RACE Method of Answering Questions
If part of your critical reading is answering questions, those questions must use the RACE method of responding.
RESTATE the question as the focus of your answer.
ANSWER all parts of the question in complete sentences.
CITE evidence (usually from the text) to validate your answer.
EXPLAIN AND EXPAND your point (never leave your reader with unanswered
questions; always explain how and why).
ANY discussion question, however insignificant it may seem, must be answered thoroughly. There should be NO unidentified pronouns in the answer. Names, dates, places, specific evidence and explanation should ALL be clear and detailed. Again, you are demonstrating your knowledge; if I don’t see it, you don’t know it. There will be few (if any) questions that can be “adequately” answered in one or two sentences. Detailed explanation – with evidence – will get you the most points. I do not accept blank spaces. Always use blue or black ink so that your answers are easily readable. NO PENCILS.
Example:
What is the nature of Mrs. Mallard’s “heart trouble,” and why would the author mention it in the first paragraph? Is there any way in which this might be considered symbolic or ironic? Explain.
As the story opens, the nature of Mrs. Mallard’s “heart trouble” certainly seems to be a physical malady. Josephine and Richards take great care to gently break the news of her husband’s death because they seem to think that she is much too delicate / fragile to take the news without becoming ill. While it is not apparent until the reader reaches the end of the story, this “heart trouble” that Chopin makes apparent so early in the story is both symbolic and ironic. The “heart trouble” becomes symbolic of Louise’s hidden self – her REAL self – that free-spirit, some what rebellious self that she has had to keep buried ‘neath the guise of the ever-obedient wife. This symbolism itself is entangled with the irony in that when Louise dies at seeing Brently alive rather than dead, the male doctors assume that she is, like all dutifully dependent wives, overcome / overwhelmed by the shocking good fortune of having a dead husband re-incarnate. However, we, the astute reader, realize that it is not a weak heart or the shock of good fortune that kills Louise; it is the deep, unfathomable disappointment and distress she feels at once again being forced back into the throes of the subservient life that she was never created to live.