A State Ranker\'s Guide to Writing 20 20 English Advanced Essays PDF

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   A State Ranker’s Guide to Writing 20/20 English Advanced Essays 

Written by Project Academy Tutor Marko Beocanin - 8th in NSW for English Advanced and 99.95 ATAR

1. Introduction to this Guide

Essays can be tough. Like, really tough.

They’re made tougher still because every HSC English module has a different essay structure, and no-one seems to have a

 ctually is consistent idea of what an ‘essay’ a (not to get postmodern on you!).

My name is Marko Beocanin, and I’m an English tutor at Project Academy. In this post I hope to demystify essay-writing and arm you with a “tried and proven” approach you can apply to any essay you’ll write in HSC English and beyond. In 2019, I completed all four units of English (Extension 2, Extension 1, and Advanced), and state ranked 8th in NSW for English Advanced and attained a 99.95 ATAR – so take it from me, I’ve written a lot of essays! Here’s some of the advice I’ve picked up throughout that experience. 

This is a sample resource from the English Advanced program at Project Academy. Students receive access to comprehensive notes, state-ranking essays, past papers, and more e  very week. Trial Project Academy for 3 weeks: h  ttps://projectacademy.com.au/

2. My Essay-Writing Methodology

For us to understand how to write an essay, it’s important to appreciate what an essay (in particular, a HSC English essay) actually is. I’ve come to appreciate the following definition:

 rgues a point in a c  lear, sophisticated An essay is a structured piece of writing that a  ersonality and flair. way, and expresses p

Let’s have a look at each of these keywords – and how they should inform our essay-writing process – in more detail. 

3. “Arguing a point” means CAUSE and EFFECT

When  most  people  study  English,  they  tend to make huge lists of Themes, Values, Concerns, Quotes and so on. While this is  a greatexerciseforcollecting evidence and understanding your texts, it’s important to remember that your essay is not simply a theme summary or quote bank – you have to actually argue something!  And any argument needs a cause and an effect.

This is a sample resource from the English Advanced program at Project Academy. Students receive access to comprehensive notes, state-ranking essays, past papers, and more e  very week. Trial Project Academy for 3 weeks: h  ttps://projectacademy.com.au/

When  you  approach  any  essay  question, it’s not enough to simply chuck in quotes/topic-sentences that abstractly relate  to it.  An  internal  checklist you could go through while reading a question might look like: 1. What is the question actually asking me? 2. What is my response to the question? 3. Am  I actually  making  an argument in my response, and not just repeating the question? 4. What is my cause? 5. What is my effect? 6. How can I prove my argument?  It’s only at  question  4  that  quotes/analysis/topic-sentences appear. Your first step in writing any essay is to actually have an argument to prove.   Cause and Effect in Thesis Statements To  demonstrate what I mean by cause-and-effect, let’s have a look at a lower-band essay thesis on Nineteen Eighty-Four:  In Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell explores totalitarianism. 

This is a sample resource from the English Advanced program at Project Academy. Students receive access to comprehensive notes, state-ranking essays, past papers, and more e  very week. Trial Project Academy for 3 weeks: h  ttps://projectacademy.com.au/

This sentence  is  a  flat  declaration  of a theme. While it does identify totalitarianism, it doesn’t give  any  indication on what parts of totalitarianism Orwell explores, and what the actual effect of totalitarianism is.  In  Nineteen  Eighty-Four,  George Orwell explores the abuse of power in totalitarian regimes.  This one is certainly  better,  because  it  describes  a specific element of totalitarianism that Orwell explores – but it’s still missing an actual argument about what totalitarianism  DOES to  people. A full cause and effect (and higher band) thesis statement might look like:  In Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell explores how theabuse ofpowerin totalitarian regimes leads to a brutalised human experience.  This thesis explicitly  outlines how the CAUSE (abuse of power in totalitarian regimes) leads to the EFFECT (a brutalised human experience).  There’s  certainly  still  some  ambiguity in  this sentence – for example, what sort of human  experiences are being brutalised? – and in an exam, you’d substitute that for the specific human experiences outlined in the question.

