Isn’t it annoying to stare at a blank paper cluelessly when you are expected to write an essay? Even if you are given a list of prompts, it doesn’t seem easy to compose a comprehensive academic essay. Students easily feel burned out and lose track during the essay-writing process. For them, following each prompt is incredibly difficult.
That is why MBA help websites like MyAssignmenthelp.com came up with a few strategies to help you decipher essay prompts. These essay-writing websites also assist you in interacting with a topic and acquiring knowledge to improve your intellectual capabilities.
An assignment expert assists students in writing well-researched content that is supported by relevant evidence and logical justification. According to many learners, they face obstacles in preparing assignments due to a lack of knowledge regarding essay prompts.
Identifying prompts seems like an uphill work. But if you concentrate on the essay style and tone you may figure it out easily. To give you a clearer picture, in the following section, different types of essay prompts are discussed along with their characteristics.
How Do You Respond to Different Prompts?
| Prompts | Characteristics | Way to Respond |
| Descriptive | Aims to get the writer to provide specific information about a particular event |
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| Narrative | Writers are expected to tell a story connecting multiple elements. |
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| Expository | Demand a detailed explanation of the story through supporting evidence. |
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| Persuasive | Asks writers to take a position and convince the readers about something. |
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Writing a comprehensive essay is not a child’s play. You must acquire good writing skills, ability to play with words, and critical thinking ability to identify the prompts to formulate the answer to address the questions efficiently.
Here, I have highlighted a few directive keywords that you can’t overlook while preparing a strong essay.
A List of Common Keywords in Essay Prompts
| Keywords | Intention |
| Analyze | Critically analyze and discuss each element with logical justification. |
| Argue | Present factual and statistical evidence to prove your claim. |
| Contrast | State contradictory points and differences between the two claims. |
| Compare | Show the similarities and dissimilarities of two different options. |
| Criticize | Invalidate opposing points of view with supporting shreds of evidence. |
| Define | Provide a detailed explanation of a specific concept/topic/subject. |
| Describe | Vividly describe the characters/events/places to engage the readers. |
| Discuss | Identify various aspects of the topic like issues, rationale, or importance |
| Evaluate | Understand the significance of the topic or idea and its potential impact. |
| Explain | Present the cause and effect of given reasons to convince the readers. |
You can look for these words while reading the task requirements. But, there are times when you may not be given an explicit outline of the task or such directive keywords. In that case, you need to pay attention to every detail and overall prompt to find out the correct intention.
To give you a clearer picture I have provided an example of Admission essay prompts.
Let’s have a look:
Strategies to Answer Prompts
| Example: Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What was the outcome?
🔎Prompt 1: Share your story To answer this prompt, you need to reflect on a specific incident when you feel that others criticize your idea, though it seems unique to you. 🔎Prompt 2: Reflect on your experiences It would be better to focus on challenges and your feelings when your preconceived notions are challenged rather than providing any vague explanation. 🔎Prompt 3: Explain the challenges Here, you need to explain the obstacles that you have faced and the cause-effects of the challenges that affect you either positively or negatively. 🔎Prompt 3: Learning from the obstacles What have you learned? Have you become stronger than before? Did the challenges change your mindset?- You need to answer all the questions to show the admission committee how your perspective changes due to the challenge. 🔎Prompt 4: Impact on Personal Growth Colleges are always looking for someone who is mature enough to handle complex situations. So, always describe how the situation transforms your personality towards a better version of yourself. |
In Conclusion,
Essay writing is an opportunity for every student to showcase their intellectuality, capability, and passion which is beyond the academic grades. So, prioritize your unique voice to stand out in the crowd. Most importantly, give yourself a generous amount of time to revise and proofread your writing. Remember, good writing comes from the number of revisions.
