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Hsc english belonging thesis writing

Hsc english belonging thesis writing set text

Essay Writing

Writing an essay may sound difficult but an essay is just a set of paragraphs – and anyone can write a good paragraph [Click here for help]. The trick is to link your paragraphs into a thesis (your teacher might have called this an argument )- so that altogether they tell you an important message about belonging. It is not a good idea to start writing an essay if your don’t have your own opinion about the texts.

This works best when you plan your essay first. The easiest type of plan is a concept map – each “balloon” (the yellow bits below) is one paragraph in your essay. By making a concept map before you start, you can find out how all your random thoughts fit together.

  • Start with main ideas in your set text and related texts (alienation, loss of place, role of family, romance etc). Not every single thing your teacher said will be relevant to your argument, so only include ideas that fit your thesis. (Eg, if your thesis is about the importance of family, you might leave out the points about friendship break-ups)
  • Look through your class notes and a dd your random points to the correct headings. If you have lots of points about something, start sorting them into smaller points (Eg. “family” could be broken into “alienation from family”, “reconciliation with family” and “home/place”)
  • After you’ve put in the information points, use another colour pen to add quotes/visual elements that support each point. Look for quotes that have an interesting language or techniques that you can talk about in your essay.
  • Now use another colour to identify the language/visual technique used in each quote. Then wirte down something about the effect each technique has on the responder

Hsc english belonging thesis writing all your


Like other text-types, essays always have a beginning, middle and end:

  • Introduction. Answers the question, links your thesis to the question, lists the texts you will be discussing in your essay.
  • Body. Has at least five paragraphs (three on your set text, one on each of your related texts) that develop your thesis. Band six essays are much longer than this – often 6-10 pages of detailed analysis!

Every paragraph should use keywords from the question in the topic sentence. This links your thesis to the question.

  • Conclusion. that answers the question and summarises the main point of each paragraph.

If you have trouble with essay writing. don’t sit for hours trying to write the perfect introduction – try writing your body paragraphs first. After you have done this, start writing your introduction: Rewrite the question, state your thesis, then copy and paste all your topic sentences into one paragraph. Rewrite your topic sentences so they say the same thing in different words, and don’t forget to include the title and author of each text you’re going to talk about. Now you have a paragraph that answers the question and summarises the points you will make in your essay. You can use the same technique to write your conclusion.

Some excellent examples of essays about belonging can be found at HSC Online [ hsc.csu.edu.au/english/esl/belonging/3692/Extended%20response/response_activities.htm] and throughout Shelley MacNamara’s blog [belongingareaofstudy.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2010-01-01T00:00:00-08:00updated-max=2011-01-01T00:00:00-08:00max-results=6] (There aare many examples other years too).

Hsc english belonging thesis writing Click here

These websites have more detailed information about essay writing:

  • Tutor Tales has some outlines for past HSC answers [tutortales.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/practice-questions-for-area-of-study-belonging/]
  • Niel Whitfield has an example of how to edit an essay for the ESL course [neilwhitfield.wordpress.com/student-help-guide/belonging-pages-hsc-2009-2012/a-students-%E2%80%9Cbelonging-essay%E2%80%9D-workshopped/ ]
  • English Success has some practice worksheets you can download. hscenglishsuccess.com.au/page_14.html
  • Annie’s English [anniesenglish.com/?page_id=71]
  • Jasmine Critende n [jasminecrittenden.suite101.com/hsc-english-belonging-how-to-write-a-band-six-introduction-a383474]
  • FergHSC [youtube.com/watch?v=h4OqCIH2tq8feature=related] and FergHSC: Belonging [ferghsc.com.au/belonging] have some excellent video tips about essay writing – ignore all the advertising for very expensive ‘lessons’ that goes with them!

    Essay Writing

    Writing an essay may sound difficult but an essay is just a set of paragraphs – and anyone can write a good paragraph [Click here for help]. The trick is to link your paragraphs into a thesis (your teacher might have called this an argument )- so that altogether they tell you an important message about belonging. It is not a good idea to start writing an essay if your don’t have your own opinion about the texts.

    This works best when you plan your essay first. The easiest type of plan is a concept map – each “balloon” (the yellow bits below) is one paragraph in your essay. By making a concept map before you start, you can find out how all your random thoughts fit together.

    • Start with main ideas in your set text and related texts (alienation, loss of place, role of family, romance etc). Not every single thing your teacher said will be relevant to your argument, so only include ideas that fit your thesis. (Eg, if your thesis is about the importance of family, you might leave out the points about friendship break-ups)
    • Look through your class notes and a dd your random points to the correct headings. If you have lots of points about something, start sorting them into smaller points (Eg. “family” could be broken into “alienation from family”, “reconciliation with family” and “home/place”)
    • After you’ve put in the information points, use another colour pen to add quotes/visual elements that support each point. Look for quotes that have an interesting language or techniques that you can talk about in your essay.
    • Now use another colour to identify the language/visual technique used in each quote. Then wirte down something about the effect each technique has on the responder

    Like other text-types, essays always have a beginning, middle and end:

    • Introduction. Answers the question, links your thesis to the question, lists the texts you will be discussing in your essay.
    • Body. Has at least five paragraphs (three on your set text, one on each of your related texts) that develop your thesis. Band six essays are much longer than this – often 6-10 pages of detailed analysis!

    Every paragraph should use keywords from the question in the topic sentence. This links your thesis to the question.

    • Conclusion. that answers the question and summarises the main point of each paragraph.

    If you have trouble with essay writing. don’t sit for hours trying to write the perfect introduction – try writing your body paragraphs first. After you have done this, start writing your introduction: Rewrite the question, state your thesis, then copy and paste all your topic sentences into one paragraph. Rewrite your topic sentences so they say the same thing in different words, and don’t forget to include the title and author of each text you’re going to talk about. Now you have a paragraph that answers the question and summarises the points you will make in your essay. You can use the same technique to write your conclusion.

    Some excellent examples of essays about belonging can be found at HSC Online [ hsc.csu.edu.au/english/esl/belonging/3692/Extended%20response/response_activities.htm] and throughout Shelley MacNamara’s blog [belongingareaofstudy.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2010-01-01T00:00:00-08:00updated-max=2011-01-01T00:00:00-08:00max-results=6] (There aare many examples other years too).

    These websites have more detailed information about essay writing:

    • Tutor Tales has some outlines for past HSC answers [tutortales.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/practice-questions-for-area-of-study-belonging/]
    • Niel Whitfield has an example of how to edit an essay for the ESL course [neilwhitfield.wordpress.com/student-help-guide/belonging-pages-hsc-2009-2012/a-students-%E2%80%9Cbelonging-essay%E2%80%9D-workshopped/ ]
    • English Success has some practice worksheets you can download. hscenglishsuccess.com.au/page_14.html
    • Annie’s English [anniesenglish.com/?page_id=71]
    • Jasmine Critende n [jasminecrittenden.suite101.com/hsc-english-belonging-how-to-write-a-band-six-introduction-a383474]
    • FergHSC [youtube.com/watch?v=h4OqCIH2tq8feature=related] and FergHSC: Belonging [ferghsc.com.au/belonging] have some excellent video tips about essay writing – ignore all the advertising for very expensive ‘lessons’ that goes with them!

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