UPSC Mains: How to Write Answers for Literature Optionals?

Very few students opt for literature as their optional ones in the UPSC mains examination. But if you are a literature and language lover, you will enjoy reading literature as your optional paper and it would feel less strenuous as well. Several students like to read a lot but issues arise when it comes to writing.

UPSC Mains: How to Write Answers for Literature Optionals?

Very few students opt for literature as their optional ones in the UPSC mains examination. But if you are a literature and language lover, you will enjoy reading literature as your optional paper and it would feel less strenuous as well. Several students like to read a lot but issues arise when it comes to writing. Because the answers should be not unique and out-of-the-box, but also impactful. So, today we are going to share some tips with that you make you understand how should be the answer writing for literature optional to score better.

• The consistency in the answer writing is very important and that’s why your performance should not vary across the answer sheet. if varies, it leaves a bad impression for the examiner. Add to that, your handwriting, font size and style should also not differ across the answer sheet otherwise the dissimilarities cause a negative impact on the visual beauty.
• The clarity and neatness of your answer sheet are very crucial since it is the representative of your clarity of thoughts. Under unavoidable circumstances, keep the scratches and cuts minimum.
• The originality, as well as the creativity in the answers, plays a major role in making the answers unique and idiosyncratic. So, put your efforts into making your answers exclusive by reading a lot more as well as practising answer writing every day.
• Generally, the answers are asked to be written down within a particular word limit. Try your best to stick to the word count but if this causes a genuine issue for answer writing and affects the quality of writing, then finish the writing as per your convenience by adhering to the maximum word limit and not the minimum.
• This is important to show your erudition and prudence on the language paper and to achieve that; you need to use relevant phrases and references made by the writers, thinkers, philosophers and poets. And remember that, the language is no barrier. If you are answering English paper and find out the relevance with a poem of Hindi or Sanskrit, do mention them by translating them properly. It would make the answers not only impactful but also relevant and beautiful.
• Many students tend to finish the answers with non-relevant ideas and thoughts to achieve the word limit as asked. But, the unnecessary blabbering makes your performance even more distressful and the score becomes lower than expected. So, do not write down whatever you know rather focus on the question properly and know before you start writing that what has been asked in the question. Then start writing without missing out the points asked from you.

Showing technical grasp over the language is crucial in a language paper and you can use technical terminologies to achieve the goal. But do not spoil the answers by overdoing it. In the case of the English language, you can use ‘simile’, ‘alliteration etc. and if your language optional is Hindi or Sanskrit, you can go for using ‘alankara’.