ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English Studies => Topic started by: brenden on February 24, 2013, 09:53:02 pm
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A common theme on the English Submissions board is "I'm shit at writing but please mark". I do see this elsewhere on the forums "I'm shit at English, I hate it."
The former is perhaps a defense mechanism to lower people's expectations but certainly applies to this thread anyway. Evidently, I only took English 3/4 in VCE however this is relevant to all three studies (and perhaps just VCE in general!)
I done got me some news for you boys and girls - once upon a time, everyone is shit at writing. Once upon a time, everyone is shit at anything they ever did. No one starts off as the best. Once upon a time, Michael Phelps didn't know how to swim. Below is a paragraph devoted to a Macbeth essay - written by, you guessed it, the one and only Brendinkles. I wrote this nearing the end of 2011 so it is perhaps the best example of my writing prior to when I decided I was going to try really hard for my final year. I absolutely /promise/ you this is exactly what I wrote. This is my third and last paragraph of the essay. The prompt was something to do with Macbeth being a tyrant or a hero or something something.
In a needless act of revenge on the 'traitor' Macduff, that ultimately triggers his downfall, Macbeth orders Macduff's family - a wife and child - killed. Shakespeare uses this - the murder of a woman and child - as symbol of how truly wicked Macbeth has become, and how far from grace a murder causes you to fall. Shakespeare also uses the scene to set up Macbeth's killing at the hand of Macduff.
That's all, folks. I'm sure you don't need a high score in English to see that this paragraph would qualify someone to say: "I'm shit at writing." Obviously, it makes grammatical sense, but it's a three sentence long paragraph, because I didn't know what else I'd even write.
Point of story is - if you're shit at writing - get better at it. Fail at it. Fail and keep failing until a time in which you are successful. EVERYONE starts off somewhere. No matter where you are right now, if you work hard... well, what you achieve is up to you. I went from writing the above paragraph to being one of the better English students in the state (go figure, right?). So you can't blame my score on natural genius, a rich private school, or anything else like that. I wrote/failed/wrote/failed more times than some of you could imagine lol, and it got me to where I am. So, if you're shit at writing and want to score well in VCE, it seems there is only one thing left to do - get really good at writing.
Please, stop discouraging yourselves and thinking about how low you could potentially score (or how high you could potentially score) and just work your guts out! Most of you will be approaching your first writing SAC soon, I'd say, so how hard are you willing to work between now and that first SAC in order to get the score you want? How hard are you willing to work between now and the exam to get the score you want?
I dare you to fail - Eric Thomas.
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your inspiration just overflows brendinkles :)
THANKS A HEAP FOR THIS!
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I agree.
I started off with a B in LA!
Work hard and you'll be fine in English! :)
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It's all to do with the modesty of AN, a disease people have on here :P
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It's all to do with the modesty of AN, a disease people have on here :P
I think it's more people intimidated by the huge scores, which people definitely have on here hahaha.
Edit.
your inspiration just overflows brendinkles :)
THANKS A HEAP FOR THIS!
You're always welcome! :)
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this is amazing :D respect. and everything here is very true. I hate it when people say 'I dont think I'll get about 40' even before the year has truly begun. IMO, everyone should aim for 50, cause anybody can get it, so long as the required work prescriptions are met
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I was getting straight D+'s for English in year 9 :)
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I wrote this this essay Essay in April for a SAC. We were allowed to write this SAC at home and hand it in to our teacher twice so she gave us feedback twice as well. This is my 2nd redraft and hence my final version. The last line of the body paragraph is of particular jocularity.
NOTE: it is NOT a troll essay, I was trying to do my best and score as high as possible.
As an excerpt, my last of four body paragraphs:
Joining a group and being open to changes can give you many benefits. For example when you join a weight loss group they’ll motivate you to lose weight. By belonging to that certain group your opinions on food will change and you’ll see certain foods in a different ways. By helping you to lose weight you’d literally be shaped by that particular group.
In the end of the year, I've put in effort and improved my alot writing essays in the 9+ range and full-marking Section A.
