Provocation – An ideal characteristic of the essay prompt
Traditionally essay prompts were thought to be meant for the teacher’s chance to carry out an evaluation of the student’s understanding of the lesson learnt. However, a good prompt will also give the students an opportunity to examine their understanding, and make their own judgments and observations on the subject matter.
Many examining bodies at high school, college and university level have used an essay prompt technique to provoke the student into research. This is to help them develop independent thinking in order to generate new ideas from the subject matters they have handled in the classrooms and learning experiences. A good essay prompt should therefore provoke the students through a clear guideline of the requirements of the teacher and the limits of the essay. It is normal in practice that a vague prompt will elicit a vague response (garbage in garbage out policy). This is why our writers in many academic fields covered in many parts of the world take time to develop provocative, logical and authentic prompts. These are found to be useful not only to the instructor, but also to the student who needs to do essay writing to gain experience and for knowledge development.