how to answer a "to what extent" question?

[Md_zS]

What does "to what extent" really mean?

How exactly do you answer a to what extent question?

My research question is : " to what extent do dreams and the conscious mind interact?"

Do I answer in my thesis, as: Dreams and the conscious mind influence each other to a large extent? I'm confused.

BTW. what exactly is the structure of EE?

Is it like a typical 3 argument essay? How many arguments do I exactly need?

Thanks!

[Sandwich]

"To what extent" means that you evaluate evidence for and against in order to come to a measured conclusion as to the degree of agreement. For instance, ways in which dreams and the conscious mind DO interact, ways in which they don't interact and then your conclusion that takes into account both and decides overall how much they agree (i.e. the extent to which they do/don't). The idea of a "thesis" and a "thesis statement" is confusing, so scrap both of those as concepts and just answer the question. You're conducting a sort-of evaluative research essay, not setting out to ramble on about your views as is the assumption with a thesis statement. You find out as you go along, rather than declaring anything to begin with.

Secondly, there's no such thing as a typical 3 argument essay(??). All essays contain as many arguments as they need to make your point. For the EE this should be all main points both for and against. You can leave out some more trivial points, but ideally you should get in all of the relevant points. If you find this is too many or too few, either narrow your title down or expand it up because you'll be penalised for having a bad topic otherwise. The structure is usually an introduction then whatever you want in between (usually for / against arguments with evidence) and then a conclusion. Read the EE guide for advice on the abstract etc.