ATAR Notes: Forum
HSC Stuff => HSC English Stuff => HSC Subjects + Help => HSC English Advanced => Topic started by: BakerDad12 on August 14, 2020, 06:20:23 pm
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Hey guys, I'm struggling with being able to write a response that's cohesive and sustains the same argument from beginning to end in timed conditions. i find that my thesis starts out weak, but then gets stronger and fleshes itself out only once I've started writing the essay. For an example of this, I've posted a practise essay I wrote in the marking and feedback section titled 'Crucible Practise Essay'. Does anyone know how I can fix this, or improve on it?
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Hey guys, I'm struggling with being able to write a response that's cohesive and sustains the same argument from beginning to end in timed conditions. i find that my thesis starts out weak, but then gets stronger and fleshes itself out only once I've started writing the essay. For an example of this, I've posted a practise essay I wrote in the marking and feedback section titled 'Crucible Practise Essay'. Does anyone know how I can fix this, or improve on it?
Maybe try doing a quick plan before you start writing? Use your reading time to plan out an approach to the question then spend a minute or two to jot down a quick scaffold of points and formulate your thesis and topic sentences around that.
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Hey, thanks for the response. I have started planning, and it's helped quite a bit. However, my argument is stronger as it goes on - it's not bad initially, but what I'm finding is that the introduction doesn't have the same depth to the thesis as my other paragraphs do.
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That's good to hear! I took a quick look at your crucible essay and I think you should work on simplifying your thesis so that it's more relevant to the question and has one clear point you can continually refer back to. I'd suggest that you just try writing a lot of thesis statements to get better at them, perhaps by working on essay plans or just taking unseen questions and drafting. Since the thesis drives the entire essay, it really shouldn't change throughout or it just gets confusing, you know? As for the intro being weak, the purpose of the intro is mainly to signpost your arguments so planning should help with that as you get better.
Hope this helps!
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Hey, BakerDad12!
To second what Justin's raised, writing thesis statements as practice works wonders! I did this when I was finding myself not having enough time to write full responses and it kept my brain moving and thinking critically. The more you expose yourself to different types of questions and write practice theses, the more comfortable you will be of coming up with them in the exam :D You could check out some of the questions we have for the unseen texts and essay sections on the forums to do this!
I would also recommend using your reading time to formulate a plan on how you will tackle the paper and spend the first minute or two of your writing time just jotting down any important points. These can be anything from key words that you might use to answer the question, to annotating the techniques you'll be using to respond to the question. While some students might think this is a waste of time, it's really beneficial to do so you have a clearer idea of what your judgement will be for each question. A quick plan can help you construct more effective thesis statements and sustain your responses better long term ;D Hope that helps and good luck with your Trials!
Angelina ;D