How to answer an essay question - Honors

1. How to answer an essay question - Honors By Ms. Earhart

2. In “The Most Dangerous Game,” by Richard Connell, General Zaroff explains to Rainsford that he wants the ideal animal to hunt, which must have the attributes of an ideal quarry (prey). Zaroff explains, “It must have courage, cunning, and, above all, it must be able to reason,” (Connell 12). In a clear and concise paragraph, analyze how Rainsford proves to be the ideal quarry (prey), displaying courage, cunning, and reason.

3. Highlight the focus of the question • Brainstorm (qualities) • Write reasons (proof from text) • Create topic sentence from the question or prompt • Put ideas in a logical order (parallelism) • Use transition words (first, next, then) • Write a concluding sentence

4. In a clear and concise paragraph, analyze how Rainsford proves to be the ideal quarry (prey), displaying courage, cunning, and reason.

5. Brainstorming • Courageous – defends his thought that hunting ppl is wrong; won’t hunt even tho Z wants him to; decides to “play” Z’s game instead of Ivan’s; jumps off the cliff; goes back to Z’s house to win the game • Cunning – creates traps (loops his footprints, Malay man-catcher, Burmese tiger pit, knife trap) • Reasoning – realizes that “straight flight was futile,” so he made the trail; didn’t jump on Z when he could have (saw gun); realized Z was playing w/him; figured out how to use the island to his advantage w/his trap; decided to jump when the dogs were after him

6. Topic Sentence Student Ex: The story, The Most Dangerous game is about a man who wants a quarry who has the qualities of courage, cunning, and reason and a man named Rainsford displays all of those qualities. In a clear and concise paragraph, analyze how Rainsford proves to be the ideal quarry (prey), displaying courage, cunning, and reason.

7. Topic Sentence Teacher Ex: Because Rainsford was an extremely experienced hunter, he proves to be the ideal quarry for Zaroff, who forces Rainsford into being hunted, by displaying courage, cunning, and reason.

8. Logical Order First, Rainsfordwas courageous because he played the game to start with. Then, courage is shown when he took a chance with his life and jumped off a cliff into the sea and convinced Zaroffthat he was dead. He is cunning because he makes a malay man catcher that he learned in malaka in order to display his skills in defeatingZaroffand kill Zaroff. Rainsfordstarted walking around in the forest making different paths for Zaroffto follow to try to confuse him so he can get farther into the forest. Finally, Rainsfordshows he has reason when he decided to jump off the cliff. Rainsforduses reason when he tried to keep his nerve and not get afraid by Zaroffand set up elaborate traps.

9. Transitions First Then Finally

10. Concluding Sentence Student Ex: • Rainsfordmay have been more ideal than what Zaroffwanted because Rainsfordhad defeated Zaroff. • Rainsfordhad more courage, cunning, and reason than Zaroffthought. • In the end, Rainsfordshowed that he had courage, cunning, and reason and he may have had more than Zaroffexpected.

11. Concluding Sentence Teacher Ex: Throughout the short story, Rainsford was challenged by Zaroff’s skills, but in the end, he wins the game because he had the courage, cunning, and reason to do so.