The problem with doing technique before quote (in my eyes at least) is that to make it work you need to combine it all into one sentence, (the quote, technical analysis etc.) which more often than not leads to clunky phrasing. It just strikes me as a lot more logical to introduce a quote, let the marker absorb it, then go on to analyse the techniques in it etc.
And it isn't strictly speaking a flaw of the education system, it's easy to blame the system but in reality the onus is also on the student to take the initiative to work on structure themselves, the thing with education is it's one thing to learn the theory but another to put it in practice and it's the latter, not the former, where most problems occur.
If you spend too much time on story-telling then you aren't sticking to structure because you aren't covering the components of structure.
Although structure and other things might be "separate" dot points, everything is inter-linked and each factor affects the other. Which is why structure is particularly important too because it doesn't matter how good your ideas are if you cannot express them properly. It is a balance between many factors.
Also lol i never implied a student gets a band 6 from structure alone, I simply said that the presumption that most if not all people know how to structure an essay by year 12 is incorrect because if they did, there would definitely be a higher proportion of band 6s considering how important structure is to getting a top-notch essay.
Idk, I was told specifically by my teachers not to put quote first. If you'll like, I can go and question them on the reason~ There's more than one way to write it so meh. The structure I've been introduced to has worked well for me thus far.
I blamed the system because I was under the impression you were referring to teachers as part of your, "there's a difference between what happens and what will happen" statement. Yes. And I agree with buriza in that students don't usually have the initative to approach English outside of school work but school should be enough to reinforce essay structure....
Exactly. Structure is the mechanism in which students articulate ideas. I don't understand how a student can go through 7-10 without getting the structure downpat if it's a fundamental of the English course we take.
Storytelling can be "sticking" to structure to a degree. For example, me contextual sentence could be 4 sentences long, and so has cost me word count which can be better used for analysis. You're still sticking to the structure, you're just elaborating on one part for too long which is costing you time and word count, leading to a ~more ineffective~ argument. Another example could be a really long "effect" sentence(s) where the student has explained too much about what a particular technique does in regards to contextual values etc.
My bad then~ But having a larger amount of students know their essay structure doesn't necessarily affect the amount of students getting a band 6 anyways. I was under the assumption that it's how a student backs up their argument, which determines the mark. Your B.P could be completely structural yet, you have a crappy idea and crappy analysis or you don't answer a question. Structure is but the very basic of essay writing, I don't think you could make the assumption that there would be more band 6s if more students know essay structure before year 11, because they should already.
To be frank, to assume that all high school students will have initiative is a poor assumption. At the end of the day, they are still teenagers who are maturing and even in university, students lack initiative. With that said, if a student hasn't been taught properly in their teenage years how to write an essay, I can completely understand how it could be difficult for them to learn. It is the responsibility of a teacher to inform students of these essential skills anyway.
Not to mention I don't know what "other alternatives" there could be. Sure, there is tutoring, but not every student can afford tutoring or is benefited by it. Furthermore, looking on the internet or searching through books is not the same as being able to have a teacher go through it with you. I have been privileged enough to go to a selective school where my skills have been enriched, however it would be silly of me to think everyone else has the same opportunities as I did.
Moreover, there is a lot more to essays than knowing your content. You have to be able to articulate your ideas in essays and for many students expression does happen to be a problem. There is also the issue of originality and being able to appropriately select textual evidence to support your ideas.
Students do often lack initiative, I agree wholeheartedly with that. But what I'm arguing is that the sheer amount of essays and inevitably practice essay and/or paragraphs (in class, home etc) should enable a student to at the very least, know the basics of essay structure. You should know by senior years, how to structure a body essay, how to structure your analysis. It has been repeated for 5 years. And it's not even just the English faculty who promotes this. It's pretty much every subject that requires research-based assessments to be completed. E.g History, geography, science (to a degree), VA and etc.
School is compulsory. A student will have at the very least an English class a week. I'm not saying students have to learn the structure of an essay by themselves. They should know it from the sheer amount of English classes attended in the past 5 years. To know how to write an essay is the foundation of articulating your ideas. I'm not even talking about the minority of students who bludge but even just normal students who want to succeed. This forum is targeted towards high achievers (presumably). These students IMO should know at the very least, the basics of essay structures
by now and/or have some initiative to learn it by now if they haven't.
