do we define discovery in our discovery essay (1 Viewer)

[swagster0906]

hey guys so this might sound like a silly qu but do we define discovery in section 3 of paper 1?

 

[lastofus]

Not a silly question. You should ensure that you define discovery in your 'thesis' - but you need to ensure that this definition is directly and explicitly linked to the direction that the question gives.

Remember to make sure that you don't just rewrite a prepared response. The question will give you a sense of what your definition of discovery should be.

 

[pomsky]

Following on from what lastofus said (epic name btw); usually this 'definition' is a short statement about the characteristics and/or consequences of discovery that you're exploring in your essay. This can be your thesis, an expansion of your thesis or a contextual statement preceding your thesis- it doesn't really matter and really, it's personal preference.

Tbh, you're probably doing it subconsciously ahaha. It's also nearly impossible to generate a good thesis statement without describing discovery. Plus the rubric is pretty much a long-ass definition and if you lift out chunks of the rubric and incorporate that into your essays, you're more or less defining discovery.

 

[Mathislife]

Following on from what lastofus said (epic name btw); usually this 'definition' is a short statement about the characteristics and/or consequences of discovery that you're exploring in your essay. This can be your thesis, an expansion of your thesis or a contextual statement preceding your thesis- it doesn't really matter and really, it's personal preference.

Tbh, you're probably doing it subconsciously ahaha. It's also nearly impossible to generate a good thesis statement without describing discovery. Plus the rubric is pretty much a long-ass definition and if you lift out chunks of the rubric and incorporate that into your essays, you're more or less defining discovery.

Like Pomsky said, essentially your thesis determines how you perceive discovery. You don't give some copy-paste dictionary answer but rather what YOU think discovery is in relation to your text/s.

 

[Face of Humanity]

Like Pomsky said, essentially your thesis determines how you perceive discovery. You don't give some copy-paste dictionary answer but rather what YOU think discovery is in relation to your text/s.

The best way to do this is to write out the essay first, you have a really good understanding of what you're actually covering, then define it using the most important things you are arguing. If you try define it first its practically impossible. It has to be an overarching statement which demonstrates your personal understanding, derived from your set and related text and based on the points covered in essay

 

[sharoooooo]

not a dictionary definition. but use similes for the words in the syllabus to relate it to your text and create a thesis to answer the Q.

 

[pomsky]

The best way to do this is to write out the essay first, you have a really good understanding of what you're actually covering, then define it using the most important things you are arguing. If you try define it first its practically impossible. It has to be an overarching statement which demonstrates your personal understanding, derived from your set and related text and based on the points covered in essay

Not necessarily.

Personally, I found the biggest blockade in writing English essays, or even English in general, was that students (particularly past, salty ones) tend to over-dramatize its difficulty. (You'll find quite a few on BOS) A thesis need not to be something as dramatic as to demonstrate anything as dramatic as your 'personal understanding' (although teachers do describe it as such a lot), it's simply an overview of what you want to say in your essay. Generally it's a debatable claim that answers the question, debatable as in you debate it within your essay in your body paragraphs. It's also not impossible to define what you want to say from the get-go.

Writing your essay out without guidance or a clear line of argument to follow is rather difficult, and can lead to waffling or confusion when writing it out. Your thesis should just be a clear-line of argument and if anything else, a one or two sentence essay plan for you to follow. What I like to do is to write out my thesis and my topic sentences for each body paragraph before fleshing out the analysis. Once this is done, I return back to my thesis and fix up anything so that it both addresses the question and links to my essay. This is to ensure fluidity among my essays as that is often a key determinant in whether markers think you are 'topping and tailing' in your essays. It also makes everything nicer to look at ahahaha.

 

[Ununoctium]

The best discovery theses don't just answer the question. They provide sophisticated, personal insight.

As for 'defining' discovery, no. It won't serve you to define it. Rather, demonstrate how discovery relates to the question.