ESSAY WRITING

Essay Writing is an important component of secondary school assessment and is a vital skill for success at university. However, students often struggle to write clear, well-reasoned and well-structured extended responses.

Sometimes, this is because students are not aware of what is needed to write a good extended response.  Other times, students become stressed and overwhelmed in exams and lose confidence in the skills they have learned.

Students need to be able to:

• Explicitly answer the question, addressing both the key literary or subject concepts in the question, and the actions required (e.g. compare, discuss, evaluate).
• Answer the question asked rather than the question they want to answer.
• Briefly map out their response, rather than rushing into an answer without knowing where the response is going.
• Ensure that the introductory paragraph states the position they will argue in the essay.
• Break their essay into logical parts and paragraphs so that the marker can clearly see the argument that is being presented.
• Clearly argue their thesis by applying the conventions and knowledge they have learnt in class.
• Produce concluding statements that summarise and demonstrate how they have answered the question.

Master Mind Australia can help you to gain confidence in developing these and other essay writing skills.  Our holiday courses for Year 7-12 students offer Essay Writing classes that will teach you how to write effective essays and give them time to practice some of the key essay writing skills.