Everyone can do good in English. It is one of the subjects where you just need to ask other people for help. Let multiple people mark your essays and always do your work step-by-step. Start off writing your essay completly structured and when you're comfitable with that do your own style, don't try to develop your personal style first. Also use a thesaurus and put in words that make your essay flow, they might not be the correct words to use. However, your English Teacher or Tutor will help you using them correctly.
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A common theme on the English Submissions board is "I'm shit at writing but please mark". I do see this elsewhere on the forums "I'm shit at English, I hate it."
The former is perhaps a defense mechanism to lower people's expectations but certainly applies to this thread anyway. Evidently, I only took English 3/4 in VCE however this is relevant to all three studies (and perhaps just VCE in general!)
I done got me some news for you boys and girls - once upon a time, everyone is shit at writing. Once upon a time, everyone is shit at anything they ever did. No one starts off as the best. Once upon a time, Michael Phelps didn't know how to swim. Below is a paragraph devoted to a Macbeth essay - written by, you guessed it, the one and only Brendinkles. I wrote this nearing the end of 2011 so it is perhaps the best example of my writing prior to when I decided I was going to try really hard for my final year. I absolutely /promise/ you this is exactly what I wrote. This is my third and last paragraph of the essay. The prompt was something to do with Macbeth being a tyrant or a hero or something something.
In a needless act of revenge on the 'traitor' Macduff, that ultimately triggers his downfall, Macbeth orders Macduff's family - a wife and child - killed. Shakespeare uses this - the murder of a woman and child - as symbol of how truly wicked Macbeth has become, and how far from grace a murder causes you to fall. Shakespeare also uses the scene to set up Macbeth's killing at the hand of Macduff.
That's all, folks. I'm sure you don't need a high score in English to see that this paragraph would qualify someone to say: "I'm shit at writing."
Point of story is - if you're shit at writing - get better at it. Fail at it. Fail and keep failing until a time in which you are successful. EVERYONE starts off somewhere. No matter where you are right now, if you work hard... well, what you achieve is up to you. I went from writing the above paragraph to being one of the better English students in the state (go figure, right?). So you can't blame my score on natural genius, a rich private school, or anything else like that. I wrote/failed/wrote/failed more times than some of you could imagine lol, and it got me to where I am. So, if you're shit at writing and want to score well in VCE, it seems there is only one thing left to do - get really good at writing.
Please, stop discouraging yourselves and thinking about how low you could potentially score (or how high you could potentially score) and just work your guts out! Most of you will be approaching your first writing SAC soon, I'd say, so how hard are you willing to work between now and that first SAC in order to get the score you want? How hard are you willing to work between now and the exam to get the score you want?
I dare you to fail - Eric Thomas.
I was like that. I took that one step further though...I actually quit English altogether (and did English Language). I somewhat regret it, because from what I see here, it'd have given me a really badly needed set of skills and character traits.
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Different experiences for different people develop different things, Thush. And that's okay. Besides, you might be a slightly different person - and who you are right now is fantastic! The only trait I'd change... Well, you could be a little less hard on yourself :p
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May I add to this?
When I started Lit in year 10 I desperately wanted to do well - so so so so badly- like, you can't even imagine how much it meant to me. I suppose was a combination of being younger than everybody else and wanting to prove myself and finally finding something I really loved.
But in my first Lit exam, I got a C. Not even joking. I was shattered.
However, my teacher kept encouraging me, and I think his sustained belief in me was what fuelled my determination. I don't think I would have got very far without that encouragement.
So I worked at it, and my progress was steady. By the end of that year I managed to reach an A. I was ecstatic - but I knew I hadn't hit the ceiling yet. Throughout those summer holidays I read all of my texts, wrote notes like a crazy person and came back to school feeling hopeful ( and also nervous as hell.)
Somehow in the first SAC last year, I reached A plus, and the rest of the year was successful beyond any previous expectations I'd had of myself.
But it wasn't so long ago that I had been scraping Bs and Cs.
So Brenden's right. Don't think that you're shitty at something until you've really tried, because trust me: if there's anything I learnt last year, it's that anything is possible if you really, really try.
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Damn right.
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Agreed. Hard work overrides raw talent. Belief is vital as well as for many VCE becomes a psychological test. Without the inner drive and motivation no one succeed and plus it feels much better getting a what you wanted after so much effort being put in.
