VCE community

English.

I've decided to make a whole separate page just for English because it's the most important subject in Year 12. There's a reason why everyone has to do it. It's a requirement for just about every university course and makes up part of your ATAR. 

Here you'll find tips to hopefully make english seem a breeze. 
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The Age: ENGLISH

How to Write an Essay.

Essay writing is without a doubt the most important element in English. It has to be done in the exam, in SACs, about books, about articles, everything. It's also really important because it's used in other subjects, and if people are struggling to do it, it can make getting good marks harder. It's really not as hard or scary as it sounds if you follow a structure. When writing essays, you always need to say what you're going to say (intro), say it (body paragraphs) and then say what you said (conclusion). 

Introduction
There isn't really any exact format for an introduction, but you do need to make sure you do a few important things. If you're writing about a book or article, say the title, author and what it is (not a book) so for a book this could be a play, novel, novella ect. For an article, it could be an editorial, letter to the editor, stuff like that.  Once you've done that, next you should introduce your conclusion (main argument) this is your main point of view which you'll be arguing all through out your essay. for example, if we were writing an essay about Romeo and Juliet, we could say "Fate is not to blame for the young lovers tragic death." The contention will be basically just your essay question re-worded, so for that contention the question could have been "Was fate to blame for Romeo and Juliet's death?" Once you've done that, you briefly state your arguments and move on!

Body Paragraphs. 
Each essay should have at least 4 body paragraphs at VCE level (more is better!) Once again, these are easier than they seem, all you need to remember is TEEEL. 
T- Topic Sentence. What you'll be arguing in this paragraph for example, "Romeo and Juliet's irrational decision making is in part to blame for their death" Done! It should only be a sentence, NO LONGER
E- Expand. Here is where you go into more detail, explain what you mean by Romeo and Juliet's irrational decision making. This could be about two sentences, maybe longer, but you dont want to dilly dally. Just get straight to the point. 
E-Evidence. Here's where all of your hard work comes in! Have a quote to back up what you're saying. It works best if it flows with the context you're using it in, so if you need to you can just put brackets around a word to signify it's been changed to suit the context and tense it's being used in. 
E- Explain. Here's where you explain why this quote is important. What does this quote mean? Why is it relevant to what you're arguing in this body paragraph?
L- Link. This is the step that most people skip. You need to link in what you're saying to your contention, your topic sentence or your next topic sentence (Kind of like on ACA when they link one story to the next when they have nothing to do with each other) 

Conclusion
We're almost done!! A lot of people say that they can't write conclusions, but they're pretty easy, it's where you say what you said. If you want, to get you started you can write "In conclusion" but I suggest crossing that out when you've finished so it sounds more professional. Then you can re-state your contention, your arguments and all that jazz. It only needs to be a few sentences long, just make sure you fell like the essay has finished, don't leave the reader hanging. Also, if it's easier, you could just re-word your introduction. 

The Essay Never Ever List. 

These are the things that you should NEVER EVER do in an essay. 

1. Refer to your text as a "book." When in doubt, say "Text"


2. Refer to yourself or the reader. When writing an essay don't say something like "You know when..." or "I think..." or even "Hey miss..." You'd be surprised. 

3. Use contractions, these are words like can't, won't and even the ridiculous Should'nt've. It's not a word. It just makes your writing sound a lot more formal. 

4. Make up words. 

5. Spell words wrong. Especially when you're quoting the text or naming characters. 

6. Ramble on. I'm sure the examiner has read the book, you don't need to tell them everything that happened in it, you're just wasting valuable time and marks (but then again, only say what is relevant from the book)

7. NEVER EVER think you can just fluke your way through an essay, you need to know the book backwards to get good marks. 

What to do When You're Reading.

Whether you're reading an article or book in english, you need to make sure you're understanding and processing what's coming in. There are so many times when you turn the page and can't remember what just happened, but the thing with that is you'll lose you're motivation and lose track of what you're reading. 

1. Read for pleasure. 
If you don't already, you really should. There are some excellent, non-boring books out there and if you read regularly you'll expand your vocabulary and it'll make you're class reading a whole lot easier. 
2. Read the book for pleasure. 
When holidays come around and you get a whole book to read over a few weeks, most people leave it to the last minute and try to read it quickly all in one go. That's really not going to help. When you get the book, first you might want to look up a summary about it, wikipedia's not so bad here. Then sit down and read it over a few days, don't worry about the themes and quotes you should be memorizing just appreciate it. 
3. Read the book for class. 
Once you've read it for pleasure, then you need to pay more attention. If you want, you can look up Sparknotes or something just for the general themes you should be looking out for and what you should be thinking about. 
4. Take notes and annotate. 
Don't be afraid to write in your book. Highlight important quotes and write notes next to it. While you're reading or when you've finished, you can go through and write all of them on paper so you have a nice collection for exams.