Adv/Ext Eng Essay Skills (1 Viewer)

[MyStyle]

Anyone have any tips that can help tidy up essay writing. I love my english, but my essay marks are always lower than everything else.

Just want to do the best I can.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[bored of sc]

Aplus made a how to write an essay thread I'm pretty sure. Send him a private message am I'm sure he'll be glad to help.


My advice:
- Answer the question: don't be fooled into detailing something that is irrelevant to your original argument/thesis.
- Cover the question: if it asks you to explain, you need to provide the why and/or how, not just state the facts.
- Repeat yourself: you are trying to convince the marker that your argument is valid and well-justified. Never lose site of the main purpose of the essay: to effectively argue an idea.
- It's all about techniques: in 99% of cases. Even if an essay question doesn't explicitly tell you or you don't see the word 'how' you can still integrate techniques into it.
- Work on different ways of rewording your argument (for topic and conlcuding sentences to provide a bit of variety/make it interesting).
- If in doubt, keep it simple and understandable. Don't go overboard, it will barely make sense that way. Keep sentence structure relatively simple but add sophisticated vocabulary.
- For the body paragraphs I like to use the pattern: of (1) point, (2) quote, (3) comment. In other words, restate the argument, making it relevant to the specifics of the paragraph, (2) provide evidence of this argument (technique, quotes) (3) explain and clarify how this evidence makes your argument valid and repeat the argument once again.

 

[Aplus]

Do you have a sample essay?

 

[MyStyle]

To show my skills?

Certainly. Would you like me to PM it to you?

 

[Aplus]

Sure, I'll look at it as soon as I'm free.

 

[Aerath]

I wouldn't mind reading over it, either - if you wanna send it to me.

 

[Continuum]

I reckon the best tip is to just have a thesis.

 

[MyStyle]

I reckon the best tip is to just have a thesis.

Oh! I was lost for a moment there xD

But I get what you mean now, that doesn't sound like a bad idea either. :3

 

[Continuum]

Yeah, I remember the times where I didn't have a thesis. Probably a maximum mark of around 17/20...

Information just seems to be all over the place if you don't have a specific focus for your essay.

 

[ajfry]

i reckon the maximum mark you can get without a thesis is 15 really

 

[Scinery]

lol i've found that teachers care less about the content than they do about the structure of the essay, Every paragraph is a Mini essay- topic sentence, quote effect and link to thesis its really easy to produce a 17/20 essay in about 20 minutes without passion.

i usually spend hours on my essays and only get about 18-19. My best essays are those ive done in a complete rush. stupid english.

 

[Finx]

Could someone explain this thesis business to me please? =]

 

[-tal-]

Could someone explain this thesis business to me please? =]

In short, the point you're trying to make/prove in an essay.

 

[Aerath]

Could someone explain this thesis business to me please? =]

An answer to the essay question, which explains the point you're trying to prove.

 

[Wassup?]

Ok people, this is my situation:
I'm doing standard english and the thing is, I perform really well in assessment tasks when we have time to prepare, but in exams, when the questions are hidden, and when we only get 40 minutes to write a responce, I choke big time.
After my trials I'm planning on doing a whole lot of english papers to get my skills up to scratch, and to practice writing in different context and styles. How would I know if I'm getting better? Do you think my teacher would be happy to mark my work?

 

[Aerath]

Even if the question is unseen, you can still prepare for it, can't you? At my school, our teacher usually sets a rather generic question as homework, we hand it back in, she comments and gives us feedback, and tells us what we could possibly do even better, and then, we go home, and we fix it (if we want to). Come exam day, the question will be more or less the same, however, we might have to change/add another sentence to the introduction, to change the thesis, and to answer the exam question.

 

[Wassup?]

Even if the question is unseen, you can still prepare for it, can't you? At my school, our teacher usually sets a rather generic question as homework, we hand it back in, she comments and gives us feedback, and tells us what we could possibly do even better, and then, we go home, and we fix it (if we want to). Come exam day, the question will be more or less the same, however, we might have to change/add another sentence to the introduction, to change the thesis, and to answer the exam question.

How do you suggest I prepare for it? My strategy for the HSC is to get everything I need to know down pat, and then do past HSC paper after past HSC paper because one of the past questions is sure to be repeated more or less.

 

[Aplus]

You can prepare for it because you know what the module is.

 

[kaz1]

How do you suggest I prepare for it? My strategy for the HSC is to get everything I need to know down pat, and then do past HSC paper after past HSC paper because one of the past questions is sure to be repeated more or less.

Bombard your teacher with practice essays.

 

[Aplus]

Anyone have any tips that can help tidy up essay writing. I love my english, but my essay marks are always lower than everything else.

Just want to do the best I can.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I just sent you an analysis of your essay and some general tips for improvement. Hope that helps