Simple ways to improve in HSC English Extension One

The English Extension one course is nothing short of a challenge.

You’re dealing with complicated texts, ideas, genres and contexts in the English Extension One course. When you’re working with such complexity, it is difficult to pull back and find the small and simple ways to improve your marks.

These tips work if you’re starting your very first Extension One English essay, you’re looking to improve the marks you got from the last task, or you’re cramming in some extra marks for your final assessment or exams.

1. Alliteration isn’t going to make the cut by itself.

Don’t get me wrong, a metaphor is important and similes are fun. But you need to look deeper than the literary techniques that we learned in Year 7 and 8 when you are in the English Extension One course. Look at the tense being used, is it the perfect tense? Look at the word that begins the sentence, is that a definite or indefinite article? Tautology? Anacoluthon? Commoratio? Academic readings of your text are likely to show you the way to deep language analysis. It’s not about dropping complicated technique names, of course. It’s about pairing techniques together and appreciating the way they work cohesively rather than in isolation.

2. Don’t shy away from talking about structural techniques.

You can talk about the content of the poem for pages and pages, but your marker will be left wishing that you were confident enough to tackle the purpose of the sonnet form, the manipulation of iambic tetrameter or the use of enjambment. There’s a reason that the composer chose to write a novel without chapters, or a short story in the present tense. As an English Extension One student, you want to be able to show your analytical prowess! Focus on language techniques as well as the structure!

3. Integration is key.

Integrated an essay with themes, texts or contexts is really important if you want to show a marker that you just don’t see the text as it stands in isolation, but you also see it for its canonical or transcendental value. One idea or text per paragraph doesn’t scream “I know my stuff well enough to flaunt it!” Instead, it kind of says “I learned what I had to learn and I’m a bit too timid to challenge the top mark.” Throughout the year you should play around with the structure of your essay to become more comfortable with manipulating ideas and texts to fit into an essay that will uniquely express your understanding.

4. Choose your Related Texts wisely.

Think of the first impression you make on a marker when they read that the ORT that you’ve spent the year analysing is Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. Now imagine their first impression when they see that you studied Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. Of course, what you do with the text is more important than the first impression it gives (I stress this point!). However, if they give an impressive vibe to an Extension One marker, there’s a reason: it is a text with high textual integrity. Props for tackling a text with many, many layers. You’ll most probably also find that more difficult texts, or more unusual texts, give you more to work with in terms of analysis. But hey, more than anything: enjoy it. That’s the wisest thing you can do when you pick your related text, because you’ll loathe studying it if you can’t stand it, and you’ll never dig as deep as the student who cannot get enough of their text.

5. Never sit on something that is “good.”

If there’s a subject that pays you in results to consistently come back with fresh eyes and edit your work, it is the English courses. In Extension 1 English, you will benefit from manipulating structure, editing words, rearranging syntax, and then continually reading, reading and reading some more. The polished submission you make in term one becomes the foundations from which your work will grow. You should reward yourself for making progress and give it rest. But then you’ve got to saddle back up and keep galloping to turn good into great.

Looking for a little extra help?

We run an entirely free and effective Extension One English Q&A thread over here where you can ask any question, big or small, and we try our best to help you out!

If you are looking for some tips on how to write a Ways of Thinking essay, we have a guide right here!

Or, if you want to see a sentence by sentence break down of a E4 After the Bomb Essay, you can do so right here.