Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Factual Question

The Factual Questions

As evident from the word ‘factual’, this type of questions requires you to retrieve facts given in the passage. Examples are who, what, where, when, how and why questions. For this type of questions, do not include facts which are not given in the passage.

Example:
What two features of its position made Pompeii an ideal “trading link between the Italian interior and the outside world”?
Apart from benefiting tourists themselves, what has been the effect of the “major business” it has become?

The Who, What, Where, When and How Questions

1. The Who question is to identify a person/persons in the answer
ex. Who was responsible for the destruction of the nuclear plant?


2. The Where question is to identify a place/places in the answer
ex. Where did his ill-fated army finally meet its doom?

3. The When question is to identify or give a time as the answer
ex. When is the biggest time to transfer the rice seedlings to the fields?

4. The How question is to identify a method or a process as the answer.
ex. How did the people collect the money to support the street children?

5. The What question can be a bit tricky. Each what question can have different requirement, depending on how it is phrased. It can even be a Why question in disguise! So the best way to deal with a what question is to analyze it and study its demands.
example:
a. What fact does this quotation tell you about pyramids?
b. What are the main differences between frogs and toads?
c. What sort of relationship did he want?
d. What happened later that showed how ineffective he was as a leader?
e. What was the appearance of the rice field after the massacre?
f. What was the reason for the chairman’s absence from the meeting?

The Why Question

The why question asks you to give a reason as your answer. You can begine your answer with ‘Because …’, or if you feel uncomfortable with this structure, you could begin with ‘This is because …’.

There are some signals for indicating cause and effect, and these provide clues to your answer.
Cause + Because, since, for, as + Effect

Effect + As a result, Therefore, Thus, Hence, consequently + Cause

1 comment:

OMKAR BALGUDE said...

How do I answer factual questions?