develop an argument,
- Argument: If you treat the question as simply a kind of a cue to talk about a topic, then it’s very easy to fall into that pattern of just producing a range of material that seems somehow relevant. And of course that’s not really how you want to approach this, you’re being asked a question, you’re being invited to develop an argument, not to discuss a topic. And therefore, your best way of responding to that is really not going to be a kind of summary of the topic. It’s going to be finding a way to make some kind of arguments, supported, but an argument-driven response from the discussion of a topic. Try and develop an argument, it’s got to be an argument.
- Structure: It’s a fairly short essay and therefore structure, arguments and everything is going to be all the more important because of the fact that you can’t have too much fat on your answer. Think about structure, you can afford to experiment with different possible structures and ways to convey the arguments, most clearly as you want to make it auto allows you to bring in supporting material empirical material and so on. So think a lot about structure and the clarity of structure is going to be a big help to you.
- They invite you to look at the details or the wording to think about in some way something quite specific, they don’t just ask you, you know, something very general about the welfare state but they come in at quite an angle and invite you to, to kind of thinking fairly well-directed terms, not too loosely, and often there is kind of more than one element to a question.
Example: What enabled European political parties to become mass parties in the 20th century and can they be this once more. There’s a question which has two elements, what historically happened, and can they be this was more. Goes without saying if you’re writing an essay that answers a question, pay attention to these different elements doesn’t respond just to one part of the question. Don’t miss out on the particularities of the question because this is something that you’re going to be assessed on another question from that year, the welfare state erodes the social bonds on which it relies discuss, you know, there’s more than one element there. Does the social, does the welfare state, rely on social bonds. If so, what kind of social bonds does it erode those bonds, does it really rely on the bonds as a vote and so on. There are many ways that you can come up with that but you want to be looking at the terms of the question, rather than zooming out too far away from it. So my first bit of advice would be to always look at how the question is worded. Pay attention to the details, don’t just treat it as just an invitation to talk about a topic.
