Essay

Answer type: essay

The student writes long-form prose in a text box (a plain textarea by default; a rich-text editor when $displayformat = "editor" and the student's editor preference is on). Marked by hand unless $scoremethod says otherwise (see Options).

The minimum

Common Control:

$answer = "A model answer, shown after the attempt."

$answer is not used to grade — it is what the student and the marker see as the reference response.

Options

Variable	Effect
$answer	the model answer shown afterwards
$answerboxsize	size of the writing area
$displayformat	"editor" for a rich-text editor (when the student's editor preference is on), "editornopaste" for the same with pasting blocked, "pre" to show the response as preformatted text in review; omit for a plain textarea
$scoremethod	"takeanything" gives full credit for any non-blank answer; "takeanythingorblank" gives full credit even for a blank answer; "nomanual" skips manual marking and records a score of 0

Marking

A non-blank essay answer reaches the gradebook flagged for manual grading and waits for a marker (a blank answer scores 0 immediately, and $scoremethod can bypass the marker). That has two consequences worth planning for:

• An assessment containing an essay part cannot fully auto-release scores.
• The getfeedback* macros cannot judge an essay: only getfeedbacktxtessay applies, and it shows one fixed message once anything is typed. They are not silenced when scores are withheld in the current player (see Feedback Macros), so write the guidance into solution instead.

Example

Question Text:

<p>Explain why a continuous function on a closed interval must attain a
   maximum. Refer to the Extreme Value Theorem in your answer.</p>

Common Control:

$answer = "A continuous function on a closed, bounded interval attains both a
maximum and a minimum by the Extreme Value Theorem. Closedness matters because
an open interval allows the function to approach a value it never reaches."
$answerboxsize = 8

See Also

• String — short text graded automatically
• File Upload — work submitted as a file
• Multipart — pairing an essay part with an auto-graded one