This is a sample resource from the English Advanced program at Project Academy. Students receive access to comprehensive notes, state-ranking essays, past papers, and more e  very week. Trial Project Academy for 3 weeks: h  ttps://projectacademy.com.au/

 In general, whenever you see sentenceslike“Composer Xdiscusses Theme Y” in your essay  drafts, think  about  developing  them into “Composer X discusses how Specific Cause of Theme Y leads to Specific Effect of Theme Y”. Cause and Effect Diagrams To  make  sure  that  your  arguments actually have a specific cause and effect, try writing them out in the following diagrammatic way:



This is a sample resource from the English Advanced program at Project Academy. Students receive access to comprehensive notes, state-ranking essays, past papers, and more e  very week. Trial Project Academy for 3 weeks: h  ttps://projectacademy.com.au/

Surprisingly, drawing the arrow made a huge psychological difference for me!

If you struggle with  this, try  to  restructure/rephrase your arguments until they can be categorised in such a way. Making and rewriting these diagrams is also a great way to prep for exams without writing out your whole essay.  Cause and Effect in Analysis Similarly, when  it  comes  to  your  actual analysis itself, make sure that you’re not just listing  techniques  and  quotes.  You’re  not  just analysing your quotes for the sake of naming the techniques in them – you’re analysing them to prove a point!  Whenever you consider a quote for your essay, ask yourself: 1. What is this quote about? 2. How does this quote prove my argument? 3. How do the literary techniques in this quote prove my argument?  Let’s use anexample from King Henry IV,Part 1 to illustrate this. A lower band piece of analysis might look like:  King Henry’s opening monologue employs anthropomorphism: “Daub her lips with her own children’s blood…bruise her flow’rets with…armed hoofs.”

This is a sample resource from the English Advanced program at Project Academy. Students receive access to comprehensive notes, state-ranking essays, past papers, and more e  very week. Trial Project Academy for 3 weeks: h  ttps://projectacademy.com.au/

While  the  technique  of  anthropomorphism is identified, this sentence doesn’t link to any argument about WHY that technique is there and what it does.  King Henry’s opening monologue anthropomorphises England as a mother violated by war: “Daub her lips with her own children’s blood…bruise her flow’rets with…armed hoofs.”  This  is  certainly better, because it explains what the technique actually does – but it still doesn’t discuss how the technique guides us to an actual point.  King Henry’s opening monologue anthropomorphises England as a mother violated by war: “Daub her lips with her own children’s blood…bruise her flow’rets with…armed hoofs…” to convey the civil unrest caused by his tenuous claim to the throne.  This analysis  not  only  outlines the technique in detail, but it also explicitly embeds it with an argument – this time, structured as EFFECT (civil unrest)  caused by CAUSE (his tenuous claim to the throne) .  In  general,  whenever you see analysis in your drafts written as “Composer X uses Technique Y in Quote Z”,try to rewrite it as“Composer X uses Technique Y in Quote Z to argue Point A”.

This is a sample resource from the English Advanced program at Project Academy. Students receive access to comprehensive notes, state-ranking essays, past papers, and more e  very week. Trial Project Academy for 3 weeks: h  ttps://projectacademy.com.au/

4. Clear, Sophisticated Way  In general, clarity/sophistication in Advanced essays comes from two main sources. Essay Structure For most essays, the simplest and most effective overall structure looks like: ● Intro:  Here, you answer the question with an argument, summarise your points and link to the rubric. ● 3 - 4 Body Paragraphs: Here, you actually make your points. ● Conclusion: Here, you re-summarise your arguments and ‘drop the mic’.  While it’s  cool  to  play around with the number of body paragraphs, for example, the structure above is generally a safe bet for Advanced.  The most variety comes from the actual structure within your body paragraphs.  There are plenty of onlineguides/resourceswith funacronyms like STEEL and PEETAL and  less  fun  ones  like PEEQTET  –  but  ultimately, the exact formula you go with is a relatively  inconsequential  matter of  choice and style. Just make sure you have the following elements roughly in this order!  

This is a sample resource from the English Advanced program at Project Academy. Students receive access to comprehensive notes, state-ranking essays, past papers, and more e  very week. Trial Project Academy for 3 weeks: h  ttps://projectacademy.com.au/

● Cause and Effect Topic Sentence Here,  you  make your point as clearly as possible (remember cause and effect), and address the specific argumentthattheparagraphwill cover. It’sfantastic if you can link this argument to the argument in your previous paragraph.  ● Context Sentence This bit is vital (and often forgotten!). Texts don’t exist in a void – their composers had lives, were influenced by the world around them, and had inspirations and purposes in their compositions.  Context  can  be  political,  socio-cultural,  religious, philosophical, literary etc… as long as it’s there!  ● Cause and Effect Analysis In  a  three-paragraph  structure, a solid aim is for four to five quotes per paragraph. Each  point  you  make  should be justified with a quote, and each quote should have a technique linked to it. It’s usually  helpful to order your quotes chronologically as they appear  within  the  text (to show how the argument progressively builds) – but in more non-linear forms like poetry, for example, you can switch it up a little. Make sure each paragraph covers quotes from the whole text, to demonstrate a broad range of analysis!  

