Common Text Essay Writing MistakesYear 11 English

Ignoring the essay topic and retelling the textTo make sure you don’t ignore the topic make sure you:

• Underline key terms

• Reuse key terms in the introduction

• Reuse key terms in the topic sentence of each body paragraph

• And the concluding sentence of each body paragraph

The purpose of an essay to generally present an argument based on your response to the topic. The examiner or teacher has read the text. You only retell or quote to support a point you make so:

Topic sentence with key terms included

Evidence from the text to support point

Explain how it supports your point and

Link back to the idea – key ideas you had in the topic sentence.

Ignoring part of the topic

• If you have a question like:

‘When Muslim’s speak of good fortune, we always remember to thank god…’ p 250. It is Najaf’s faith that helps him overcome the many obstacles that are put in his path. Do you agree?

• Don’t ignore the quote. You would need in this essay to consider good fortune and god as well as the obstacles Najaf overcomes.

• If the questions says:

Without his faith in God and supportive family, Najaf would not have survived his childhood in Afghanistan and journey to becoming an Australian citizen. Discuss.

Make sure you write on God and family – and also on his childhood and journey to becoming an Australian citizen.

Rehashing a previous essay

• Sometimes we are tempted to reproduce some points from an essay we have written before even when it doesn’t relate

• You can avoid this error by looking carefully at the topic, underlining key terms and returning to the topic and key terms through out the essy

Introduction too long

• In an introduction the purpose is to say where you stand on the topic reusing key ideas. You either agree, disagree , partially agree or discuss.

• Then you mention you main 3 ideas that support your point of view. At the most one sentence per idea.

• Generally you don’t include quotes or detailed textual detail.

• Five to eight sentences is long enough for a basic 5 paragraph essay written under SAC conditions in 90 minutes.

Quotes too long or not relevant

• Don’t waste time rote learning a great long quote - you might not even use it as it might not suit the topic

• And just because you learnt it - don’t put it in the essay if it doesn’t fit the topic

• Better to learn nice short quotes – 2 – 8 words

• Let the short quotes ‘flow into your sentences’.

• A reference to something that occurs in the text is just as good as a quote

• So if you haven’t got a quote for your point just refer to the incident or example in the text

Using irrelevant quotes

• Quotes should relate to key themes and ideas

• Reveal something important about the character

• A quote just saying the ‘bomb exploded...’ is pretty useless if you are meant to be discussing how fate or faith saved Najaf’s life. You would want a quote with something about god or faith or luck.

Spelling

• Make sure you know how to spell the main characters names and the names of the important places and events in the novel.

• In this text you should know/learn how to spell:

Najaf Mazari, Gorg Ali, Abdul Ali, Rosal Ali, Hakima, Maria, Robin, Colin,Afghanistan, Australia, Woomera,

The Rugmaker of Mazar-E-Sharif, Robert Hillman, Taliban, Hazara, etc Make your own spelling list.