Length of essays in English papers

BubblesXD

BrendaN_f wrote: »

haha, do you? and what made your mock examiner so much more competent than mine?

I never said yours was more competent than mine. Realistically discussing your comparative in 2.5 pages is a joke. That is all

MikeHough

Bbbbolger wrote: »

Also, on the matter of the amount of pages, writing size has a lot to do with it. I have very small writing. I can fit 3 pages of a few of my friends writing onto 2 pages. So one persons 7 page comparative could be 4 or 5 for you if they have large writing and you have small writing.

ya i hear 10-12 is the average words per line so base the average answer length on that i guess and change it to suit your word count per line

rockycoolness22

I've found for myself that my comparative usually fits just over 4 pages or so!
For Hamlet I do between 3 and 4 pages and poetry about 3

Dr. Ring

Honestly it's not about quantity, it's about quality. I wrote TWO pages for my King Lear essay, three-four for my poetry (Yeats) and probably close to seven or eight pages in total for my comparitive (30/40 question). Maybe a page for unseen and tht was it.

I know the comparitive was long but if you make good arguements, use the PQE rule and keep your answer sounding fresh and fluid you should do very well.

Dont panic tonight about length guys. Make your point and leave it. An extra page or two of rambling is an awful lot worse than someone who was smart enough to call it a day after a page and a half.

Best of luck to all of ye tomorrow. I'll be thinkin of ye

Salty

Also, if you're running out of time on a question, leave it and move on. It's easier to got from 0-40 in a new question, than 80-90 in the one you were working on. Hope that makes sense.:P

BrendaN_f

BubblesXD wrote: »

I never said yours was more competent than mine. Realistically discussing your comparative in 2.5 pages is a joke. That is all

well then, if our examiners were of equal competence, and we both got the same score, despite the length differences, then why is it a joke? maybe you just aren't very concise

j123456789

Dr. Ring wrote: »

Honestly it's not about quantity, it's about quality. I wrote TWO pages for my King Lear essay, three-four for my poetry (Yeats) and probably close to seven or eight pages in total for my comparitive (30/40 question). Maybe a page for unseen and tht was it.

I know the comparitive was long but if you make good arguements, use the PQE rule and keep your answer sounding fresh and fluid you should do very well.

Dont panic tonight about length guys. Make your point and leave it. An extra page or two of rambling is an awful lot worse than someone who was smart enough to call it a day after a page and a half.

Best of luck to all of ye tomorrow. I'll be thinkin of ye

What is the PQE rule?

Bbbbolger

PQE equals point, quote, explain. You make your point, give a relevant quotation and then explain the point with reference to the quotation.

easkey92

How long should you do for each question in english paper 1 & 2 ?

J_E

Composition should be between 3-5 pages.
Unseen poem, about 1-2 pages.
You should be aiming for a good 3-4 pages for the long questions on Paper 2, more if you actually have more to say, not just waffling on.

Remember though it's ALWAYS quality over quantity.

randylonghorn

Folks, as someone who has corrected HL English, I can't emphasise enough:

QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY!!

Dr. Ring wrote: »

Dont panic tonight about length guys.

Good advice for the LC ... and for life! :pac:

DaveMur1

randylonghorn wrote: »

QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY!!


Good advice for the LC ... and for life! :pac:

Well this thread just got dirty

What if someone preferred a longer piece over a small one that's used well ????
:pac:

randylonghorn

DaveMur1 wrote: »

Well this thread just got dirty

It did?

*checks innocent face in the mirror and adjusts halo slightly*

DaveMur1 wrote: »

What if someone preferred a longer piece over a small one that's used well ????
:pac:

It's how well it's done and the end result that's more important always, not the length.

Any wo corrector will tell you that!!

murphp

My comparative will be 6 pages.
My poetry will be around 4.
I hope to write 4 pages on Hamlet.

My teacher recommends at least 4 for them all, and over 4 for comparative

spurious

Cydoniac wrote: »

If you effectively deal with the question and cover what it asks, showing you know your stuff, they're not looking for reams of paper to give you that A.

Exactly - and one of the skills they are looking for in a high scoring candidate is to get to the point, make it clearly, back it up and finish. The last thing they want is another x number of pages saying the same thing.

Gumbi

spurious wrote: »

Exactly - and one of the skills they are looking for in a high scoring candidate is to get to the point, make it clearly, back it up and finish. The last thing they want is another x number of pages saying the same thing.

I agree completely. however, as a general rule of thumb, neither the comparative, poetry or Hamlet could be adequately answered in less than two pages. MAYBE Hamlet, but it's a stretch and it depends on the question asked.

Whiskey757

How long is each answer expected to be?

partyatmygaff

Generally speaking...

Paper 1
50 Marks = 2 A4 pages
15 Marks = 3/5 A4 page
20 Marks = 4/5 A4 page
100 Marks = 4 A4 pages

Good luck.

randylonghorn

Again I'll say it ... concentrate on quality not quantity!

Whiskey757

randylonghorn wrote: »

Again I'll say it ... concentrate on quality not quantity!

Haha yeah I know that but I'd rather do both :P

philip___

as a rule of thumb, in any junior or leaving cert subject where there is a lot of writing invloved, 5 marks is one paragagraph. Usually i would get 4 paragraphs in an a4 page. Don't be afraid to use loads of paper....at the end of the day you dont have to pay extra for extra paper so you might as well use it!:rolleyes:

delta_bravo

For gods sake go to bed!

Whiskey757

Well ye see, for my mocks I wrote like 5 or 6 pages for my Hamlet question and then I didn't have much time and my comparative was short, but people I talked to afterwards said their Hamlet question was the same but they had plenty of time, so I think my writing might just be smaller than average.

bigred100

Just write until you have nothing left to write, then you'll know you couldn't have done more.

implausible

GO TO BED!

Stop worrying about what others wrote/write/will write. You have no idea of the quality of their answers. Divide up your time, stop when the time is up and move on....

Oh yeah, and......GO TO BED!

NOW!

unknowntoown

my comparative will be will be 2-3 pages probably 3
hamlet will be 3-4 mad easy
poetry will only be 2-3 as my teacher did feck all poetry with us, he only did boland and frost and didnt go back to the poetry course since :Z so il be studying like mad for poetry today

for the mocks i got 43percent and that was without doing the comparative and prescribed poetry question as i didnt have them ready
so im looking for at least a c1 or b3

Patriciamc93

Sorry if this has been already posted but I couldn't find it. How long should your essays be for paper two at the moment this is what I can write

Hamlet 4
Comparative 5
Poetry 4

Does that sound ok? I am looking for a c one!

Thanks!

J_E

How many times have we said quality over quantity today >_<

They're fine, take them as guidelines not aims though.

AdamD

Cydoniac wrote: »

How many times have we said quality over quantity today >_<

They're fine, take them as guidelines not aims though.

Yeah, but you still need to write a decent amount though.

Gumbi

AdamD wrote: »

Yeah, but you still need to write a decent amount though.

In general, yes. But a page short of each of the above guidelines for each part could still get an A grade. Quality over quantity. Having said that, in general, you're correct.