Describe, Explain, Compare, Evaluate: What Academic Questions Are Really Asking You to Do
“Sometimes a student knows the answer but answers the wrong question — because the difficulty was not the subject itself, but understanding what kind of thinking the task required.”
— Tymur Levitin
You know the material.
You studied the chapter.
You understand the concept.
Then the examination asks:
Explain why...
You write everything you remember.
The answer receives only partial credit.
Another question says:
Evaluate the effectiveness of...
You describe what happened.
Again, the result is weaker than expected.
Then:
Compare...
You write two separate descriptions.
Still not enough.
What went wrong?
Possibly nothing was wrong with your factual knowledge.
The problem may have appeared one step earlier:
you answered a different intellectual task from the one the question actually requested.
Words such as:
describe
explain
compare
analyse
evaluate
justify
are not decorative academic vocabulary.
They tell you what operation to perform on your knowledge.
Understanding these verbs can therefore become part of academic competence itself.
Knowing the content is only one part of answering
Suppose you are asked:
Describe the change in the graph.
You might write:
The value increased from 20 to 45 between 2010 and 2020.
Now change one word:
Explain the change in the graph.
The numbers are still relevant.
But now description alone is insufficient.
The question asks for something else:
What caused the change?
Now:
Evaluate the significance of the change.
Again, the same graph.
But now you must make a judgment.
How important was the change?
According to what criterion?
What evidence supports your conclusion?
Same topic.
Different thinking.
Academic task verbs are instructions for thinking
A useful way to understand them is:
Content tells you WHAT the question is about.
The task verb tells you WHAT TO DO with that content.
For example:
Explain the causes of inflation.
Content:
inflation
Required intellectual action:
explain causal relationships
Or:
Compare mitosis and meiosis.
Content:
two biological processes
Action:
identify meaningful similarities and differences
Or:
Evaluate whether this policy was successful.
Content:
the policy
Action:
make a reasoned judgment using criteria and evidence
This distinction is simple.
Its consequences are enormous.
The Academic Task Interpretation Chain
We can represent academic answering as:
Task Verb → Required Thinking → Relevant Knowledge → Response Structure → Evidence → Answer
I call this the:
Academic Task Interpretation Chain
The task verb does not tell you the final answer.
It tells you what architecture the answer needs.
1. Describe
What is there? What happened?
To describe means to present relevant characteristics, features, events or patterns.
You are usually answering:
What?
What does it look like?
What changed?
What happened?
A strong description is precise.
It does not automatically need to explain why something happened.
Example
Describe the trend in unemployment between 2018 and 2022.
A useful answer might identify:
the direction;
major changes;
high and low points;
important values;
periods of stability.
But if you spend the whole answer discussing causes, you may be doing more than the task requires while failing to describe the trend clearly.
2. Explain
Why or how does it happen?
To explain means to show relationships, mechanisms or causes.
The core questions are:
Why?
or
How?
A weak explanation often becomes another description.
For example:
The temperature increased and the reaction became faster.
That describes a relationship.
A stronger answer asks:
Why did increasing temperature change the reaction rate?
Now we need mechanism.
Description and explanation are not the same
This distinction appears across subjects.
Biology
Describe respiration
versus
Explain why respiration is necessary for cells.
Physics
Describe the motion of the object
versus
Explain why the object's acceleration changes.
History
Describe the events of 1917
versus
Explain why the political situation changed.
Economics
Describe inflation
versus
Explain why inflation increased.
Same knowledge domain.
Different intellectual operation.
3. Compare
What is similar and what is different — in relation to the same criteria?
Students often answer comparison questions by writing:
Paragraph about A.
Paragraph about B.
Done.
But two descriptions do not automatically create a comparison.
Comparison requires a common dimension.
For example:
Compare mitosis and meiosis.
Possible criteria include:
number of divisions;
number of resulting cells;
genetic similarity;
chromosome number;
biological function.
Now the answer creates relationships:
Both...
However...
Whereas...
Unlike...
In contrast...
The task is not merely to know two things.
It is to organize their relationship.
4. Contrast
Depending on the educational system, contrast may mean focusing primarily on differences.
If the question says:
Compare and contrast,
you normally need both:
similarities;
differences.
Again, knowing the terminology is less important than recognizing what mental operation has been requested.
5. Analyse
Break the whole into meaningful parts and examine relationships
Analyse is often misunderstood because it can sound like:
write a sophisticated answer.
But analysis has a more useful underlying logic.
You examine:
components;
patterns;
relationships;
causes;
structures;
assumptions;
evidence.
Suppose the question asks:
Analyse the factors that contributed to the economic crisis.
A list of factors is not yet a strong analysis.
