Answering Identification Questions

Answering ID questions on college exams requires more than just a few words or fragmentary phrases indicating a marginal understanding of a person or event. Try to remember to explain who the person was, what he or she accomplished or is remembered for, where it happened, when it happened -- if you can remember the date, and why the person or event was important or significant.

In a college or university class, short answer and essay questions are more difficult because they require more organization of ideas than multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank questions do. When answering short answer and essay questions, first make sure you understand the question.
 

Always include specific details. It is the writer's job to try to create a clear picture in the mind of the reader. Whenever analyzing or explaining why something happened, state your argument and support it or prove it with specific details, facts, or statistics. Even short answer questions may deal with events which cause other events or are part of a chain of events. Refer to events discussed in class, in the text, or on the Web. Refer to books or histories which deal with the topic.   details. . . details. . . details . . . Do not assume that the reader will fill in the blanks when you leave out required information. Explain your answers as if the reader is unfamiliar with the information.

Some students have trouble understanding the essential information needed in an answer to an identification question. The ability to recognize the basic core of a body of information is one which can be developed. These are some examples of various kinds of identification items you are likely to meet in our history survey.
Note: I use his in most cases because the vast majority of people we deal with in Western Civilization courses were male.

• Rulers -- What was the ruler's title? What country or people did he or she rule? What was significant about his or her accomplishments?
• Military Leaders -- Was he a general? Which army did he lead? Which war did he fight in? What was the campaign or battle he was known for and who won?
• Words or phrases are often important. Explain their meaning and how they were used? What was the significance of the word?
• Author -- Who was he? During what period did he write? What type of work did he do? -- novels, histories, plays, biographies, science texts, etc.) What was his nationality? What is the significance of his work? ----- If the questions pertains to books, include the author's name, the period in which it was written, the subject, and what type of book it was.
• Example of work -- Always include examples of an author's work -- titles of novels, histories
• Important Battles -- Not all battles were crucial in shaping subsequent events. For those which were, always mention which war, who was fighting, and the results of the battle -- Who won? Explain why the battle was significant.
• Architectural Structure are identified by who built them, where they were built, and when.
• Dynasties were families of rulers or nobles. They should be identified by their nation or people, the time period in which they ruled, and their accomplishments. In some cases, you should focus on misdeeds rather than accomplishments.
• Inventor -- Who was he? What was his nationality? What did he invent, when? What did it do?  What was the impact on society? Inventions are obviously related -- did it lead to other inventions?
• Laws and Law Codes -- When were they developed?  What nation or people were responsible? When? What were the provisions? What was the significance for the culture?
• Philosophers -- Focus chiefly on their ideas and how they influenced others, but include their nationality and when they wrote or developed their ideas.
• Treaties are often crucial in shaping events. Include who was involved in writing the treaty and what countries they represented.  What were the important provisions of the treaty, and how did it effect the countries involved?
• Meetings may include church councils, gatherings of countries to draw up peace treaties or alliances. Include information about who attended and what decisions were reached?

The main advantages of essay and short answer items are that they encourage student to strive toward understanding a concept as an integrated whole, permit students to demonstrate achievement of such higher level objectives as analyzing given conditions and critical thinking, allow expression of both breadth and depth of learning, and encourage originality, creativity, and divergent thinking. Written items offer students the opportunity to use their own judgment, writing styles, and vocabularies. Essay items are not efficient for assessing knowledge of basic facts and provide students more opportunity for bluffing, rambling, and "snowing" than limited choice items. They favor students who possess good writing skills and neatness and are pitfalls for students who tend to go off on tangents or misunderstand the main point of the question.

Different teachers will have different expectations about length. Focus on including specific information. As a general rule, an answer to an identification question should probably be about a paragraph or two. Most teachers will expect a college level essay on a test to be at least 2 to 3 pages. If the entire test is one essay, it will probably be closer to 4 or 5 pages.

Adapted from Evaluating Learning      http://www.msu.edu/~taprog/ch5.htm
 
 

Here are a few examples from Chapter 1 & 2 of Spielvogel's Western Civilization. NOTE: All of the answers for essay and identification questions require specific details.
 
 

Ziggurats were Mesopotamian temples made of mud brick. They were pyramid shaped temples in Mesopotamian city states.

This is a start, but an answer like this will only receive partial credit.
 

