This is everything you need to understand the HSC Common Module: Texts & Human Experiences

Hello fellow year 12 students!

In this podcast episdode, we dive into Sarah’s top tips for essays that no one teaches you at school.

These are pointers about essays that we have personally developed after so much trial and error and have even taught these to our own students - and they’ve found them incredibly helpful!

So let’s begin

Number 1: Write It Like a Court Case

This is by far my favourite and most important tip I can give you for your essays. First and foremost, we need to address that our essays are just a collation of arguments and evidence that serve the purpose of answering a question. In english, our evidence comes in the form of quotes and techniques where we can strictly call out spoken phrases, actions and stylistic features to prove our point

In light of this analogy, I want you to think to yourself, when someone is arguing in defense in court, do they spew out and recall all the information of the event? That is a simple no. Their job is to argue the case by providing evidence. So think of your essays as court cases. Say it with me: your essays are court cases. You’re here to argue your case and argue in light of your themes, so ensure you stick to arguing and evidence-based writing so you don’t fall into this next trap

Number 2: Never Recount What Happened In the Text

I see handful after handful students doing this and recounting the text in an attempt to showcase the idea they’re arguing. Unfortunately, there are very minimal - if any - marks allocated to students who recount, as this is besides the purpose of essays, which are inherently argument based, so these recollections of ideas - which may seem like an easy way to drag in scenes from your text - actually do more harm than good as they do not demonstrate your ability to use evidence to create your argument.

The big takeaway here is, no recounting. I want to see quotes and techniques and a hearty and insightful explanation that builds on your argument, not one that simply recounts the texts and detracts away from your essay

Number 3: Build On Your Ideas Using Your Quotes

It saddens me when I see students with so much potential using quotes to support their arguments, but then going on and explaining what the quote means rather than the implications of what is being said in context, and how this contributes to their overall ideas

Here’s an example for you: in George Orwell’s 1984, the quote “Big Brother is Watching You” is a repeated phrase. What some students will explain is: This illustrates that Big Brother is everywhere as he is always watching you; but they fail to see the bigger picture and delve into the deeper insights behind this quote. The quote “Big Brother is Watching You” serves as a constant reminder of the control, the silence, the pervasive surveillance exerted by the authoritarian government, and as a consistent halt and pull at the breaks for any act individuals in this society take as the sounds and slogans of “Big Brother is Watching You” infiltrate their every second.

Number 4: Never Write a Vague Sentence

This means that every single sentence in your essays should be meaningful. And the easiest way to test this is to ask yourself the question: if I moved this sentence into anyone else’s essay about any other text, would it still make sense?

Here’s an example for you to help put that into perspective: “As such, this shows us the importance of understanding human experiences”. This is a very vague sentence that first off, doesnt provide much value into what the importance of understanding human experiences is, we haven’t been given any further information or insights or detail as to what is being spoken about here, and secondly, the human experience in question isn’t fleshed out for the reader to understand.

So be clear in your sentences, make every word, every sentence, every minute count. This will ensure that you are making the most of the writing time since we all know there’s no space for words that won’t be translating into marks in our essays

Number 5: Develop Personal Insights

Each module in your english course over the course of senior high school will have a text that you must read, analyse either as a class or alone, and be assessed on. Something most students forget to do when embarking on understanding each text, is thinking critically and insightfully about each text. I remember finishing the texts richard the third by william shakespeare and looking for richard by al pacino in year 12, and our teacher had us spend the first half of the following lesson writing out all the central ideas of the text, the raw overarching insights that hold the text together: the despicable and multifaceted nature of man, the lethal consequences of suppressing your humanity for power, the ability for individuals to ignore their conscience on the path of committing evil, human frailty, and so forth, and it was so incredibly helpful in developing my perspective and really putting everything we had learnt into perspective

So, as you read, or after you’ve read a text, I want you to engage in this exercise: write out all the central and key ideas about mankind that are portrayed in your text. These will not only allow you to think deeply and critically about your text, but will also act as your thesis statements and the themes by which you write your essays

Number 6: Make Sure You Have a Quote Bank That Is Divided On the Basis of These Insights

Your quote bank should be organised into themes for each text, with a column for your quotes and their related techniques on the right hand side

This way, you’ll make it much easier for yourself to connect the dots between different pieces of evidence and how they relate to your central themes/ideas/insights.

Now I will be making a notes set and publishing it on the marathon HSC website which is coming to the podcast description box soon so keep your eyes out for it when it is released, and that will really help you with laying out all the quotes and their respective themes and techniques and explanations that we’re talking about.

Number 7: Purpose

I cannot stress the importance of understanding the purpose of your techniques

There are only 3 things a technique does: any technique you pull out will be there to (a.) emphasise a point (b.) engage the audience (c.) communicate the information in a creative manner to allow audiences to appreciate it and help them connect with it on a deeper level

Knowing this, you’ll find it much easier to explain your quotes without having to learn what each technique is trying to do

Now this purpose is essential to your essays since after each quote, a short statement of what purpose the quote and technique serve, alongside the insightful explanation we just learnt about, is integral to ensuring your analysis is complete

Number 8: the left over essentials

Finally, for the perfect analysis of each idea that is supported by quotes, it’s important that you add in notes about the audience and how the ideas presented impact them. Additionally, the author’s purpose in what they were trying to achieve, is another element to your analysis that is an important add on for your analysis

Finally, the author’s context should be included in your analysis where possible, so you are linking your evidence with real world events and ideas that can further prove your arguments

And that’s it from me for today

Thank you so much for tuning in

Let me know if you have any questions about what we’ve covered today in the q and a box attached to this podcast episode and Id be happy to discuss them in the very next episode

This is Sarah from the MarathonHSC Podcast and I will see you all back here tomorrow