The Band 6 Formula: The Ultimate Guide to Essay Writing Success

Letter from the Founder

Becoming a great writer shouldn’t be a chore. Something that is never really addressed is that improving your English essay writing skills isn’t a question of talent or genetics. You aren’t necessarily an English, Science or Maths whiz or inherently stupid and incapable of learning something new. The primary mission of Save My HSC is to assist students to unlock their potential and become masters of their craft - no matter what that might be.

So why is English such an important facet of your craft? Well, should you need to write a resume, compile a report, dazzle a potential customer with an introductory email or file a tax return you are going to use some aspect of your English writing to convey your message. How well you communicate through text can be the tool that either opens a door to fresh and exciting possibilities or it can be what holds you back from achieving your own greatness.

- Paul Giannakis

Founder - Save My HSC

An avid learner, Paul has dedicated himself to the improvement of others. Despite having little interest academically in his early youth, English teachers encouraged him to pursue his writing endeavours. This encouragement culminated in him eventually studying a Master of Publishing at the prestigious University of Sydney which honed his reading, writing and teaching abilities.

Introduction

What makes an amazing essay? Let’s face it, crafting an eloquent piece of material that makes markers reel in their seats is certainly not the simplest of challenges. However, seeing how a great essay looks is one of the key elements that you will need in making your own Band 6 essay. Our mission at Save My HSC is to assist students to develop the tools to read, write, analyse and argue in a way that rivals the great minds of history.

Why? Because let’s face it, you aren’t that different to writers who have crafted their way into the annals of the ages. All that is missing is a small piece of the puzzle called mastery. This is the start of your journey. You are sharpening your spear in preparation for the great battle of wits. The beauty of the human mind is that it is incredibly flexible. The more you study a particular topic or item, the more synapses in your brain fire in a similar pattern. What this means is that if you focus on one area for long enough your ability to improve in that area is virtually limitless.

Examination

Great essays follow a formula. Just like a cook would put a number of ingredients into a stew to make a great tasting hot pot, a successful essay contains the right themes and techniques that are peppered in at the appropriate time to create an immersive experience for the reader. We will help you identify these formulaic elements in a band 6 essay and give you the tools to develop a beautifully crafted paper of your own. As well as this, we tackle the marking criteria - although the marking criteria is meant to be a simple guideline for grading, it can be difficult for you to implement the key areas required for the marker due to the subjective nature of the criteria. For example, the marking criteria may ask the student to demonstrate flair in their writing style. Without having techniques to tackle the criteria, it can be incredibly easy to get lost.

Practice

This book has been structured in such a format that allows you to identify the key characteristics that HSC essay markers are looking for which gives you a Band 6 essay. We provide details on the marking criteria for these papers and give you strategies for implementing them into your own work. However, this is not the meat and the potatoes of getting an amazing mark. If you want to get the most value out of this book we recommend doing the exercises laid out for you. The most effective way to retain knowledge is through a technique called spaced repetition, which basically means learning the same content over a long space of time. Read and re-read this book, completing the exercises over time to ensure that the lessons sink in and ensure that you can write a Band 6 essay every single time that you pick up a pen.

Reference Material

This book heavily references the HSC English Syllabus as well as the Prescriptions list for 2015-2020, which can both be found at the following web addresses:

HSC Syllabus from 2010 English Stage 6:

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/english-syllabus-from2010.pdf

HSC Prescriptions 2015–20 English Stage 6:

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/pdf_doc/english-prescriptions-2015-20.pdf

We recommend reading this book as a companion alongside sections of the syllabus and prescription documents. This will ensure that all of the concepts can be examined in depth and detail.

Area of Study: Discovery

Before you begin working towards any assessment or exam, you should be first referencing how it relates back to the specific module that you are studying.

The big scary word that you will be accosted with for a good portion of the year will be ‘Area of Study’ and if you are a student between 2015-2018 it will be followed by ‘Discovery’. This portion of the syllabus relates to your first HSC examination or as it is more notoriously known ‘Paper 1’. This paper is broken up into three sections.

Section 1: Comprehension

Throughout your high school experience, teachers have been spitting information at you in the hopes that it has been absorbed. Six years of high school is now going to translate to approximately 40 minutes of testing whether any of it has stuck. Preparing for this section of the exam is the long-game solution. What will help you the most will be an appreciation for art and culture. If you haven’t got this yet don’t fret – read on.

Do you know when your teachers do that annoying thing where they make you study a poem so that you can look for techniques? Yes? Good, because there is a very good reason for it. Every piece of art, poem, film, book or song that you have ever listened to has a message… or three … or four. Think about this for a moment, when a person sits down to make something, they probably needed some good reason to give them motivation to do so. It might be something simple like heartbreak or love or something complex like political tensions between countries. When you analyse texts and think about them, you are examining a piece of your