How can you get your English Examiner to "like" your essay? (2 Viewers)

[hermand]

takes me more time to write & compared to and
lol

haha i do the three with a line through it.

 

[bell531]

i can disrespect english because i can't write fast cause i have a horrible pencil grip but i can't change it now. i also have small writing which makes it look like less. my writing gets slower if i try to make it big.

essays are hard too. i can't express myself well.

Well, for the last two English essays did you come into the test with a pre-prepared essay? If you do, and have practiced it and know the content well enough, there is really know way that your essay will be short. Pre-preparing is so helpful, and everyone should definitely practice writing it out a few times, under exam conditions, so that they have a general idea of how long it is and how long it will take. It's the single most valuable thing I've learnt from the HSC thus far.

And as for the expressing yourself part, pre-preparing will obviously help, but only to an extent. The rest will come from enough experience.

Also, forgive me if I sound pretentious, because I am really not brilliant at English, and I'm far from mastering the essay.

 

[aimhigh10]

is there any way which is the 'best' way to approach essay writing/writing anything in english in general?

 

[dp624]

is there any way which is the 'best' way to approach essay writing/writing anything in english in general?

obviously, no
different things work for different people - style of learning etc

 

[simonloo]

write your mobile number for the examiners.

 

[dp624]

write your mobile number for the examiners.

true story, this guy state ranked for eng adv if i'm not mistaken

 

[hermand]

Well, for the last two English essays did you come into the test with a pre-prepared essay? If you do, and have practiced it and know the content well enough, there is really know way that your essay will be short. Pre-preparing is so helpful, and everyone should definitely practice writing it out a few times, under exam conditions, so that they have a general idea of how long it is and how long it will take. It's the single most valuable thing I've learnt from the HSC thus far.

And as for the expressing yourself part, pre-preparing will obviously help, but only to an extent. The rest will come from enough experience.

Also, forgive me if I sound pretentious, because I am really not brilliant at English, and I'm far from mastering the essay.

how can you pre prepare if you don't know the question?

for the one where we got the question, yeah.

haha, you're forgiven cause you're so cool =]].

 

[duckcowhybrid]

true story, this guy state ranked for eng adv if i'm not mistaken

This guy in my grade forgot his student number so he wrote his mobile number on his exam paper in Maths. Also I'm pretty sure back in Year 7/8/9/10 you were taught at least soemthing on how to structure a paragraph, how link paragraphs and eventually how to structure an essay. I'm pretty sure I was. But then again i consider anything below 18/20 to be a shit mark, so I'm different.

 

[bell531]

how can you pre prepare if you don't know the question?

for the one where we got the question, yeah.

haha, you're forgiven cause you're so cool =]].

It's harder, but definitely not impossible like some people think. We knew the half yearly was on belonging, and we knew there'd be an essay at the end. All I needed to do was to learn my belonging speech (from term 4), which has all the main points for an essay in it, and be able to adapt that speech to suit the individual essay question. The questions are usually very general, and don't often bend too far from the standard "Explain the importance of a sense of belonging" type essay question. The one we got made it easy for me to regurgitate my speech, and although I only got 11/15, it definitely helped my mark by preparing this way.

 

[hermand]

It's harder, but definitely not impossible like some people think. We knew the half yearly was on belonging, and we knew there'd be an essay at the end. All I needed to do was to learn my belonging speech (from term 4), which has all the main points for an essay in it, and be able to adapt that speech to suit the individual essay question. The questions are usually very general, and don't often bend too far from the standard "Explain the importance of a sense of belonging" type essay question. The one we got made it easy for me to regurgitate my speech, and although I only got 11/15, it definitely helped my mark by preparing this way.

i got 31st for my speech, so it was awesome [obviously =pp], but i find it really hard to rote learn. i remember chunks, but not some bits, and i suck at it basically.

 

[bell531]

i got 31st for my speech, so it was awesome [obviously =pp], but i find it really hard to rote learn. i remember chunks, but not some bits, and i suck at it basically.

I think rote learning is just reading straight off the page, right?

Anyway, if you don't like that method, just read your speech/essay/notes to yourself, and basically try to remember (if you're planning to write an essay);

1. The main points for the topic
2. Quotes and techniques to support said points with
3. A topic sentence and "concluding sentence" (for the start and end of each paragraph/point), if necessary

It's important to remember at least 1 and 2, as the other stuff can be made up on the spot. It's as simple as that. Learning how un-complicated an essay actually is helped un-daunt English exams for me (if that makes any sense), and then after few essays I got the hang of them, and after half a dozen more I started to write better (well, I like to think I did); with flashier language and more sophisticated responses.

