How does one go about improving their essays between trials and HSC (1 Viewer)

[Tim035]

I personally thought my essays were of a fairly high standard, I put a lot of work into writing them and practiced writing each of them to atleast 6-8 questions in preparation for the trials.
However in the exams My marks for all my essays ranged between 14-16/20 only.. Simply to say I was really dissapointed.
My teacher really has never been that much help, whenever i hand her sample essays shes always just writes one or two vague setences at the end of them which aren't much help.
Can anyone suggest a method or way to pinpoint problems and improve essays from now to HSC?>???

 

[passion89]

Here are some pointers:

1. Make sure you answer the question. A lot of people just vaguely refer to the question once or twice throughout. You have to make sure that you refer back to the question after every point you make/every text you introduce. This is the biggest drawback when it comes to essays.

2. With every point you make, state the example of it, the technique that emphasises it and the point of summation that reinforces and backs up your initial idea.

3. To maximise your marks, organise your essays integrally that is: Have 4 -6 points ready each mentioning a text, techniques and evidence. Composing essays by means of integration reflects sophistication and flair.

4. Remember quantity over quality. That said, too short an essay can be quite detrimental where the markers might think that you had much more to expand on and much more detail to include.

5. And continue already what you have been doing. Practicing timed responses is the best 'study' for english. It'll help with time organisation/memory/thinking on your feet.


EDIT: With point 2, I forgot to write that you have to state the effect that particular technique has on the responder and how it positions us to interpret the meaning.

 

[jest]

you could try giving your practice essays to other teachers. some may be willing to help. or compare your answers to other students and see where you went wrong

 

[glitterfairy]

Good points above. Another suggestion if teachers/friends aren't of much help is to get a tutor


Something I always like to do before starting an essay is to talk out loud about how I would answer the question in a nutshell, using my own words. Then I'll repeat this to myself everytime I'm about to write a new paragraph, so it's on the same tangent/reinforcing what I've already said.

 

[Tim035]

Thanks, these are the kind of points I needed.
I've already started this afternoon, going back to my raw notes and summaries and making more concise summaries/looking for ways to say things better or in a more technical sense.
I'm thinking the biggest problem with my essays is I kinda take a few setences leaning into my argument and a few sentences leaning out of what I've argued. Too much of my essays are just waffly and don't have the character-example/technique-effect sentence structure which is what the markers are looking for.

I've thought about a tutor... how helpful are they? Like can they legally help you through your essays sentence by sentence, ensuring your preparing band 5/6 responces?

 

[taco man]

You know what sets a solid 14-16 from say a 17-20 most of the time? its that extra degree of flair that u have in your essay. I'm sure you've probably heard this before, markers literally mark essay after essay of the same generic stuff. So I would recommend that u try to incorporate some uniqueness and insight in the conclusions/arguments/interpretations in your essay. But beware theres a fine line between what a maker might see as 'insight' and bullcrap so don't go tooo far on the creativeness

 

[passion89]

Something I always like to do before starting an essay is to talk out loud about how I would answer the question in a nutshell, using my own words. Then I'll repeat this to myself everytime I'm about to write a new paragraph, so it's on the same tangent/reinforcing what I've already said.

Haha yeah, I do that all the time and it really does help.

 

[Porcia]

You know what sets a solid 14-16 from say a 17-20 most of the time? its that extra degree of flair that u have in your essay. I'm sure you've probably heard this before, markers literally mark essay after essay of the same generic stuff. So I would recommend that u try to incorporate some uniqueness and insight in the conclusions/arguments/interpretations in your essay. But beware theres a fine line between what a maker might see as 'insight' and bullcrap so don't go tooo far on the creativeness

listen to this guy - he knows what hes talking about. everyone can write a competent essay, but not everyone can write an essay thats sophisticated, written with flair, and colour. i am first in 2,3, and 4u english in a school of 200 people and trust me - the only reason why im first is because i ensure i am different in my response. heaps of people probably know the text better than me - but what they fail to do is articulate themselves with flair.

 

[glitterfairy]

Thanks, these are the kind of points I needed.
I've already started this afternoon, going back to my raw notes and summaries and making more concise summaries/looking for ways to say things better or in a more technical sense.
I'm thinking the biggest problem with my essays is I kinda take a few setences leaning into my argument and a few sentences leaning out of what I've argued. Too much of my essays are just waffly and don't have the character-example/technique-effect sentence structure which is what the markers are looking for.

I've thought about a tutor... how helpful are they? Like can they legally help you through your essays sentence by sentence, ensuring your preparing band 5/6 responces?

A good tutor can help you a lot They may or may not go through sentence by sentence - personally (as a tutor) I'll usually only do this for people who just have minor grammatical issues that need to be pointed out (or, if it is the last check-through before a hand-in assessment). But if there are a LOT of sentences that are not as refined as they could be then I believe that it's the thinking pattern that needs to be sorted out first (getting to the root of the problem, so to speak)

The problem with HSC essays is that how much "essay writing" education you've had is really dependant on your teachers. They can be hardcore and incredibly picky like my teachers were (with both content and structure), or they might want to focus on only one of these, etc etc.

A good place to start is to work with a basic "SEE" (Statement/Example/Explaination) or "SEX" (Statement/Example/eXplaination) essay 'template' just to get your head around to the way you need to shape your responses (everybody needs to build a solid essay foundation - DO NOT try to get all 'sophisticated' with 'flair' until you have a rock-solid foundation). Once you've got that hang of that, then you can start playing around a little bit more


EDIT: Having read taco's and Porcia's responses above, of course you need to give that little bit extra to do well in either high school or uni-level responses. However, I personally think the OP should work more on learning to strengthen his argument first When in doubt, a solid and "normal and boring" essay is better than the 'interesting' one with the weak/inconsistent argument

 

[Porcia]

furthermore, for journey essays and powerplay essays or any other essay with a big emphasis on technique in the production of shaping meaning - modify the SEX to be STEX