You may need to consider:
how they interacted;
which were more important;
whether one intensified another;
how the relationships changed over time.
Analysis makes structure visible.
6. Discuss
Explore the issue from more than one relevant perspective
“Discuss” can be dangerous because students sometimes interpret it as:
write everything you know.
A stronger interpretation is:
develop a reasoned examination of the issue.
That may involve:
different arguments;
different interpretations;
evidence;
limitations;
relationships;
a conclusion.
The exact conventions vary by subject and institution, so students should always consider the local assessment criteria.
But the answer should normally be organized around the question, not around the order in which facts were memorized.
7. Evaluate
Make a judgment — and establish why that judgment is justified
To evaluate is not simply to describe advantages and disadvantages.
Evaluation requires a judgment.
Examples:
How effective?
How important?
How reliable?
How successful?
How convincing?
To answer well, you normally need criteria.
Consider:
Evaluate the effectiveness of the policy.
Effective according to what?
Economic growth?
Employment?
Cost?
Long-term stability?
Social outcomes?
Different criteria can produce different judgments.
That is precisely why evaluation requires reasoning.
Evaluation without criteria becomes opinion
Suppose a student writes:
The policy was very successful.
Why?
Because it feels successful?
A stronger academic response establishes a basis:
If success is measured primarily by reducing unemployment in the first two years, the policy was relatively effective. However...
Now the judgment can be examined.
Academic evaluation is not the absence of opinion.
It is the construction of a defensible judgment.
8. Justify
Give reasons or evidence that support a decision, claim or method
A mathematics question may say:
Justify your answer.
The examiner does not only want the number.
They want to know:
Why should we accept this result?
In history:
Justify the claim that X was the most important factor.
In science:
Justify your choice of method.
A justification answers:
What gives us good reason to accept this decision or conclusion?
9. Interpret
What does the information mean?
Interpretation goes beyond repeating what is visible.
A graph rises.
That is description.
What does the rise suggest?
What relationship might it represent?
What conclusion is justified?
That is interpretation.
But interpretation must remain connected to the evidence.
Otherwise it becomes speculation.
10. Define
State what the concept means with sufficient precision
Definitions seem simple.
But a good academic definition usually identifies the essential conceptual boundary.
For example, saying:
Velocity means moving fast
would not be sufficient in physics.
Velocity has a specific conceptual meaning.
Academic vocabulary often uses everyday-looking words in technically narrower ways.
11. Demonstrate / Show
These verbs vary greatly by subject.
In mathematics, show that may require a logical derivation.
In science, demonstrate may involve evidence.
In another context, it may simply mean making a relationship clear.
The surrounding subject conventions matter.
This is an important principle:
Academic task verbs have general meanings, but disciplines determine exactly what counts as an acceptable performance.
12. Calculate
This appears straightforward:
perform a mathematical calculation.
But academic calculation normally includes more than pressing buttons.
You may need to:
select the appropriate relationship;
show working;
use correct units;
round appropriately;
interpret the result.
The mathematical operation is only one part of the answer.
13. Derive
In mathematics and physics, derive normally asks you to obtain a result logically from known relationships.
This is very different from:
state the formula.
If the student simply writes the memorized final equation, the requested intellectual task has not been demonstrated.
14. Predict
A prediction asks what should happen under specified conditions.
A scientific prediction should normally follow from:
a model;
a relationship;
previous evidence;
a mechanism.
It is not simply a guess.
This connects directly with our Scientific Reasoning Cycle:
Observe → Question → Hypothesize → Model → Predict → Test → Evaluate → Revise → Explain
15. Prove
“Prove” has a particularly strong meaning in mathematics.
A proof is not:
many examples;
a plausible diagram;
“I tested it and it worked.”
It requires reasoning showing that the claim follows under the stated conditions.
Different disciplines use the language of proof and evidence differently.
Students need to learn those disciplinary conventions.
The same knowledge can produce several different answers
Imagine you know everything required about photosynthesis.
Now answer four questions:
Describe photosynthesis.
You present the process.
Explain why light is necessary.
You construct a mechanism.
Compare photosynthesis and respiration.
You organize similarities and differences.
Evaluate the importance of photosynthesis for an ecosystem.
You make and defend a judgment.
Same general knowledge domain.
Four different performances.
That is why learning content alone is not always enough for academic success.
Academic command verbs are part of Language + Subject competence
This becomes especially important when the language of education is not the learner's strongest language.
A student may understand physics.
But misunderstand:
estimate
derive
justify
evaluate
The resulting error may look like poor physics.
In reality, the problem started when the student interpreted the task.
