Texts and Human Experiences (prescribed text essay)

Paper 1 Section II is a 20-mark essay on the prescribed text you studied for Texts and human experiences. You will not know the question in advance, so the goal is to know your text so well that you can build a fresh argument under time pressure.

• The paper: Paper 1 has 10 minutes of reading time and 90 minutes of working time for 40 marks. Section II is half the paper, so it deserves about 45 minutes.
• The question: one question, written so that it works for every prescribed text. Expect a statement to respond to ("To what extent does your prescribed text support this view?"), a "How does..." question or an "Evaluate..." question. The question is common to English Standard and may include a stimulus (for example a quotation or an unseen text) that you must use. If you studied poetry, expect to discuss at least two set poems in depth.
• What is marked: a clear, sustained response to the question; how well you analyse the way your text represents human experience; well-chosen evidence; and control of language and structure.

The prescribed texts

The prescribed texts for this module in this course are: Jessica Au's Cold Enough for Snow, David Malouf's An Imaginary Life, Richard Flanagan's Question 7, Michael Gow's Away, Rachel Perkins's One Night the Moon, Henry Lawson's short stories, and poetry by Rosemary Dobson, Gwen Harwood and Samuel Wagan Watson. See the Prescribed texts page for this course for the full list, including the set poems and stories. Lawson's stories are out of copyright, so you can read them on this site; for the others, use your school's copy.

What the module asks

The common module asks how texts represent human experiences, individual and collective, and what they reveal about people. In your own words, an essay should show that you understand:

• the experiences your text represents (for example grief, memory, belonging, isolation, love, guilt or change) and why they matter;
• how the text represents identity and growth, and the tension between agency and conformity;
• the contradictions in why people act as they do, and how the text challenges the audience's assumptions;
• how the composer's techniques and choices of form invite a response from the audience.

The last point is where most marks are. Every claim about experience must be supported by analysis of how the text creates it.

You cannot memorise an essay for an unknown question, but you can prepare the parts.

Build an experience bank

Pick three or four big ideas about human experience that your text explores. For each one, collect four to six pieces of evidence: short quotations or, for film and drama, specific moments. For each piece of evidence, write:

1. the quotation or moment (short);
2. the technique;
3. the effect, in one sentence;
4. the link to human experience, in one sentence.

That gives you 15 to 25 analysed pieces of evidence. In the exam you choose the ones that fit the question.

Know the form

Different forms need different techniques. Use the vocabulary that matches your text.

Know the context

Context helps when it explains a choice. Know when and where the text was written, what it responds to, and any key facts the text depends on. Use context in a sentence or two, linked to an idea, never as a history lesson.

Spend two to three minutes on this. It saves you writing an answer to the question you hoped for.

1. Underline the key words in any statement, and the command verb.
2. Rewrite the question as a plain question in your head.
3. Decide your position: how far does your text support it? "Largely, but..." is often the most interesting answer.
4. Choose two or three ideas from your experience bank that fit, and the order you will use.

Example

Here is an invented question (not from any exam): "Human experiences are shaped as much by everyday routine as by dramatic events. To what extent does your prescribed text support this view?"

• Key words: "everyday routine", "dramatic events", "as much as", "to what extent".
• Plain question: does my text show ordinary routines mattering as much as big moments?
• Position: the text supports the view, and goes further: routine is how characters survive dramatic events.

A thesis is your one- or two-sentence answer to the question. It should be arguable, use the question's key words and suggest the shape of the essay.

A useful pattern: [Composer] [verb] [idea from the question], [qualification or extension], through [main techniques or aspects].

A stronger thesis on the invented question above, for Lawson's stories: Lawson suggests that bush life is defined less by its dramatic crises than by the routines people build to endure them, though his laconic narrators also reveal how those routines can hide, rather than heal, loneliness.

That thesis agrees, extends the question ("to endure them") and adds a qualification ("hide, rather than heal") that gives the essay a sense of judgement.

A typical exam essay is 800 to 1,200 words: an introduction, three body paragraphs and a short conclusion.

Introduction (about 80–120 words)

• Answer the question immediately with your thesis.
• Name the composer, the text and its form.
• Give a brief road map: the two or three ideas your paragraphs will develop.
• One sentence of context only if it helps the argument.

