How to structure an essay for critical readings (1 Viewer)

[grovy_girl11000]

Hi, I have me trials in a week and I was wondering if anyone knows how to structure on essay on the critical readings of Yeats' poems. I'm not sure if I should write it by the themes of the different readings or if I should apply the readings to different poems eg: reading a) poem a) then Reading b) poem b) etc. If anyone has any idea could you please give me some pointers?

 

[jenniue]

hi, don't know if this will help u much but it's as much as i know
our teacher toldus that you pick two conflicting points of view or readings, and in your introduction you have to define which readings you are using, and your argument.,
then spend one paragraph on each point, examinng from the two view points. set up like a discussion essay, try a google search and that should bring up a discussion essay scaffold, use points from the poems and link a technique to every point you make
try searching this site and see if anyone has posted some of their essays about this to look at an example or try the hsc syllubus in the markers part or the student responses.
conclude with your opinion and a final statement, but they said always leave the marker wanting more...
goood luck
my trials are on in 2 weeks and we just found out today that what one of our teachers told us about the readings was all wrong!
good luck
xoxo

 

[bini_bung]

I'm not too sure about how to structure my essay either. What is really getting at me is how should I go about balancing my essay out. How much of your core text should you discuss in detail as compared to your discussion on readings and productions? I've asked several teachers, and they have conflicting views. Some say focus on core and treat productions as like supp texts, others say focus on readings and bring in core and productions every so often, then there's a few that say go half-half. What's everyone's thoughts on this? Has anyone's teacher's mentioned anything about it? Or anyone heard HSC markers' comments on it?

 

[glitterfairy]

This is purely my opinion on it:

If the question asks you to structure your argument from one angle in particular (eg "A study of Yeats' poems blahblahblah, discuss in relation to 2 additional texts") then you definately want to structure your argument around Yeats. Now whether this means talking about his stuff most, or talking about your other texts IN RELATION to issues and points brought up by your Yeats argument, is up to you (I'd do the latter).

I was taught to try and talk about my texts equally, but it can get a little fuzzy when you're integrating your argument, for example:

*Intro
*Point 1 looking at Text A (Yeats)
*Point 2 looking at Text A and similar issues in Texts B and C
*Point 3 looking at an issue brought up in Text A as explored in Texts B and C
*Point 4 looking at an issue brought up in Text A as explored in Text B in greater detail
*Point 5 looking at an issure brought up in Text A as explored in equal detail in Texts A and C
*CONCLUSION

(NB this is a greatly truncated essay format, in real life it'd be a lot longer!)

It would appear from the above that you talk about Text A the most but in reality you would spend equal time on all texts - you simply narrow down your "essay points" to issues brought up by Text A.


Sometimes if the essay question is more generalised and asks you to refer to "____ plus two additional texts of your own choice" it's basically putting them all on the same level and whilst you should still try to talk about them in equal detail, you technically aren't required to focus on your prescribed text. In this instance I'd focus on whichever text is most appropriate for answering the essay question