Memorized essays betray a lack of confidence and an unwillingness to commit to authentic answers. Examiners have always advised students to prepare ‘talking points’ instead - a selection of ideas that they can draw on and which convey solid analysis and interpretation of the text. These talking points can be used by teachers, to focus discussion on higher-level or less-noticed features of the text and context. They also form effective student revision materials for formal assessment. Each point is supported by a piece of evidence from the text, and there are sufficient points to generate solid responses to almost any essay question. The Talking Points also model how students can articulate more complex thoughts about the text, and adduce evidence in natural and well-integrated writing.

This is a three-part resource for students undertaking the NSW HSC Advanced English Module B: Close Study of a Text. 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. A sample essay for the prescribed text, The Hare with Amber Eyes answers the 2019 HSC question: History provides the momentum, memoir the emotion. To what extent does this align with your understanding of the work? 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.

'North Coast Town’, by the Australian poet Robert Gray, has been set for HSC study since 2015. This set of notes gives a full analysis of the poem with a relevant image and a handy grab-box explaining the Discovery element, poetic techniques, and related texts which complement the poem for students who must study it in concert with one other text. Important points are in red. A simple, one-stop analysis of this complex poem which students can work through in class or take home for private study.

A close reading of Eliot’s famous poem, giving analysis of the work and a discussion of the culture and context from which Eliot wrote.

This is a three-part resource for students undertaking the NSW HSC Advanced English Module B: Close Study of a Text. 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. A sample essay for the prescribed text, The Hare with Amber Eyes answers the 2019 HSC question: History provides the momentum, memoir the emotion. To what extent does this align with your understanding of the work? 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.

Memorized essays betray a lack of confidence and an unwillingness to commit to authentic answers. Examiners have always advised students to prepare ‘talking points’ instead - a selection of ideas that they can draw on and which convey solid analysis and interpretation of the text. These talking points can be used by teachers, to focus discussion on higher-level or less-noticed features of the text and context. They also form effective student revision materials for formal assessment. Each point is supported by a piece of evidence from the text, and there are sufficient points to generate solid responses to almost any essay question. The Talking Points also model how students can articulate more complex thoughts about the text, and adduce evidence in natural and well-integrated writing.

The What Even Is… series of worksheets explains some of the key concepts in literary analysis, with examples from familiar and popular books and films. There is a single page explanation, with appropriate images and graphics, followed by a question which exercises students’ knowledge and understanding of the concept. Two short texts aimed at different abilities and levels are given for the question. This handout, explaining the concept of textual integrity, asks students to exercise their understanding of the term on a meme about Batman and Ironman, and a soliloquy from Othello.

The What Even Is… series of worksheets explains some of the key concepts in literary analysis, with examples from familiar and popular books and films. There is a single page explanation, with appropriate images and graphics, followed by a question which exercises students’ knowledge and understanding of the concept. Two short texts aimed at different abilities and levels are given for the question. This handout, explaining the concept of literary representation, asks students to exercise their understanding of the term on an image-sequence from Bridget Jones’s Diary and a Shakespearean sonnet.

Memorized essays betray a lack of confidence and an unwillingness to commit to authentic answers. Examiners have always advised students to prepare ‘talking points’ instead - a selection of ideas that they can draw on and which convey solid analysis and interpretation of the text. These talking points can be used by teachers, to focus discussion on higher-level or less-noticed features of the text and context. They also form effective student revision materials for formal assessment. Each point is supported by a piece of evidence from the text, and there are sufficient points to generate solid responses to almost any essay question. The Talking Points also model how students can articulate more complex thoughts about the text, and adduce evidence in natural and well-integrated writing.

Memorized essays betray a lack of confidence and an unwillingness to commit to authentic answers. Examiners have always advised students to prepare ‘talking points’ instead - a selection of ideas that they can draw on and which convey solid analysis and interpretation of the text. These talking points can be used by teachers, to focus discussion on higher-level or less-noticed features of the text and context. They also form effective student revision materials for formal assessment. Each point is supported by a piece of evidence from the text, and there are sufficient points to generate solid responses to almost any essay question. The Talking Points also model how students can articulate more complex thoughts about the text, and adduce evidence in natural and well-integrated writing.

Memorized essays betray a lack of confidence and an unwillingness to commit to authentic answers. Examiners have always advised students to prepare ‘talking points’ instead - a selection of ideas that they can draw on and which convey solid analysis and interpretation of the text. These talking points can be used by teachers, to focus discussion on higher-level or less-noticed features of the text and context. They also form effective student revision materials for formal assessment. Each point is supported by a piece of evidence from the text, and there are sufficient points to generate solid responses to almost any essay question. The Talking Points also model how students can articulate more complex thoughts about the text, and adduce evidence in natural and well-integrated writing.