Body paragraphs (about 200–300 words each)

Each paragraph argues one idea that answers the question. A dependable pattern is:

1. Topic sentence: a claim that answers the question in your own words.
2. Elaboration: one or two sentences explaining the idea, maybe with context.
3. Evidence and analysis: two or three pieces of evidence, each with technique and effect.
4. Link: a final sentence that ties the paragraph back to the question and the thesis.

Each piece of analysis should do more than name a technique. Ask "how?" and "so what?" after every quotation.

Conclusion (about 50–80 words)

Restate your thesis in fresh words, sum up how your ideas fit together, and end with a broader insight about human experience. No new evidence.

This paragraph uses the invented question above and Henry Lawson's "The Drover's Wife", which is in the public domain. It is a model of the pattern, not a full essay.

Topic sentence: In "The Drover's Wife", Lawson shows that routine is the means by which an isolated woman preserves her dignity and sense of self.

Elaboration: The story is set in an isolated hut while the woman's husband is away droving, and her days are measured by watchfulness rather than events.

Evidence and analysis: The opening describes "Bush all round—bush with no horizon, for the country is flat", and the dash and the repetition of "bush" create a landscape without boundaries or landmarks, mirroring a life with nothing to mark one day from the next. Against this, Lawson describes her Sunday ritual: she dresses herself and the children and walks the bush track, taking "as much care to make herself and the children look smart as she would if she were going to do the block in the city." The comparison with a city promenade is gently ironic, because "There is nothing to see, however, and not a soul to meet." The narrator's flat, understated tone refuses to make this pathetic. Instead the ritual becomes an act of self-respect, a way of insisting on her identity when no one is watching.

Link: Lawson therefore suggests that ordinary routines are not trivial beside the story's dramatic confrontation with the snake, but are the quieter ways a person survives isolation, which supports and extends the view that routine shapes experience.

Notice the moves: claim, context, quotation, technique, effect, link to the question. Quotations are short and woven into sentences. The paragraph has an argument, not a summary of the story.

If you studied poetry, the question will usually ask for at least two poems. Two structures work well.

Either way, refer to specific lines and the poem's form, not just its subject. Name each poem in your introduction. Three poems treated thinly are worth less than two poems analysed closely.

Film and drama essays need performance and production vocabulary. Instead of quoting at length, describe a moment precisely: "In the final scene, the camera pulls back to a high-angle long shot of..." or "The stage direction that the character turns away while speaking...". Song lyrics, dialogue and stage directions can all be quoted briefly. Always explain how the audience is positioned to respond.

Paper 1 has 90 minutes for 40 marks, so the essay is worth about 45 minutes. A plan that works for many students:

If you are running out of time, shorten the last body paragraph rather than skipping the conclusion. A complete argument scores better than an unfinished one.

• Writing a prepared essay that doesn't fit. Markers notice when the question's words appear only in the introduction and conclusion. Each topic sentence must answer this question.
• Retelling the plot. If a sentence just says what happens, it earns little. Analyse how the text represents it.
• Analysis without an idea. A paragraph of techniques with no claim about human experience misses the module.
• Ignoring part of the statement. If the statement has two parts ("hope and fear", "individual and collective"), deal with both.
• Agreeing without judgement. "To what extent" asks how far. Show where the view holds and where it is limited.
• Huge context sections. Context is useful only when it explains a choice the composer made.
• Unbalanced poetry essays. Two poems means two poems in real depth.
• Inaccurate quotations. Learn a smaller number of short quotations exactly rather than many approximately.

• Read the question three times during reading time and start planning in your head.
• Use the question's key words in your thesis, every topic sentence and the conclusion, but vary the phrasing so it doesn't sound mechanical.
• Aim for 12 to 15 pieces of analysed evidence across the essay.
• Use "the composer", "the poet", "the director" or the writer's surname, never just their first name.
• Write in present tense about texts ("Lawson describes", not "Lawson described").
• A sophisticated answer often moves from the individual to the collective: from this character's experience to what it says about people in general.
• Practise full essays in timed conditions, and practise writing introductions and topic sentences for many different questions. The second is quick and builds flexibility.

• Texts and human experiences (unseen texts): Section I of the same paper asks the same kind of question about short unseen texts. The ideas about human experience and the analysis pattern carry straight across.
• Critical study of literature: another single-text essay, with more weight on the text as a whole work of art and on different readings of it. The structures here work there too.
• Textual conversations: the same essay skills, but comparative.