Studying for english (1 Viewer)

[jayz]

the best way to study anything:

READ READ READ, WRITE WRITE WRITE

in 'simpler' terms, practice and you shall learn

 

[Minai]

I'll upload my english essays (the ones I used in the HSC exam) at the start of July - plenty of time before trials.

Anyway, in relation to the AOS, I learnt a general 'essay', and when it turned out to be a feature article, I didn't panic and I transformed my essay 'on the fly' to a feature article. To do this, u need to have a very good understanding of what you are writing, so you don't waste time 'thinking' of what to write next. The words should just flow from your head onto the paper - u also need a solid understanding of each particular text type, so you know what form you are writing in (eg, I continuously added personal quirks and rhetorics in my feature article)

 

[Minai]

for freaking_out, and others
heres my change essay from last yr

 

[freaking_out]

thank you very much minai this is gonna save me a lot of time.

 

[freaking_out]

hey, btw i wanna know what question was your essay answering?

 

[Minai]

Have a look at last year's question from the HSC, thats about as broad as u can get, and my essay was written basically with no question in mind..just included everything that is required for an AOS essay/feature article etc etc, just remember the form they ask u to write in does not affect your actual content, u still need to write the same stuff about your texts in the end.
Remember to also look for supplementary texts which u can easily link the concepts of change demonstrated in your prescribed text and the stimulus text u've chosen, as ive tried to do in my essay.

 

[lizzy1004]

am i using da wrong program to open it?? is there anyway for me to make this bigger to see?

 

[Minai]

Originally posted by lizzy1004
am i using da wrong program to open it?? is there anyway for me to make this bigger to see?

erm..anything should work except microsoft paint...use the zoom in tool

 

[braindrainedAsh]

I'm a firm believer in not memorizing whole essays... to me you can tell when a response has been preprepared and just squeezed in to the question, and what if you get a question that is way off from the type you prepared for... you're pretty screwed then. If you read the notes from the examiners of past HSCs they criticize the preprepared essay tactic.

My teacher suggested making an A4 summary of each text including a precis, it's purpose, context, themes, values, relationship with the module/topic (ie. how it shows changing perspectives or whatever), a few quotes and stuff like that. I think that is a really helpful way to prepare.

Also, if you have the ideas in your mind for paragraphs for essays (not have the paragraphs written out or anything, just a loose structure ie topic sentence, why, quotes) then you can write more flexibly than just having general essays prepared.

That's my opinion anyway... I don't like the idea of having such a rigid preparation with prepared essays. What if the question is something you can't really adapt your essay to? Then you are a bit stuffed.

 

[yurbel]

Minai, do you know how long your essay is (no. of words)?

And is that how much you wrote in your HSC?

 

[Minai]

Originally posted by yurbel
Minai, do you know how long your essay is (no. of words)?

And is that how much you wrote in your HSC?

Erm, nope, but you're welcome to count them
and yes thats roughly how much I wrote for my feature article last yr.

braindrainedAsh: I understand your viewpoint, but what you don't realise is that its not simply a case of memorising an essay and goin into the exam blind, knowing nothing but whats in ur essay. Of course u'd be stupid to just memorise an essay and hope by some chance the question will suit it. If u go in with a prepared essay, I argue that u should infact know MORE about the text than a person with just ideas/quotes etc in their head. To prepare an essay for an exam with an unseen question, u'd need to prepare something VERY general, as I've done. But in preparing an essay, u'd have to know your text, the themes/values and techniques soundly in order to manipulate the prepared essay to suit the question. For example, in my feature article, I actually wrote more than what I prepared for, because more ideas came to me 'on the fly'.

In saying this however, if u have any sense whatsoever, u'd know that the area of study questions are roughly gonna be the same every year, they always ask u, in the end, to demonstrate your understanding of change through your texts, and to do this, u'd always have to talk about contexts, themes, the techniques used, and values...a little common sense when preparing for these types of exams goes a long way.

 

[freaking_out]

yeah, i think having a prepared essay as well as understanding of the text, is pretty much the same thing as writing down notes about your text in an a4 paper (like braindrainash).