Belonging Generic Essay (1 Viewer)

[student6625]

I've been told that a good way to approach essays in exams would be to write a generic one and then adapt it to the question. I think this strategy works well for the modules, but I'm not really sure how to do this for 'Belonging'.

Since there are so many ideas about 'Belonging' e.g connections to people, places, community, larger world; acceptance and understanding; identity; barriers towards belonging; how the concept of 'Belonging' constantly changes etc. Would you have to prepare a generic essay on EVERY one of these and choose the one the question in the exam asks for? Because for the modules I think ONE would be enough for you to answer every question.

Thanks.

 

[ohexploitable]

Better safe than sorry.

 

[katie_1020]

I think if you have 2 or 3 possible answers that are flexible for interpretation for the exam then you'll be safe.
I'm in the middle of writing a belonging speech on what i think belonging is, any suggestions for structure?

 

[thongetsu]

i think you should memorise as many ideas as possible and a generic essay and change it to suit the question.

 

[student6625]

I think pretty flexible ideas would be:

1) The idea of belonging is never static and is constantly changing due to contextual influences.

2) Acceptance and understanding are critical in forging a sense of belonging with people, places, community etc/ Conversely, a lack of this will result in alienation and discontentment, misery... or a superficial relationship that will never be longlasting if there's a lack of mutual acceptance, respect etc...(I suppose these are two different ideas but they're just opposites of each other so I think it's less confusing if you put them together).

3) Belonging can give you a sense of identity, enrichment, happiness.../A lack of belonging can bring discontent and sadness.

4) Barriers to belonging can arise due to e.g. lack of common ideals/ conflicting ideals, cultural differences, past experiences can also prevent one from feeling new sense of belonging, lack of conformity etc

5) Shared adversity and experiences, common ideals, cultural ties, actions of others are catalysts in developing connections with other people. (kind of a opposite to number 4)

6) Belonging to people is more powerful than belonging to places. e.g easier to belong to people than place, the actions of other people can potentially cause one to compromise their previous sense of belonging to place and establish new connections with them.

These are pretty much the ideas I have which I can use in just about any essay (I hope) but I think I'll only need 2-3 of them at a time. I think they cover just about the entire syllabus but if there's something I've left out or need to work on please tell me. Thank you.

However these ideas work for my three texts:

Romulus My Father (prescribed)
Mao's Last Dancer
The Prince of Egypt

They might not work for everyone's though...

 

[student6625]

i think you should memorise as many ideas as possible and a generic essay and change it to suit the question.

But if I do a generic essay trying to cover as many points as possible, wouldn't that mean my generic essay would be something around 2000 words long? Can you please give me some tips on condensing so much information into a normal 40 minutes essay? e.g structure, which ideas about belonging I should have as my topic sentences and which ones I only have to mention in the analysis etc. Thanks!