 (from the Assyrian word "zigguratu," meaning height)
Sumerian ziggurats were pyramid like structures of mud brick. They were generally the dominant features of Sumerian city states. Although Sumerians and other Mesopotamian cultures were polytheistic, each city state had a patron deity which supposedly watched over the city state and its people. Some experts have suggested that the ziggurat was contructed as a means to reconstruct the mountain peak sanctuaries that had been used when people lived in the mountains and hills around the valleys. Some would argue that ziggurats had a symbolic significance: it was a holy mountain that brought the priest into the god's presence; it was a symbolic mountain that was associated with the life-giving waters that flowed down from the mountains to irrigate the plains. The ziggurat was not only a religious center but also an economic redistribution center--the temple base was a warehouse where grain was stored.The ziggurats of the Mesopotamians have a different function and development than Egyptian pyramids. Ziggurats are in essence mud-brick mountains or platforms for the most important temples. They are a meeting place between the heavens and earth. The stairs of the ziggurat are to human scale and therefore are for climbing while the stair like structure of the Egyptian pyramid is not - it may only be an analogy to a stairway to heaven and a fitting result of its construction. The top of the pyramid is not a place to be reached physically - it is more about a mental journey or connection.

    Ziggurat
 

reconstruction of the Ziggurat of King Urnammu, Ur -- Iraq
 

The Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone was found in Egypt and helped decipher hieroglyphics.

Again this answer is pretty skimpy, but it would receive some credit.
 
 

Before about 1800, attempts at trying to understand Egyptian hieroglyphics found on walls inside numerous tombs was useless.  In 1799 French troops stumbled across the Rosetta Stone near a town in Lower Egypt known as Rosetta. The black basalt stone was inscribed with three different forms of writing: Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic (a short-hand of hieroglyphics), and Greek. The Rosetta Stone then became a key element in the deciphering hieroglyphics. Jean-Francois Champollion first recognized that hieroglyphs were not symbols, but instead were associated with phonetics. After many years of study, he wrote an Egyptian Grammar and the Egyptian Dictionary.

This is a more complete answer demonstrating a clear understanding of the topic.
 
 

Amenhotep was an Egyptian king who worshipped the god Aton. He was the first monotheist.
 

Amenhotep IV took the Egyptian throne around 1350 B.C. Along with his queen, Nefertiti, he established a monotheistic religion, with Aton as its one God. He assumed the name Akhnaton, meaning 'one useful to Aton'. Akhnaton was the pioneer of monotheism, a precursor to Abraham and Moses.  The God Aton, represented by a disk of the sun began to appear throughout the country. Throughout Egypt, the temples of the old gods were shut down. The names and representations of the god Amon, in particular, were removed from monuments, temples, and tomb chapels. Naturally, priests from the old cults were angry. Akhnaton moved his capital from Thebes and planned to build a new city called Akhetaton. After Akhnaton died, the priests of the old gods began to reassert their authority.
 
 

The following examples were written by a student. While these are brief, notice that she included specific details in each answer.

1.) Gilgamesh - Gilgamesh was the ruler of Uruk. The story of Gilgamesh is that the gods were asked by the people to come and “take care” of Gilgamesh.  The gods sent down a brutish man named Enkidu to challenge Gilgamesh in wrestling.  When neither could win they decided to become friends and they set off to do heroic deeds.  They came across Ishtar, goddess of love, and she tries to seduce Gilgamesh.  He declines. She asks her father Anu to kill them and he sends down the Bull of Heaven.  This did not work because Gilgamesh and Enkidu end up killing the Bull.  The gods decide one die.  Enlil, god of wind, chose Enkidu; he falls ill and dies.  Gilgamesh sets off to find eternal life.  Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh to dive to the bottom of the river and find a certain plant and eat it.  This plant will enable Gilgamesh to grow younger.  The only problem was when Gilgamesh found the plant before he could eat it a snake snatches it away and eats it first.  The morale of the story is only gods can have everlasting life.

2.) Hieroglyphics - In French, 1799 troops found the Rosetta Stone in a city in Egypt called Rosetta. This stone had three different languages on it: hieroglyphics (Egyptian), demotic (shorthand of hieroglyphics), and Greek.  Jean-Francois Champollion discovered it was not symbols on the stone, it was a form of phonetics.  This led to the interpretation of hieroglyphics, the Egyptian language.

3.) The Agricultural Revolution -The agricultural revolution was the shift from hunting and gathering to growing crops.  Villages were made possible, and a division of labor was established.  Trade developed from this shift.  People became artisans and craftsmen. Trading allowed people to be exposed to other cultures outside of their villages and new ideas.  Better weapons were made.  Pottery and weaving of baskets were done to store food in.  Villages such as Jericho, Jarmo, and Catal Huyuk popped-up. The agricultural revolution led to a new way of life.  People built houses out of mud-brick and they armed themselves to protect their villages.

Sheri Dixon
His 121
Fall 1999
 

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