misconception among my fellow classmates, juniors and students that getting good marks in examinations completely or mostly depends on the quality of the contents. Unfortunately, fostering this idea can often lead to devastations as form is no less important than the content when it comes to writing a good exam. Sometimes you may even get good marks even if you format your answer well but fail to enhance its quality. But it is so sad to loose marks despite of good contents only because of poor layouts. Also, this is very much true for writing good articles and scholarly dissertations. The Basics of Writing Examination Answers
* Always keep in mind that the examiner is a busy person and needs to check a lot of papers. Try to help him in his job by providing a good layout. Write in short, coherent paragraphs. Usually one paragraph should be assigned for one single point, but you can take two if required.
* Structure your sentences well. Do not write too informally, the examiner is not your buddy. On the other hand, do not write gobbledegooks too. Avoid clumsy phrases. Consult the resources of the webmasters, lead editors, editors and other seniot members of ISC with higher points and cash credits. They have been rewarded for posting qaulity contents in good layouts, and their writings can provide you with good example.
* Do not write it too short or too long. Nevertheless, there is no general limit of words per marks and this should be determined by your writing speed. Generally in the graduation and postgraduation levels you have 100 marks papers to answer in 4 hours. Since there are shorter questions that require less time comparatively, you can generally afford 30-45 minutes for phrasing your longer answers. Get some practice works to find out how much you can write down in that time limit and prepare your answers a bit longer than that (students usually forget 10-20 percent of their prepared answers in the examination halls). Do not overwrite. If you think one of your answers should take three pages and the other one five, there is no problem even if both the questions are of equal marks.
* Choice of words is a very important thing in Humanities, especially in language and literature. As you grow up, your language needs to grow up as well. This does not mean that you should not use informal words if needed and always go for their pompous synonyms, like 'beverage' for 'wine' and so on. The examiners look for keywords and key concepts in your answer so try to provide them in the first one or two sentences of every paragraph you write. Use technical terms. Economise words. Here is an example of how you should do this:
Avoid
William Shakespeare's famous play Macbeth brings in a drastic change in the fashion of writing dramas since it is a reflection of the transition from excessive dependence on fate and gods to the liberal views of Humanism which was an outcome of the sixteenth century Renaissance. It questions the view of Nemesis in classical Greek tragedies according to which even great men like Oedepus had no control over their destinies and had to perish helplessly. The hero of the play, Macbeth, here himself chooses to kill Duncan in order to assure his way to kingship, and commits more murders followingly, and thereby perishes.
Attempt
Shakespeare's Macbeth revolutionised playwriting by reflecting the paradigm shift from Faith to Renaissance Humanism. It problematises Greek Nemesis where even great men like Oedepus had to perish before their fates. Here the protagonist Macbeth himself chooses to kill Duncan which goads him unto more murders and provokes his downfall.
What You Notice Here
* Write simple sentences and economise words.
* Never try to teach the examiner. He or she already knows Shakespeare's full name, or the Renaissance took place in the sixteenth century.
* Avoid tautologies like 'classical Greek'.
* Use matured technical terms like 'revolutionize', 'paradigm shift', 'problematize', 'protagonist' and the like.
* There is no need to state that Hamlet is a play and it is famous. The examiner at once understands that you are talking about Hamlet the play and not Hamlet the protagonist the moment you italicise the word. Follow MLA Style Sheet
The MLA Style Sheet is a contemporary layout for research works and articles provided by the Modern Language Association (MLA). Consult MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th ed., 2009) if you can get a hold of the book. In general, begin with these simple rules:
* Always double space your paragraphs in the answer. Utilising the white space is a craft. Which advertisements, for example, have most drawn your attention in the newspapers? Surely not the clumsy ones but those which properly utilised the blank spaces and provided a soothing layout.
* Try to justify the right side of your paragraphs.
* Capitalise every words in your titles and subtitles except conjunctions, articles and prepositions. Capitalise the names of English books and articles in the same way. But be careful because in some languages like French only the first letter of the beginning word [or of the first two words if the first one is an article] is capitalised.
Example: The Flowers of Evil (English)
Les Fleurs du mal (French)
* One inch margins should be there in all the sides of the page. If the paper size is too small, leave one inch in left and top and half an inch in the other two sides [for Left-to-Right Writing Systems as in English or Hindi; for languages like Urdu and Arabic it should be vice versa]. Leaving space in the right side is very important which students mostly ignore. Examiners calculate the marks of part questions there before putting it on the left side.
* Give page numbers in the footers. This will also help you while stitching the loose sheets at the final minutes at the examination hall to avoid messing up.
* For Block Quotes, leave an extra inch from the left margin.
* Use proper citations. Endnotes are nowadays preferred to footnotes.
* Always italicise the names of books, films and art masterpieces. The names of essays are put within single quotes.
Example: The Importance of Being Earnest (Book)
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Film)
Three Musicians (Painting)
'Tradition and Individual Talent' (Essay)
* Try to use Arabic numerals (1,2,3 etc.) in your text and Roman numerals in your notes (i,ii,iii or I, II, III etc.).
* Get your headings right. The main title should be at the centre of the page. The subheading should begin right from the left margin and the indents of sub-subheadings should gradually move to the right.
* Avoid common Latin abbreviations like etc., e.g., i.e. in the body of your text, Nevertheless, they can be applied within parentheses. Avoid abbreviations if it hinders clarity or sounds odd. If you write P.U. for, say Princeton University, it may often sound like 'Pee You'!!!
* Get the citations right. Follow the example below.
"The reputation of Jonson has been of the most deadly kind that can be compelled upon the memory of a great poet."
[T.S. Eliot, 'Ben Jonson', The Sacred Wood (London, 1920), p. 104]