A common theme on the English Submissions board is "I'm shit at writing but please mark". I do see this elsewhere on the forums "I'm shit at English, I hate it."
The former is perhaps a defense mechanism to lower people's expectations but certainly applies to this thread anyway. Evidently, I only took English 3/4 in VCE however this is relevant to all three studies (and perhaps just VCE in general!)
I done got me some news for you boys and girls - once upon a time, everyone is shit at writing. Once upon a time, everyone is shit at anything they ever did. No one starts off as the best. Once upon a time, Michael Phelps didn't know how to swim. Below is a paragraph devoted to a Macbeth essay - written by, you guessed it, the one and only Brendinkles. I wrote this nearing the end of 2011 so it is perhaps the best example of my writing prior to when I decided I was going to try really hard for my final year. I absolutely /promise/ you this is exactly what I wrote. This is my third and last paragraph of the essay. The prompt was something to do with Macbeth being a tyrant or a hero or something something.
In a needless act of revenge on the 'traitor' Macduff, that ultimately triggers his downfall, Macbeth orders Macduff's family - a wife and child - killed. Shakespeare uses this - the murder of a woman and child - as symbol of how truly wicked Macbeth has become, and how far from grace a murder causes you to fall. Shakespeare also uses the scene to set up Macbeth's killing at the hand of Macduff.
That's all, folks. I'm sure you don't need a high score in English to see that this paragraph would qualify someone to say: "I'm shit at writing." Obviously, it makes grammatical sense, but it's a three sentence long paragraph, because I didn't know what else I'd even write.
Point of story is - if you're shit at writing - get better at it. Fail at it. Fail and keep failing until a time in which you are successful. EVERYONE starts off somewhere. No matter where you are right now, if you work hard... well, what you achieve is up to you. I went from writing the above paragraph to being one of the better English students in the state (go figure, right?). So you can't blame my score on natural genius, a rich private school, or anything else like that. I wrote/failed/wrote/failed more times than some of you could imagine lol, and it got me to where I am. So, if you're shit at writing and want to score well in VCE, it seems there is only one thing left to do - get really good at writing.
Please, stop discouraging yourselves and thinking about how low you could potentially score (or how high you could potentially score) and just work your guts out! Most of you will be approaching your first writing SAC soon, I'd say, so how hard are you willing to work between now and that first SAC in order to get the score you want? How hard are you willing to work between now and the exam to get the score you want?
I dare you to fail - Eric Thomas.