Introduction:
I'm going to teach you how to adapt your memorised essay into ANY thesis/question, and how to write an essay (excluding different text types)
Unfortunately not all students are fantastics writers and thus will resort to memorising, therefore i have made a guide in how to do it properly.
I'm going to split memorising an essay into 4 steps...
This involves perfecting the essay, when to memorise/how to memorise, adapting the essay, and what i call the "Bones, Flesh, and the Brain" of an essay.
Bones = Technique + quote + explanation
Brain = Thesis
Flesh = Linking between different texts + link back to thesis
Warning:
Please do not take this wrong and think that i'm suggesting students to just memorise a b6 essay and walk into the exam. I'm going to show you how to ADAPT essays into any question/thesis. Don't try to memorise someone's b6 essay as it is difficult to memorise something written by someone else. Furthermore you would not fully comprehend their essay thus making it difficult to mold/adapt it to a question...
Memorising an essay will ALWAYS be risky, however if you master how to adapt an essay, you should be fine.
A little background/inspiration (optional reading):
I used to do ADV eng in yr 11 and failed miserably, i was never a strong writer, heck you may even find expression/grammar mistakes in this thread. In the end i scored around ~40% in eng ADV with a rank near 5th last? Then in yr 12 i started perfecting my own essays and memorised, and ended up with 91 in Eng std (2010) + rank 1 in std.
This is a pretty amazing feat for me as i was terrible in english and only 0.18% of the state scored b6 for std (if i can get a b6 in eng, so can you!)
[ STEP 1 ] Writing the Essay:
The Brain of the essay
The "Brain" of the essay is very significant because you'll be linking everything back to your thesis. Before writing your thesis, make sure you read the rubric (the rubric is like the syllabus, which will be provided by the teacher). MAKE SURE you use all the words possible from the rubric.
For e.g the belonging rubric will say something about connection with "people, places etc..." So you may write something like... " People, places and events is an integral part in achieving a sense of belonging etc... "
The Bones of the essay
The bones of the essay is when your state the TECHNIQUE, QUOTE AND EXPLANATION ( you must remember this!). After going through the technique, quote and explanation you will then LINK IT back to the thesis.
For e.g The contrast (technique) between the protagonist and his peers' skin tone (add a quote somewhere here) delineates a sense of isolation (explanation, this is a crap explanation, you'll be writing something better). Therefore emphasising how connection with people is essential in achieving a sense of belonging (your link back to the thesis).
The Flesh of the essay
The flesh of your essay will be the linking between different text. The linking is absolutely important as it is this which enables your essay to stand out and reach the higher bands. You can link different texts through themes OR techniques. After linking the different texts together, YOU MUST link it back to thesis too!
For e.g The novel Kite Runner depicts a sense of not belonging as the protagonist is unable to connect with his father. This is also similar in the poem Feliks Skryznecki as the poet is also unable to find a sense of comfort with Feliks. Therefore highlighting how connection between people is essential in achieving a sense of belonging... (This is a bad example, because you'll need technique and quote)
This is a typical format for my english essay...
Essay:
- Introduction also known as the "brain" of the essay, which will include your thesis
- Body 1, which will be your core text, it consists of the "bones" of the essay
- Body 2, which will be your related text, it consists of the "bones" of the essay. It will also consist of the "flesh" of the essays because you'll be making links with your core text
- Body 3, which will be your SECOND related text, it consists of the "bones" of the essay. It will also consist of the "flesh" of the essays because you'll be making links with your core text
- Body 4, will consist of the bones, flesh, and all the texts (i.e R1,R2 + core text). This will consist of linking between ALL the texts, the similarities/differences and how they all delineate a sense of belonging via theme/technique.
- Conclusion, is like a summed up version of your thesis and how these texts successfully conveyed this and that...
Note: You'll be making links back to the thesis throughout the WHOLE essay!
