how to write a common module essay

Common Module Cheat Sheet - All Texts

Download a printable version here., module description.

In this common module students deepen their understanding of how texts represent individual and collective human experiences. They examine how texts represent human qualities and emotions associated with, or arising from, these experiences. Students appreciate, explore, interpret, analyse and evaluate the ways language is used to shape these representations in a range of texts in a variety of forms, modes and media.

Students explore how texts may give insight into the anomalies, paradoxes and inconsistencies in human behaviour and motivations, inviting the responder to see the world differently, to challenge assumptions, ignite new ideas or reflect personally. They may also consider the role of storytelling throughout time to express and reflect particular lives and cultures. By responding to a range of texts they further develop skills and confidence using various literary devices, language concepts, modes and media to formulate a considered response to texts.

Students study one prescribed text and a range of short texts that provide rich opportunities to further explore representations of human experiences illuminated in texts. They make increasingly informed judgements about how aspects of these texts, for example context, purpose, structure, stylistic and grammatical features, and form shape meaning. In addition, students select one related text and draw from personal experience to make connections between themselves, the world of the text and their wider world.

Key Statements

Dimensions of the human experience.

The human experiences represented in your prescribed/unseen texts will always be connected to one of the subcategories of the “wellness wheel”:

Words to include in textual analysis

These make markers happy for some reason.

• Appreciate - when making a judgement about the value of something
• Explore - when discussing the themes of the text
• Interpret - when discussing the audience’s interaction with the text
• Analyse - When discussing your understanding of the text
• Expression - When discussing the author/poet/artist’s connection to the text
• Elicit - When discussing how a technique results in an emotion

Plutchik Wheel of Emotions

Essay length.

For paper 1 unseen texts, a good estimate is 2-3 lines per mark, while the extended response should be ~800 words/6 pages. If you don’t hit those numbers, that’s totally fine, it’s just a good estimate.

RESOURCE: CHIPS Question Breakdown Strategy

Body paragraph structure.

• Statement about the concept
• What type(s) of experience from the wellness wheel is represented, and is it collective or individual?
• What emotions from the Plutkich wheel are present, and how are they used (Example/Technique from PETAL paragraphs)?
• How does the experience of the example present anomaly/paradox/inconsistency in the human experience?
• Personal reflection? Challenging the reader’s assumptions? Persuading you of something?
• Conclude with a mash of steps 1, 2, and 3

Positive and Negative Words

Words to describe the human experience that mean nothing but for some reason get more marks, targets of a text, punchy phrases.

• Aids in this improved understanding of the textual material
• Indicates the universality in the subject matter being contemplated
• Brings reader to consider more deeply the manner in which ___
• An intimacy is generated between the viewer and ___
• Creates a more nuanced understanding
• Attracting to the audience to both ___
• To further impress upon the reader the idea of ___
• Further clarify and cement reader’s understand of the literal content
• Further elucidates the impression that

Free Thesis Statements

• Texts represent how human experiences are dependent on one’s context and their ability to transcend the limitations of context
• Texts about human experience invite the audience to contemplate on their own experiences and reflect on the processes that shape their identity
• Human experiences may be recursive but they are transformative nonetheless
• Texts offer a representations of human experience that challenges our assumptions and thus intensifies our awareness of self and others
• Representation of relationships in texts highlight the way in which human experiences may differ in varied interactions
• Texts offer a representation of the human experience to record the social and emotional development of the individual and the collective
• Our experiences expose our capacity for fortitude and focus, particularly when our individual ideals are challenged by contextual values / societal expectations

Last updated on November 17, 2021

How to achieve a Band 6 in the HSC English exam 

by Gabby | HSC ENGLISH

There are several areas that are necessary to master in order to perform a high score in the NESA HSC English exams. Let’s see them one by one.

Common Module – What are the underlying assumptions about the human experience?

How do the texts in your comprehension section explore the collective and individual experiences which shape human behaviour and the moral and ethical choices available?

Reading Task

Firstly, try to identify the purpose of the text whilst reading: is it designed to satirise, mock, convey or promote a particular idea? (Remember all forms of texts are ultimately persuasive in nature)

When reading the articles, remember to orientate yourselves:

• Look at the title, consider and predict what the article might be about – by guessing you are already thinking and engaging and this will facilitate your comprehension.
• Look at the beginning and end of the text; this is where you can often discover the purpose.
• As you read be on the look-out for techniques, which you can deconstruct.
• Do not answer a question which asks how the idea is expressed by simply saying “using descriptive or emotive language”. You need to explain what literary or poetic devices are used e.g. simile, metaphor, hyperbole etc.

Answering all these questions requires you to understand the conditions and contexts which contribute to  the human experience  and how effectively they are communicated! To answer ‘effectively’ requires you to cite the techniques e.g. – the use of register, tone, word choice and symbolism.

Section II of the Common Module paper requires you to write an essay. As the Common Module texts have been in place for quite a number of years, examiners are no doubt tired of predictive responses or, worse still, pre-learned essays.  These can come across as a little tired and lacking an edge in original thought and depth. Don’t see the question as an impediment to your rote-learned response, rather look at what the question is asking. The depth of response can be formulated by considering the assumptions that underscore the very nature of the question itself:

• Why has the examiner chosen this question?
• Is this really what the writer was trying to communicate?

Modules A and B

Both HSC Advanced English modules require your understanding of how the composer’s context and his or her audience informs on our understanding of the text. This must be established in your essay.

For example, Hamlet may well be a Prince torn between the Renaissance values of his world and his belief in the church, and of course Shakespeare’s audience would have understood this; but what about us as a contemporary audience? What ideas in the text find resonance in our world today?

Be sure to consider not only how the contexts of each composer have given rise to the ideas of the core texts but also why they are studied side by side. How might the concerns of previous historical and cultural contexts find relevance still today? For example:

• Are any of Virginia Woolf’s concerns echoed in ‘The Hours’ (despite in the shifting contexts)? If so, why?
• Are any of Shakespeare’s concerns echoed in ‘Looking for Richard’ (despite in the shifting contexts)? If so, why?

Consider the integrity of the text. This refers to the components, which have allowed the text to stand the test of time. Ideas, language features and other poetic, dramatic or literary devices are part of what allows the text to retain its integrity. The context of the composer and his or her audience informs on our understanding of the text.

• Module C: The Craft of Writing

In this section of the exam, you’ll be asked to write on a creative discursive or persuasive piece of writing. Please refer to my blog entitled ‘ Module C: The Craft of Writing How to write a creative writing piece ’ .

One of the harder aspects for many students is to reflect on the textual inspiration they have received from their set text. You may wish to consider how your set text expresses some of these features:

• Register and tone
• Intertextual referencing
• Symbolism and figurative language
• Stream of consciousness

These features are some that you may wish to adopt in your own creative presentation.

Preparing for the HSC English Exams

Learn the ways you can express features of language and know how to identify them e.g. personification, sibilance, metaphor, simile etc.

Write several essays for the Common Module (human experience), Module A and Module B; consider writing on those topics that might otherwise confuse you.

Many students write notes and study quotes – but you still need to know how to formulate an essay. Look at as many questions as you can and, rather than simply making notes, write the essays.

Try and tackle difficult questions so as not to fall into the trap of writing generic essays, as you believe they can be better manipulated to the suit the question. The real exercise is whether you can apply your knowledge to any question, and if you don’t practice you won’t know.

Answering questions on any essay topic

Consider the following:

• How accurately does the question reflect the ideas at the core of the text?
• Is the question provocative in nature or does it simply require corroboration or a rejection of the thesis set down? For example: sometimes questions require your weighing up of the author’s intention, his or her ideas and the way they’re expressed.
• Questions that ask you to discuss are generally straightforward and, whilst requiring you to discuss the topic at hand, may still require that you negate the thesis postulated.
• Many questions ask your opinion. This is no different to any other question as your thesis is exactly what you think – do not answer the question with ‘I think’ as what you think is already assumed. The question is asked as many students rely too heavily on critical theorists without having determined their own opinion.
• The most important consideration in any essay (and the feature that separates an average response from a more advanced one) is  why . Why has the composer explored the ideas at hand? Too many students focus on what the ideas are and how they are represented. Including why should yield a relationship between the writer’s world of imagination and their context.

The Essay structure for all modules

Your introduction should be concise but have a clear thesis (an argument) which sets out your response to the question and hopefully includes what, why and how the author/film director has imparted his or her ideas.

“What” would probably reflect the ideas at the core of the text. “Why” should most likely include the composer’s context, and “how” should refer to the features of language or cinematic techniques used. Each paragraph should aim to answer the question preferably in the opening of the paragraph as this is the initial impression formed by markers.

The topic sentence (opening sentence) should incorporate the theme or idea of your paragraph whilst at the same time answering the question at hand. The more often you link back to your thesis and to the question, the more comprehensive and succinct your essay will appear.

Pitfalls in exams

• Do not story-tell – provide evidence! Too many students use the plot as a way to advance their arguments. We know the plot; you need to provide the purpose and evidence. Commence your sentence starters with verb of purpose.  The writer: conveys, portrays, dismantles, questions or satirises. In this way, you will be forced to advance an opinion rather than a rehashing of the plot.
• Many students forget to watch the time. You cannot afford to go over the set time. Forty minutes per question.
• Underline the key parts of the question.
• Sometimes a word may throw you off in an exam. Remember: you know more than you think from the context. You know if it’s a noun, verb or an adjective. All these skills should help you discern the meaning of the word.
• Always consider the beginning and end of your text and the way it informs on the text as a whole.

More stumbling blocks

Terms that often confuse students.

