The Sunday News
Charles Dube
THE focus has mainly been on planning, the introduction, the body and paragraphing when writing essays. Little attention has been given on the ending of essays hence most learners lose vital marks at the end even if they would have done well on the other parts.
Learners have to make sure they have sound endings to remind teachers or examiners that they have definitely answered the question.
First of all, learners need to have the following questions in mind in order to have reasonable endings in their writing: what are the two rules for writing a good ending to an essay? Why should you repeat the words of the question in your ending? How long should you need for each essay in an examination? How long should you leave yourself for ending an essay? What do you need to remember about ending a formal letter if you know the person’s name? When do you use “Dear Sir/ Madam” at the beginning of a letter?
Learners need to time their endings correctly. Timing your ending is all about knowing when to finish your essay. It is especially important in examinations where you leave enough time to answer all questions. Answer the questions properly, which means you must write a clear ending. Your ending is your last chance to persuade your teacher or examiners, so make your main point again. Always sum up your main points at the end.
Ending essays is more like starting them. It is all about making a few things to the teacher or the examiner clear. It is your last chance to show them that your answer fits the question. In some instances try to use the exact question words again. For example, a question partly reading, “What do you think is the most important theme in . . . ?” You could start your answer with the exact question words: “The most important theme in . . . is . . .”
This shows the teacher or examiner you are coming to the end of the essay, and makes it crystal clear that your answer fits the question. Make sure you leave yourself about five minutes to write an ending for your essay. If you are running out of time to finish the essay, stay calm. If you have run short of things to write, do not just write any form of rubbish but stick to the point.
Here are some few reminders about letter writing before moving on to answering comprehension questions: If you are writing to your friend you do not need to be formal at the end and you only need to put your first name at the end.
When ending formal letters, for example, when ending a letter to the headmaster, it is obvious that you need to be formal. You must be polite — thank the person for their time. At the end if you have written the letter with the person’s name on it, you must use “Yours sincerely”. Put your full name and who you are. If you do not know the person’s name, address it to “Dear Sir/ Madam” and put “Yours faithfully” at the end.
Comprehension exercises are about reading short bits of writing and answering questions on them. You read these short bits of writing with understanding. To comprehend is to fully understand something. When you talk of comprehension, you are talking about the ability to understand something or the school exercise of answering questions on a set passage to test understanding. This is the basis of what learners should know about answering comprehension questions.
Learners should know that they do not get to read the bits of writing until the actual exercise or examination. The main thing is to read the whole paper or passage through. The first is read the instructions. Then read the bits of writing until you have got them clear in your mind. You could be asked about media articles, leaflets, travel writing, writing from other cultures and traditions, adventure stories or biography.
Always read the questions before you answer them and remember — you need to answer every single bit. Do not waste time — look at the number of marks you can get for each question. If the question is only worth a few marks, do not spend ages on it.
Learn these tricky terms: Summarise — Summarising means giving the main points of a passage in a limited number of words and always stick to that number.
Language — if you are asked about language, it means the way the author writes — the kind of words and the mood they create. Quote means using words, phrases and sentences from the text to back up your points. Comparing is all about looking at similarities and differences. If you are asked to look for ideas, write about what the people in the passage think — especially the person who wrote it. Refer to the passage — this means write about the passage, and keep mentioning it all the way through your answer.
Sometimes you need to explain things in your own words. Follow that instruction to the word because failure to do that will mean loss of marks. Do not ignore the words, “in your own words”. The secret of comprehension is showing the teacher or examiners you have understood the passages. What should you remember when answering comprehension questions?
Comprehension is an important skill — the trick is to prove to the teacher or examiner that you have understood what you have read. Include everything the question asks for in your answer, and you have to back up what you write with examples from the text.
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