[ STEP 2 ] Perfecting the essay:
This is one of the most miserable part of english. Sometimes you'll take 5 hours to write an essay then your teacher would read your essay in 10mins and shake her head...
Even though you put your heart into your essay, you must be able to accept criticisms and be prepared to change your essay. You basically keep writing the essay and keep showing it your teacher until she says yes. Even though it's a long and tedious process, you must do it in order to access the higher bands.
But what if my teacher's wrong? Well whether you like it or not, english is a subjective subject and you can't do anything about it. Your teacher will most likely mark your exams, so it's better you listen to your teacher. So be prepared to rewrite your essay a few times, all i can say is that "patience is a virtue"...
After perfecting your essay, you will try mold your essay for a different question. Therefore you'll change your thesis and then make all your techniques link back to your new thesis. Basically your practicing ways to link your technique to different thesis, thus a majority of your technique will remain the same. However don't be scared to add new techniques! While changing your thesis and making the techniques link back to your new thesis make sure your links between texts still works.
Make sure you practice doing this as the process of perfecting your essay is ESSENTIAL in adapting to different questions
[ STEP 3 ] Adapting your essay
This is the most difficult part of english...
In order to adapt your essay you must...
- Have a few thesis (brain of the essay) prepared in your mind
- Know your text VERY WELL
- Have the bones of your essay in your mind i.e memorised...
- Know the rubric very well
- Have the flesh of your essay in your mind i.e memorised...
Adapting the Brain of the essay
When you enter into the exam room, look at the question and write your thesis according to the question. If you're unlucky you'll have to write a totally different thesis, however it will always have something to do with the rubric... So you'll always have to write "connection with people, places etc..." (for belonging that is). So, make sure you have a few thesis prepared in your head when walking into the exam...
Adapting the Bones of the essay
Even if the question is totally different from the essay you prepared, you'll always have to write the "bones" of your essay no matter what. Despite meeting a complex question the techniques and quotes will always remain the same. The only thing you need to do is to state your techniques, go through all your explanations (you may have to change this a bit to) etc... and MAKE THE LINK TO YOUR NEW THESIS. Therefore you'll still have to stop and think when making the link.
Adapting the flesh of the essay
The links between the text will most likely remain the same to, however prepare to change it if required.
In conclusion when entering into an exam you'll have the bones of the essay in your head, and while you're writing you'll be adding the brain and the flesh of the essay.
What to do if the question asks for one related text rather than two? And vice-versa
It's actually quite simple i don't understand why people worry about this. You basically need to remember more back up techniques. When preparing an essay, you should ALWAYS prepare one with two related text. When you're done with that, pick one related text in which you like more, then you gather more techniques and memorise it and slightly alter your essay format...
[ STEP 4 ] Memorising the essay:
The timing to memorise your essay and how to memorise it efficiently is also a crucial moment, if you do this incorrectly you may jepodise all your hard work...
I suggest memorising 1 week before the exam because if you memorise too early you may forget your essay by the time the exam arrives. The best way to memorise efficiently is to lock yourself in a quiet room. Then you'll sit there and read your essay OUTLOUD (trust me it works). You will read the sentence over and over again outloud until you memorised it, then you move on to the next sentence and repeat... After that you'll try to regurgitate your whole paragraph on top of your head. Memorising one essay should take no more than 2 days, it usually takes me 3.5~8 hours to memorise one essay.
REMEMBER to memorise your back up techniques i.e the new techniques you included while perfecting your essay. This is because not ALL your techniques will fit into the question (a majority should though), thus you'll have to get rid a few of them and add your backup techniques. In desperate moments you'll have to write new techniques on top of your head, thus you need to know your text well.
For the more confident writers, you may just take a look at a few thesis to get an idea and only memorise the quotes/techniques. If you have absolutely no confidence in your writing then you'll have to memorise word for word, however you'll still need to be prepared to alter the essay. (Personally i memorised word for word, however i made sure i adapted to the question)
And finally, i wish you guys the best of luck in English!
