 Hello. In this video, we're going to look at how to answer a prompt in your history class, and this will cover essays, discussion, and other types of assignments you might encounter along the way. I'm Dr. Gene Price. One of the first things you need to do is make sure that you read the prompt carefully. This prompt is something you might see in an essay assignment. Examine the role of technology in depression-era politics. Look at the use of radio by President Roosevelt as well as his enemies. How much impact did radio have in defining political allegiances in the 1930s? What did this predict for the future? After you've read your prompt very carefully, you want to look at the component parts and dissect the prompt. The first sentence, examine the role of technology in depression-era politics. Another sentence asks us to look at the use of radio by President Roosevelt and his enemies. We're also asked how much impact did radio have in defining political allegiances in the 1930s? And finally, what did this predict for the future? It's very important to make sure that you read carefully the prompt, because many times students don't answer all the questions. And when you don't answer all the questions, your instructor cannot give you full credit for answering the prompt when you leave parts of the answer out. So make sure that you read the prompt carefully. Next, we have really four statements and questions in this prompt. The role of technology, the use of the radio by Roosevelt and his enemies, radios influence in defining political allegiances in this period, and a question asking you to speculate on what this might predict for the future. And by the future, we're not talking about our future necessarily as much as what happened afterwards in the foreseeable future. We can create paragraphs from these topics. In fact, we might even be able to create more than one paragraph. While the first topic, the role of technology in depression-era politics is pretty self-contained. The next prompt, the use of radio by Roosevelt and his enemies, really contains several topics within that one statement. The third statement, radios influence in defining political allegiances, could actually be split up into several topics and several paragraphs. And finally, predict for the future, again, goes back to one paragraph. So we see in this very straightforward prompt, we could actually divide it up into several topics and paragraphs. When we're looking at creating a response, we want to outline our response. If you get the question in advance, this is a little bit easier. However, even if you get it during the exam that you're taking with a time limit, you can still quickly sketch out an outline. It gives you the ability to plan out your response. Normally, in an outline, you want an introduction with a thesis statement. Clearly stated, you want main points supported by evidence. And finally, you want a conclusion that wraps everything up. One of the mistakes people often make is trying to write as they read, write the introduction first, write the conclusion last. Sometimes it's better, especially if you have time to think about your response. It's to develop your conclusion and your introduction after you address the topics. Then work on your conclusion first. Finally, after you develop your conclusion and you already have your main topics sketched out, then think of an interesting introduction. And again, make sure you have a clear thesis statement. What is a thesis statement? Usually it's a one or two sentence response that answers the question in the prompt. So think of one, maybe two sentences at most in which you can do this. Now, in a prompt like this, which may have several questions, it may not be clear. How do you decide on the major question? In this example, we can look at the final question as a good major question. What did this, the technology of radio and how it was used by politicians in the 30s? What did this predict for the future? Now you may select another question to answer, but this in the prompt itself is a well written question that you can use to address your thesis statement. And your thesis statement would answer this question. How would this set the stage for future media use by political parties? And you can answer that in one or two sentences. Finally, some things to keep in mind when you're answering your essay. Make sure you revisit and adhere to the formatting directions your instructor provides. Make sure that you're using primary and secondary sources. You also want to make absolutely certain that you cite your sources as necessary and that you follow the format that historians use, which is to Arabian or Chicago manual style. And that in your essay or discussion response, you observe proper grammar, stylistic and spelling conventions. Communication is very important and it's a key to developing an answer that is readable and one that is understood by others. I hope this helps you to formulate a response to an essay or discussion or other assignment prompt in your history class. Thank you.