To do so would be like telling the marker that you don’t know the text very well. * Person: write in the third person. Scout is not racist. This is partly due to the enlightened house she has grown up in… * TENSE: write in the present tense. Even though To Kill a Mockingbird was written in 1960, the novel describes small town life in a Southern state on America. * Use a formal tone when writing about literature. A Level 2 NCEA essay should not sound like a friendly conversation! * Try to leave 3-4 minutes to check your writing.
Check: * your sentence length * your punctuation, especially capitals and apostrophes * your spelling General Advice * Re-read the text/s, if possible. I realise that this is not always a desired or viable option, but it is one of the best ways of re-familiarizing yourself with the text/s. * Don’t answer the ‘wrong question’. That is, give some thought to whether or not the question suits the text that you have studied. * Take 7-8 minutes to do a brainstorm/plan. This is definitely not wasted time.
Your introduction will be better, the overall structure of your essay will be better and, most significantly, you can write faster when you’re following a plan. * Don’t sacrifice quality for quantity. Sometimes I read essays where students have continued writing after they were really finished and weakened what had been a good and well-organised essay. While most of you will need the full time suggested in the exam, you should not feel obliged to write until the last minute. You should not introduce a whole new direction when you have finished what you set out to write.
The Essay on One Jackson Don Minutes
"Uh oh, says Lance. "I can see the police. I better pick up some speed." I can still see the prison behind me after five long minutes of hard running through three-foot tall weeds. The searchlights from helicopters above provide adequate lighting for me. I take one step at a time trying not to make any unnecessary noise. As I strip down to my shorts and t-shirt I take notice to how cold it is ...
It is decidedly unhelpful to introduce irrelevant details or repeat oneself just for the sake of continuing to write. * Be specific about genre and writers. Instead of saying ‘text’, say ‘novel’ or poem’. Write about the ‘novelists’ or ‘poet’ instead of just ‘writer. ’ * Don’t discuss characters as though they were real people. You need to remove yourself somewhat from the text. To discuss a character’s ‘personality’ is inappropriate. Rather, discuss his or her characteristics.
