Writing essays

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Area of Study resources

Writing Area of Study responses

There are a number of stages to writing a good essay - either at home or under exam conditions.

And like all skills they have to be practiced.

Regularly!

And feedback sought from your teachers,

and acted upon the next time an essay is tackled.

A sample question :

Write a feature article for a special edition magazine. The magazine is called Journey. Your feature article should examine how composers use texts to explore the concept of journey. Refer to the ideas and techniques of your prescribed text, your stimulus booklet and two related texts of your own choosing.

Read and deconstruct the question.

Question

Deconstructing the question

Write a feature article for a special edition magazine. The magazine is called Journey. Your feature article should examine how composers use texts to explore the concept of journey. Refer to the ideas and techniques used by composers of your prescribed text, the stimulus booklet and two related texts of your own choosing..

Text type to use in your response

Publication indicates the potential audience and context of the publication.

Focus of the feature article: keywords for your thinking are 'how' (techniques) and 'concept' (ideas).

The texts you MUST refer to in your response.

The question has clearly told you a number of things:

the text type you must use in your response - a feature article
the audience for your writing - the readers of a special edition magazine with a theme of 'Journey'
the purpose of your writing - to examine the concept of journey AND to examine how the composers of your chosen texts have used various techniques to communicate their understanding of the concept of journey.
the texts your must examine in your response

(Note: the use of colour above links to the planning table below.)

You now know what to write about and how you are expected to write it.

Plan your response:

A better response will always be the one that has been planned, no matter how briefly.
A plan should be very brief - a set of points to refer to, like an organised shopping list of your content.
A plan should be on the cover of an exam booklet or on a separate piece of paper so you can flick back to it to refer to while you are writing the essay.

You have two things to think about with the sample question.

Here are some questions you might think about, but your plan must be brief - a word or a phrase organised to guide your writing.

What to write in the feature article -

What are your composers' saying about the concept of the journey? Similarities? Differences?

What will be the choice of specific texts to discuss to support this?

What techniques of each composer will you discuss to show how their techniques communicate their understanding of the concept of the journey.?

Your notes

How to write the feature article -

What are the characteristics of a feature article?

Introductory paragraph? Statement? Analogy? Rhetorical question?

First person: more intimate OR third person: more detached?

Which text will you start with? Follow on with? Conclude with?

What links between texts can you make?

Quotations?

Concluding paragraph? Refer back to the opening paragraph?

Your plan might look like this:

Description	Sample plan	From the plan
Points		Skryzynecki Nowhere in Africa Tan
Idea discarded later		Frost
Techniques to discuss		Tan: use of sepia/focus on father
Linking theme		migration

Write your response.

Having done your planning your can begin writing.
Refer to your plan.
You can tick off the points in your plan as you do them - just like that shopping list.
Keep an eye on the time you have to write, if you are in an examination.
Leave time to reread your response to check spelling and punctuation AND to ensure that you've left nothing out.

Proofread your response, looking at:

Spelling including composers' names and text titles
Punctuation including quotations and titles of texts
Sentence construction and paragraphing.
Completion of your plan including an effective concluding paragraph.

Notes on text types and examination responses.

A format for writing an essay developed from the exposition text type:

Thesis

Address the question but don’t rewrite it

Statement

1 paragraph

– not a couple of sentences repeating the question

Indicate the texts you will be using

Preview

Argument 1

Prescribed text

Point/Technique to be discussed

Example from text

Effect of the example

1 paragraph at least

Linking statement

Link prescribed text and related material 1

Refer to the question

Argument 2

Related Material 1

Point/Technique to be discussed

Example from text

Effect of the example

1 paragraph at least

Linking statement

Link related material 1 and related material 2

Refer to the question

Argument 3

Related material 2

Point/Technique to be discussed

Example from text

Effect of the example

1 paragraph at least

Linking statement

Refer to the question

Link prescribed text, related materials 1 and 2

Reinforcement of original thesis

I paragraph

– not a couple of sentences repeating the question