(Thank god i finished
)
I'm going to teach you how to adapt your memorised essay into ANY thesis/question, and how to write an essay (excluding different text types)
Unfortunately not all students are fantastics writers and thus will resort to memorising, therefore i have made a guide in how to do it properly.
I'm going to split memorising an essay into 4 steps...
This involves perfecting the essay, when to memorise/how to memorise, adapting the essay, and what i call the "Bones, Flesh, and the Brain" of an essay.
Bones = Technique + quote + explanation
Brain = Thesis
Flesh = Linking between different texts + link back to thesis
Warning:
Please do not take this wrong and think that i'm suggesting students to just memorise a b6 essay and walk into the exam. I'm going to show you how to ADAPT essays into any question/thesis. Don't try to memorise someone's b6 essay as it is difficult to memorise something written by someone else. Furthermore you would not fully comprehend their essay thus making it difficult to mold/adapt it to a question...
Memorising an essay will ALWAYS be risky, however if you master how to adapt an essay, you should be fine.
A little background/inspiration (optional reading):
I used to do ADV eng in yr 11 and failed miserably, i was never a strong writer, heck you may even find expression/grammar mistakes in this thread. In the end i scored around ~40% in eng ADV with a rank near 5th last? Then in yr 12 i started perfecting my own essays and memorised, and ended up with 91 in Eng std (2010) + rank 1 in std.
This is a pretty amazing feat for me as i was terrible in english and only 0.18% of the state scored b6 for std (if i can get a b6 in eng, so can you!)
[ STEP 1 ] Writing the Essay:
The Brain of the essay
The "Brain" of the essay is very significant because you'll be linking everything back to your thesis. Before writing your thesis, make sure you read the rubric (the rubric is like the syllabus, which will be provided by the teacher). MAKE SURE you use all the words possible from the rubric.
For e.g the belonging rubric will say something about connection with "people, places etc..." So you may write something like... " People, places and events is an integral part in achieving a sense of belonging etc... "
The Bones of the essay
The bones of the essay is when your state the TECHNIQUE, QUOTE AND EXPLANATION ( you must remember this!). After going through the technique, quote and explanation you will then LINK IT back to the thesis.
For e.g The contrast (technique) between the protagonist and his peers' skin tone (add a quote somewhere here) delineates a sense of isolation (explanation, this is a crap explanation, you'll be writing something better). Therefore emphasising how connection with people is essential in achieving a sense of belonging (your link back to the thesis).
The Flesh of the essay
The flesh of your essay will be the linking between different text. The linking is absolutely important as it is this which enables your essay to stand out and reach the higher bands. You can link different texts through themes OR techniques. After linking the different texts together, YOU MUST link it back to thesis too!
For e.g The novel Kite Runner depicts a sense of not belonging as the protagonist is unable to connect with his father. This is also similar in the poem Feliks Skryznecki as the poet is also unable to find a sense of comfort with Feliks. Therefore highlighting how connection between people is essential in achieving a sense of belonging... (This is a bad example, because you'll need technique and quote)
This is a typical format for my english essay...
Essay:
- Introduction also known as the "brain" of the essay, which will include your thesis
- Body 1, which will be your core text, it consists of the "bones" of the essay
- Body 2, which will be your related text, it consists of the "bones" of the essay. It will also consist of the "flesh" of the essays because you'll be making links with your core text
- Body 3, which will be your SECOND related text, it consists of the "bones" of the essay. It will also consist of the "flesh" of the essays because you'll be making links with your core text
- Body 4, will consist of the bones, flesh, and all the texts (i.e R1,R2 + core text). This will consist of linking between ALL the texts, the similarities/differences and how they all delineate a sense of belonging via theme/technique.
- Conclusion, is like a summed up version of your thesis and how these texts successfully conveyed this and that...
Note: You'll be making links back to the thesis throughout the WHOLE essay!