Again --> * I am =/= perfect * and I hope I helped someone.

 

[hermand]

I think rote learning is just reading straight off the page, right?

Anyway, if you don't like that method, just read your speech/essay/notes to yourself, and basically try to remember (if you're planning to write an essay);

1. The main points for the topic
2. Quotes and techniques to support said points with
3. A topic sentence and "concluding sentence" (for the start and end of each paragraph/point), if necessary

It's important to remember at least 1 and 2, as the other stuff can be made up on the spot. It's as simple as that. Learning how un-complicated an essay actually is helped un-daunt English exams for me (if that makes any sense), and then after few essays I got the hang of them, and after half a dozen more I started to write better (well, I like to think I did); with flashier language and more sophisticated responses.

Again --> * I am =/= perfect * and I hope I helped someone.

nah, rote learning is just memorising a bunch of stuff. i don't deal well with it. which isn't good cause the hsc is basically memory, but i work better when i understand stuff. i'll never understand this english shit, so i try to memorise stuff but then i find it hard to apply.

your 1,2,3 thing is probably good. i tried 1&2 last exam and went shit so i obviously have so memorise other stuff. eugh.

thanks bellman =]].

just putting it out there, i wanna be in your sig,

can i say i love bell531 or something?

haha =]].

 

[dp624]

i got 31st for my speech, so it was awesome [obviously =pp], but i find it really hard to rote learn. i remember chunks, but not some bits, and i suck at it basically.

yeha i know, i suck at rote learning too
but it works, sort of
especially since the belonging and whatever is new this year so they'll go easy on you (hopefully)

 

[Dragonmaster262]

How do you guys pre-prepare texts for the HSC. For example if you want to prepare a Band 6 essay and adapt it into your HSC exam then how do you actually manage to write an essay that is relevant to the exam question BEFORE you actually know what the exam question is?

 

[dp624]

you write the essay such that it becomes relevant (or can be made relevant) to the large majority of possible questions

 

[aimhigh10]

true story, this guy state ranked for eng adv if i'm not mistaken

hah thats a flaw in the system

 

[Ashleigh King]

The most likely reason for your change in mark is : although the teacher thought your essay was good to begin with after reading other essays from your classmates they have re-evaluated your mark ion comparison to others.


In english the way to capture a marker's attention is to write with flair and flow, your information is secondary to how you actually write the essay.


SUBJECTS: English Advanced, English Extension 1, English Extension 2, Ancient History, Biology, Hospitality:wave:

 

[flaminwaffle]

In english the way to capture a marker's attention is to write with flair and flow, your information is secondary to how you actually write the essay.

almost wish that wasnt true

 

[acemusic415]

is there any way which is the 'best' way to approach essay writing/writing anything in english in general?

Teachers have some strange propensity to not educate students how to confidently and skilfully comprehend to essays, I guess they expect us to already have sufficient knowledge to do so? Ironically, they dumb the criteria down, the dumb everything down to suit those in lower classes. I'm in Year 10, and I know the feeling of hating essays and especially English, because that was me once. My tutor always noted to:

- Answer the question. Responding it to it sufficiently through evident language techniques and what effect it has on your essay and the topic itself helps enormously.

- Use evidence! Quote, refer, do whatever to validate what you have.

- Use sophisticated language appropriate to your audience, and that in English usually means coherent structure, syntax and striking vocabulary.

I know many people who can't stand the nature of English and its expectations. And for those who refer to us as lucky, its not really luck, it's just about learning step at a time. Everybody who hates English choose to scrutinies its flaws and rather disregard the positive intentions behind it. Like Maths you need learn how to comprehend, apply your tools and understand what you're doing, and so that applies for English. The first step that I learnt was applying myself, use a dictionary and thesaurus when necessary, brainstormed and rationalised the question itself and looked at any implied meaning or context.

So I hoped that helped!

 

[alex.leon]

The best advice i ever got was from a teacher at my school, who's now left.

He said, every English essay is based on the framework of...

Concept --> Analysis --> Technique

He said no matter the question or module, you can always rely on that structure.
Kinda makes it a bit mechanical, but it's worked well for me so far! Using that I've been getting consistent 90+. There is a marking guideline, and so long as you fit the criteria you will be marked accordingly.

I think for an examiner to 'like' your essay, you need to have that flair. I don't mean be a wanker and use words that you've extracted from a thesaurus or come up with mindbogglingly complex ideas...just, show the examiner that you're more than a number spewing out retold information!