This is a sample resource from the English Advanced program at Project Academy. Students receive access to comprehensive notes, state-ranking essays, past papers, and more e  very week. Trial Project Academy for 3 weeks: h  ttps://projectacademy.com.au/

● Link Here, you might give a restatement of your topic sentence that summarises your main ideas.  Wording and Expression A  common  misconception  with  English Advanced is that huge words and long, meandering sentences will score the most marks.  In Advanced, clarity should come from your expression, while sophistication should come  from  your  ideas.  Ultimately,  the more complex your expression and sentence structure is, the more your markers will have to work to connect with your content.  While an occasional  well-executed  piece  of  technical jargon is impressive, it should never come at the cost of clearly and explicitly getting your point across.  A few general tips I’ve picked up from both my time as a student and my work as a tutor include: ● Avoid using a thesaurus/onlinesynonym-search whenever possible! If you didn’t consider  using  a  word  naturally,  it’s  unlikely it will flow with the rest of your expression.

This is a sample resource from the English Advanced program at Project Academy. Students receive access to comprehensive notes, state-ranking essays, past papers, and more e  very week. Trial Project Academy for 3 weeks: h  ttps://projectacademy.com.au/

● A long, comma-intensive sentence can (and should) almost always be replaced with two or more sentences. ● Use semicolons sparingly (if at all), and with GREAT caution. ● Never underestimate words like “because”, “leads to”, “causes” etc. They are simple, but brilliantly effective at establishing a clear cause and effect structure! ● Make  sure  to  continuously reuse words from the question. Even if this feels clunky, it helps you actually engage with the question. ● Also make sure  to  continuously  use rubric keywords – particularly in Common Mod and Mod A!

5. Personality and Flair  And now… the hardest bit. Putting a bit of you into your essays.  There’s  no  one way to “add personality/flair” – this is where you have the freedom to develop your  own  voice  and style. Remember that your markers love literature – and for them to see real, unadulterated enthusiasminyour work is an absolute win that will be marked generously.  To develop that passionate flair/personality, I encourage you to do three things:

This is a sample resource from the English Advanced program at Project Academy. Students receive access to comprehensive notes, state-ranking essays, past papers, and more e  very week. Trial Project Academy for 3 weeks: h  ttps://projectacademy.com.au/

Practice.  A  Lot.  The  more you write – whether it’s homework questions, mini paragraphs, or flat-out full practice essays – the better you’ll become at writing. It’s as simple as that.

6. Concluding Remarks   Get feedback on your work. To make sure you’re actuallyimprovingwithyour writing, aim to get plenty of feedback from both of these groups: ● People  who  know  your text and HSC English in-and-out (teachers, tutors, scholars  etc.),  so  they  can engage with your analysis and help develop your style/structure. ● People  who don’t know your texts and HSC English particularly well (parents, friends, etc.), so they can check your arguments actually make sense!  Explore your own English-related interests. Reading widely and writing weird stuff just for fun adds an indescribable but very real level  of  depth  and  nuance  to  your  essay-writing. For me, this involved immersing myself in crazy literarytheorythat hadnothing to with my texts, and writing super edgy poetry. Find what works for you!

This is a sample resource from the English Advanced program at Project Academy. Students receive access to comprehensive notes, state-ranking essays, past papers, and more e  very week. Trial Project Academy for 3 weeks: h  ttps://projectacademy.com.au/

Good Luck!!! Whether this article reachesyouthenight before Paper1, or at the start of your English journey  –  I’m  confident that  you can do this. If you can find even one thing that you connect  with  about  this  subject… whether it’s a character you love, or a beautiful poem,  or  a  wacky  critical piece that’s totally BS… hopefully you’ll realise that essay writing doesn’t have to be so tough after all!        

  

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This is a sample resource from the English Advanced program at Project Academy. Students receive access to comprehensive notes, state-ranking essays, past papers, and more e  very week. Trial Project Academy for 3 weeks: h  ttps://projectacademy.com.au/

   Thank you for reading This guide was written with

by Marko and the Project

Academy team. If you would like to access more resources, trial our weekly classes and personalised tutorials for 3 weeks, fill out the contact form here: www.projectacademy.com.au/contact...