Essay Writing - How to structure it. What to include. Should or shouldn't I memorise?
A breakdown of the essay structure.
Essay writing is straight forward enough so I won't linger too long on it here. My detailed materials on essay writing are
here (if the link doesn't work, please tell me) which also include examples. I will be quick about what I have to say about essay writing here. Remember that the primary purpose of essay writing is to convince the reader of your argument. You need convincing evidence to support your argument and can't rely on niche one-liners the whole way through your essay.
In a nutshell - Your thesis paragraph is your argument. General things to include (in no particular order) would be an introduction to the concept that the module is dealing with, your overall point or argument in line with that concept, your answer to the question, formal introductions of the texts (authors, date published, and medium), and the points you're going to approach in the body of your essay (these will be your discussion points for each paragraph of your body). A good thesis paragraph will include all of these things and be well-written. Never underestimate the power of good academic writing.
- Your body paragraphs should all start with a comprehensible one-liner that identifies the discussion point of the paragraph, how that point relates to a concept of the module, AND how that discussion point will be used to answer the question. An easy way to go about creating good discussion points would be to make the concepts of the modules discussion points in themselves. You can achieve this with a simple rewording of how the concept is brought up in the rubric. Ideally, you will raise about 3 or 4 different quotes and techniques that correspond with those quotes accordingly as evidence of your argument. This may mean multiple techniques to a quote, which is spectacular if you can do it. Remember that your discussion point is a statement that you are using to support your overall argument. Your body paragraph is tasked with supporting this statement by using relevant textual evidence, which will then concurrently give credibility to your overall argument. It is a good idea to sometimes link your analysis to your overall argument AND the question - not solely to the discussion point of the paragraph - considering that all of these things are interrelated. You should have a concluding sentence which reiterates your discussion point, how it supports your argument, and how it answers the question.
- Your conclusion is very straightforward. It is a concise reiteration of the points you made in your introduction, but don't underestimate its value. It is the last thing the marker will read (they don't read your essay twice) and the last thing you want is a 20/20 essay with a 10/20 conclusion, because you will be marked down for it (I certainly was). It needs to be well-written and not a blatant half-assed repetition of your intro.
Paragraphing is an important aspect of essay writing. The best way to do it is always to structure with respect to your discussion points. In Modules A and C, I think a good structure would be 4 body paragraphs with 2 discussion points (1 paragraph for each text). Naturally, it is expected that you would integrate within your paragraphs; not just having analysis solely on text 1 and text 2, but also drawing parallels and differences between the texts and their representation of the concept and discussion point. This is usually what separates the High Bs and Low As from the High As. In Module B, I think a good way would be 3 discussion point paragraphs if you're doing only 1 text e.g. Hamlet. For Speeches etc that have more than 1 text, using the structure I mentioned for Mods A and B might be your best bet.
The general expected word length of essays are about 800 - 1000 words. Most of my essays were ~900 words long to accommodate for adapting in the exam (I memorised my essays), which I expect would have taken up an extra 100-200 words depending on the question. One of the things that the markers expect from a 20/20 essay is being succinct - i.e. clear and concise about your response, no waffling at all, no flowery language being used to cover up non-points - and word length is a correspondent to that. That is not to say if you have a 1200 word essay you are not concise or less valued than a 900 word essay - I'm a firm believer that the whole quality over quantity debate is self-serving bullshit for people who have 700/800 word essays to shit on those with 1000+ word essays so they can feel better about their own work. Quantity in essays is a value of quality of its own - more content and support for your argument. Some people are capable of writing huge 1200+ word essays in 40 minutes that are succinct (I know many who did). The difference in their writing is that they are likely to have more points and evidence than you. I think an ideal essay lies around ~1000 words give or take 10%. 700/800 is too short to have a comprehensive argument and to support that adequately for a high A range response because it would be lacking something when you read it - mostly substance. Some people are capable of having a solid 20/20 essay at 800 words. Good for them - but why should you assume you are one? The only person I have ever known to have that ability was a legitimate genius (came to the theory of calculus in his Year 8 science assignment, 100 and 1st in the state at Year 11 for 2u Maths, 99.95er, 100 on his UMAT, and a lot more just in his high school years alone, also part of MENSA) now studying a
triple degree (B Adv Arts (Honours)/B Surgery/B Medicine) at USYD with a HD average in every part of his degree, multiple first places in subjects, and a likely university medalist. Are you that good?
The key to being succinct though really is in language use. Flowery language, while sometimes nice and well-used, I think should be discouraged. Language that is assertive (high model) and gets straight to the point is more impressive, particularly in essay writing where you have a limited time to write an argument. This is a skill you develop as you write more essays, which brings me to my next point about memorising/not memorising essays.
To memorise or not to memorise? (see what I did there? 
)
So this is an area of high contention. I should provide an objective analysis of the situation and let you come to your own conclusion, but fuck that. Let me make it clear that I memorised and adapted my essays and promote that method, but I will discuss some aspects of both.
