Mains Answer Writing Strategy
Civil Services is not about choosing the potential writers rather the administrators delivering the required . Writing is the only way the examiner evaluates the level of understanding of an aspirant on various topics, his/her ability to deal with unexpected situations and eventually the potential as a civil servant.
In order to write well it is important to understand the demand of the question before writing the answers. Don’t write ‘what you know’ but write ‘what is asked for’. The content would automatically come if one understands the context.
For an Essay:
- Choose a topic where you can include both time and space domain with just not sectoral examples but global examples, global impact and a global way forward.
- Then substantiate your statement with facts and figure which tells how your thesis stands up to the challenge of a counter argument
- Discuss in different angles .
- Heading and subheading on different dimensions in a phrasal form .They provide the framework to the evaluator of what all has been addressed in a compartmentalized manner.
- Insert historical background where needed.
- Underline only the keywords to keep the sentence neat .
- Include an executive summary.This is meant to give an idea of what one is going to write in the following pages .
- Give the examples from the past or the current happenings to substantiate what you have opinionated. Also try to give the names of Reports and statistics to justify the proposition.
- Theories and names of thinkers of your particular optional must be avoided.
- Insert one poetry of 6 to 8 lines in my essay.
- Counter-argument may appear within a paragraph
- Justify arguments with Data/Citation/Report etc.
- Be wary of paragraph openers that lead off with “time”words (“first,” “next,” “after,” “then”) or “listing” words(“also,” “another,” “in addition”).
- Keep in mind that Poor essays generally have a descriptive thesis rather than an argumentative one.
- Need not remember who said the quote,but present the quote as if it is your own saying .Include quotes from the Hindu.
- Have a Conclusion:Moralistic and ethical.
- In the way forward: have a to the point address of the solution.
In the following section is a framework of how and what must be followed while writing an essay.
Figure: A Framework to the answer writing provides us ample time and space to work effectively upon the content.
Essay writing checks the thought process, while Answer writing in General Studies checks not only the thinking process but also the knowledge .
In the following section we shall see the structure to incorporate for General Studies answer writing .
| STRUCTURE SUBJECTS | INTRODUCTION | BODY | MAPS/DIAGRAM | CONCLUSION |
| ART AND CULTURE |
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| SOCIETY |
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| MODERN INDIA AND WORLD HISTORY |
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| GEOGRAPHY |
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| POLITY |
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| GOVERNANCE |
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| INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS |
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| ECONOMY |
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| SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY |
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| INTERNAL SECURITY (solve as many previous year questions ) |
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| ETHICS |
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