[ STEP 2 ] Perfecting the essay:
This is one of the most miserable part of english. Sometimes you'll take 5 hours to write an essay then your teacher would read your essay in 10mins and shake her head...
Even though you put your heart into your essay, you must be able to accept criticisms and be prepared to change your essay. You basically keep writing the essay and keep showing it your teacher until she says yes. Even though it's a long and tedious process, you must do it in order to access the higher bands.
But what if my teacher's wrong? Well whether you like it or not, english is a subjective subject and you can't do anything about it. Your teacher will most likely mark your exams, so it's better you listen to your teacher. So be prepared to rewrite your essay a few times, all i can say is that "patience is a virtue"...
After perfecting your essay, you will try mold your essay for a different question. Therefore you'll change your thesis and then make all your techniques link back to your new thesis. Basically your practicing ways to link your technique to different thesis, thus a majority of your technique will remain the same. However don't be scared to add new techniques! While changing your thesis and making the techniques link back to your new thesis make sure your links between texts still works.
Make sure you practice doing this as the process of perfecting your essay is ESSENTIAL in adapting to different questions
[ STEP 3 ] Adapting your essay
This is the most difficult part of english...
In order to adapt your essay you must...
- Have a few thesis (brain of the essay) prepared in your mind
- Know your text VERY WELL
- Have the bones of your essay in your mind i.e memorised...
- Know the rubric very well
- Have the flesh of your essay in your mind i.e memorised...
Adapting the Brain of the essay
When you enter into the exam room, look at the question and write your thesis according to the question. If you're unlucky you'll have to write a totally different thesis, however it will always have something to do with the rubric... So you'll always have to write "connection with people, places etc..." (for belonging that is). So, make sure you have a few thesis prepared in your head when walking into the exam...
Adapting the Bones of the essay
Even if the question is totally different from the essay you prepared, you'll always have to write the "bones" of your essay no matter what. Despite meeting a complex question the techniques and quotes will always remain the same. The only thing you need to do is to state your techniques, go through all your explanations (you may have to change this a bit to) etc... and MAKE THE LINK TO YOUR NEW THESIS. Therefore you'll still have to stop and think when making the link.
Adapting the flesh of the essay
The links between the text will most likely remain the same to, however prepare to change it if required.
In conclusion when entering into an exam you'll have the bones of the essay in your head, and while you're writing you'll be adding the brain and the flesh of the essay.
What to do if the question asks for one related text rather than two? And vice-versa
It's actually quite simple i don't understand why people worry about this. You basically need to remember more back up techniques. When preparing an essay, you should ALWAYS prepare one with two related text. When you're done with that, pick one related text in which you like more, then you gather more techniques and memorise it and slightly alter your essay format...
[ STEP 4 ] Memorising the essay:
The timing to memorise your essay and how to memorise it efficiently is also a crucial moment, if you do this incorrectly you may jepodise all your hard work...
I suggest memorising 1 week before the exam because if you memorise too early you may forget your essay by the time the exam arrives. The best way to memorise efficiently is to lock yourself in a quiet room. Then you'll sit there and read your essay OUTLOUD (trust me it works). You will read the sentence over and over again outloud until you memorised it, then you move on to the next sentence and repeat... After that you'll try to regurgitate your whole paragraph on top of your head. Memorising one essay should take no more than 2 days, it usually takes me 3.5~8 hours to memorise one essay.
REMEMBER to memorise your back up techniques i.e the new techniques you included while perfecting your essay. This is because not ALL your techniques will fit into the question (a majority should though), thus you'll have to get rid a few of them and add your backup techniques. In desperate moments you'll have to write new techniques on top of your head, thus you need to know your text well.
For the more confident writers, you may just take a look at a few thesis to get an idea and only memorise the quotes/techniques. If you have absolutely no confidence in your writing then you'll have to memorise word for word, however you'll still need to be prepared to alter the essay. (Personally i memorised word for word, however i made sure i adapted to the question)
And finally, i wish you guys the best of luck in English!
(Thank god i finished
)
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