• “Dramatic features” refers to soliloquies, dramatic irony, characterisation, plot, language and symbolism.
• “Narrative style” refers to the way the text is composed.
• “Consider the narrative style ” refers to how it reflects the ideas and often the context underscoring the text, e.g. Virginia Woolf’s text – witty, exploratory, and satiric. Her narrative style often shifts to a stream of consciousness, which challenges the conventional writing styles of her time.

Using critical theorists and material

All knowledge is useful but you must first determine your own understanding – always providing support from the text. Once you have determined your own opinion you may use critical theorists to either affirm your view or as a springboard to offer an alternate perspective. It is refreshing for examiners to read ideas which may be different – as long as they can be substantiated.

Textual referencing 

This is essential to any essay and the quotes chosen must enable you to not only cite an example, but convey the way meaning is shaped! Remember that in deconstructing meaning, you must not write about the linguistic or cinematic techniques as if they were in a vacuum – but instead as part of your ability to add to your understanding and the power of the text. Consider the following:

• Don’t just cite the technique as a metaphor or simile when deconstructing your evidence or if writing about a film, or writing about a long shot on screen; explain why and how it contributes to meaning.
• Consider why a particular aspect of your text moves you; the chances are, it is the way it is expressed.
• Draw from the whole text – don’t restrict your answers to the beginning or end of a text.

All Modules require an understanding of the correlation between representation and meaning. 

Put simply: how is the text represented (the techniques or images used) and what kind of meaning is imparted?

Students must understand that the English Syllabus has been influenced by postmodern understanding in its inception and so the relationship between representation and meaning has to be examined.

Representation refers to the way a writer or speaker represents a personality, event, or idea. This representation is clearly tied up with:

• The nuanced nature of language itself and the slippery nature of symbolism (slippery as symbolism may impart a myriad of interpretations).
• Our own cultural interpretation and the ‘signification’ we bring to language.
• The textual medium itself – (film, novel or autobiography) and its power of persuasion.

Meaning is difficult to establish, as it is largely dependent on how we interpret the representation of an event, personality, or concept (namely, our perspective).

Meaning will be influenced by:

• The credibility and authority of the perspective advanced
•  The bias and prejudice the composer brings to his or her representation
•  The bias and prejudice we bring to the perspective on offer
•  The cultural and normative values that not only consciously and unconsciously influence the speaker or composer but our own cultural points of reference.

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

I completed 4 units of English, so take it from me, I've written lots of essays!

Marko Beocanin

99.95 ATAR & 3 x State Ranker

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 consistent idea of what an ‘ essay’ actually is (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 8th 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.

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:

An essay is a structured piece of writing that argues a point in a clear, sophisticated way *, and expresses* personality and flair.

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.

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:

What is the question actually asking me?

What is my response to the question?

Am I actually making an argument in my response, and not just repeating the question?

What is my cause?

What is my effect?

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 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.

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:

_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:

What is this quote about?

How does this quote prove my argument?

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.”

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”.

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!

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!

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.

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: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!

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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Ultimate Guide for How to Answer Common Module Unseen Questions

In this post, we give you the ultimate breakdown for acing the Common Module unseen questions for Texts and Human Experiences.

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Do you struggle with unseen texts?

Do you always run out of time in for comprehension questions?

Do you know what your responses are meant to look like?

In this post, we will show you how to prepare for and ace the HSC Common Module Paper 1 Short Response Questions.

What skills do I need to ace the Paper 1 unseen questions?

Section 1 of Paper 1 tests a few different things:

• Comprehension skills
• Textual analysis skills
• Knowledge of the Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences
• Ability to write clear and concise responses

Want to put your skills to the test?

You can download the paper with unseen texts and then we’ll send you sample responses along with marking criteria 24 hours later.

Comprehension Skills

You need to be able to quickly read questions and unseen texts to construct responses

You need to be able to quickly analyse unseen texts. It is not enough to be able to spot superficial techniques in a text. Matrix students learn how to analyse unseen texts for higher order techniques and understand how these are developing the themes and ideas in the texts.

To succeed in Paper 1, you need to be able to do a quick analysis and then connect this analysis to the concerns and ideas that you have studied in the Common Module.

If you need help getting on top of your textual analysis skills, you should read our Beginner’s Guide to Acing HSC English Part 1: How to Analyse Your English Texts for Evidence .

Knowledge of the Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences rubric

If you want to write insightful responses to the Paper 1 unseen questions, then you need to have a detailed knowledge and understanding of the Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences rubric.

If you are unsure of what the Module is about or want to get a detailed understanding of it, then you must read our Year 12 English Advanced Study Guide article .

Students are often unsure of what they need to do when writing a response to unseen sections. How much do you need to write? How little?

When answering short answer questions, clarity and concision are key.

In fact, more important than the length is the quality and concision of the writing. Matrix students learn how to produce erudite and insightful responses that clearly relate their ideas and answers to the questions with supporting evidence.

What’s the structure of the Common Module HSC Paper 1?

Let’s look at the structure of Paper 1:

English Advanced Paper 1 has two sections:

• short response questions
• long response or essay section

The short response questions will involve 3-4 unseen texts and a series of 4 or 5 questions. This section will be worth 20 marks.

You will have 10 minutes reading time and 45 minutes writing time to complete each section.

How long are the texts that I have to read for the unseen section?

That will depend.

In previous HSC Paper 1 exams, the length of the unseen texts has varied significantly. In some years, students have had no trouble reading all of the unseen texts, but in others, such as the 2018 HSC, students have struggled to complete the reading in the allocated time.

In the sample 2019 Paper 1 provided by NESA , for example, there are a pair of posters, a 30 line poem, a 536-word non-fiction piece, a 983-word non-fiction piece, and a longer extract from a fiction text.

The length of the unseen texts is a significant challenge that you must account for in your preparation and exam strategy. We’ll discuss the strategies Matrix students use later in this post.

These questions will total 20 marks, one question will require a miniature essay for a response. Students will need to allocate a little over 2 minutes per mark when responding to questions.

How do I study for the Common Module Paper 1 Exam?

As we discussed above, the skills you need are:

But how do you develop and hone these skills?

Practise and feedback!

English is not an innate skill.

Successful English skills are developed through a consistent reading, an ongoing study practice, and regular writing and feedback cycle.

If you want to be able to approach your next unseen paper with a swagger, you need to practice unseen sections before-hand and get feedback on your responses.

So, how do I practise analysing unseen texts?

You need to find short texts online and practice reading them and analysing against a timer.

A good process for doing this is to find texts that are similar in media, form, and length to previous HSC unseen texts and try to identify the main ideas and themes and a set number of examples within a few minutes.

This is actually quite a challenging task, especially the first few times that you try it.

To develop these skills try the following:

• Pick a text of the appropriate length and type
• Give yourself 10 minutes on a timer
• Set yourself a target of, say, 2 themes/ideas and 5 techniques to identify
• Analyse the text to the timer and underline notate the examples you find
• Check your answers
• Try it again on a similar timer, but with only 7.5 minutes on a timer
• Keep practising until you can comfortably analyse a text in 2-3 minutes.

How should I practise my short answer responses?

The skills you need to write a good short answer response are developed through practice and feedback.

Your peers who consistently get full marks for their unseen sections do so because they practise writing responses and get feedback on how to improve them and make them more concise and efficient. All conscientious English Advanced students should be scoring Band 6 for their unseen responses, if not full marks.

To practise your unseen responses, do the following:

• Get your hands on a practice paper. You can find past Area of Study: Discovery papers here on the NESA website or, even better, try your skills on our Matrix English Advanced Common Module Practice Paper 1 .
• Set yourself a timer for 65 minutes. Allow 15 minutes reading time and 50 minutes writing time.
• Attempt the paper.
• Mark your responses against the marking rubrics and exemplar responses provided or get feedback from your teacher or peers
• Find another practice paper and attempt that, working to a shorter time limit.

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Structuring a short response answer

One of the most common questions that students have about short responses is how long their responses should be.

The length of your responses will vary depending on how many marks the question is worth and how much time you can allocate to it.

For example, a three mark question is only worth 7 minutes of your time. So, you’re only going to be able to produce about 100-200 words at most (people tend to average about 13-31 words per minute by hand) in that amount of time depending on your handwriting. You need to keep your writing legible, too. It’s no point bashing out an amazing 210-word response if nobody can read it. Your marks would be better off with something much shorter and more legible.

You want to aim for one example and explanation per mark on offer. For example, if you have a two mark question, provide two examples and analysis of those examples.

The extended short response question

The final question for the short response questions is usually worth between 6 and 7 marks and requires a miniature essay in response. The question can ask you to discuss one text or several.  It is important that you structure your response accordingly.

This means you need a brief introduction , a body paragraph or two, and a brief conclusion .

Your introduction needs to briefly introduce your chosen text(s) and their relevance to the question. Try to include terms or phrases from the Common Module rubric in your thesis, as this will directly address the module concerns. You should keep your introduction under two sentences.

Your body needs to expand on these ideas. It is important that you use topic sentences to introduce your ideas.

If you must discuss two texts, you need to choose between writing a divided (a paragraph on each text) or integrated response (discussing both texts in one paragraph). Whichever structure you choose, you need to present two or three examples from each text and discuss them in detail.

If the question asks you to contrast or compare the texts, you must discuss the texts in relation to each other.

This will usually entail discussing how one text represents an aspect of human experience or emotion more effectively than another. Ensure that you relate your examples to the question, don’t just list technique, example, and effect.

Finally, your conclusion must summarise the argument, relating it back to the question and Common Module. Make sure that you restate your thesis. Aim for at least one sentence, if not two.

Answering a short response question

To get a sense of what you should include in a short response answer, let’s consider one of the NESA sample questions from their mock 2019 paper .

