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How do you approach an essay question that uses "To what extent do you agree" as its stem?

In my experience, teachers never assign a question like this if the answer is anything other than “to some extent.” In other words, whatever the proposition after the stem is, it is always partly true and partly untrue. So, if there is a question that asks “to what extent was the US responsible for the Allied victory in WWII in Europe,” I assume that the instructor believes that the US was partly responsible for the...

In my experience, teachers never assign a question like this if the answer is anything other than “to some extent.” In other words, whatever the proposition after the stem is, it is always partly true and partly untrue. So, if there is a question that asks “to what extent was the US responsible for the Allied victory in WWII in Europe,” I assume that the instructor believes that the US was partly responsible for the victory, but that there were also ways in which the US was not responsible. Alternatively, imagine if you are asked “to what extent were Romeo and Juliet responsible for their own deaths?” In that case, I would expect that the teacher believes the couple was partly responsible but that other factors contributed to their demise.


When I assign questions like this, I expect to see my students examine both sides of the issue. I expect them to provide reasons why the statement is untrue and why it is true. So, with the Romeo and Juliet example, I would expect a student to provide reasons why the two main characters were responsible for their own deaths, but I would also expect to see some blame placed on such people as their parents and Friar Laurence. With the WWII question, I would want to see discussion of the importance of the US contribution, but I would also expect students to discuss how important Soviet involvement was and how badly the Soviets weakened the German military. I, personally, do not expect students to give a specific answer to the “to what extent question.” I do not expect them to say that the US was, for example, 70% responsible. If a student concludes that the US was more responsible than any other country, that is enough for me. However, different instructors may have different expectations.


So, I approach this type of question by trying to find arguments both for and against the proposition. I set out both sets of arguments in my essay and I try to decide, if possible, whether the proposition is, on balance, mostly true or mostly false.

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