Winning Answer: Literature 1

This post is part of our Winning Answer” ongoing series

As many of you know, literature questions and answers are fairly rare on the boards today. A lot of the reason for this is that our experts often don’t know how to approach the types of questions that students ask without straight-up solving the problem or writing students’ essays for them. That’s no good and nobody wants that. However, I have come across some examples of really helpful answers, and we’ll continue building out best practices over time with the help of some academics and university professors. It’s all in the works.

In the meantime, I do want to share at least one strong example of how to approach a literature-related question in a helpful way without doing the work for the student.

This best answer comes to us from Jared Jones, who you can find on the boards under the username unbelievable1. Jared is a 22-year-old biology student who is currently in his senior year at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. His strengths lie in the sciences, psychology, and writing. Jared’s future endeavors include medical school and eventually a career in  anesthesiology. We’re pretty lucky to have someone like Jared on board. He’s super active, super smart, and loves helping students.

 Take a look at this example and explanation below:

What’s so great about this answer? Let’s break it down! Then, when you approach similar questions, make sure to follow these tips:

  1. He uses proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
  2. He happens to be an excellent writer, so that helps. Please, if you’re not an exceptional writer, refrain from answering writing or literature questions! It just doesn’t make sense for you to offer help if that is not your area of expertise. You may end up hurting the student more than helping him.
  3. He breaks thoughts into easy, short paragraphs so that the student can skim for key words.
  4. He uses examples from movies and books (Star Wars, Frankenstein) to clarify his argument. This gives a really clear reference for the student so they understand the concept on a deeper level.
  5. He writes in a conversational tone so that the student knows he can’t simply copy-paste this as his answer. He has to digest this information, put it in his own words, and then write in a formal tone for his assignment.
Way to go, Jared! Congratulations on those 300 points!

You can ask Jared other questions and learn from him on our Google+ community!


Photo Credit: via Compfight