How to Write an Area of Study Essay

[shazzzzzz]

Hey guys for my discovery essay I'm studying Robert Frosts poems, the two I'm doing are the tuft of flowers and the mending wall - anyways I've written an essay with the two poems + one related text but it's already pretty long and the thing is my teacher wants us to be ready for a question that could ask us for more than one related text.

Doing an essay with two poems and one related text has me already pushing my limits (which around 900 -1000 words  ) so an essay with two poems + two or more related texts would be crazy so could you recommend a way in which i could do an essay with more than one related text, keep it a reasonable length and not lose any important content?

[elysepopplewell]

Hey guys for my discovery essay I'm studying Robert Frosts poems, the two I'm doing are the tuft of flowers and the mending wall - anyways I've written an essay with the two poems + one related text but it's already pretty long and the thing is my teacher wants us to be ready for a question that could ask us for more than one related text.

Doing an essay with two poems and one related text has me already pushing my limits (which around 900 -1000 words  ) so an essay with two poems + two or more related texts would be crazy so could you recommend a way in which i could do an essay with more than one related text, keep it a reasonable length and not lose any important content?

Your teacher is definitely extending you here - which can be stressful, but you might be thanking your lucky stars later on! If you're doing the poems, treat them like the one text. So if you usually give a paragraph per text, just remember that you can do the two poems simultaneously in a paragraph.

If you're doing two related texts, the ratio kind of changes. So, let's say the normal ratio for related text to prescribed text is 40/60. That doesn't change a whole lot if you have two related texts - it just means that you spend 20% of your time on one related, and 20% on the other. If your ratio is more like 50/50, then your related texts will take up like 25% each. The essay doesn't necessarily have to be longer because of the extra related text, or because you're studying poems. It's just about breaking down the structure and dividing it up so that you do justice to everything. I think naturally, the essay will be longer by up to 100 words perhaps with a second related text, because you need to use some extra words to introduce the text and link to it. So that will come about naturally. But, it doesn't mean you have to put in entirely new body paragraphs per se, and instead it might just mean you need to adjust the body paragraphs you have currently. Does that make sense?

To me, it sounds tricky! My strength is digging really deep into a text, rather than being able to pick out the most important parts and connecting their themes to other texts, for example. So it would be tricky for me, this isn't an easy task! But, I think if you shift your mindset to understand that the essay doesn't HAVE to be longer in order to do this, and instead you just need to make all of your analysis really punchy so that you can afford to have less of it per text, then you sound like you have a good deal happening!

[Lauradf36]

Thoughts on what the heck "speculation" is referring to in the rubric?
Like, thinking about the future, assumptions, forming new ideas? Idk

[jamonwindeyer]

Thoughts on what the heck "speculation" is referring to in the rubric?
Like, thinking about the future, assumptions, forming new ideas? Idk

Hey! For the reference of others, this is the sentence we are referring to:

They can lead us to new worlds and values, stimulate new ideas, and enable us to speculate about future possibilities.

I'd go with your interpretations! Essentially, it's about exploring how Discoveries can re-shape our perspectives on the rest of our lives, develop new viewpoints, consider new paths (etc.), it links (imo) to self enlightenment ideas

[Lauradf36]

Hey! For the reference of others, this is the sentence we are referring to:

They can lead us to new worlds and values, stimulate new ideas, and enable us to speculate about future possibilities.

I'd go with your interpretations! Essentially, it's about exploring how Discoveries can re-shape our perspectives on the rest of our lives, develop new viewpoints, consider new paths (etc.), it links (imo) to self enlightenment ideas

Ok thanks. It's just so random 😂

[EmileeSmith]

really helpful thankyou

[lozil]

I'm doing Robert Frost poems, and I'm just wondering what the likelihood would be of them specifying which poems to talk about in HSC?

[jamonwindeyer]

I'm doing Robert Frost poems, and I'm just wondering what the likelihood would be of them specifying which poems to talk about in HSC?

Hey hey!



In the current exam format, every text gets the same question. So it's impossible for them to specify in the AoS

[fizzy.123]

Hi! I was wondering what the best structure for the AOS essay would be?
So far I have:
Para #1: Intro
Theme 1
Para #2: PT
Para #3: RT1
Theme 2
Para #4: PT
Para #5: RT 1
Para #6: Conclusion

[EmileeSmith]

can we just talk about one theme or do the hsc markers prefer 2+ themes?

[karenc.]

can we just talk about one theme or do the hsc markers prefer 2+ themes?

definitely at least 2, if not 3.

[EmileeSmith]

definitely at least 2, if not 3.

oh thank you
so I need two themes that relates to both texts?
 and I don't really understand how to incorporate the theme in the essay

[karenc.]

oh thank you
so I need two themes that relates to both texts?
 and I don't really understand how to incorporate the theme in the essay

yeah think of an umbrella theme/idea that fits both texts
From personal experience, include quotes that represent the theme and analyse them:)

[EmileeSmith]

yeah think of an umbrella theme/idea that fits both texts
From personal experience, include quotes that represent the theme and analyse them:)

Thank you so much !!

[ssarahj]

Hi! I was wondering what the best structure for the AOS essay would be?
So far I have:
Para #1: Intro
Theme 1
Para #2: PT
Para #3: RT1
Theme 2
Para #4: PT
Para #5: RT 1
Para #6: Conclusion

That structure looks great to me! I know Elyse used a similar structure to this and it was really effective, it really just comes down to your ideas and your texts. If you have a practise essay using this structure feel free to post it up on the marking forum (once you reach 15 posts) and you can get some feedback 

oh thank you
so I need two themes that relates to both texts?
 and I don't really understand how to incorporate the theme in the essay

Just to clarify: Usually the terms "theme" and "ideas" are used interchangeably so for your essay you need 2-4 ideas depending on your paragraph structure and whether you're writing an integrated response or not. There are quite a few possibilities. So for example, you could use a similar structure to fizzy.123 or you could do something like this:

Intro.
Idea 1 = Paragraph 1 = PT & RT
Idea 2 = Paragraph 2 = PT & RT
Idea 3 = Paragraph 3 = PT & RT
Idea 4 = Paragraph 4 = PT & RT
Conc.