Example B (6 marks) English Standard and English Advanced Compare how Text 2 and Text 3 explore the paradoxes in the human experience.

Text 2 can be found here  and Text 3 is in the NESA sample paper.

Analysing the texts

Before you can write your response, you need to analyse the texts. It is important to use the question to guide the focus of your analysis.

This question asks students to discuss the paradoxes in the human experience. This is a statement from the rubric. A paradox is a statement that seemingly contradicts itself. So our analysis of these texts needs to focus in on things that seem contradictory or logically unacceptable.

Analysing Text 2

Text 2, Vern Rustala’s “Looking in the Album,” is an ekphrastic poem. Ekphrasis is the representation of an image in prose or poetry. In this poem, the speaker describes several photographs and little aspects of each.

The poem explores how photographs can only capture a limited aspect of human experience, even though they trigger memories. The poem also discusses how photographs don’t capture all of the moments and are often carefully curated.

There are a couple of paradoxes present, here:

• Photographs capture moments of our lives and trigger authentic memories but are staged and falsified records
• Photographs don’t carry the records of our negative experiences of our lives. We often curate those out to give a “true account” of our lives.

Next, you need to find some examples that bear these paradoxes out. Because this is a 6 mark question and we have to compare two texts, we will look for two examples. One for each paradox. We will use the text’s form as our other example.

Analysing Text 3

In Text 3, Hillary McPhee explores the trouble she has in reconciling her profession as a historian with her love of her family’s stories and her grandmother’s ability to tell them.

This is an autobiographical text. It is a memoir that discusses her experience of mixing her personal and professional lives and the consequences of this.

This text discusses the conflict between wanting to know the truth about something and enjoying the romance of how it has been told.

There are a couple of paradoxes in this text as well:

• We can either know the truth about something or appreciate the romantic or mythic nature of it
• We can’t reconcile factual truths with family storytellers

Next, let’s look at some evidence. This time we’ll look at three examples, because this text’s paradoxes need a little more framing. McPhee opens with an extended metaphor that introduces the ideas:

Now we’ve got some evidence, we’re in a position to write a response.

Writing the response

Let’s look at the question again:

Example B (6 marks) English Standard and English Advanced “Compare how Text 2 and Text 3 explore the paradoxes in the human experience.”

So, this is a 6 mark question and requires us to compare the texts. This means that we need to use a miniature essay structure.

We then need to decide whether to use an integrated or divided response:

• An integrated response will allow us to be more efficient in our comparison.
• A divided response will be a little more straightforward for presenting our analysis but will require us to spend the second paragraph doing the comparison.

Your marks won’t be affected by your decision, only by the quality of your execution.

Our response will take the following structure:

Introduction : Two or three sentences outlining our response to the question and introducing the texts.

Body : An integrated response that analyses the texts and compares their representations of paradox in human experience across two paragraphs.

Conclusion : Two sentences that summarise your argument and connect it to the Module.

Okay, so what would this look like? Let’s look at the type of exemplary response a Matrix student would write.

Exemplar response

Both Hillary McPhee and Vern Rustala explore the paradoxes we find in our human experiences. Rustala’s poem, “Looking in the Album,” delves into the idiosyncrasies and paradoxes of how we curate and remember our lives. While McPhee’s biographical excerpt catalogues the paradoxes and ironies she wrestled with while trying to balance her professional self with her personal self.

Memory and the process of remembering are rich with emotional complexity and, yet, fraught with paradox. Rustala employs a free-verse poem with heavy enjambment to reflect the conflicts and paradoxes of how we catalogue and record our lives. The persona’s observation that “Here the formal times are surrendered / to the camera’s indifferent gaze” combines enjambment and personification to convey the paradox of how we remember our lives. While humans keep photographs to remember important occasions and feel nostalgia for them as it is an important part of our emotional experience, the speaker observes that we relinquish control over them to an external force – one that is insouciant about our experience or feelings. In contrast, McPhee’s biography focuses on her own experiences and evokes nostalgia in her extended metaphor that “her stories [came] like webs across the world… and her stories invaded our dreams.” As Rustala’s images are a contrived remembrance of the past, so are McPhee’s grandmother’s. Only, in contrast, McPhee ascribes these partially fictionalised accounts a positive value.

“Looking in the Album’s” speaker is troubled by how photographs alter our past and, potentially, our memories when they observe that “[w]e burned the negatives that we felt did not give a true / account and with others made this abridgement of our lives.” The pun on “negatives” conflates photographic images with the poor experiences, developing the metaphor that by destroying negatives we are trying to cleanse ourselves of negative experiences. We can find a paradox at the heart of the ironic notion of manipulating things we feel do not “give a true account” of our lives. Essentially, Rustala is suggesting that we wish to have a true record, but adulterate it to suit our feelings. McPhee struggles with a similar yet different reconciliation between the true and romanticised accounts of her Grandmother’s life. In each paragraph McPhee explores the historical facts and contrasts them to her Grandmother’s accounts, instilling doubt into the veracity of her accounts with the truncated statements “[o]r so she said.” and “[o]r so the story goes …” These caveats frame the paradox she faces: she can’t be a nostalgic granddaughter and a historian at the same time. Pursuing truth comes at the expense of nostalgia. She makes this clear when she ironically observes that “[t]he historian at the back of my brain says I should discover what is true and what is false” while “[t]he rest of me… still sees… the shapes and shadows of other places she made my own.” The contrast between these two sides of her life highlights the emotional paradoxes that can affect our lives as we try to balance professional success with emotional fulfilment and happiness, nostalgia and fact.

Human experience is emotionally complex as we try to hold onto our past while struggling with the acceptable shape it must take. The differences between McPhee’s and Ruslata’s texts highlight this struggle – pointing to how sometimes our emotional security requires us to see things as they actually happened while at others we must shroud events in myth.

Sitting the Exam

Now let’s look at some Dos and Don’ts for the unseen section of Paper 1.

Time Management

Planning your time for Paper 1 is essential. You have 1 hour 40 minutes to complete the section. That breaks down to 45 minutes per section and 10 minutes reading time.

Do read the questions first.

Then read them again. To be efficient and accurate you need to read the unseen texts with the questions in mind.

Don’t just read the texts, analyse them.

As you read look for evidence that will help you answer the questions. The questions usually ask you to address specific ideas in each text. This is done to guide you to the examples you need to collect.

Do use your maths skills to calculate how much time to allocate to answering each question.

Each mark is worth 2.25 minutes of your time. This means that for a 2 mark question you don’t want to spend more than 5 minutes answering it. By this rationale, you want to be spending about 15-16 minutes on a miniature essay worth seven marks. If you don’t finish the question in the allotted time, cut your losses and start the next one.

Don’t answer the questions in order.

Make sure you analyse the texts based on the question, so you gather evidence for all of them. But don’t begin on the lower mark questions. Get the questions worth more in the bag, first.

Do respond to the question worth the most marks, first.

Be strategic and guarantee yourself the most marks that you can. Starting with the 6 or 7 mark question guarantees you a share of those marks. If you do run out of time before finishing one or two questions from the section, it is better that those questions are only worth one or two marks rather than a third of the paper!

Analysing the Texts

Analysing texts on the fly is hard. You will need to practice this skill and ensure you are familiar with a wide range of literary and visual devices. If you need to brush up on them, we explain a comprehensive set of devices and techniques in our Essential Guide to English Techniques .

Don’t rush the reading of the unseen texts during the reading time.

Reading the questions will guide you as to how the text should be read and analysed. The questions will ask you to discuss how a composer represents a specific idea from the syllabus rubric. You want to identify that idea in the text, and note how they represent it.

Do try to identify multiple examples in each text. 

Collecting as much evidence as possible on your first reading will make that easier.  That way you have enough evidence to respond to several questions. You don’t have time to go back and do another reading.

Don’t get caught up in superficial analysis.

Techniques like alliteration and rhyme might have pleasing aesthetic qualities, but they are not as useful for representing concepts as metaphors or similes.

Do focus on higher order techniques.

Literary devices such as metaphor, motif, and irony over simple techniques such as alliteration. Your ability to spot higher order techniques will make analysing the texts far easier. Remember, you should practice on random short stories and poems you find on the internet.

Don’t ignore form and medium.

Your unseen texts will all have different forms. It is important that you take the time to think about how the composers’ choice of form influences meaning. Ask yourself, “what is the composer trying to achieve by utilising this form or medium?” You want to discuss this in your responses.

Answering the Questions

Do answer the questions clearly and concisely.

Ensure that you are answering the question asked. Before writing a response, reread the question to ensure that it will be a direct answer.

Don’t recount the text.

This will generally not constitute an answer to the question. Instead, respond as succinctly as possible to the question.

Do plan your responses according to their value.

As a rule, if the question is worth one mark, use at least one example and an explanation of its technique and effect. If the question is worth two marks, use at least two examples.

Don’t prioritise quantity over detail.

Remember, the markers are looking for detailed explanations of how an example represents an idea, not how many examples you can present. You need to respond to the ideas in the module. To do this effectively try to use terms and phrases from the Common Module rubric.

Written by Matrix English Team

© Matrix Education and www.matrix.edu.au, 2023. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Matrix Education and www.matrix.edu.au with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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• Example of a great essay | Explanations, tips & tricks

Example of a Great Essay | Explanations, Tips & Tricks

Published on February 9, 2015 by Shane Bryson . Revised on July 23, 2023 by Shona McCombes.

This example guides you through the structure of an essay. It shows how to build an effective introduction , focused paragraphs , clear transitions between ideas, and a strong conclusion .

Each paragraph addresses a single central point, introduced by a topic sentence , and each point is directly related to the thesis statement .

As you read, hover over the highlighted parts to learn what they do and why they work.

