Diving BellAug 21, 20193 minTeacher blog: When it's good to say it's badOne of the problems is that students forget that they’re supposed to be forming a personal response to the texts. And that often begins with
Diving BellAug 17, 20194 minStudent blog: analysing the quoteAnalysis does NOT mean paraphrase it. You should say how the quote shows your point (so you’ve got to have one of those) not that it does.
Diving BellAug 15, 20191 minTeacher GrammarIt's the weak chink in most people's armour, if they were born after 1975. Can you spot a grammar error - and identify it?
Diving BellAug 12, 20193 minTeacher blog: A better way of markingThe Pattern of Mistakes (POMs) marking strategy identifies the most common mistakes and prioritizes the order of tackling them.
Diving BellAug 10, 20193 minStudent Blog: How to Quote GoodGood quoting mechanics make the difference between looking like you speak English, and looking like you hurt it.
Diving BellAug 6, 20192 minStudent blog: The stand-out essay featureYou need to expand on the (big, impressive, profound) idea you’ve raised in the topic sentence with a few more sentences before moving ele
Diving BellAug 2, 20193 minStudent blog: Topic sentences that convince markersThere are three things you must do in your topic sentence: 1. Make a clear reference to the question 2. Bring up the first idea mentioned
Diving BellJul 28, 20193 minStudent blog: Outlining your argumentGood essays answer the question and explain their answer. This is an argument. Bad essays repeat the question and say memorized, irrelevant
Diving BellJul 23, 20193 minTeacher blog: Trials and RevelationsBands 3 and 4 are solidly made up of well-meaning kids who think that memorizing ten quotes and telling you where polysyndeton can be found
Diving BellJul 20, 20193 minStudent blog: Giving context in your introductionAfter you’ve given a straight answer to the question in your thesis statement (if you’re confused about this, read the last blogpost...
Diving BellJul 14, 20193 minStudent blog: WTF is a thesis statement anyway?Are your essays terrible? It's probably because of one of these problems: 1. You don't understand what an essay actually is - I mean, WTF...
Diving BellJul 10, 20193 minTeacher blog: Using model answersSadly, most students aren't really receptive to model answers until after the Trials. Most Year 12s will try to use what they already...