How To Structure Essay Questions In A Level Religious Studies Essay

How to Structure Essay Questions in A Level Religious Studies Essays

The Formula in a Nutshell: 1) Introduction: explain what the topic is; explain why it is relevant; explain the structure of your answer: explain what conclusion that you will draw. 2) Explanation of key topic; explain the topic and issue that you are being asked to assess. 3) Assessment: this is where you assess the question. a) Supporting argument: this is the argument that supports the question. b) Counterargument: this is the argument that challenges the question that you are answering. 4) Conclusion: this is where you answer the question. There are two ways to draw a conclusion. See further down for details.

Formula to use for 2, 3a and 3b: a) Main argument: this is an explanation of the argument that you are advocating. b) Evidence: this is the evidence that supports the argument that you are advocating. This shows that you can think critically; you are looking at the evidence for an argument before defending it. c) How does this evidence support your argument? This is the section where you explain how the evidence supports your argument. There is also the opportunity to show how it challenges the counter-position. This shows that you can analyse the evidence and understand how it supports / challenges arguments. This analysis will gain you access to the higher marks. d) Recapitulation: this is a mini-summary of the entire section. However, there should also be a small sentence at the end which links in to the next section. In my experience, a small recap of each section shows the examiner where the argument is going and links all the sections together. This is likely to get you a few more marks in the exam.

Conclusion: 1) There are two ways in which you can evaluate something: a) The two way approach: this is very much the yes or no response to a question. I) Yes: X does resolve the issue. II) No: X does not resolve the issue. b) The three way approach: I) Does X fully resolve the issue? II) Does X mostly resolve the problem? III) Does X partially resolve the problem?