Importance of reading (1 Viewer)

[ColdMint123]

Im talking about general reading, so excluding your texts that you have to study at school.

How much do you guys read?

Is it important for the HSC, especially in terms of Craft of writing? I have a lot of friends who are doing very well in english but read very little as well as people who read a lot and aren't doing as well. So im not sure if reading regularly matters that much, there are obviously other factors that come into play as well.

 

[c8]

If you think you'll benefit from reading then yeah read I guess lol. A lot of people read out of interest or for leisure, so if you're reading purely to gain an extra edge in english, you may find you don't enjoy it. Some people find their vocabulary and cohesion is improved after reading, but it of course also depends on what you read, whether it be news articles or fiction etc. If you like reading then I don't see what you're losing from doing it so I reckon go for it.
For the craft of writing, I find that writing and the process of drafting and redrafting is more useful than reading if I'm talking in terms of improving my skills, but again english is super subjective so what works for one may not work for another. That being said though, for me, a lot of the craft of writing module was also focused on emulating and being inspired by the writing of the prescribed texts, so knowing a wide variety of texts and writing styles and both literary and stylistic features may give you that extra edge you seem to want so it honestly depends on you

 

[studiesofboard]

Reading is important - learn new words- help improve and expand your vocabulary which will help make your writing effective. Also, reading is not just through a books e.g news articles online and facebook.

 

[jazz519]

I did English in the old syllabus and I didn’t really read anything outside the texts (not even my prescribed texts sometimes cause just looked at summaries and read select pages for quotes) and got a high band 6. Some people enjoy reading, but it doesn’t really mean you read a lot = you will be good in HSC English. If you like reading and see other benefits from it then continue doing so.

If you are just trying to read for the purpose of getting better marks it’s probably not that helpful. You are better actually focusing on practicing what that specific English area wants you to do to see more direct improvement. An important aspect in English is not trying to write a perfect essay, creative etc. in the first go. A good approach I found worked for me was to just write whatever in a simplified way and then you go back and re-edit your work so that it is more sophisticated in terms of vocabulary, being concise and having good supporting information like quotes or descriptions in creative writing. Using thesaurus can be helpful for this as well.

 

[pikachu975]

Yeah as jazz said reading is more just a leisure thing to be honest... I guess it might improve your english mark a little bit, because personally my essays were just basic language so it didn't sound too nice - but still ended up with a band 6 so it's not like NECESSARY. Last book I read for fun was like year 8... they're fun to read just can't be bothered xD

 

[Velocifire]

I talk to a LOT of people on here.

*U know who u are *

I think that improves my English the most!

IF YOU NEED ANYTHING PLEASE TALK TO ME!

 

[Accurate]

Not really , it had no correlation I reckon. It might improve your vocabulary by a bit but you can do that by memorizing lists of vocabulary.

 

[Drongoski]

Reading widely and a variety of well-written material will definitely help you greatly in your future, even if it may, or may not, directly improve your performance in your HSC English. It is amazing such question even need to be posed.

 

[dasfas]

Very important, read as much as you can and whenever you feel like you have the time to Reading regularly brought up my english mark a lot and really helped increase the sophistication of my arguments.

 

[B1andB2]

it doesn't hurt to read

 

[jasminerulez]

I mean if your not really cramped with assessments, it would be beneficial to read. Not only does it maximise your vocabulary it also helps with the creative mind and knowledge.

 

[ahri]

It's pretty helpful when it comes to Mod C, personally I went and tried to read a lot of short stories as inspo for the HSC (even if that reading just came from doing Paper 1 Trials from other schools lmao). It helps since you can 'steal' other plot elements/characters/settings that you've previously read before.

 

[beetree1]

Haven't read a book since year 6 harry potter whats good