Firstly, memorising your essay is not the intended method of study for English. You are expected to have knowledge of your texts, modules, and the rubrics inside out, and be readily capable of applying that knowledge on the spot to questions. Some students find memorising key quotes and techniques to be a good way of studying English, and if that is what works for them, that's fantastic. The problem with relying on this method is that on the spot writing typically leads to extremes; either you do amazingly or you do poorly because it'll come down to everything that happens on that day - how you're feeling, have you thought about how you'd answer the question on the day, etc, etc. Another thing that you must consider is that high A range responses are expected to have an essay that is relevant, coherent, succinct, sophisticated, well-written, have near-perfect sentence structures, and academic. This pretty much means those with a natural talent for writing and sophistication will have the upper hand against those using the same method of exam approach. Something else I want you to consider is
how good is your first draft of anything? Most students who walk into the exam with only quotes and techniques will only write a response as good as their first draft. In a lot of cases, this is not a high A range mark. To really make this technique work, you will have sat down and practised writing out an essay to
multiple questions and written it from the top of your head. Only then will you develop excellent sentence structures, sophistication, and the like. But even afterwards, you are still really only limited to what happens on the exam day, and still you run the risk of your response being only as good as a first draft because you are still writing on the spot.
So, that brings me to why I teach people to memorise a generic response. A lot of people have this misconception that to memorise a generic response is to brainlessly put together an essay and regurgitate it on the day of the exam. If it was truly that, I would be the first person to board the nopetrain to nopeville. The wonderful thing about generic essays is that they offer stability. If done correctly, it is unlikely their mark will stray very far from High B to Low A. A student with an adaptable generic will also always have something to write - they have a detailed and fleshed scaffold of how to answer the particular question on the day. A good generic essay will cover pretty much all the bases in the rubric (with the exception of possibly the concepts that are unlikely to be tested since they were tested in last year's exam, or the last paper they did internally, etc), have an overall argument that the student finds easy to write about, and most importantly, be able to make whatever concept is brought up in the exam the crux of their argument.
Remember that essay writing is all about being persuasive and supporting your argument in line with the concepts of the module that are usually some aspect of the question. A good generic will always have room for this. Of course, there will be students who write their first draft of a generic, make a weak attempt at editing it and very poorly adapt the essay on the day of the exam. That is a risk you run by writing a generic and you should be aware of it. But between memorising quotes/techniques and then writing on the spot, and having a fully fleshed out scaffold of an essay, it is easier to make the memorised essay work in your favour.
A good generic essay will have been written with the concepts of the Module and syllabus in mind. This is easy to find - just go through the link I provided earlier to HSC Online. You can very easily rule out certain concepts by look at past papers and exams for your final generic essay because they are not going to ask the same question twice in a row, but for the purposes of your internal exams, it is always good to consider how you would answer this question and prepare something on the concept anyway. Another thing that is crucial to a good generic essay is editing. Once you write your first draft,
edit the shit out of it. Go to your study group and get feedback. Go to your teachers and get feedback. Make changes to your essay accordingly. Some of my generic essays were so edited that I had entire points changed and entire sentence structures changed. It is really in this process of editing that students will learn more about the module, more about their texts, and more about the versatility of their quotes and techniques. They will learn how to adapt their essay to the possible concepts of questions in this way - they will be forced to consider the possible questions and forced to consider how they will make their essay work. I always found it easiest to study English when I had a tangible body of work that I had made in front of me. My final essays were edited over 10 times - and guess what?
I sought out the feedback of my entire cohort. Our grade had a Facebook page and I shared my materials to everyone. I asked for their feedback. I wanted to know what made sense and what didn't. What worked and what could be improved on. I never truly understood the Modules and Texts until I knew what everyone else was thinking about it. I highly recommend you do the same. It is one thing to trust in your ability, but another entirely to have your ability informed by the logic of others as well.
Other Formats
Remember that they can always ask you to write in a different format to essays for the extended response. This can be diary entries, speeches, newspaper articles, feature articles, letters to a friend, etc. While this is unlikely, it is a form of a curveball you might encounter. In my internal exams, I had to write a diary entry consisting of 4 separate entries that demonstrated my changing attitude towards my opinion of Hamlet. It took me off my game but I did simply adapted my generic essay on the spot to the format they wanted I still came out of it with a 20/20. If this happens to you, remember to keep your cool. You have reading time. If you must, use the 1st minute to freak out. Get it out of your system. Use the remainder of the time to go over what you know about the format they specified and then think about slotting in your response with respect to that format. This is also somewhere where students with generic essays memorised have an advantage as they already have a body of writing to work with and all they have to do is figure out how to slot it in. Usually you can get away with a change in the language you use. All of them will pretty much provide for less sophisticated language - so cut out all your ridiculous big words straight off the bat and use a more inclusive way of writing, e.g. using "we" and "our" maybe. If it is something personal like a diary entry, use "I". I remember the first line of my diary entries to be something like "I have studied Hamlet up to Act 3, and I think that the play presents some intricate questions metaphysical nature and that Shakespeare has masterfully manipulated the textual dynamics of the play to blah blah blah". If you keep your mind stable during the exam and adopt an adaptable attitude, you will still succeed.
In Summary:
- Essay writing is straightforward - keep sophistication and being succinct paramount in your mind. Keep essays to about 1000 words give or take 10%. Don't use flowery language because it's not necessary to keep an authoritative and assertive tone which is all you need really for your essay to be well-written. Always integrate between texts, and weigh up the structure of your paragraphing.
- Structure your arguments around the concepts of the syllabus. Consider the likelihood of concepts appearing and re-appearing in the exam. For example, it is unlikely they will repeat the same question twice in a row.
- I recommend you memorise your essay. It should have been edited to the point where you understand the points of your essay in its totality and also other points tossed around in the editing process. Seek the help of others.
- Don't forget they can ask you to write in formats that are not essays (diary entries, letters, etc), but the basis of your response should stay the same anyway. Remember to keep your cool if this happens and just find a way to still be able to keep your essay structure (this is possible in
all situations). Most of the time you can get away with just changing tones of writing.
