Open-Ended+Responses

Use the RACE method when answering Open-ended Responses.

RACE:

**R: Reword/Restate the Question** Reword the question means that you are to restate the question and make it into a statement as a part of the answer you provide. If you were to be asked "What color is the sky?", you would not simply answer, "blue" - instead, the correct answer would be "The color of the sky is blue," or words to that effect.

**A: Answer the Question** In order to answer the question, you need to understand what you are being asked, and then make sure you provide the answer to that specific question. The answer, as in the example above, may come in the first sentence as you reword the question into a statement, but in an essay question you will then need to show how you arrived at your answer.

**C: Citing the Evidence** As the open-ended response question is meant to show how well you comprehended and were able to draw inferences from the essay prompt, it is essential that you give examp les from the prompt to show how they support your answer. If the prompt is a story you read about a boy named Joe who loves to ski, and the question is "Does Joe like the winter?", you could answer "Joe likes the winter because the story tells us that he loves skiing and skiing is a winter sport." In your essay you could go on to provide specific details that tell you how much he enjoys skiing (and, by extension, winter), such as quoting a line that says "Joe enjoyed the feel of the icy-cold air on his cheeks." **E: Explaining the Answer:** In addition to the evidence you've cited from the prompt, you will need to supply your own reasoning for why you think your answer is correct. Returning to the example above, the story about Joe who loved to ski, your examples from the text would be the details about how he enjoyed skiing and the cold air, but your own reasoning would be demonstrated by explaining that you know that skiing and cold air are things he is only likely to encounter during the winter, therefore his enjoyment of these things must mean that he also enjoys the winter season.