Every English student has gotten this feedback on their text essay: ‘explain more!’ or ‘expand on this!’
But what if you don’t know how? What if you feel like you’ve already said everything you can, and it’s still not enough?
Quite often, students get stuck on this comment and they ask us, ‘what more can I say? I’ll just repeat myself!’
We get it, and it is indeed so frustrating when you feel like nothing you write is ever enough for your teachers! But there are a few things that we like to do with our students when they’re faced with this situation.
Let me introduce you to our favourite questions to ask when we’re working with our students and trying to draw more analysis out of them:
What do you mean by this?
How does this prove your point?
We love these questions because often, in discussion, students will be able to further expand on their thoughts by rephrasing them or clarifying what they mean. For example, if a student’s sentence is ‘Macbeth’s ambition ultimately ruined every relationship he has’, and we ask, ‘what do you mean by this?’ it prompts the student to further explain this idea in ways they haven’t considered.
Have you tried this questions before? Will you give them a try?
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