Category: VCE English

Essay Writing, VCE English

What is an essay and how can we help our teens?

Shirlaine

It’s been years since I’ve even thought about an essay. How can I help my teen write good VCE English essays?

Many parents

We know that VCE English is important, we know that essay writing is really important to VCE English, but what can we do to help our teen?

First, it’s helpful to know what an essay IS:

In a high school English subject, an essay is a sustained piece of writing that demonstrates the student’s interpretation of a text. But what does this mean?!

If you’re not an English teacher, you’re probably asking, huh? 

Let’s break down some of these terms, or ‘metalanguage’:

‘sustained piece of writing‘ – writing that states the student’s opinion, provides evidence that supports it and explains how the opinion is proven through the offered evidence. 

‘student’s interpretation‘ – the student’s educated opinion 

‘text‘ – any piece of communication, including all media (eg written, drawn, filmed, etc) 

Ta-da! I hope that was helpful!

Now that you know what an English essay is, what are English teachers looking for specifically?

Are you looking for more advice on how to help your teen with their English subject?

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Essay Writing, VCE English

What are teachers looking for in a high school or VCE English essay?

Shirlaine

I like to summarise it as the following three things:

  1. an interpretation of the text
  2. depth of understanding of themes, motifs and symbols
  3. textual evidence to support all the above

Of course there are lots of other things teachers look for in a high school or VCE English essay. However, I think these are the biggest, most important things that teachers are assessing when they are marking a VCE SAC.

So what does this mean in reality? What specific things can we point out to our students or teens when we are tutoring them? I outline this in helpful dot points in our newsletter here. Click on the ‘Has it been years since you’ve written an essay?’ edition!

Are you looking for more advice on how to help your teen with their English subject?

We publish 2-3 newsletters per term.
No spam – we promise!

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