_Benji_ said:
Cheers nwatts....thats useful to know, i always find it hard to keep my thread sophisticated when i have to say something like "this can be seen in blah blah blah texts".... so really you can be pretty experimental in your essay style? they wont mark u down for not conforming to typical english essay scaffold?
You can and you can't.
You've got to remember the HSC isn't going to test how well you write an essay. You're being tested on how much you know about a text or a concept. By that token, you need to conform to the structure of an essay in order to expose yourself to the highest range of marks - you need an intro, a body and a conclusion. You need to have points of discussion.
However, you can experiment to a degree. But the reader needs to be able to follow what you're saying fluently. My essays are always pushing structure around, which I'll often gain marks for. BUT - experimenting with structure means that you're going to be talking on a conceptual level, rather than on a textual level. You'll be dealing with concepts, challenging them, comparing texts and what they have to say about said concept, etc. etc.. The danger is (and i get marked down for it) in losing detail. You'll spend too much time on the "essay" not enough time on the texts.
I'll look for a few of my journeys essays if you want. They're usually very non-conformist, and score very well. I tend to lose marks in the module A/B essays because they're FAR more focused on texts rather than concept.
