HSC Advanced English Module A Sample essay: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes

This is a three-part resource for students undertaking the NSW HSC Advanced English Module A: Textual Conversations.

1. A generic essay plan shows students how to compose an essay suitable for Stage 6, progressing them from the simpler PEEL/TEAL models of Stage 4 and 5.

2. A sample essay for the prescribed text-pairing of Plath’s and Hughes’ poetry answering the question:

Later texts rarely agree with their textual mentors; the conversation is always a challenge, a rebuttal to what has gone before.

To what extent is this statement true of the texts you have studied in this module?

1. There is also a second copy of the essay, marked up to show how it follows the plan, and with five short questions which require students to engage critically with the essay and its form