• Best of luck to the class of 2024 for their HSC exams. You got this!
    Let us know your thoughts on the HSC exams here
  • YOU can help the next generation of students in the community!
    Share your trial papers and notes on our Notes & Resources page
MedVision ad

Anyone care to tell what is needed in a essay to get 90% (1 Viewer)

District

New Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2010
Messages
8
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
My teacher says it is near impossible to get over 90% in standard english or should i say Band 6.

So I need to know bsides the complicated language what else is needed?

obviously you need to know the text well and know what the question is asking...

?
 

iRuler

Premium Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
6,731
Location
3.141592654
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
Uni Grad
2014
Link it to the question, like each line to the thesis etc...

English is a pain!
 

annabackwards

<3 Prophet 9
Joined
Jun 14, 2008
Messages
4,670
Location
Sydney
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
Basically, you need to write an advanced styled essay.

Link to the question throughout your essay, integrate if possible/you are comfortable with it.

Complicated language won't get you the band 6, but sophisticated language may very well do so. That is, don't use "big" words but learn to write more complex sentences and ensure that your essay flows well.

Also, you must use techniques. Identify technique, explain why it's used/it's purpose and then link to the question.
 

District

New Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2010
Messages
8
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
I was in advance last year and i learnt about intergrating qoutes into sentences eg.

The abused child thought " his life was falling apart" but still had a substantial amount of hope to.............

The teacher told me it was a high standard of english.

The thing is my teacher isnt really bright...i mean i asked her a question yesterday on how to answer a certain essay question. So i firstly give my answer on the question and then she replies "no" and REPEATS what i said... then i ask her isnt that what i just said?...she says "yes but...." silence...

So i dont think my teacher will recognise the technique above..
 

SK2010

Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2009
Messages
45
Location
The Hills
Gender
Female
HSC
2010
LOL Yeah I agree thats the same with my teacher, you just need to make your sentences flow

The correct way: the inexperience of "death" illustrates the "pain and suffering".....Metaphorically Elliot acts as the "master of life and death" ....

NEVER DO THIS:
The use of the simile, "she was like a flying fox" - NO NEVER DO THIS BECUASE YOU ARE WRITING FOR YOUR ENGLISH TEACHERS AND THEY HATE THIS LOL!!!
 

District

New Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2010
Messages
8
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
So, sophisticated language and making your sentence flow is the key.

Hmm.....it takes a while to learn to write sophisticated..although making your sentences flow wont b too hard.
 

annabackwards

<3 Prophet 9
Joined
Jun 14, 2008
Messages
4,670
Location
Sydney
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
LOL Yeah I agree thats the same with my teacher, you just need to make your sentences flow

The correct way: the inexperience of "death" illustrates the "pain and suffering".....Metaphorically Elliot acts as the "master of life and death" ....

NEVER DO THIS:
The use of the simile, "she was like a flying fox" - NO NEVER DO THIS BECUASE YOU ARE WRITING FOR YOUR ENGLISH TEACHERS AND THEY HATE THIS LOL!!!
Actually, depending on what the question is and your thesis you will almost always need to explicitly outline what the technique is. The trick is to learn how to do this without sounding super repetitive :)
 

iRuler

Premium Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
6,731
Location
3.141592654
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
Uni Grad
2014
Actually, depending on what the question is and your thesis you will almost always need to explicitly outline what the technique is. The trick is to learn how to do this without sounding super repetitive :)
I was doing module A practice essay on last yrs HSC question, for Pride and Prejudice and Letters to alice, and its very hard to keep a good flow, even tho it works most of the times, sometimes u have to just say the damn technique in the start of the sentence.
 

muhahahahahaha

Active Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2009
Messages
1,781
Location
Mars
Gender
Female
HSC
2010
this format is bound to get u an awesome mark
ok first off, you have your introduction. now with the introduction, you cant simply restate the statement/question that you were asked to write about, make sure to rewrite it in a way that links to the ideas that you are thinking of expressing/stating in your essay.
now for the body, always follow the structure of TECHNIQUE-EXAMPLE-EFFECT!!!!!
you usually need about 5 paragraphs for the body :)
then the conclusion would link all the ideas shown in the essay together and making a powerful statement, so that yopu can convinve the marker that you know what you are talking about
kayz then, peace out. hope this helps
 

moonblack

Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2009
Messages
52
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
im not going to go against annabackwards who obtained a very good mark

but all i can say is ur a fucking idiot for doing standard

noob
 

bored of sc

Active Member
Joined
Nov 10, 2007
Messages
2,314
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
There's no set formula to follow when writing a great essay. I never really mastered the art of analytical compositions in English (hence I got a mid-range band 5 for Advanced English). Here's what I tried to practice when writing Senior English essays:

You have to work to your strengths. If you have a good vocabulary then use it! If you are good at constructing sentences then experiment with your sentence structure/increase complexity.

Before you start writing your essay, know exactly what you want to say. Don't improvise as you go. This is where essay plans become essential. You should be able to summarise the crux of your essay in one simple sentence (this becomes your thesis statement).

Be original with your use of ideas and your writing style. You don't need to be crazily post-modern or overly sophisticated (which is actually worse then being overly simplistic). Do something a little out of the ordinary to stand out. Perhaps you could start/finish your essay with a powerful quote from the text or a famous quote/philosophy which relates to your thesis/essay question. You could write out your thesis 5 times using different words/phrases so you when you repeat your thesis at the beginning/end of each paragraph it is slightly different (but be careful, sometimes changing the words in your thesis changes the meaning too much that you start arguing a different thesis).

You need to address the concepts in the course outline/rubric/syllabus. The easiest way to do this is to make a glossary of key words/phrases and use them in your essay. E.g. for belonging, words like acceptance, identity, alienation etc are all specified in the rubric so you should discuss them!

Make every word count. If you are writing words simply to fill up lines then the words are not worth having in your essay. You are better off going back to your plan/thesis and seeing what you need to do to get back on track. In other words, don't waffle, it is one of HSC English's cardinal sin. Other cardinal sins include over-prescribing (rote-learning essays and replicating them in the exam regardless of the question/textual form) and not including techniques. If you do not analyse techniques, you will not get higher than a C grade.

Small, logical paragraphs are better than long, complex ones. One key idea per paragraph. Once you have your main thesis statement you can create further sub-thesis statements (closely related to the main thesis statement) which become the opening/closing sentences of your body paragraphs. This will help you to have one key concept per paragraph.

Don't be afraid to argue a point which is obscure or out of left-field. If you it off you'll stand out from the pack. Think about it, what makes a more interesting essay: Belonging is about the celebration of cultural identity OR Belonging is societal contruct, meticulously woven into mainstream culture?

To close, you need to do a lot of practice to bring yourself up to a band 6 level (if you're not already there). Essay writing is a skill, an art-form. Practice perfect makes perfect. Write an essay, get your teacher to mark it, edit the essay based on the teachers comments, get another teacher to mark it, do further editing etc (if you get the pattern). Keep doing this until a teacher tells you its at an A grade level. This could be a very long and tedious process but your effort will pay off. Generally speaking, those who achieve the top bands in English are persistent and determined, they are active in their learning and they keep striving to improve. Even if they are already a brilliant writer, they still wish to iron out any small weaknesses and turn them into strengths.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top