Understanding Essay Questions: Analyse, Assess, Consider, Discuss, Evaluate 

*Discuss* : what are the main issues regarding the topics that are important and worth talking about? Can you look at it from the polarised (different) perspectives? What is/are the 'hot' topic(s), what's controversial? However, you need to provide support of this from the academic literature you are engaging with. *Critically evaluate* : look closely at the strengths/weakeness - how good/bad is X,Y,Z and more importantly why? What works/is working, what doesn't work/isn't working and why? Can you make an overall assessment of X's value? Again, you *must* base this on the evidence from the academic literature. Regarding your opinion, this is a good question. Unfortunately, if you are writing an undergraduate paper, your personal opinions are not really valid or required so I would refrain from inserting it within the body of your paper - you can briefly put it in your concluding paragraphs. If you are writing research papers, you have a bit more leighway for opinion, although you must be cautious not to get carried away with what you think, you still need to provide evidence of why you have this opinion, i.e. from primary sources (your own empirical study) and/or secondary sources - the literature. *When making an argument in the body of your paper, the general format should be* : 1. the point you are making 2. the evidence (from the literature) which supports this point 3. the analysis - how and why is this important (to the point you make) I hope this helps :)

Glad I could help!

The nail polish was used as an example of how to look closely at something and examine how and why the way it is. You would obviously be looking at your own subject matter in relation to the essay title/instruction and then analyse that accordingly. So for demonstration purposes, if we look at the pink nail polish, we can analyse from a number of different angles not just one, for instance: 1. How the nail polish is designed to appeal to its consumer 2. What is the chemical composition of the nail polish itself 3. How environmentally safe/sustainable is it as a product Obviously, here Q1,2 and 3 differ in terms of the questions you would ask to analyse. Q2 and 3 may have some overlap. With Q1, you'd be asking Qs along the lines of, the packaging quality, branding, choice of language the manufacturer uses to describe the product and WHY this is important. For instance, the nail polish is pink but I think they call it Camelia, obviously this sounds more attractive for marketing purposes than Chanel simply calling it pink. In terms of the the nail polish being luxurious - this could fall into both Q1 and 2 - what elements make it so, how? What is the chemical composition, how does this make it luxurious? etc In terms of the bottle being glass - again this could be relevant to Q2 and 3 - is glass biodegradable? Yes/no - how so? Why is this important to the nail polish being environmentally/eco friendly? Yes, provide the evidence here also. Arguably, you could also explain how this relates to Q1 - how this appeals to the consumer- well many consumers now are more environmentally conscious, etc So basically, you don't just ask any Qs, you ask Qs that are RELEVANT to the analysis you are required/trying to make. It is important here to refer to your task/essay instructions and if you are unsure, discuss with your teacher. I hope this helps :)