Standard Essay

Role Play Essay

Structured Essay

Interpretation of Evidence

Design

Note-Form Essays

This is the most common type of essay and may demand 1 000 - 3 000-word answers. Popular varieties include:

Quotation - Discuss (or Comment, or Query)

Q "Land values are both a product and a determinant of the pattern of urban development." Discuss.

Write an essay on…

Write an essay on fluid mechanics.

Describe; Give an Account of, Compare, Contrast, and Explain.

Give an account of the discovery and early use of penicillin.

These questions do not explicitly require the student to express a viewpoint of conclusion. If there is such a requirement it should be clearly stated and the key issues specified, e.g.:

Q Give an account of the discovery and early use of penicillin. What is your view of the scientific significance of this early work?

Assess, Analyse, and Evaluate.

Assess Richard as a strategist in the light of the expedition to Ireland in 1394.

These questions require not just information from the student, but a reasoned conclusion.

Trick Questions

Can you do two things at once?

While these questions may be very clever, they are probably only understood by the person who set them and his/her favorite three students. Only those who attended all the lectures and the right seminars could have a clue what was being referred to.

Write a letter to the Minister of Education protesting about the lack of nursery school places in your suburb, giving economic arguments and emphasizing evidence in government reports.

Imagine you are a French journalist working for Le Monde. Write and article for the politics page about Britain's attitude towards trade in agricultural produce with the EEC, with specific reference to recent incidents involving French agricultural produce.

Such questions help students to see the relevance of the task and to take a personal interest in it. Even very small elements of simulation or role-play can dramatically change students' approach to questions.

This type of question is often used in law and accountancy with the instructions: "Advise your client…". The same kind of instructions can be given for any subject area, e.g.:

Advise Weybridge Electrical Ltd. (by whom you have been hired as a consultant) on the suitability of the circuit designs in Appendix I given the performance specifications in Appendix II.

Prepare a parliamentary answer for the Chancellor of the Exchequer (of whose think tank on the economy you are a prominent member) to the following tabled question concerning the recently published inflation figures:………

Identify and discuss some of the determinants of urban land values and their impact on urban development.

In your answer you should:

Define the following terms:

Property rights in land,

Zoning,

Site value rating;

Explain the influence of these terms in determining land values;

Select one activity of public authorities, and one market factor, which affect land values and explain how each might influence urban development.

You own a house in a developing suburban area but are considering selling your property and moving closer to the city center. Given the following demographic data:

…………….

……………

……………

what economic and social factors would you consider in coming to a decision?

Design a new small shopping region for the site below….

To the above design brief can be added a requirement for the interpretation of evidence:

Given the street plans, existing locations of shops, site values and other information in Appendices A-D, design and site a new small shopping region.

To this can be added elements of role-play and structure questions:

You are involved with the design of a new small shopping region. Given the street plans, existing locations of shops, site values, and other information in Appendices A-D, draft an outline design for, and site, a new small shopping region which involves the demolition of an old street. Consider the possible effects on land values and accessibility of such a redevelopment and present an argument for such a siting to the planning officer.

This last version of the design question emphasizes a quite different aspect of the design process and illustrates the way structured questions can focus on specific issues.

It is easy to set design tasks in order to develop the design skills required, even when the skills necessary to implement the design have not yet been mastered, and there is no intention of implementing the design, e.g.

List the main economic factors that affect the pattern of changing land values. For each factor, itemize its limitations and potentialities for predicting future urban development. Your answer may be in note form.

This type of question is used most often to assess the recall of key items of information or test simple understanding of terms, formulae, apparatus, tools and so on. It is less suitable for assessing analysis, synthesis of ideas, creativity and so on.

Students who have plenty to say about the topics and are obliged top select the main points are faced with the problem of guessing which aspects the marker thinks are most important.

Poor students can gain marks by writing down whatever comes into their heads about any of the topics, and this may be why this for of question is so common: to avoid having to fail very poor students.

Suggest the relationship between nearby house prices and:

the development of a new shopping center in a suburban area;

a road-widening scheme in the same area.

Hypothesis formation questions can be combined with data interpretation to encourage students to be speculative in their analyses:

Speculate as to the possible causes of the data trends in the table below…

Or linked to design questions to encourage self-criticism or reflection. For example the question developed in the Design item ("Design a new small shopping region for the site below..." could be expanded by the addition of the question:

Speculate as to the likely planning objections raised to your plans by:

the local community;