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Other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about writing an essay, an appeal to the senses: the development of the braille system in nineteenth-century france.

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

Lack of access to reading and writing put blind people at a serious disadvantage in nineteenth-century society. Text was one of the primary methods through which people engaged with culture, communicated with others, and accessed information; without a well-developed reading system that did not rely on sight, blind people were excluded from social participation (Weygand, 2009). While disabled people in general suffered from discrimination, blindness was widely viewed as the worst disability, and it was commonly believed that blind people were incapable of pursuing a profession or improving themselves through culture (Weygand, 2009). This demonstrates the importance of reading and writing to social status at the time: without access to text, it was considered impossible to fully participate in society. Blind people were excluded from the sighted world, but also entirely dependent on sighted people for information and education.

In France, debates about how to deal with disability led to the adoption of different strategies over time. While people with temporary difficulties were able to access public welfare, the most common response to people with long-term disabilities, such as hearing or vision loss, was to group them together in institutions (Tombs, 1996). At first, a joint institute for the blind and deaf was created, and although the partnership was motivated more by financial considerations than by the well-being of the residents, the institute aimed to help people develop skills valuable to society (Weygand, 2009). Eventually blind institutions were separated from deaf institutions, and the focus shifted towards education of the blind, as was the case for the Royal Institute for Blind Youth, which Louis Braille attended (Jimenez et al, 2009). The growing acknowledgement of the uniqueness of different disabilities led to more targeted education strategies, fostering an environment in which the benefits of a specifically blind education could be more widely recognized.

Several different systems of tactile reading can be seen as forerunners to the method Louis Braille developed, but these systems were all developed based on the sighted system. The Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris taught the students to read embossed roman letters, a method created by the school’s founder, Valentin Hauy (Jimenez et al., 2009). Reading this way proved to be a rather arduous task, as the letters were difficult to distinguish by touch. The embossed letter method was based on the reading system of sighted people, with minimal adaptation for those with vision loss. As a result, this method did not gain significant success among blind students.

Louis Braille was bound to be influenced by his school’s founder, but the most influential pre-Braille tactile reading system was Charles Barbier’s night writing. A soldier in Napoleon’s army, Barbier developed a system in 1819 that used 12 dots with a five line musical staff (Kersten, 1997). His intention was to develop a system that would allow the military to communicate at night without the need for light (Herron, 2009). The code developed by Barbier was phonetic (Jimenez et al., 2009); in other words, the code was designed for sighted people and was based on the sounds of words, not on an actual alphabet. Barbier discovered that variants of raised dots within a square were the easiest method of reading by touch (Jimenez et al., 2009). This system proved effective for the transmission of short messages between military personnel, but the symbols were too large for the fingertip, greatly reducing the speed at which a message could be read (Herron, 2009). For this reason, it was unsuitable for daily use and was not widely adopted in the blind community.

Nevertheless, Barbier’s military dot system was more efficient than Hauy’s embossed letters, and it provided the framework within which Louis Braille developed his method. Barbier’s system, with its dashes and dots, could form over 4000 combinations (Jimenez et al., 2009). Compared to the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, this was an absurdly high number. Braille kept the raised dot form, but developed a more manageable system that would reflect the sighted alphabet. He replaced Barbier’s dashes and dots with just six dots in a rectangular configuration (Jimenez et al., 2009). The result was that the blind population in France had a tactile reading system using dots (like Barbier’s) that was based on the structure of the sighted alphabet (like Hauy’s); crucially, this system was the first developed specifically for the purposes of the blind.

While the Braille system gained immediate popularity with the blind students at the Institute in Paris, it had to gain acceptance among the sighted before its adoption throughout France. This support was necessary because sighted teachers and leaders had ultimate control over the propagation of Braille resources. Many of the teachers at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth resisted learning Braille’s system because they found the tactile method of reading difficult to learn (Bullock & Galst, 2009). This resistance was symptomatic of the prevalent attitude that the blind population had to adapt to the sighted world rather than develop their own tools and methods. Over time, however, with the increasing impetus to make social contribution possible for all, teachers began to appreciate the usefulness of Braille’s system (Bullock & Galst, 2009), realizing that access to reading could help improve the productivity and integration of people with vision loss. It took approximately 30 years, but the French government eventually approved the Braille system, and it was established throughout the country (Bullock & Galst, 2009).

Although Blind people remained marginalized throughout the nineteenth century, the Braille system granted them growing opportunities for social participation. Most obviously, Braille allowed people with vision loss to read the same alphabet used by sighted people (Bullock & Galst, 2009), allowing them to participate in certain cultural experiences previously unavailable to them. Written works, such as books and poetry, had previously been inaccessible to the blind population without the aid of a reader, limiting their autonomy. As books began to be distributed in Braille, this barrier was reduced, enabling people with vision loss to access information autonomously. The closing of the gap between the abilities of blind and the sighted contributed to a gradual shift in blind people’s status, lessening the cultural perception of the blind as essentially different and facilitating greater social integration.

The Braille system also had important cultural effects beyond the sphere of written culture. Its invention later led to the development of a music notation system for the blind, although Louis Braille did not develop this system himself (Jimenez, et al., 2009). This development helped remove a cultural obstacle that had been introduced by the popularization of written musical notation in the early 1500s. While music had previously been an arena in which the blind could participate on equal footing, the transition from memory-based performance to notation-based performance meant that blind musicians were no longer able to compete with sighted musicians (Kersten, 1997). As a result, a tactile musical notation system became necessary for professional equality between blind and sighted musicians (Kersten, 1997).

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

Bullock, J. D., & Galst, J. M. (2009). The Story of Louis Braille. Archives of Ophthalmology , 127(11), 1532. https://​doi.org/10.1001/​archophthalmol.2009.286.

Herron, M. (2009, May 6). Blind visionary. Retrieved from https://​eandt.theiet.org/​content/​articles/2009/05/​blind-visionary/.

Jiménez, J., Olea, J., Torres, J., Alonso, I., Harder, D., & Fischer, K. (2009). Biography of Louis Braille and Invention of the Braille Alphabet. Survey of Ophthalmology , 54(1), 142–149. https://​doi.org/10.1016/​j.survophthal.2008.10.006.

Kersten, F.G. (1997). The history and development of Braille music methodology. The Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education , 18(2). Retrieved from https://​www.jstor.org/​stable/40214926.

Mellor, C.M. (2006). Louis Braille: A touch of genius . Boston: National Braille Press.

Tombs, R. (1996). France: 1814-1914 . London: Pearson Education Ltd.

Weygand, Z. (2009). The blind in French society from the Middle Ages to the century of Louis Braille . Stanford: Stanford University Press.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy

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An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates.

In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills.

Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative : you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence, analysis and interpretation.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

• An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
• Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
• A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

A topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph . Everything else in the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Bryson, S. (2023, July 23). Example of a Great Essay | Explanations, Tips & Tricks. Scribbr. Retrieved April 15, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/example-essay-structure/

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Shane finished his master's degree in English literature in 2013 and has been working as a writing tutor and editor since 2009. He began proofreading and editing essays with Scribbr in early summer, 2014.

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4.13: Writing a Personal Essay

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Learning Objectives

• Describe techniques for writing an effective personal essay

How to Write a Personal Essay

One particular and common kind of narrative essay is the personal narrative essay. Many of you have already written at least one of these – in order to get to college. The personal essay is a narrative essay focused on you. Typically, you write about events or people in your life that taught you important life lessons. These events should have changed you somehow. From this choice will emerge the theme (the main point) of your story. Then you can follow these steps:

• Once you identify the event, you will write down what happened. Just brainstorm (also called freewriting). Focus on the actual event. You do not need to provide a complete build-up to it. For example, if you are telling a story about an experience at camp, you do not need to provide readers with a history of my camp experiences, nor do you need to explain how you got there, what we ate each day, how long it lasted, etc. Readers need enough information to understand the event. So, you do not need to provide information about my entire summer if the event only lasts a couple of days.
• Use descriptions/vivid details.
• “Nothing moved but a pair of squirrels chasing each other back and forth on the telephone wires. I followed one in my sight. Finally, it stopped for a moment and I fired.”
• The verbs are all in active voice creating a sense of immediacy: moved, followed, stopped, fired.
• Passive voice uses the verb “to be” along with an action verb: had been aiming, was exhausted.
• Develop your characters. Even though the “characters” in your story are real people, your readers won’t get to know them unless you describe them, present their personalities, and give them physical presence.
• Use dialogue. Dialogue helps readers get to know the characters in your story, infuses the story with life, and offers a variation from description and explanation. When writing dialogue, you may not remember exactly what was said in the past, so be true to the person being represented and come as close to the actual language the person uses as possible. Dialogue is indented with each person speaking as its own paragraph. The paragraph ends when that person is done speaking and any following explanation or continuing action ends. (If your characters speak a language other than English, feel free to include that in your narrative, but provide a translation for your English-speaking readers.)
• Be consistent in your point of view. Remember, if it is a personal narrative, you are telling the story, so it should be in first person. Students often worry about whether or not they are allowed to use “I.” It is impossible to write a personal essay without using “I”!
• Write the story in a consistent verb tense (almost always past tense). It doesn’t work to try to write it in the present tense since it already happened. Make sure you stay in the past tense.

Sample Personal Statement

One type of narrative essay you may have reason to write is a Personal Statement.

Many colleges and universities ask for a Personal Statement Essay for students who are applying for admission, to transfer, or for scholarships.

Generally, a Personal Statement asks you to respond to a specific prompt, most often asking you to describe a significant life event, a personality trait, or a goal or principle that motivates or inspires you. Personal Statements are essentially narrative essays with a particular focus on the writer’s personal life.

