The Rubric

Writing a Thesis

Once you have broken down the question, come up with a possible thesis. The thesis is very important. A thesis or line of argument should reflect your perspective and understanding of the prescribed text/s and its key ideas. It will be used to shape and direct your extended response and will be supported and/or challenged by the textual details and features that you use from the prescribed text/s. The thesis establishes the direction of your argument and helps to give structure and order to your ideas. It also sets up your personal response to the question.

Brainstorming lines of ideas is one way to come up with a variety of lines of arguments that you could use in the HSC English Advanced examination or your school-based assessment. Remember that it is really important that you tailor your thesis to the specific question given in the HSC English Advanced examination and for school-based assessment.

Having a few options will help you to adapt your thesis to the question in the HSC examination.

HSC style question:

You have studied a pair of prescribed texts in Module A: Textual Conversations. How have the key ideas and context of each text influenced your understanding of the textual conversation between them?

Brainstormed ideas:

• As a postmodernist text, Atwood’s Hag Seed reimagines Shakespeare’s The Tempest according to her perspective, rendering her text open to the perception of her readers.

• To some extent, all texts reflect the lives of their composers.

Writing an introduction

Some general guidelines for structuring your introduction for an analytical response are as follows:

• Write one or two lead-in sentences, which address the question and establish your thesis or argument about how ideas are explored.

• Identify the text to be analysed, including the name of the composer.

• Outline how the text to be discussed links to the question and your thesis.

• Use modal words that show your opinion. Modality indicates our level of commitment to an idea or action. For example, ‘undisputed’ shows a high level of commitment.

For Example:

In ‘A perfect storm’, an article on rewriting Shakespeare’s The Tempest from The Guardian (September 24, 2016) Margaret Atwood states: ‘People have been redoing Shakespeare for a long time, often with odd results’. As such, interpretations of texts like The Tempest have consistently expressed the lives of the people who reinterpret the text in ways that align and/or collide with the original. In this postmodern world we live in, however, it is in the process of allowing individual expression that the meaning of the text is set free. As a postmodernist text, Atwood’s Hag Seed reimagines Shakespeare’s The Tempest according to her perspective, rendering her text open to the perception of her readers. Atwood relished the opportunity to be a part of the 400-year anniversary of the Hogarth Shakespeare Project, embracing the challenge of exploring the unanswered questions and complex characters she perceives within The Tempest to appeal a modern audience. Shakespeare faced similar challenges when writing The Tempest, grappling with contextual issues relevant to colonisation and the developing British Empire. Atwood is as equally enthralled with magic as Shakespeare was, yet she uses modern substitutions including special effects. She acknowledges that everyone within the original play is imprisoned at some point, so she amplifies this idea and sets her novel within a prison. Atwood also continues Shakespeare’s debate about vengeance versus mercy, highlighting the continuing complexity of human nature and morality.

Writing body paragraphs

Some general guidelines for structuring your body paragraphs for an analytical response are as follows.

• Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence that illustrates your understanding of the question and develops yourargument.

• Include a brief explanation of how your argument relates to the text/s to be analysed.

• Include a variety of language and/or visual devices or features of the text relevant to your argument.

• Provide specific examples of each technique or feature of the text.

• Comment and elaborate on the effect of each language and/or visual device and its example.

• Make connections between the ideas and concepts explored in the text/s.

• Refer to critical essays, where relevant.

• Reinforce your argument by commenting on the purpose and audience of the text/s and how effectively the composer represents ideas and concepts.

• Use modal words that show your opinion.

• Use connecting words, like ‘in addition’, ‘however’ and ‘also’ to link ideas in paragraphs.

Writing topic sentences

A topic sentence illustrates your understanding of the question and develops your argument. It is also an important part of the structure of your analytical response.

Remember the following when writing topic sentences. Topic sentences should:

• be broad enough to express the overall subject of the paragraph

• be specific enough to illustrate the main subject and point

• clearly link to the developing paragraphs, which will develop the main argument.

When you write analytical paragraphs, try to make them 250-300 words long. Remember to consistently go back to your thesis statement. Are you developing your thesis through your choice of references to your prescribed text/s?

Imprisonment is a point of both alignment and collision in the textual conversation that Atwood holds with Shakespeare. The ideas explored in The Tempest and Hag Seed reveal that humans can easily be imprisoned by certain experiences and by the force of their own nature, appearing both literally and figuratively within the texts. Throughout the early 1600’s, colonialism was a major issue facing the world, with many peoples being oppressed, exploited and enslaved by a more powerful country. Considering the advent of the building of the British empire during the late 1500s under the direction of Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare represents concerns about colonisation. By the early 1600s, during King James I’s rule, English colonies were firmly established in North America and the Caribbean. Almost every character, from the Lord Gonzalo to the drunk Stephano, ponders how he would rule the island on which the play is set if he were its king. In addition, the characters in The Tempest are metaphorically imprisoned on the island as a result of Prospero’s dark magic. Atwood reimagines notions of oppression by setting the novel in a prison as she believes every character within The Tempest is at some point confined. This acts as a literal imprisonment adding to the mental imprisonment that many of the characters face. Furthermore, Atwood is an advocate for literacy in prisons and rehabilitation. Through her text she is explaining indirectly how she believes that rehabilitation is possible through literacy.

Writing a conclusion

Some general guidelines for structuring your conclusion for an analytical response are as follows.

• Show insights into how your paragraphs/arguments in the essay relate to the question.

• Draw together your ideas by reinforcing the argument at the end.

• Make judgments (evaluation) on the success of the composer in achieving their purpose.

• Use modal words that show your opinion.

For Example:

The Tempest and Hag-Seed both express ways texts are open to the interpretation of the audience. As John Berger states: “Never again shall a single story be told as though it were the only one.” In Hag-Seed Atwood adapts some of the ideas, characters and plot outline of The Tempest and transforms them to appeal to her contemporary audience. She was equally enthralled by magic, the theatre, revenge and imprisonment, therefore distinct resonances can be seen between the two texts. However, due to the change in context, many dissonances can be drawn out, highlighting the influential nature of personal context. Consequently as Hag-Seed is a postmodern text, it is open to interpretation and perceptions of the modern reader, thereby rejecting the notion of a text’s outright authority over meaning. In doing so, the re-imagining of Shakespeare’s The Tempest provides for the continuing resonance with the original text, despite the vastly different social context of modern times.