HSC Module C: The Craft of Writing offers students complex texts from which to draw for their own writing. Because of their complex construction and ideas, students can be at a loss for ‘ways in’ to the text. Diving Bell’s ‘Ways Into’ series for Module C provide a structured way for students to consider the text in terms of Content, Context, and Construction, with appropriate elements within these headings. By the end of the worksheet the student should be clear on the content, meaning, construction-strategies, and ways to use George Orwell’s famous and fabulous essay ‘Politics and the English Language’. A completed teacher’s copy with possible responses is available so that time-poor teachers can lead classes through these texts.

This resource offers an answer to the Sample Paper HSC Advanced English Module C question: Choose a character, persona or speaker from ONE prescribed text that you have studied in Module C. Express the thought processes of this character, persona or speaker by exploring a moment of tension in the text from an alternative point of view. This answer draws on the figure of Adele Ratignolle from Kate Chopin’s novella The Awakening. There is also an answer to part b), which asks students to justify their creative choices. Check out more creative writing resources at https://thecraftofwriting.org/

This resource offers an answer to the Sample Paper HSC Advanced English Module C question: Choose a character, persona or speaker from ONE prescribed text that you have studied in Module C. Express the thought processes of this character, persona or speaker by exploring a moment of tension in the text from an alternative point of view. This answer draws on the figure of Bentley Drummle from Dickens’ novel Great Expectations. There is also an answer to part b), which asks students to justify their creative choices. Check out more creative writing resources at https://thecraftofwriting.org/

This resource offers an answer to the Sample Paper HSC Advanced English Module C question: Choose a character, persona or speaker from ONE prescribed text that you have studied. Express the thought processes of this character, persona or speaker by exploring a moment of tension in the text from an alternative point of view. This answer uses Camus’ novel The Outsider (a set text for Module A) and the figure of the mother. There is also a brief reflective statement for the part (b) question, requiring students to justify their creative decisions. Check out more creative writing resources at https://thecraftofwriting.org/

This resource offers an answer to the Sample Paper HSC Advanced English Module C question: Choose a character, persona or speaker from ONE prescribed text that you have studied. Express the thought processes of this character, persona or speaker by exploring a moment of tension in the text from an alternative point of view. NOTE: the sample paper asked students to choose from a prescribed text that you have studied from Module C. This answer involves a Module B text (Henry IV, Part 1) in order to show how more substantial and complex literary texts like Shakespeare can also produce fruitful Craft of Writing responses. There is also an answer to part b), which asks students to justify their creative choices. Check out more creative writing resources at https://thecraftofwriting.org/

Memorized essays betray a lack of confidence and an unwillingness to commit to authentic answers. Examiners have always advised students to prepare ‘talking points’ instead - a selection of ideas that they can draw on and which convey solid analysis and interpretation of the text. These talking points can be used by teachers, to focus discussion on higher-level or less-noticed features of the text and context. They also form effective student revision materials for formal assessment. Each point is supported by a piece of evidence from the text, and there are sufficient points to generate solid responses to almost any essay question. The Talking Points also model how students can articulate more complex thoughts about the text, and adduce evidence in natural and well-integrated writing.

The What Even Is… series of worksheets explains some of the key concepts in literary analysis, with examples from familiar and popular books and films. There is a single page explanation, with appropriate images and graphics, followed by a question which exercises students’ knowledge and understanding of the concept. Short texts aimed at different abilities and levels are given for the question. This handout, explaining the discursive mode of writing, describes three different ways to identify and implement discursiveness. The activity uses very brief examples from six discursive works.

Memorized essays betray a lack of confidence and an unwillingness to commit to authentic answers. Examiners have always advised students to prepare ‘talking points’ instead - a selection of ideas that they can draw on and which convey solid analysis and interpretation of the text. These talking points can be used by teachers, to focus discussion on higher-level or less-noticed features of the text and context. They also form effective student revision materials for formal assessment. Each point is supported by a piece of evidence from the text, and there are sufficient points to generate solid responses to almost any essay question. The Talking Points also model how students can articulate more complex thoughts about the text, and adduce evidence in natural and well-integrated writing.

The What Even Is… series of worksheets explains some of the key concepts in literary analysis, with examples from familiar and popular books and films. There is a double page explanation, with appropriate images and graphics, followed by a question which exercises students’ knowledge and understanding of the concept. Two short texts aimed at different abilities and levels are given for the question. This handout explains the components of voice and asks students to examine how they come to characterise a narrator’s voice, using examples from The Catcher in the Rye and David Copperfield.