Does HSC English help with other humanities? (1 Viewer)

[teridax]

Broad question: So I've been pondering on this for a while, and I was wondering if your skills in HSC English are useful for other subjects; namely the histories, and social sciences?

 

[russelvalentine78]

The skills developed from writing in English are definitely transferable to other essay-driven subjects (namely history) and vice versa.

 

[TrentsUnicorn]

Short answer: no. Despite what many students believe, being good at English doesn't necessarily translate to other subjects at all. Nonetheless, there's no denying that in any essay writing subject, you need to have the ability to construct an argument that is solidly grounded in evidence to prove your overall. For English, it's about nailing the criteria and putting on 'smokes and mirrors'. Yet, the latter doesn't apply for the humanities because as soon as you try, you're shooting yourself in the foot. Markers don't get a single damn on your ability to produce flowery language (though this is important to play the game in HSC English, e.g. "a timeless delving into x,y,z is predicated by exploring the multifaceted nature of human existence") All they care about is whether you have clarity in your expression and get straight to the point. I learn this mistake myself for Modern and Eco where I used my English skills but it didn't result in much, in fact it was detrimental to my writing.

tl;dr HSC English is flawed in that your bullshit will not translate to other humanities purely because the mechanics of essay writing are totally different.

pretty much this. English will help you only so much it if you don't know your content...
English is "easy" to bs, humanities not so much.

 

[BLIT2014]

Dunno might have slightly helped with business studies as far as 'bullshitting' part of the components.

 

[HecticSandWitch]

Helps me get used to writing a shit ton of practice essays but in general, the type of essays you write are quite different, as hawk discussed.

 

[Martin_SSEDU]

I did Ext. English for the HSC and a bunch of humanities (Legal Studies and Economics) and I always aced most exams (95%+), I would definitely attribute some of that to my understanding of what English really is about. Basically, the better you are at English the better you are at figuring out what needs to be included in a response of any kind, you might not be quoting but there is a sort of writing structure that English does help you in. Hope that helps!