This is exactly one of the stages in our Subject-to-Demonstration Chain:
Subject Knowledge → Conceptual Access → Academic Language → Task Interpretation → Response Construction → Demonstration
TASK-A001 goes deeper into that fourth stage:
Task Interpretation.
A one-word misunderstanding can change the entire answer
Suppose the question says:
Estimate the value.
The student interprets:
Calculate the exact value.
They spend ten minutes doing work the task never requested.
Or:
State two reasons.
The student writes a long explanation of one.
Or:
Compare.
The student describes both separately.
The subject knowledge may be present.
The intellectual instruction was decoded incorrectly.
Why translating the task verb may not be enough
Suppose a student learns:
evaluate = оцінити
Good start.
But what does evaluate require in an English academic answer?
A dictionary equivalent does not automatically teach the academic operation.
The learner needs:
examples;
contrast with similar verbs;
response structures;
assessment criteria;
practice.
This is why academic language should not be taught as isolated vocabulary.
It is language for intellectual action.
The Academic Task Verb Matrix
A practical reference:
| Task verb | Central question | Main operation |
|---|---|---|
| Describe | What is happening? | Present relevant features |
| Explain | Why/how? | Build causal or logical relationships |
| Compare | How are A and B alike/different? | Relate using shared criteria |
| Analyse | How is this structured? | Break down and examine relationships |
| Discuss | What are the relevant perspectives? | Develop a reasoned exploration |
| Evaluate | How strong/effective/important? | Judge using criteria and evidence |
| Justify | Why should this be accepted? | Provide reasons/evidence |
| Interpret | What does this mean? | Infer meaning from information |
| Define | What exactly is this? | Establish conceptual meaning |
| Calculate | What is the numerical result? | Select and perform mathematical operations |
| Predict | What should happen? | Derive an expected outcome |
| Derive | How does this result follow? | Construct a logical/mathematical path |
This table should not replace the assessment rules of a particular school, university or examination.
It is a conceptual map.
A better way to read an academic question
Before answering, separate the question into four parts.
1. TASK
What intellectual action does the verb require?
2. CONTENT
What topic or concept is being tested?
3. SCOPE
How much of the topic is relevant?
4. CONDITIONS
Are there constraints?
For example:
Using the evidence in Sources A and B, evaluate the importance of economic factors in causing the conflict between 1919 and 1939.
Task:
evaluate
Content:
economic factors and conflict
Scope:
1919–1939
Conditions:
use Sources A and B
Now the question becomes much easier to organize.
The TASK–CONTENT–SCOPE–CONDITIONS model
This gives us another practical tool:
TASK → CONTENT → SCOPE → CONDITIONS
Before writing anything, identify all four.
A surprisingly large number of weak academic answers contain strong information that simply does not answer one of these elements.
Before you answer, rewrite the question
One useful strategy is to paraphrase the task mentally.
For example:
Evaluate the effectiveness of X
becomes:
I need to decide how effective X was, establish criteria, use evidence, consider limitations and reach a justified conclusion.
Or:
Compare A and B
becomes:
I need to organize similarities and differences using common criteria.
This creates a small internal plan before content begins to flow.
Do not answer from memory in the order you learned it
The textbook may have taught:
A → B → C → D.
But the examination asks about:
the relationship between B and D.
If you reproduce the chapter, most of your answer may be irrelevant.
Academic performance requires reorganizing knowledge around the task.
That ability is part of independence.
Our broader Four-Level Learning Model describes the progression:
Knowledge → Understanding → Ability → Independence
Independent learners do not merely retrieve information.
They select what the situation requires.
How to practise task verbs
Do not only memorize definitions of the verbs.
Take one body of knowledge and transform the task.
For example, use the same topic:
climate change
Then answer:
Describe...
Explain...
Compare...
Analyse...
Evaluate...
Now you can feel the difference between the intellectual operations.
This is much stronger than memorizing:
evaluate = make a judgment
because the distinction becomes procedural.
Use deliberately wrong answers
A powerful teaching exercise is to show an answer that contains correct facts but responds to the wrong task.
For example:
Question:
Explain why the population changed.
Answer:
The population was 2.1 million in 2000 and 3.4 million in 2020.
The facts may be perfectly accurate.
But this is primarily description.
Ask:
What is missing?
The student learns to distinguish correct information from task fulfilment.
Mark the intellectual action, not only language errors
If a multilingual learner writes a weak academic answer, correcting every grammar mistake may obscure the deeper issue.
We should also ask:
Did they explain?
Did they compare?
Did they evaluate?
Did they justify?
Did they provide the requested evidence?
The language may need correction.
But grammatical accuracy and intellectual task completion are separate dimensions.
Good academic language makes relationships visible
Academic phrases are useful not because they sound sophisticated, but because they help structure reasoning.
