essay structure (2 Viewers)

[zan]

would a good structure be:
Intro
genre theory
importance of subversion, evolution of genre yadda yaddda yadda

Setting
how text 1 subverts/conforms to it
text 2
text 3
text 4


Detective
text 1
text 2
text 3
text 4

Danger
yada yada
yadaddidddaaadaddya

or would it best to do;
Text One
setting
danger
hero
solution
Text Two
yadda yiddaa......


with little links in between
i know that i have to link to the question continualy, but i was just wondering what you guys reckon would be the best structure
thanks for any input..

 

[DaRanjed]

Yeah, which structure would be better?

Text by text, or thesis by thesis?

 

[jellybeenz]

I've always done it Text by Text... It just helps me organise my ideas better. I think its just a case of what works best for you. For me it seems clearer if you do it Text by Text but thats just my opinion.

 

[_dies_]

I think it is MOSTLY about how you personally, best approach an essay, because by writing in a way that you are comfortable with you will generally write at your best. But i try to avoid breaking essays down text by text as it usually leads to a very flimsy essay with ideas scattered over the place. (this is just my opinion tho) I feel its best to organise essays by your ideas or arguments and back each up with the texts within each paragraph, rather than writing individually or separately on each text. Although your really are still writing separately on each, just in one combined paragraph! If that makes sense. But then again, im in the same boat as the rest of you guys, sitting the exam tomorrow so i dont really have any more idea than anyone else...

Goodluck!

 

[Candypants]

I think it depends on the question. If it were about genre and conventions etc, it's probably better to do text by text. BUt otherwise, thesis by thesis.

And I completely agree with _dies_.

 

[DaRanjed]

I agree that text by texts may cause some scattering.
But (I need help on this), If I do it thesis by thesis and I want to talk about the context of each text, that means I'll end up writing big chunks about each text's context before I start talking about the conventions!

Was that confusing?
I swear, I'm gonna stuff up tomorrow.

 

[~*~Karina~*~]

would a good structure be:
Intro
genre theory
importance of subversion, evolution of genre yadda yaddda yadda

Setting
how text 1 subverts/conforms to it
text 2
text 3
text 4


Detective
text 1
text 2
text 3
text 4

Danger
yada yada
yadaddidddaaadaddya

..

That's pretty much how I'm gonna do it...Its organised and concise, but it still allows for a lot of discussion about the topic. Kinda discussing each convention of the genre,and then relating it to the texts (discussing whether they subvert or support the genre) , instead of talking about each text and what conventions they display.

 

[matty fwd]

Hey, our class has just come across this essay structure debate too. We were told to go convention by convention (or thesis by thesis). However and interesting point was raised, "Do we need to apply every thesis to every text?". It was basically proposed because if you're doing 3 conventions for 4 texts (as we were told to do), you're looking at minimimum 14 paragraphs. That's a lot

What do you think?

 

[ellejay145]

You guys have your hsc tomorow ? My exam isn't until the 3rd of November or something. From experience, i find it much easier to write text by text. My reason for this is that i have my own individual ideas about each text, and what each text is doing ie a minithesis for each. Therefore, i start with the intro, talk about genre definitions, conventions etc, then each para in the body talks about each individual text and my own ideas on how each text links to the overall topic.
Just my way of doing it though. everyone works their own way.

 

[ellejay145]

Rofl *Goes and hides in a corner* my mistake. Someone else posted recently, and i never look at the dates anyway. Hehehhe:rofl:

 

[matty fwd]

lol ellejay145 ... sorry bout that.

but seriously, if I'm going with 4 texts and 3 conventions (im doing it convention based, but my mates doing it text based, it doesnt matter)......do i need to examine every convention for every text? e.g. what would happen if i was to talk about the denouement in only 2 texts, and then talk about the role of the detective in the other two??

 

[kami]

lol ellejay145 ... sorry bout that.

but seriously, if I'm going with 4 texts and 3 conventions (im doing it convention based, but my mates doing it text based, it doesnt matter)......do i need to examine every convention for every text? e.g. what would happen if i was to talk about the denouement in only 2 texts, and then talk about the role of the detective in the other two??

You can never talk about every convention in a text because you don't have space, plus the limits of what has been covered in your class is not all that is covered in a text. It is quite possible to write an 18, 000 word thesis on the conventions in just one of the prescribeds so it shouldn't be your goal to include every aspect of a text, rather it should be your goal to include whatever strengthens your argument in regards to the specific question. You shouldn't set your heart on any specific crime fiction conventions either, just be prepared with ALOT of knowledge and an awareness of the principles involved in the arguments of prominent genre theorists.

And in regards to your 14 paragraphs point earlier, there were friends of mine in the HSC who used approximately 6 booklets for the analytical booklets and were instructed to use that as a bare minimum. Now I don't agree with that line of thinking (which is in the name of quantity rather than quality) however it is expected that you write essays of considerable size with 14 paragraphs not being all that large when compared to what some will be writing. Its important to remember though that you need to tailor your essay to your own skills of writing - if you can't adequately articulate your views in 14 paragraphs in the given time then don't - try something you can actually handle.