When it comes to the last section of your ATAR English exam, there can be some confusion as to what you are actually required to do. This section of the exam is testing your ability to receive a prompt and respond to that prompt in a creative way.
There are many options of creative texts that you can craft in this section but essentially they are broken down into three subsections. These are interpretive, imaginative and persuasive. Most teachers now will teach you how to write a narrative response in response to these exam questions, however, you must be aware that you have more options than just to write a narrative.
One strong way to answer this series of questions is through persuasive. Persuasive essay writing involves taking an opinion on the topic and writing a series of body paragraphs in response to the prompt. Persuasive writing will begin for you in year 3 or year 5 when you were required to do your NAPLAN test. Many of these ideas that you would’ve learnt at a young age should come back and be a part of your learning again as you reach ATAR.
The best thing to do is actually pre-prepare some topics or problems that you are ready to write at a moment’s notice. Here at our top tips for success in writing a persuasive essay for your ATAR exams.
1. Ensure That You Have a Variety of Ideas to Discuss.
When it comes to the composing section of your exam, many students believe that there is no way they can study. This is unequivocally wrong. Being aware of three or four major topics in society and different ideas around those topics will help you actually have something to say. My past students have written about topics from diabetes to euthanasia to racism to bullying to anything else you could possibly write an essay about. The key is to have three or four different ideas that you could go to. The way to decide on these ideas is to brainstorm some of the key issues and topics that interest you and maybe have a look at your other subjects for ideas. Are you a history buff? Perhaps have a look at the efficacy of communism compared to capitalism and you could write or craft an interpretive response to the idea of communism. If you are interested in the sciences perhaps you could write about vaccinations or infectious disease control. There are many different topics that you could write about but the most important thing is to write about something that interests you, otherwise, you’ll find it difficult to maintain steam as the year progresses.
2. Pre-Plan Your Answers and Try and Apply Them to Past Questions.
There are often themes that emerge when you look at different exams over the past 5 to 10 years in English. Things like technology, issues that affect teenagers and issues that affect our society are often cited in the composing section of the exam. Choose three topics that you are interested in and research all of the negatives of these issues, the consequences of these issues and the solutions to these issues and try to apply them to the prompts from past English exams.
3. Focus on Your Integration of Persuasive Devices.
Persuasive devices are those handy little things that help us to understand that the text that you have written is persuasive. These include things such as inclusive language, rhetorical questions, facts and statistics, anecdotal evidence, personal voice, figurative language, emotive language and other elements that you are probably a custom to interpreting in your comprehending section. Please make an effort to remember these and then incorporate them into your text. Markers love to see when students have actually thought through the persuasive elements and try to make an effort to use them cohesively within the peace. A personal favourite of mine is inclusive language when you were talking about issues that affect the whole of society. Ensure that you include at least three of them in each body paragraph.
For more information on how to write and then suasive text for your ATAR English exam, contact Perth English Tutor today.
