UPSC

Answer Writing Masterclass by Manuj Jindal IAS

Class no. 1
What makes for a good answer?

I am going to tell you certain fundamental factors that make up for a good answer. As an
aspirant these should be your guiding lights when trying to write a good answer. A lot more
details and hard work goes into writing a good answer. But if you understand the following
concepts I am providing you with and work hard on honing your skills around them, I am sure
you will improve drastically.

So, let’s get straight into what makes an answer good in the first place.

Several factors contribute to a holistic answer:

1. Your answer must address ALL aspects and parts of the question.
2. It must showcase your understanding of the question asked by UPSC.
3. It must be to the point
4. It must be informative and analytical NOT speculative
5. It must be supported by relevant facts, data, reports, diagrams, studies etc. where
needed.
6. It must follow a coherent flow while addressing the question (Intro, Body, Conclusion
where needed and skipping Intro or conclusion where not needed)

A good answer

Showcases Relevant facts, data,

Addresses all aspects understanding the InformaQve not diagrams etc to
of the quesQon To the point speculaQve
quesQon asked support and enhance

Let’s discuss the first point:

1. Your answer must address ALL aspects and parts of the question.

Many UPSC questions ask multiple questions within the same one question. These might be
apparent to some at the first time, but many aspirants might miss this out as they may not be
used to this. Often these questions are long, and that makes you forget to address and answer
all the parts of such questions.

Therefore, when going through the question, identify exactly what different aspects the
question is asking you to address. Here’s an example from GS 3 Mains 2020 paper:

In this question, there are three main aspects or parts of question:

1. Challenges of food processing

2. Opportunities of food processing
3. How can farmers’ incomes be increased by food processing

First, you don’t really need an introduction in this question. You can go directly into the point
starting with ‘Challenges’ of food processing as shown in the answer below.

Personally, I didn’t use introductions in such questions because the mandate of the question is
simply the major points it asks, that is challenges, opportunities and how can farmers’ incomes
be increased. If these are provided well then the examiner will not cut your marks merely over
the fact that you don’t have a two line introduction which itself doesn’t add significant value to
the answer.

If you still feel the need for an introduction, don’t make it more than 2-3 lines under any
circumstance. That introduction could simply define food processing: “Food processing industry
includes various value additions to food, for example: meat processing, dairy products such as
cheese, jams, fruit preserves and others.” How to handle the Introductions is provided in
another chapter.

Second, each of the aspects should be answered clearly and to the point. Do not try to create
too many points just for the sake of filling the paper. Only content that is related to the
question being asked will be rewarded by the examiner. If you just add random points that do
not really answer the question, it will set a bad precedence in the examiners mind. It will also
affect your other answers as you are taking away time you could allocate to them for writing a
better answer!