Identifying Advocacy, Compare and Contrast, and Evaluation Questions
This is a final exercise in understanding how questions work. The three major types of questions outlined in Chapter 4 are: advocacy, compare and contrast, and evaluation. The questions below are randomly sorted examples of each. Identify each of them, and then click to reveal the author’s opinion.
Consider the differences between contemporary English and Chinese attitudes to body piercing.
‘Body piercing is correlated with increased prevalence of mental health disorder.’ How far is this likely
to be an issue of perception?
Outline at least three arguments for allowing children to have their bodies pierced.
‘Body piercing is just a passing fad.’ Discuss.
Some religions declare that body piercing is a desecration of the body and a sin, others that it is a necessary part of religious observance. Discuss this, using one example of each attitude.
‘Body piercing is associated with increased sensation-seeking behaviour.’ Which one of these is likely
to be cause and which one is effect?
Some social professionals see body piercing as a sign of an at-risk teenager. Outline some sociological
and psychological arguments that justify this position.
‘Body piercing is just another way in which men keep women in a subordinate position.’ How strong
are the arguments underlying this assertion?
We promise not to mention body piercing again.