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In year 10 I didn't even know how to write an essay. I scored a UG for the SAC and exam. I had no clue at all. In year 11, my essay SAC scores in order were 56%, 74%, 78%, 78% and 68%. Right now in year 12 I feel as if I cam continue progressing and score some A's.
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As an excerpt, my last of four body paragraphs:
Joining a group and being open to changes can give you many benefits. For example when you join a weight loss group they’ll motivate you to lose weight. By belonging to that certain group your opinions on food will change and you’ll see certain foods in a different ways. By helping you to lose weight you’d literally be shaped by that particular group.
...literally be shaped...
This is the greatest sentence I've ever read in an I&B essay.
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Hahahahahahahahaha omfg I only just understood why he bolded literally >.<
This is also the single best thing I've read in an essay (and I've read a lot!) Omfg lol.
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It actually made me laugh it's that awesome. I wish I could hand this into a teacher now! Greatest context paragraph!
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Thanks for the post. I will keep this in mind.
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Thanks for the post. I will keep this in mind.
You're welcome, please do :)
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Thank you so much for this thread.
My year level got our first English outcome, YES OUTCOME NOT EVEN A SAC, and there were so many students saying, ah it seems I'm shit at writing now because I went from scoring 90+ in 7-10 English, to a 60-70% in year 11.
I am one of these people. I got a 73%, not that bar considering I forgot most of my ideas in the writing time and made most of it up on the spot. But there were a few students who feel like it is their duty to rub it in other people's faces that they scored 15-20% higher.
This makes me a little pissed off for this reason. Year 11 shouldn't be a competition, it should be about working with as many writing styles as possible this year to work out where your strengths are, instead of writing yet another text response because that's what we have been writing for as long as I can remember. I kid you not, the 4 out of 6 girls who scored 90+ in this outcome wrote a persuasive piece, because that's where most people's strength is (or should be) by year 11. I wrote a creative expository hybrid. I was happy with this because writing creatively is no where near my strong point, so I worked hard in preparation and I know that I need to work more on developing my creative and expository skills.
The couple of girls who I spoke to who got in the 90+ said they feel like they don't need to work hard in English because they think this outcome means that VCE English is easy for them. Well, I just want to see how they go for the rest of this year, let alone next year, it's going to be a rude shock if that's their attitude. One even said to my face, oh so you're not as strong a writer as you thought you were then, obviously referring to my 70+. Apart from being darn right rude I now have so much determination to work harder to developing my writing just so I can prove her wrong. Stupid, I know, but that's my goal in English and makes me want to work harder to achieve higher marks.
I believe it can be done. And it will be done.
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The couple of girls who I spoke to who got in the 90+ said they feel like they don't need to work hard in English because they think this outcome means that VCE English is easy for them. Well, I just want to see how they go for the rest of this year, let alone next year, it's going to be a rude shock if that's their attitude. One even said to my face, oh so you're not as strong a writer as you thought you were then, obviously referring to my 70+. Apart from being darn right rude I now have so much determination to work harder to developing my writing just so I can prove her wrong. Stupid, I know, but that's my goal in English and makes me want to work harder to achieve higher marks.
I believe it can be done. And it will be done.
I'll tell you from experience, the most satisfying thing you can do is score higher than those people and then not drop to their level. It gets to a point where they say "what did you score?" "Oh, 95%" and you don't even ask what they scored, but you know they scored less, and you know you just broke their heart, all by fault of them wanting to make you feel lesser. Then you get the reputation for the person that is awesome and doesn't act like a fuck head. That's real self-confidence, and people will respect you a lot for it :).
I don't think it's stupid. Half of my motivation for Year 12 was proving everyone wrong (and the other half was not proving them right). Shit, you're in Year 11, the windows are limitless. If you start to work hard now, there's no reason you couldn't score perfectly :). Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work as hard. I have no idea how good these girls are, but I'm confident you can put them in their places. Being naturally good at English doesn't help you read your selected text over and over again. You need to work hard to do that ;)
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I've stickied this for that point in the year where many people feel that they are falling behind - or losing confidence in - English studies.