The following essay was responding to the prompt: “Write about an experience that made you aware of a skill or strength you possess.” As you read, pay attention to the way the writer gets your attention with a strong opening, how he uses vivid details and a chronological narrative to tell his story, and how he links back to the prompt in the conclusion.

Sample Student Essay

Alen Abramyan Professor X English 1101-209 2/5/2013

In the Middle of Nowhere Fighting Adversity

A three-punch combination had me seeing stars. Blood started to rush down my nose. The Russian trainers quietly whispered to one another. I knew right away that my nose was broken. Was this the end of my journey; or was I about to face adversity?

Ever since I was seven years old, I trained myself in, “The Art of Boxing.” While most of the kids were out playing fun games and hanging out with their friends, I was in a damp, sweat-filled gym. My path was set to be a difficult one. Blood, sweat, and, tears were going to be an everyday occurrence.

At a very young age I learned the meaning of hard work and dedication. Most kids jumped from one activity to the next. Some quit because it was too hard; others quit because they were too bored. My father pointed this out to me on many occasions. Adults would ask my father, ” why do you let your son box? It’s such a dangerous sport, he could get hurt. My father always replied, “Everyone is going to get hurt in their lives, physically, mentally and emotionally. I’m making sure he’s ready for the challenges he’s going to face as a man. I always felt strong after hearing my father speak that way about me. I was a boy being shaped into a man, what a great feeling it was.

Year after year, I participated in boxing tournaments across the U.S. As the years went by, the work ethic and strength of character my father and coaches instilled in me, were starting to take shape. I began applying the hard work and dedication I learned in boxing, to my everyday life. I realized that when times were tough and challenges presented themselves, I wouldn’t back down, I would become stronger. This confidence I had in myself, gave me the strength to pursue my boxing career in Russia.

I traveled to Russia to compete in Amateur Boxing. Tournament after tournament I came closer to my goal of making the Russian Olympic Boxing team. After successfully winning the Kaliningrad regional tournament, I began training for the Northwest Championships. This would include boxers from St. Petersburg, Pskov, Kursk and many other powerful boxing cities.

We had to prepare for a tough tournament, and that’s what we did. While sparring one week before the tournament, I was caught by a strong punch combination to the nose. I knew right away it was serious. Blood began rushing down my face, as I noticed the coaches whispering to each other. They walked into my corner and examined my nose,” yeah, it’s broken,” Yuri Ivonovich yelled out. I was asked to clean up and to meet them in their office. I walked into the Boxing Federation office after a quick shower. I knew right away, they wanted to replace me for the upcoming tournament. “We’re investing a lot of money on you boxers and we expect good results. Why should we risk taking you with a broken nose?” Yuri Ivonovich asked me. I replied, “I traveled half-way around the world to be here, this injury isn’t a problem for me.” And by the look on my face they were convinced, they handed me my train ticket and wished me luck.

The train came to a screeching halt, shaking all the passengers awake. I glanced out my window, “Welcome to Cherepovets,” the sign read. In the background I saw a horrific skyline of smokestacks, coughing out thick black smoke. Arriving in the city, we went straight to the weigh ins. Hundreds of boxers, all from many cities were there. The brackets were set up shortly after the weigh ins. In the Super Heavyweight division, I found out I had 4 fights to compete in, each increasing in difficulty. My first match, I made sure not a punch would land; this was true for the next two fights. Winning all three 6-0, 8-0 and 7-0 respectively. It looked like I was close to winning the whole tournament. For the finals I was to fight the National Olympic Hope Champion.

The night before the finals was coincidentally the 200th anniversary of the city. All night by my hotel, I heard screams of laughter and partying. I couldn’t sleep a wink. The morning of the fight I was exhausted but anxious. I stepped into the ring knowing that I was tired. I fell behind in points quickly in the first round. I felt as if I were dreaming, with no control of the situation. I was going along for the ride and it wasn’t pleasant. At the end of the second round, the coach informed me that I was far behind. “?You’re asleep in there,” he yelled out to me, confirming how I felt. I knew this was my last chance; I had to give it my all. I mustered up enough strength to have an amazing round. It was as if I stepped out and a fresh boxer stepped in. I glanced at my coaches and see a look of approval. No matter the outcome, I felt that I had defeated adversity. My opponent’s hand was raised , he won a close decision, 6-5. After I got back to my hotel, I remembered Yuri Ivonovich telling me they expected good results. “How were my results,” I asked myself. In my mind, the results were great, with a broken nose and with no sleep, I came one point shy of defeating the National Olympic Hope Champion.

Even from a very young age, I knew that when my back was against the wall and adversity was knocking on my door, I would never back down. I became a stronger person, a trait my family made sure I would carry into my adult years. No matter what I’m striving for; getting into a University; receiving a scholarship; or applying for a job, I can proudly say to myself, I am Alen Abramyan and adversity is no match for me.

Link to Learning

Sandra Cisneros offers an example of a narrative essay in “Only Daughter” that captures her sense of her Chicana-Mexican heritage as the only daughter in a family of seven children.

Do Personal Essays have Thesis Statements?

While many personal essays include a direct statement of the thesis, in some personal essays the thesis may be implied rather than stated outright.

Imagine, for example, that in your personal essay you decide to write about the way someone influenced you. The influential individual could be a relative, a friend or classmate, an employer or a teacher. As you shape your essay, you would not simply assemble a collection of miscellaneous observations about the person; instead, you would be selective and focus on details about this person that show his or her impact upon you.

Let us say that the person who influenced you is a grandparent. You may know a lot about this individual: personality traits, family and marital history, medical history, educational background, work experience, military experience, political and religious beliefs, hobbies, tastes in music, etc. But as you shape your essay about how this individual affected you, you wouldn’t try to catalog all that you know. Instead, you would try to create a dominant impression by including details that guide your reader toward the idea that is central to the essay.

For example, if you developed certain habits and attitudes as you and your grandparent worked together on a project, that experience might provide the focus for the essay. If you chose details consistent with that focus, then you wouldn’t need to state that this was the point of the essay. Your readers would understand that that was the governing idea based on the details you had so carefully chosen.

Whether the thesis is stated outright or implied, then, the personal essay will have a governing idea—an idea that is “in charge” of what you decide to include in the essay in terms of content, vocabulary, sentence structure, and tone. In short, the personal essay may not have a thesis statement, but it will have a thesis.

Consider a personal essay in which a student was asked to write about a person she admired, and she wrote about her cousin. She wrote:

• I admired my cousin’s decision to enlist because she had to withstand criticism from people who thought women shouldn’t be in the army and because in basic training she had to stand up to physical and mental challenges that I don’t think I could face.

The thesis statement provides quite a lot of guidance for both writing and reading the essay. Writer and reader are equally able to see what the subject of the essay is and what is being stated about the subject, and both writer and reader can see how the essay should be organized. No matter how many body paragraphs there are, this thesis implies that the paper will be divided into two sections. One section will group together the paragraphs on this topic: cousin “had to withstand criticism from people who thought women shouldn’t be in the army.” Another section will group together the paragraphs on this second topic: “in basic training she had to stand up to physical and mental challenges.”

Are Narratives Persuasive?

In a personal essay, you may not think of your thesis as “arguable” in the same way as a claim in a persuasive essay would be arguable, but in fact, you can think of it as something that should need to be demonstrated—backed up through explanations and illustrations. Usually, the idea that should be demonstrated is that you are a thoughtful, reflective person who has learned from the events and people in your life.

If the thesis does not need to be demonstrated, then there may not be much purpose in writing the essay. For, example, a statement that “George W. Bush was the forty-third president” or the statement that “Senior proms are exciting” would not be considered arguable by most people and likely would not spark a reader’s interest and make them want to keep reading.

On the other hand, the thesis statements below would need to be explained and illustrated. In that sense, these personal essay thesis statements are equivalent to claims that are “arguable.”

• The evening was nearly ruined because parents acting as dress-code vigilantes threw several people out of the prom.
• My team spent hours planning the prom and managed to head off a repeat of the after-prom drinking that caused some parents to question whether the prom should be held this year.
• Everyone was able to attend the prom proudly because our prom committee got several stores to loan outfits to make certain everyone would feel like they fit in.
• I opted to attend an alternative prom because the principal refused to allow a same-sex couple to attend.

Keep in mind that the actions or events in your essay do not have to make you look heroic. You could write a convincing and powerful essay about how you attended the school-sponsored prom, even though the principal refused to allow a same-sex couple to attend. Your essay, in this case, might, for example, focus on your regret over your decision and your subsequent understanding of how you think you can best challenge the status quo in the future. In other words, you can write an effective personal essay about a moment of regret.