For comparison:
Similarly...
In contrast...
Whereas...
For causation:
This resulted from...
This contributed to...
One mechanism is...
For evaluation:
This is significant because...
However, this conclusion is limited by...
If we use X as the criterion...
Language becomes an interface for thought.
That is one of the central principles of our Language + Subject work.
Do not teach “academic phrases” as decorations
Students sometimes receive lists such as:
Moreover
Furthermore
Nevertheless
Consequently
Then they insert them everywhere.
The writing sounds more academic.
The reasoning may remain unchanged.
A connector is useful when the relationship it signals actually exists.
Therefore:
language form should follow reasoning structure.
Not the other way around.
Different disciplines answer the same verb differently
“Explain” in physics is not identical to “explain” in history.
Physics may require:
mechanism;
model;
law;
mathematical relationship.
History may require:
causal factors;
context;
agency;
long- and short-term relationships.
Biology may require:
process;
structure;
function;
regulation.
Therefore, academic language always interacts with disciplinary thinking.
This is why Language + Subject cannot be reduced to general English plus terminology.
Examinations make task interpretation especially important
Under time pressure, the student may begin writing immediately.
But ten seconds spent identifying the task can prevent ten minutes spent answering the wrong question.
A practical examination habit:
Circle or underline the command verb.
Then identify:
TASK.
CONTENT.
SCOPE.
CONDITIONS.
Only then begin constructing the answer.
AI can answer the wrong question beautifully
This is also relevant when using AI.
A generated response may be:
grammatically excellent;
well structured;
full of information;
and still fail the actual task.
The same verification remains necessary:
What was the question asking?
Did the response perform that intellectual operation?
Tools do not remove the need for task interpretation.
They can make that skill even more important.
The learner should eventually diagnose the question independently
At first, a teacher may say:
“Evaluate means you need to make a judgment.”
Later:
“What does evaluate require?”
Eventually, the learner sees the word and automatically activates:
criteria;
evidence;
counterarguments;
judgment.
That is the transition from academic vocabulary to academic competence.
From understanding the question to demonstrating knowledge
Academic performance can fail at several points:
You may not know the subject.
You may know it but fail to access it.
You may understand the content but misread the task.
You may understand the task but lack the language to construct the answer.
You may construct the answer but fail to communicate it clearly.
These layers are why a weak response should not automatically trigger the diagnosis:
“The student needs to study the chapter again.”
Sometimes the chapter is not the problem.
A practical five-step answering protocol
Before any serious academic answer:
Step 1 — Identify the task verb
What thinking is required?
Step 2 — Identify the content
What must that thinking operate on?
Step 3 — Identify scope and conditions
What belongs in the answer and what does not?
Step 4 — Build the response structure
What form should the reasoning take?
Step 5 — Select evidence and execute
Now use your knowledge.
This order is powerful because it prevents information from rushing into the answer before the task has been understood.
The final question
Before submitting your answer, ask:
Did I demonstrate what I know?
Then ask something even more precise:
Did I demonstrate it in the form this question actually requested?
Those are not always the same thing.
“Academic success does not depend only on having the right knowledge. It also depends on recognizing what the task asks you to do with that knowledge.”
— Tymur Levitin
Continue Learning
For the complete Language + Subject diagnostic architecture, read You Know the Subject — But Can You Show What You Know in Another Language?.
For the broader distinction between knowledge, understanding, ability and independent performance, continue with Knowing vs Understanding: The Four Levels of Real Learning.
For unfamiliar problem solving, see How to Solve a Problem You've Never Seen Before.
For scientific questions involving hypotheses, models, evidence and explanation, explore How Scientific Thinking Works: From Observation to Explanation.
Learn Languages, Academic Subjects, or Both
Levitin Language School provides individual online education for children, teenagers, university students and adults internationally.
Our educational system works across three interconnected directions:
Languages · Academic Subjects · Language + Subject
This makes it possible to work not only with general language competence or an academic discipline separately, but also with the specific academic language required to understand questions, study subjects, demonstrate knowledge, take examinations and function in another educational system.
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About the Author
Tymur Levitin
Founder & Director, Levitin Language School
Educator and author working across language learning, academic subjects, multilingual education, learning diagnosis, problem solving and integrated Language + Subject learning.
His work focuses on how knowledge becomes understanding, how understanding becomes usable competence, and how learners can successfully access and demonstrate academic knowledge through the language required by school, university, examinations and professional life.
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Language Thinking Laboratory: https://languagethinkinglab.blogspot.com/
Author contact: tymurlevitin@levitintymur.com
© Tymur Levitin — Founder & Director, Levitin Language School. All rights reserved.
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