Brenden's advice is solid and holds true for students across the English boards; you're not 'shit at English', even though you may feel stressed about it. Just persevere and practice, and it will all work out well in the end.
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Props to the sticky. I totally agree.
A case in point: today we got our sacs back for text response and one of my friends went from a D+ in his practice to a B+. When he got his mark back he was practically hyperventilating with happiness.
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Persevere is the best piece advice I could give anyone. Ever.
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The couple of girls who I spoke to who got in the 90+ said they feel like they don't need to work hard in English because they think this outcome means that VCE English is easy for them.
That naivety is just shocking I mean, who judges the difficulty of the Year 12 course based on one puny Year 11 outcome? The fable of the tortoise and the hare comes into mind here.
In the case of English, I'd say hard work trumps natural writing talent, so keep working on improving upon feedback and you'll eventually get better!
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This thread has given me confidence with what i write and it's showing with the results I have been achieving. :D
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This thread has given me confidence with what i write and it's showing with the results I have been achieving. :D
Congratulations man :), keep at it!
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This has helped me out a lot as well! Thank you.
I'm starting to love English now too! ;D
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That's awesome to hear!! You're welcome :)
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I have to agree with the majority of what has been said on posts. If people were naturally bad at English, as is so often said, there would not be a need for tutors and teachers.
The more you listen to what experts have to say, engage with texts, and train your wrist, the more likely you are to succeed. the students who have an inflated sense of their own intelligence tend to be the ones who fall behind.
Essay writing is a constantly evolving, learned skill. A great score comes with the determination to surpass your existing knowledge. :)
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Is someone still able to score a 9/10 or 10/10 essay if they have mediocre writing skills? English is mostly about ideas about the text/context (excluding LA), right? Usually for my schools criteria only 5/30 / 16.666.% of the marks is about writing skills.
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All three pieces require a demonstration of strong writing skills for full marks.
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Thought this would be a good place to post that I got my semester 1 English exam back yesterday. And after the first outcome result I posted about on this board, I was completely and utterly in shock. Not to sound boastful, but the exam thankfully has restored some of my confidence and I know I deserve what I got because I drafted so many times.
As for the girl who said I was not so good at writing as her, well I proved her wrong... BIG TIME
I seriously don't think I would have been able to achieve what I did without the support of my awesome teacher, who thankfully I have again this semester. On hand back day she said that in order to do well in English, you have to show you want it by putting in the work, which I now realise how important all the extra stuff is.
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YESSS!!!! :D
Well done, walkec!!!!!!
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just a quick question, didn't want to make a new thread - i have a sac coming up and have written an essay, its around 920 words and the teacher recommended 600-800 words, is this good or bad?
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just a quick question, didn't want to make a new thread - i have a sac coming up and have written an essay, its around 920 words and the teacher recommended 600-800 words, is this good or bad?
Probably means you're writing in too much depth or not concisely enough for the task at hand.
If you're able to, print out your essay and highlight how much of the essay is actually essential to making your point. If that highlighted portion makes up any less than 2/3 you should try writing more concisely (Trick from my now-retired literature teacher). If not, you probably need to prioritise your ideas and focus on one or two less than you have in this essay.
Good luck!
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Honestly, it's neither. A good essay in 600 words would be a nightmare imo, but for all I know that 920 words is full of airy writing. The only person who can give the answer you are looking for is your teacher. If they have a problem with you writing 920 words then they're probably a spastic (or maybe I'm the spastic), but it definitely won't be an issue in the exam.
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Can anyone help me write a context English piece on Life of Galileo on the prompt "Who we are is truly tested and proven when we encounter conflict" its on encountering conflict. It be much appreciated! :)
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This post definitely motivated me!
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nice
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truth
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yes im bad at English too
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Does anyone have any tips of improving fluency and expression? That seems to be my downfall in essay writing.
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here are my english marks is it normal if my school passing mark is 40
SAC 1: 47
SAC 2: 54
SAC 3 65
Exam" 48 percent / this was my lowest scoring subject... then the rest of my subjects i recieved B and all A
but im so depressed about English right now
so its not only you thats bad in English