When writing a personal essay for an application of some kind (scholarship, internship, graduate school), remember that the ultimate purpose of the essay is to make you, the essay writer and applicant, look good. That doesn’t mean that you need to describe you doing great things. If your personal essay is all about your grandfather and what an amazing role model and person he was, you still need to think about how your essay can make you (and not just your grandfather) look good. One way to make yourself look good is to make clear that you are a thoughtful, reflective person (and someone smart enough to learn from a man like your grandfather).

https://assessments.lumenlearning.co...essments/20435

Contributors and Attributions

• Narrative Essay. Provided by : Excelsior OWL. Located at : https://owl.excelsior.edu/rhetorical-styles/narrative-essay/narrative-essay-see-it-across-the-disciplines/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Narrative Essays. Authored by : Marianne Botos, Lynn McClelland, Stephanie Polliard, Pamela Osback . Located at : https://pvccenglish.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/eng-101-inside-pages-proof2-no-pro.pdf . Project : Horse of a Different Color: English Composition and Rhetoric . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Sample Narrative Essay. Provided by : Georgia State University. Located at : gsuideas.org/SCC/Narration/Sample%20Narrative%20Essay%20Personal%20Statement.html. Project : Writing For Success. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Writing a Narrative Essay. Provided by : Boundless. Located at : courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-writing/chapter/types-of-rhetorical-modes/. License : CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
• Image of person writing on sticky notes. Authored by : Nappiness. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : pixabay.com/photos/brainstorming-business-professional-441010/. License : Other . License Terms : pixabay.com/service/terms/#license
• Do Personal Essays have Thesis Statements?. Provided by : Radford University. Located at : https://lcubbison.pressbooks.com/chapter/core-101-personal-essay-assignment/ . Project : Radford University Core Handbook. License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright

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Getting Started with Essay Writing

This course is part of Academic English: Writing Specialization

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There are 5 modules in this course

Course 2: Getting Started with Essay Writing

This is the second course in the Academic English: Writing specialization. By introducing you to three types of academic essays, this course will especially help prepare you for work in college classes, but anyone who wants to improve his or her writing skills can benefit from this course. After completing this course, you will be able to: - create effective thesis statements for your essays - plan and write compare/contrast, cause/effect, and argument essays - write well-developed body paragraphs Note: The lectures and practice activities are available for free, but you must upgrade to the pay version in order to take the quizzes and get feedback on writing assignments.

Course Introduction

This is the second course in the Academic English: Writing specialization. In the last course, you reviewed sentence types and punctuation. You'll use that information in this course to make your writing great. In this course, you'll learn all about academic essay writing and, specifically, how to write three types of essays: compare/contrast, cause/effect, and argument. To pass this course, you need to pass all four quizzes and pass all three writing assignments. When you finish one activity, you can continue to the next one. Enjoy!

What's included

2 videos 2 readings 1 peer review

2 videos • Total 2 minutes

• Course Introduction Video • 0 minutes • Preview module
• Academic Integrity Video Lecture • 2 minutes

2 readings • Total 20 minutes

• Pre-Course Survey • 10 minutes
• Message about Opinions • 10 minutes

1 peer review • Total 60 minutes

• Introductions • 60 minutes

Essay Writing

In this module, you'll start learning about essay structure and some other important tools for good writing. There's a lot of information in this module, but it's all necessary for writing well. Make sure you take notes so you will remember these tools when you write your essays. Note to learners: this course is designed for learners of English with intermediate English writing skills. The sample essays in this course are aimed at that level. However, the principles discussed in the lessons are practical for writers of any level. If you're at a lower level, do the best you can. If you are a more advanced writer, feel free to write more developed and complex essays than the ones in the examples. Just make sure you follow the structures introduced.

6 videos 8 readings 2 quizzes 1 peer review

6 videos • Total 50 minutes

• What is an Essay? Video Lecture • 9 minutes • Preview module
• Introduction Paragraphs Video Lecture • 12 minutes
• Body Paragraphs Video Lecture • 9 minutes
• Paragraph Basics Video Lecture • 10 minutes
• Conclusion Paragraphs Video Lecture • 3 minutes
• The Writing Process Video Lecture • 4 minutes

8 readings • Total 80 minutes

• Learning Objectives • 10 minutes
• Thesis Statement Practice • 10 minutes
• Topic Sentences Practice • 10 minutes
• Sample Essay • 10 minutes

2 quizzes • Total 60 minutes

• Essay Writing • 30 minutes
• Essay Writing Practice Quiz • 30 minutes
• Academic Essay Discussion • 60 minutes

Writing Compare/Contrast Essays

Now, you're ready to write your first type of academic essay--the compare/contrast essay. In this module, you'll learn what this type of essay is and how to structure it. Then, you'll look at some examples and practice writing your own compare/contrast essay. Remember the sample essays in the lesson are typical for an intermediate-level student. Write a compare/contrast essay that fits your own writing ability. Good luck!

3 videos 6 readings 2 quizzes 2 peer reviews

3 videos • Total 12 minutes

• Introduction to Writing Compare/Contrast Essays • 0 minutes • Preview module
• Compare/Contrast Essay Video Lecture • 6 minutes
• Teacher Discusses a Compare/Contrast Essay • 5 minutes

6 readings • Total 60 minutes

• Compare/Contrast Practice • 10 minutes
• Compare/Contrast Writing Assignment • 10 minutes
• Sample Compare/Contrast Essay • 10 minutes
• Links to Other Resources • 10 minutes
• Quiz Instructions • 10 minutes
• Writing Compare/Contrast Essays • 30 minutes
• Compare/Contrast Essays Practice Quiz • 30 minutes

2 peer reviews • Total 180 minutes

• Compare/Contrast Essay Discussion • 120 minutes
• Compare/Contrast Essay Peer Review • 60 minutes

Writing Cause/Effect Essays

Now, you'll learn about writing the cause/effect essay. This is another type of academic essay that you might be asked to write in your college classes. For this type of essay you'll think about reasons why something happens or the effects of something. The sample essays in this module are also representative of an intermediate-level writer. Write a cause/effect essay appropriate for your own English level. Just remember to follow the advice given in the lessons.

3 videos 7 readings 2 quizzes 2 peer reviews

• Introduction to Writing Cause/Effect Essays • 0 minutes • Preview module
• Cause/Effect Video Lecture • 6 minutes
• Teacher Discusses a Cause/Effect Essay • 5 minutes

7 readings • Total 70 minutes

• Cause/Effect Practice • 10 minutes
• Cause/Effect Writing Assignment • 10 minutes
• Sample Cause/Effect Essay • 10 minutes
• Learn More! • 10 minutes
• Writing Cause/Effect Essays • 30 minutes
• Cause/Effect Essays Practice Quiz • 30 minutes

2 peer reviews • Total 120 minutes

• Cause/Effect Essay Discussion • 60 minutes
• Cause/Effect Essay Peer Review • 60 minutes

Writing Argument Essays

In this last module, you'll learn how to write the most common type of college essay. The argument essay is probably the most fun essay to write too. In this one, you will try to convince your reader to believe your argument or position on some controversial topic. You have to think of good reasons to support your position. Remember to write an argument essay that is to the best of your own abilities.

3 videos • Total 13 minutes

• Introduction to Writing Argument Essays • 0 minutes • Preview module
• Argument Essays Video Lecture • 8 minutes
• Teacher Discusses an Argument Essay • 4 minutes
• Debatable vs Non-Debatable Practice • 10 minutes
• Argument Practice • 10 minutes
• Argument Writing Assignment • 10 minutes
• Sample Argument Essay • 10 minutes
• Argument Essays • 30 minutes
• Argument Essay Practice Quiz • 30 minutes
• Argument Essay Discussion • 60 minutes
• Argument Essay Peer Review • 60 minutes

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Reviewed on May 4, 2020

It is a very good course on Essay Writing. Since it started with the basics, it helped me a lot to start from level zero. It was extremely helpful to go ahead with the future course in Writing.

Reviewed on Jul 20, 2020

This course really helped me a lot , by doing this course i got full of ideas of the compare and contrast , Argumentative Essay in order to write essay. Thank you Coursera Team.

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This course is really helpful for me. I have learned about academic essay writing through this particular course. Thank you Common Wealth and Coursera for launching this amazing course.

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How to Write Common App Essay Prompt 3

This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Hale Jaeger in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.

What’s Covered:

What is prompt 3, prompt 3 tips and tricks, prompt 3 essay example and analysis, how to perfect your prompt 3 essay.

The third prompt option for the Common App essay is as follows:

Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome?

Today we’re going to analyze this prompt to form a better understanding of how to best tackle it and create a great response in the form of an essay.

Why Prompt 3 is Tricky

This prompt is difficult to answer because most high schoolers haven’t participated in the types of iconoclastic protests that lend themselves to an awe inspiring response – for example, some instance  where you were fighting against social ills and making a huge difference in the world.

A more tenable alternative here would be to discuss a time that you went against social norms, whether it was becoming friends with somebody who was seen as “the weird kid” or an outcast or proudly showing off a geeky passion. If you ever participated in a situation in tandem with adults that found success, such as blogging, starting a tutoring organization, or participating in political campaigns, you can discuss your experiences as a young person without a college degree in professional circles.

You want to really strike a balance though, and one of the challenges of this essay is that you should describe these things and experiences without sounding morally superior. You don’t want to paint yourself as the only person in the world who goes against this convention or sound like you are saying “how could everyone else be so blind to just go with this?” You should be careful not to write about yourself as better than your peers simply because you pushed back against the norm. This essay should be about the process and the act of pushing back against something and conveying what you learned from this. 

Brainstorming and Planning

One way to go about this prompt is to discuss a time when you noticed a need for change. For example, maybe you wondered why medical records were handwritten at your doctor’s office or why a doctor’s visit was long and awkward, and challenged the norm by brainstorming an electronic recording smartphone app or a telemedicine system. Or maybe you led a fundraiser and recognized that advertising on social media would be more effective than the traditional use of printed flyers. You could write something along those lines, focusing on the experience that you had which caused you to recognize the need for change, how you followed up with actions, and the resulting outcome.

A good brainstorming exercise for this kind of essay would be to write your problem on a sheet of paper and then develop various solutions to the problem, including a brief reason or justification. The more you delve into the issue and the more thorough you are in justifying and explaining your solutions will make your essay more compelling.

As a whole, this prompt lends itself to reflective writing and, more specifically, taking the reader through your internal process and reflections. In many cases, the exploration of your thought processes and decision making is more important than the actual outcome or concept in question. In short, this essay is more about thinking, rumination, inquisition, curiousity,  or asking questions where people aren’t already and then how you went about making a change.

