What should I be doing to improve in English?

[abcdqdxD]

So I've got my first sac in about 7 weeks time on "On the Waterfront", and I feel that I need to get my level of writing up to scratch.

What are the things I should be doing from now until then?

Thanks

[TheFedExpress]

Find essay topics.
Write essays.
Get them marked.
Repeat.

[nacho]

you need to write as many as you can, and get feedback on them. try to see re-occurring things brought up in your feedback.

eg if coherence and sentence flow is constantly brought up, try and get your vocab into check and work on that.

also read good essays, I'll do a quick search if i've got any and report back if i do, but there are plenty on this website which are great.
Find your own style of writing, it'll come off as authentic and read well.

[monkeywantsabanana]

For OTW, there are a few different "types" of essays. Ask your teacher for a list of topics. Try to categorise them. Write an essay for each "type." Our teacher had it done for us and we found that there were 5 "types."

I know English shouldn't be dealt with in such a systematic manner, however, if you're a black and white type of person/learner, I think this is the best way to "improve" your English results and to some degree, skills. 

Also, check out the essays on this forum. Some are brilliant.

[greenbeans]

Here's some study tips that can be applied to anything in English really:

- Practise writing constantly to write fluently, straight to the point and to time

- Get along with your teacher. Appreciate and respect them for their time and they'll mark your essays and give you advice if you let them in.

- Absorb your text, so you know it back to front

- Put quotes up everywhere in your house

- Look for themes, symbols, concepts

- Practise as many different questions as you can - what is the hardest question? What could be an easy question?

- Observe and permanently fix your constant spelling and punctuation errors

- Brainstorm (on paper, in your head, aloud with a friend) - from anything to "why does Character X think this?" to "What does XYZ have in common with ZYX?" Ask questions of the author/playwright/director and question everything!

- Avoid rounding off your writing with perfect conclusions. Remember that English isn't asking you to find X. Some of the beauty of English is that there is no one answer to a question, unlike other subjects. They want you to explore using evidence and beautifully crafted writing. So even if you believe that an issue is black or white, right or wrong, a character is pure evil or not, don't say that. Work your magic!

[Daenerys Targaryen]

Mine OTW SAC is in 4 weeks.
What I'm doing to prepare is:

-memorise some quotes

-write essays and them read over them sentence by sentence fixing each one up and making it more concise so that when the real thing comes I wont have sentences that could be written in less words and sound much better

-develop a vocab list and learning to use them properly!

[platypus]

For OTW, there are a few different "types" of essays. Ask your teacher for a list of topics. Try to categorise them. Write an essay for each "type." Our teacher had it done for us and we found that there were 5 "types."

Yea I remember my teacher did the same thing for us for OTW and she came up with a few different types of essay prompts: themes, characters, plot and author construction of text/film. For the average English student, I suggest practising the "author construction" prompts as people find it the most challenging since they can't easily relate it to the plot or the characters. As OTW is a film, you want to be focusing on the filmic devices that the director uses to frame certain scenes - i.e. camera positioning, music, editing, lighting.

That being said, you should also mention the significant film techniques when responding to any "type" of prompt. For OTW it would be things like visual symbolism - the pigeons, Edie's glove, Joey's jacket, crosses etc. Everytime you analyse a scene to exemplify your argument, there should also be an analysis of the film techniques used. I think acknowledging the importance of these techniques in relation to the director's intentions was the distiguishing factor between the top scoring and above average essays at our school.

Also if your teacher is the primary marker of your SACS, make sure you submit a lot of practise essays to him/her. Even though a text analysis has essentially a rigid structure, different teachers prefer different ways of writing them. If you find out what your teacher likes, then your SAC may potentially score higher than if it had been marked by someone else.

[FlorianK]

Rewrite essays until you have 2 10/10 essays per section

[morantz]

A good way is to take the time to read books every night. It can be any book as per your interests. Books are written like essays, therefore you may be able to extract something valuable from the read text. Throughout my school years, I would be forced to read for an hour per night. Obviously it doesn't have to be that long. Reading for half an hour can even help you adsorb key ideas of how to start and end a coherant piece of writing if you still feel weak at doing so. For the more proficient students, reading can enable them to distinguish words that they never thought even existed. I came across many words that I never heard of, and what I would do is search its meaning in a dictionary. Throughout VCE, I was actually comfortable to use those 'new' words in my writing, which enabled me to boost the coherency of my essays, scoring me high marks.

Remember, assessors look out for the most sophisticated essays without a hint of coherency flaws.

[abcdqdxD]

How do I avoid being "too general"?

[Shenz0r]

Be more specific?

[morantz]

How do I avoid being "too general"?

Being to general is not incorporating an important idea. Many students struggle to avoid this. As a result, many students ramble when they seek to explain a key idea. It needs to be short and concise, without being too vague in explanation. Have a strong key idea, explain, then back up with evidence then summarise.

[platypus]

Memorise a list of key scenes in OTW - Joey and the pigeons at the rooftop, his argument with Edie, taxi scene with his brother etc. Then try to link them to as many prompts as possible. This will help you avoid being too general by forcing you to analyse the nuances of the scenes from many perspectives, allowing you to form a range of ideas specific to a particular theme/idea