Students are regularly asked to write essays as part of their coursework load. These essays often serve as answers to questions posted by the professor. Creating an essay to effectively answer or address such questions begins with understanding the question thoroughly.

Most students, especially those who are only starting to write essays, frequently make the mistake of wasting time conducting research and collecting information that, in the end, may prove to be irrelevant to the question that was posted.

To make sure that students start off the process of essay writing on the right path, they should fully comprehend the main question. Here are some guidelines that help students focus on the assigned topic:

• Determine the exact directive word. What is it asking you to do?
• Ascertain if there are any assumptions made by the question. What are these assumptions?
• Determine the key concepts that need to be defined.
• Find out if the scope of the essay should be limited to a certain subject.
• Determine what the question intends the author to focus on.
• Decide an appropriate approach that will work for the question on hand.

Upon fully understanding the question, and subsequently, the purpose of the essay, students should then gather all they know about the topic. From here, they must decide what should be the next step to complete the essay – which may involve more research, outlining the essay, or establishing a thesis statement.