Focus on You

Of course, you wanna make sure that you’re focusing on yourself and your own experiences. This is an essay about you. It’s not an essay about a problem; instead, it’s an essay about you solving a problem. Therefore, make sure that while you justify your actions,  the focus is  always on you. 

One consultant with CollegeVine wrote her essay on this topic about the experience of growing up with a unique name and feeling pressured to be different from other people. She would sacrifice her own wishes and preferences just to make unconventional choices.

Finally, she challenged the idea of being different. She wanted to discover her real interests, so she defied what she’d always expected of herself. Here’s an excerpt: 

Whenever someone hears my name for the first time they comment, “wow, Genina is such a cool name. She must be pretty cool. She must be from somewhere exotic. She must be musical and artsy.”

When I was little, these sentiments felt more like commands than assumptions. I thought I had to be the most unique child of all time, which was a daunting task. But I tried. I was the only kid in the second grade to color the sun red during snack time. We would choose between apple juice and grape juice, and even though I liked apple juice more, if everyone else was choosing apple I had to have grape. This was how I lived my life, and it was exhausting. After eighth grade, I moved to Georgia, and I soon discovered that my freshman year would be my new high school’s inaugural year. Since there were students coming in from five different schools, there was no real sense of normal.

I panicked – if there was no normal, how could I be unique? I realized I’d spent so much energy going against the grain that I had no idea what my true interests were. It was time to find out. I joined the basketball team, performed in school musicals, and enrolled in chorus, all of which were firsts for me. I did whatever I thought would make me happy, and it paid off. I was no longer socially awkward. In fact, because I was involved in so many unrelated activities, I was socially flexible. I’d finally become my own person.

One thing that this essay does well is that it shows growth over time . This prompt is asking for going against what people expect of you or social convention, and this person talks about how they’d always done that. They wanted to try being their own person rather than being different for the sake of being different, and so we see that they are discovering themselves over the course of the essay. This excerpt has been shortened, so a line like “I was no longer socially awkward” is abrupt and declarative, but in the full essay this would flow more smoothly.

Although this example describes a situation without giving any details or ideas about where that came from, keep in mind that this is just a shortened, edited excerpt. Building to a revelation like this would make for a very compelling essay. 

Want to know if your response to Common App prompt 3 is strong enough for your top-choice schools? Try out our Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free, anonymous, and secure review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills and earn CollegeVine Karma by reviewing other users’ essays!

Related CollegeVine Blog Posts

Mini-Module: Essay Writing

• To write an effective essay, you should:
• Writing an introduction for your essay
• The main body of your essay
• Writing a conclusion for your essay

Back to Skills for Success: Academic Skills Home

The Purpose of Essays

The purpose of essays .

Essays are set to provide you with the opportunity to display your knowledge and understanding of a particular topic 

• Next: To write an effective essay, you should: >>
• Last Updated: Mar 27, 2024 11:49 AM
• URL: https://library.lsbu.ac.uk/c.php?g=682897

State Ranker Guide: How to Write a Full Mark Reflection

State Ranker Guide: How to approach Novel Study (To Kill a Mockingbird)

State ranker guide: how to write a comparative essay (module a + extension 1).

• Uncategorized

Comparative essays are a staple of Advanced, Extension I English and throughout Year 7-10, and the rationale behind it makes sense – NESA wants to measure and test your understanding of abstract concepts and ideas across different texts and forms. A comparative essay in layman’s terms is simply an essay which discusses two or more texts in regards to a common (or differing) element, which could involve themes, contextual influence or construction. You’ll encounter these in Module A: Textual Conversations as well as in your elective for Extension I, but similar skills are potentially needed for your Literary Worlds and you’ll even encounter a simplified version of it for short answer responses in Paper 1! As you can tell, this is a seriously handy skill to have.

1.   Before you compare

I briefly mentioned three things earlier – themes, contextual influence and construction. Within an essay, you have to explore all three of these in some shape or form.

Themes are the most obvious. To borrow Mod A terminology, themes can either ‘resonate’ or be ‘dissonant’ between texts. A comparative essay would analyse how composers have understood these ideas, and the way they have been represented in their work. For example, for ‘The Tempest’ and ‘Hag-Seed’, you could discuss the concept of isolation. You would write that Shakespeare literally placed Prospero on a island far flung from Milan (physical isolation) whereas Atwood’s protagonist is mentally isolated, being distant and mentally unstable from the rest of society after the death of his loved ones and a bitter betrayal. To see detailed notes of Tempest and Hagseed, click here .

Contextual influence In both your Extension elective and Mod A, and any comparative you do in Year 7-10, this is SUPER important – the world and life of a composer will be reflected in a text through their artistic movement, social values and norms, cultural references and much more. No context is the same between creators, and by analysing them you can get a better understanding of their intent and logic behind the text. This is especially critical when evaluating themes, since different contexts will elucidate different responses. Take Keats’ poetry and ‘Bright Star’ – not only were they made in different millenniums, but their movements, Romanticism and postmodernism respectively, have different objectives and agendas.

Construction  could be form, but also style and craft. Different mediums will elicit different responses and their conventions will communicate different ideas more strongly. An obvious example would be that of ‘Frankenstein’ (to see full notes on Frankenstein, click here ) and ‘Metropolis’. In the former Shelley uses prose fiction to reminisce and remember, establishing this unsettling and moody atmosphere. Fritz, with his film on the other hand, makes strong use of visuals to express the tension and anxieties of his time.  

When you’re preparing to write an essay, keep those three in mind. Now that you’ve got that, how do we go about structuring it? The truth is that there is not one single way to write an essay. Comparatives only require you to discuss ideas between texts, and as such there is not a prescribed format you must use. However, remember that all texts should be given fair weighting! You don’t want to end up with a response which is biased towards one text. Achieving a balanced comparative essay in Advanced and Extension I are two completely different beasts, and as such we should take a look at each subject separately. That being said, a commonality between the two is the way you write an introduction.

2.   Introducing the Comparisons 

In the intro, you’ll not only need to introduce the texts and contextualise them, but also reveal your thesis, what it means, and how it’s explored in each text. Use your best friend PEEL here – it will seriously help you reveal insights more coherently and strongly. Let’s start with our opener. Here’s an example of an opening from Mod A:

Between Mrs Dalloway (1925) and The Hours (2002), the texts discuss modernity’s preoccupation of claiming individual choice.

Let’s break this down:

The texts – ‘Mrs Dalloway’ and ‘The Hours’ have been named. A year has been attached to each, and this gives markers a clue as to the disparate contexts between the texts.

The thesis (an overarching argument) has been introduced also, that of “modernity’s preoccupation to claim individual choice”. Get used to making a theory about your texts – write about what you really think about these works. What themes or ideas do they present? What do they make you reconsider or discover? Do they teach you anything? Your personal response to literature is king here; be confident and make a statement! Just make sure it’s backed up with evidence.

Now that the point has been made, we need to explain what it all means.

Though there are common themes, ideas and even characters, the disparities present between Virginia Woolf’s novel and Stephen Daldry’s film are far more revealing of fluctuating social values and changing attitudes. Aside from the difference in form, the contrasting perspectives of Woolf’s Interwar, modernist England and Daldry’s 2000s, postmodern America have caused this pair of texts to be shaped uniquely by their contexts and thus reveal conflicting, even competing, aspirations and anxieties, particularly those regarding modernity and mortality.

We address the question statement “the disparities … are far more revealing of fluctuating social values”. Straight after you make your point you need to answer what the question’s asking and relate that to your texts. That’s revealed when…

We showed the comparison. This explainer mentioned “common themes, ideas and even characters”, which depending on your question might be more important. However, since the question asked for dissonances, we established instead a divide between the two texts – “difference in form” and “contrasting perspectives”.

If you hadn’t already, name the authors and the forms. You could do it in your opening line, but here we’ve chosen to do so here with “Woolf’s novel” and “Daldry’s film”.

We also just showed the contexts – “Interwar, modernist England” and “2000s, postmodern America”. In three words each, we have established a time period, a movement and a location. Be economical and straight to the point like this – you don’t have much time in an exam to waffle on forever.

We also honed into what the thesis means – how the texts reflect “competing, even conflicting aspirations and anxieties” towards “modernity and mortality”.

That second phrase of “modernity and mortality” reveals the key points , and what the body paragraphs will explore further. Depending on how you structure your essay, this might not be needed as your body paragraphs will be dedicated to different texts. But once again, we’ll come back to this.

Now that the explanations have been exhausted, it’s time to probe our texts, which are examples to sustain our thesis .

Dalloway, a seminal modernist text, saw choice as the greatest ideal which the modern world espoused, in that one’s fate must be willed and not determined by proportion. A powerful dissonance arises when the novel is appropriated by The Hours, which took a more skeptical approach towards choice, viewing it simultaneously as liberating and as a parasitic obsession over individuality.

The central idea behind each text is shown. Dalloway “saw choice as the greatest ideal”, while Hours “took a more sceptical approach… viewing it simultaneously as liberating and… parasitic”. In doing so, in your introduction you can show how your texts affirm or diverge in beliefs.

Finally, once you’ve given evidence it is time to link  it all back to what you’re writing for in the first place.

Though the resonance of modern people finding fulfilment and freedom from establishments remain, it is in the difference in values that audiences can contemplate upon their own context’s impact on themselves, powerfully evident through the textual conversation between Dalloway and The Hours.

Breaking it down once again:

Note the use of rubric terms . Markers LOVE seeing this. Make sure you read up on the module rubric and identify what exactly you’re supposed to be looking out for while analysing your texts. In this case, “resonance” and “textual conversation” here.

We also talk about audience impact , a big part of HSC English. No essay is complete without evaluating the reception of a text by its readers or viewers. In this case, we discuss how “audiences can contemplate on their own context’s impact on themselves”.

