Responding to a prompt

[Willba99]

So for our english class, out teacher has taken to given us essay questions in the form: general sentence relating to a theme + question. I was just wondering if we were expected to respond to the general sentence as well as the question, or just answer the question and use the general sentence as a hint?

For example, today I was given "'Into the Wild' and 'Tracks' use the narrative voice to shape the audiences view on mainstream society. What values are conveyed in these texts?" I was just going to respond to "what values are conveyed in these texts," I'm not sure if i have to somehow respond to the first sentence as well?

any advice is appreciated

[AnnieL]

So for our english class, out teacher has taken to given us essay questions in the form: general sentence relating to a theme + question. I was just wondering if we were expected to respond to the general sentence as well as the question, or just answer the question and use the general sentence as a hint?

For example, today I was given "'Into the Wild' and 'Tracks' use the narrative voice to shape the audiences view on mainstream society. What values are conveyed in these texts?" I was just going to respond to "what values are conveyed in these texts," I'm not sure if i have to somehow respond to the first sentence as well?

any advice is appreciated

Hey! So I think that there are probably multiple ways of approaching a question like this. For example looking at the prompt you have been given, what comes to mind for me is that the question is implying that the narrative voice of the texts is used to convey values, shaping the audience's view. As such, while talking about what value the texts convey, you can also incorporate the idea of the narrative voice being a tool for doing this. I think that, overall, it is probably important to address all aspects of the prompt, rather than ignoring part of it and only focusing on one part. Even if your ideas stem from the second part, on values, showing how the narrative voice (for example, this could apply to other prompts too) is a part of this is part of the prompt (even if its not a huge focus - it's still in there!). Hope this helps a bit!

[TSEtuition]

So for our english class, out teacher has taken to given us essay questions in the form: general sentence relating to a theme + question. I was just wondering if we were expected to respond to the general sentence as well as the question, or just answer the question and use the general sentence as a hint?

For example, today I was given "'Into the Wild' and 'Tracks' use the narrative voice to shape the audiences view on mainstream society. What values are conveyed in these texts?" I was just going to respond to "what values are conveyed in these texts," I'm not sure if i have to somehow respond to the first sentence as well?

any advice is appreciated

Hi Willba99,

You're right in that the question, and not the statement, should be the focus of your essay. However, the general statement is there for a reason - usually it's there to give you a starting point or a big idea to help frame your discussion. In that sense it would be remiss to ignore the statement completely.

In your prompt, the directive is to discuss what values are conveyed. A really good response would discuss not just WHAT values are conveyed but HOW they are conveyed as well - this is where a discussion about the narrative voice would come in 

Hope that helps! ~Shirlaine from TSEtuition