English Essay [paper 1]

Scraggs

hey everyone,
with only 6 days left i've kinda had a realisation....we have to write an essay in paper 1 and its worth the most marks.
To date i havent written a single essay [excluding work for junior cert 3 years ago] and i am for want of a better phrase totally screwed!
What kind of composition are they expecting, what kind of standard etc.?? Also i hear of people learning off essays that can be adapted to most titles/themes/whatever and was wondering if anyone would like to share one with me [by pm of course]....worth a shot anyway...

What can i do with only 6 days left and class over forever?
o and call me crazy but i need a b2 minimum!!!!
Thanks everybody and i genuinely wish ye all the very best of luck, and hope ye all get the course ye want!!!
Scraggs

Only Human

Scraggs wrote:

hey everyone,
with only 6 days left i've kinda had a realisation....we have to write an essay in paper 1 and its worth the most marks.
To date i havent written a single essay [excluding work for junior cert 3 years ago] and i am for want of a better phrase totally screwed!
What kind of composition are they expecting, what kind of standard etc.?? Also i hear of people learning off essays that can be adapted to most titles/themes/whatever and was wondering if anyone would like to share one with me [by pm of course]....worth a shot anyway...

What can i do with only 6 days left and class over forever?
o and call me crazy but i need a b2 minimum!!!!
Thanks everybody and i genuinely wish ye all the very best of luck, and hope ye all get the course ye want!!!
Scraggs

I've been just posting on forums for the last year. That's increased my vocabulary a great deal and it's also improved my writing ability. Just be creative. Write about something you realy like. There's no real way you can prepare for English paper 1. I'm not going to bother at all. I'm sorted for both papers.

Exposition
Development
Climax
Resolution

BraveheartGal

Only Human wrote:

I've been just posting on forums for the last year. That's increased my vocabulary a great deal and it's also improved my writing ability. Just be creative. Write about something you realy like. There's no real way you can prepare for English paper 1. I'm not going to bother at all. I'm sorted for both papers.

*looks at you jealously*
prepared
pfft

deisedolly

My brother was never good at english, but did the honours for the leaving and he wrote a comedic essay and ended up getting an A2, my sister also wrote a funny essay and when she went to get her papers reviewed realised she had gotten nearly all the marks for an essay about a knacker! Seems to be a good route to take for an essay! I'm only in 5th year so I'm gona try learn as many big words as i can between now and next year haha, goodluck with the essay scraggs

acri

Ive only ever written one essay and it got me an A - A+, so mabye I had the right combo of ingredients. I made it as cinematic as I could, lots of action, quite a bit of swearing, violence and a homicidal sniper. Then again, that could be risky.

Only Human

BraveheartGal wrote:

*looks at you jealously*
prepared
pfft

^_^

claires friend

Scraggs wrote:

hey everyone,
with only 6 days left i've kinda had a realisation....we have to write an essay in paper 1 and its worth the most marks.
To date i havent written a single essay [excluding work for junior cert 3 years ago] and i am for want of a better phrase totally screwed!
What kind of composition are they expecting, what kind of standard etc.?? Also i hear of people learning off essays that can be adapted to most titles/themes/whatever and was wondering if anyone would like to share one with me [by pm of course]....worth a shot anyway...

What can i do with only 6 days left and class over forever?
o and call me crazy but i need a b2 minimum!!!!
Thanks everybody and i genuinely wish ye all the very best of luck, and hope ye all get the course ye want!!!
Scraggs

YOu posted that exactly at the start of the mocks!

Cherry_Pie

Essay Plan:

P - 30
C- 30
L - 30
M - 10 = 100 marks

Give yourself 1 hr 25 mins to write
Do it 2nd after Comprehension and functional writing
20 mins planning
Must be over 4 pages (aim for 5)
10 - 14 Paragraphs

Ideas for kinds of essays to start thinking about NOW:

Tv
Sport
The MEdia - new archbishop, newspaper , magazines, tabloids
Aids \ HIV
Refugess
Famine
Tribunals
House PRices
Crime on the Streets
Drinking
Obesity
Icons

Exploit your title! Read the titles carefully and pick one you can manipulate to suit you! Do not pick a fancy title just to try and impress the examiner , pick the title you feel comfortable with and have information on.