We get more references to the question and thesis in “difference in values” and “finding fulfilment and freedom” respectively. This is a must in your link.

Sounds straightforward, right? Notice how throughout this essay there’s a constant back and forth between texts. This is a very simple way of making direct comparisons, and doing this will help you structure your ideas while also communicating clearly. And even though we’re at the beginning, let’s jump straight to the end! Conclusions are essentially the same in format as introductions, except they’re conclusive. Go figure. Just look above for what elements to look out for, summarise and pull out all your evaluations.

Unfortunately, from here on out things are going to get messy. Depending on your texts and the number of texts, you might find yourself structuring your body paragraphs differently. So, time to split off and look at Advanced and Extension I!

3.   Module A: conversations about comparisons

No matter what question you’ll be thrown, you will always have to look at TWO texts – the original and then its appropriation. Markers expect students to answer a question with equal weighting to each text, and as such you need to remember that the inspired text is just as powerful as its inspiration . Knowing that, there is one way you can approach your body paragraphs that will be a sure-fire hit with markers.

Integration .

In this style of writing, you will discuss both texts in relation to a theme or idea. This generally tends to be the preferred style of writing, since it allows for comparisons to be drawn continually and consistently. It is also the way to go for Mod A since the whole point of the module is textual conversation . So, let’s have a look at key lines from a paragraph in that Dalloway and Hours essay:

In order to present disparate conceptions of modernity, Woolf and Daldry manipulated their form with modernist and postmodernist praxis respectively, examining context to invoke contemplation within responders regarding the role of society in affecting personal experience.

And once again our body paragraphs follow a PEEL structure . The opening line establishes the explored theme , reference to context , and the intent . Get used to writing succinctly and bluntly – it will save you time in an exam!

Woolf pioneered stream of consciousness writing, eliminating the Victorian era’s omnipresent narrator as to witness the intrusion of past memories and external stimuli within a world of boisterous flux.

Our little explanation pinpoints the form element and its significance .

Following this in the paragraph, we get evidence  from a quote early on in the novel, then the analysis. To wrap off this part we get:

As a result, Woolf alludes to a frantic, broken world which in the aftermath of the Great War feels a sense of loss and disillusionment.

A link is made between the evidence  given and the theme , which help explore the thesis established in the introduction. From this insight we get a better understanding of what the composer was trying to communicate – to say to the audience.

Meanwhile, within The Hours Daldry and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey used postmodern disrupted chronology.

Our second text receives the same treatment as the first – the composer is named and we also learn about what form element we are focusing on.

Daldry was more concerned with examining modernity as an era, an epoch in history.

This explanation likewise shows the significance of this form element in relation to the theme.

By doing so, the very reason for these parallelled scenes becomes clear, revealing dissonances between peoples in the same era, and that there is no singular experience.

This insight is drawn after discussing scenes from the film. Another link  is made between the theme and evidence .

The two texts clearly demonstrate disparities in tone; Woolf’s modernity ‘mis-en-scène’ articulates a society bewildered by the brave new world they are living within, whereas Daldry is more retrospective, contemplating on the diversity of voices and, questioning the supposed experiential hegemony of the era. Evidently, the two texts have expressed dissonances in the way their composers perceive modernity.

And here is our grand link – we reach a conclusion , make a comparison and reframe what was discussed with regards to the question . The little insights and evaluations throughout the paragraph culminate here and reveal what was learnt from an analysis of the two texts.

You may have noticed a pattern in the paragraph, in that there were mirrors  in analysis between the two texts. That’s the powerful simplicity of the PEEL style, it’s naturally conducive to comparative essays. Even though it was more like PEEEELEEEELL there still was a coherent and logical sequence of arguments and ideas, which is something you need to watch out for while writing. Your ideas need to lead to a conclusion.  This ‘mirrored’ type of writing is handy when trying to discuss two texts.

Now for some general tips and advice for Mod A comparatives:

Write either two OR four paragraphs. By that, I mean follow an AB AB or A B A B format, with either two chunky bodies or four smaller bite-sized analysis (preferably the latter). No matter which you choose you’ll still end up discussing only two themes, with the only difference being whether the two texts are discussed in the same paragraph or not. Three ideas might be overkill in the space of 40 minutes and should be avoided unless your teacher prefers a 3 body paragraph integrated structure.

You can write two dedicated paragraphs which are dedicated to one text each, but it’s risky. By segregating the two texts you run the danger of discussing them in isolation, which defeats the purpose of comparative essays and Mod A in general! If you decide to take this narrow and rocky path, make sure in your second paragraph that you keep making reference to the ‘original’ text and make your conclusion SUPER focused on drawing links between the pair. But once again, this is definitely not a recommended structure of writing.

4.   Comparing your elective world

In Section II of your Extension I exam , you’ll need two prescribed texts and between one to two related texts. The weighting of these texts vary on how many you choose. That being said all texts are relevant and should be treated as such . Unlike Mod A, in Extension English there is a little bit more freedom to play around with essay structure since the style of questions and the sort of analysis they expect from you is far more in-depth and abstract. So, let’s quickly run over what kind of styles you can take:

Option A: Integration . Just like in Mod A, you would be discussing your prescribed and related text(s) in one paragraph. Extension I is the home of chunky paragraphs, so don’t worry about having to split them up for different texts. Once again, just follow PEEL and you’ll be alright. Your opening lines would have to establish the theme , two texts  (because let’s be real, you can’t talk about three or four texts at the same time!), intent and significance . If you choose two do two related texts here, make sure you bring each one up only once throughout the essay. If you go over, you might end up giving it undue weight.

Option B: Isolation . In this subject, discussing the texts individually can and has worked. However if you choose to do this, make sure you’ve got a strong thesis and a core theme per text . Take for example this essay from Worlds of Upheaval. Keep an eye out for the thesis, which was that “individuals in confused societies are swept away by revolution”. The paragraphs opened with the following:

Those caught in confusion are denied self-expression as part of a monolithic politic, breeding uncertainty and injustice. An organisation of this nature inevitably becomes dogmatic and demands more of individuals. This, the great insanity of ideology, is responsible for creating a toxic public sphere. One representation of the political paradigm would be Marxism in Metropolis, which unwaveringly condemns it.

Though the uncertainty and injustice of confusion is universal, literary conceptions of Revolution are mixed, contingent from varied political affiliations between composers. Frankenstein is critical of Enlightenment and Romantic inclinations to deify mankind, implicating that confusion and revolution are one and the same — even if the two conflicting ideologies are antithesis to each other.

Against the poles of establishment and insurrection, the individual finds themselves driven towards action and reaction towards their context’s upheaval. Hashino in Persona 5 uses protagonist Ren Amamiya as the player’s means of embracing revolution within Confucian, hierarchical and hyper-capitalistic Japan.

Let’s annotate these:

Each paragraph centred on a different thesis element, text and context.  Using the first as an example, “confused society” is the focus for Metropolis, and a quick aside about Marxism in Weimar Germany is made.

We also get an unfolding argument , that is, we compare texts by looking at how they recieve, or judge, the thesis. The second paragraph shows Shelley finds that “confusion and revolution are one and the same”, whereas Hashino in his video game wants players to “embrace revolution”. That shows that central themes are understood and reacted to differently in different contexts – the whole reason as to why you’re writing a comparative to begin with!

And how interesting that we only use one related text . If you choose to write texts in isolation, stick to one. You might have an hour to write an essay, but the level of substance and depth expected in an Extension essay is considerably more than that in Advanced. If you want to hit an E4, keep to three paragraphs. Any more than that would really strain you during the exam.

You might be wondering why you can write in depth about a related text when writing in isolation, but need to be sparse when writing integrated. In integrated paragraphs, you can afford to bring up two related texts. A format of AC BD AB works since if you rearrange these components (AA BB CD) you still get two paragraphs about prescribed texts and one with a related. Four isolated comparative paragraphs of AA BB CC DD are not only a waste of your precious exam time, but throw focus away from the prescribed texts – the balance of analysis is thrown off. So just remember this lesson: one in isolation, one or two get integrated. That being said, don’t do two unless you’re forced to or you’re super keen. One will get the job done!

5.   Sharing the Comparing

We’ve been focusing on Mod A and the Extension elective, but they’re not the only places you’ll find comparative essay writing. You might be reading this as a Year 10 or 11 student and have absolutely no idea what a related text is. Don’t sweat! You could be asked to pick two or three texts and analyse them – so pick between integrated or isolated writing based on the question and what you’re comfortable with . Don’t forget the important stuff – context, themes, intent. They are the fundamentals. If you integrate, pick a theme per paragraph and discuss two texts. If you isolate, dedicate a paragraph per text and how they respond to the question, or statement, or thesis.

If you’re a Year 12 student, you might find yourself writing comparative essays in unexpected places. You will write extremely short versions of these for Texts and Human Experiences during Section I of Paper I. To see a full guide for this, click here . Many questions in past exams focused on how two texts explored a central emotion or experience  – this is just another theme! Follow the integrated structure. Meanwhile, a  critical response might be asked of you for Literary Worlds and you could be given multiple excerpts to analyse. Once again, choose between the two options based on suitability and personal preference. And when you compare, pay attention to literary theory and criticism – use what you’ve learnt in class to inform your discussion.

And that wraps it up! Comparative essays are a versatile and stylish way to investigate different texts – and they are key to success in the HSC. 

However, this is not a skill you can perfect overnight. And this is where our tutors step in! Even from Year 7,  our english tutors go through  comparative studies between texts commonly studied in school (eg Shakespeare) and comprehension exam papers with sample answers for comparative mini-essays, so that students are prepared for any comparative study assessment they face during high school. Contact us to find out how we can help you today!

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