Essay writin (1 Viewer)

[gypo101]

hey im doing HSC modern history and im having trouble writing essays...how do you fit all that content into allocated time? like how do u chose the main points-like im too worried to take anything out of an essay just in case it was important and therefore i might lose marks....how do u differentiate i guess ..?

 

[i love to act]

When writing essays, you must comprehend the question before you actually put pen to paper. Therefore, you would analyse the key words in the question.
For example, if the question was .... Analyse Stalin's positive contributions to Soviet Society.
Then, you'd underline Analyse and Positive.
Furthermore, teachers are constantly telling me that essays are like 'chips and twisties', thus meaning that the content of the essay must be answering the designated question, because, ultimately the marker does not care about anything apart from the answer to this question. At the end of each sentence you write, refer back to the question and think - does this relate to the question and what I'm trying to prove?
Altogether, each point should be sought out like this:
Argue your POV.
Support your POV with evidence (do not narrate!)
Analyse your evidence.
Come up with a direct answer to the question (e.g. Stalin's positively did this ....)
And you keep doing this over and over, until your conclusion.

This will make it a lot easier in exams, if you sought it out like this.
Good Luck!

 

[cem]

When writing essays, you must comprehend the question before you actually put pen to paper. Therefore, you would analyse the key words in the question.
For example, if the question was .... Analyse Stalin's positive contributions to Soviet Society.
Then, you'd underline Analyse and Positive.
Furthermore, teachers are constantly telling me that essays are like 'chips and twisties', thus meaning that the content of the essay must be answering the designated question, because, ultimately the marker does not care about anything apart from the answer to this question. At the end of each sentence you write, refer back to the question and think - does this relate to the question and what I'm trying to prove?
Altogether, each point should be sought out like this:
Argue your POV.
Support your POV with evidence (do not narrate!)
Analyse your evidence.
Come up with a direct answer to the question (e.g. Stalin's positively did this ....)
And you keep doing this over and over, until your conclusion.

This will make it a lot easier in exams, if you sought it out like this.
Good Luck!

This is a good piece of advice but some narration is necessary in Modern - e.g. tell the outline of the story so in answering a question about Stalin it would be right to give the basic outline of the events so that the analysis fits into the story. An essay of just analysis will raise the question of whether the writer knows what happened or only the historiographical type of response.

I advise my kids to have about 10-15 % of their essay being basic narration on which they hang their analysis.