Structure of each paragraph:
Topic - Make a point - theme?
Develop/Explani/Expand
Referece - example to suport the theme
Specific (Illustration\personal experience)
Conclusion of that point

Vary Punctuation - !, " " , ?

Hope that helps!

crimsonfire

It helps if you incorporate things your already familiar with. People who know loads about something tend to come off well when they write about. Another piece of advice which i feel is working for me is to try and base your essay with a fairly strong emotion behind it i.e. an essay about littering the countryside could have this really tangible sense of disgust about it.
When prose is charged with a really extreme feeling and you're writing as if you have experienced the events then i'd say the examiner will lose his bowel control in delight or more realistically give you decent marks and leave his trousers unsoiled.

claires friend

Q. How much can you stretch a title!
If they ask for a personal essay do you loose marks if its in the 3rd person?
If you are asked to write a Diary, can you throw in a letter/news report but have most of it in Diary form

Scraggs

Thank you!!! Thats really helpful in particular cherry pie and crimsonfire -pure angels!!!
claires friend sorry for repeating myself... but i dont think i did ...the mocks were so long ago!!

Africa

Cant wait to do this. I love English papaer 1, even if i aint an A student in english, i actually enjoy sitting thee and thinking about something i couldnt study for! shouldbe fine, i should be doing a personal essay.....they are easy...

hullaballoo

When you get an essay title, write down the following
Opening paragraph -
1 -
2 -
3 -
4 -
5 -
6 -
Closing paragraph.

Then brainstorm the essay title until you have 6 points.

In the opening paragraph state what you're going to say (avoid using "I") and introduce the first point.

Write exactly one paragraph (usually 8 lines) on each point thereafter, and the last sentence should link to the next paragraph.

Summarise in the last paragraph restating your opinion.

There's no need to go over three pages unless you have big writing, in my leaving cert, every single essay i did was exactly three pages long and i got A1's in those subjects.

Also, it's a good idea to prepare an opening paragraph you can change to fit any essay title. All of my essays opened (and still do) with "E pluribus, unum; out of many, one" and it can be made to fit any topic.

Good Luck!

ThenComesDudley

Scraggs wrote:

hey everyone,
with only 6 days left i've kinda had a realisation....we have to write an essay in paper 1 and its worth the most marks.
To date i havent written a single essay [excluding work for junior cert 3 years ago] and i am for want of a better phrase totally screwed!
What kind of composition are they expecting, what kind of standard etc.?? Also i hear of people learning off essays that can be adapted to most titles/themes/whatever and was wondering if anyone would like to share one with me [by pm of course]....worth a shot anyway...

What can i do with only 6 days left and class over forever?
o and call me crazy but i need a b2 minimum!!!!
Thanks everybody and i genuinely wish ye all the very best of luck, and hope ye all get the course ye want!!!
Scraggs

I usually pick the title I can use my imagination most with, think about it, if you were an examiner you'd get pretty ****ing bored reading the usual humdrum repetitive crap over and over again. I was told by two english teachers that basicially a good imaginative essay (even a slightly crazy one) will boost your marks in that section. You just have to show what you can do 'with words' in a set amount of time and it has to be reasonably impressive. For an example, in the mocks I wrote about an inbred boy from cork who for his 12th birthday was allowed ride the cart into town by himself and go buy himself a treat from the shops!..it all ended up badly for the poor chap when a myriad of unfortunate events fell upon him, such as people laughing at his deformities and falling in some horse poop. Then when he returned home, his family had a hearty laugh at him and indeed, the poor boy never ventured outside the farm again.. Needless to say I got full marks on that Pity I only did the first paper though..doh!!!!!!!
Just be mad, they like humour too..examiners are human..if something brightens their crappy job (it really is crappy when you think about it) they'll go easier on you






*not thencomesdudley rather his gf typing here*