Mythbusting Political Essays

PLEAWA Masterclass - Mythbusters: Essay Writing in Politics & Law

Estimated read time: 1:20

Summary

In this engaging masterclass organized by the Political and Legal Educators Association of WA, the myths surrounding essay writing in politics and law are thoroughly debunked. The presenters embark on a comprehensive discussion providing students with practical advice for handling essay questions, especially in preparation for the upcoming WA politics exam. Key insights are shared about effectively analyzing and evaluating arguments, structuring essays, and using evidence to support thesis statements. The session emphasizes planning and practicing essay components to enhance performance in exams.

Highlights

Debunking the myth of essays needing a fixed structure with three body paragraphs. 🏗️
Exploring why essay writing constitutes a significant part of assessments in politics and law. 🏛️
Differentiating between 'evaluate' and 'analyze' in essay questions. 🔍
Addressing common myths: from memorizing essays to relying on clear handwriting. 📝
Offering insights into making persuasive arguments with evidence and analysis. 💪

Key Takeaways

Planning essays and practicing components can significantly enhance performance. ✍️
Understanding and defining key terms in essay questions is crucial. 🧐
Avoid memorizing essays as it can lead to irrelevant responses. 📚
Abbreviations should be common or explained; avoid unreadable handwriting. 🚫
Conclusions must draw together arguments, linking to evidence and thesis. 🔗

Overview

The masterclass, hosted by Alex Ros and Daniel Thomas, dives into common myths about essay writing in politics and law. They argue against the typical essay model - introduction, three body paragraphs, conclusion - exposing the limitations of rigid structures in favor of more nuanced and adaptable techniques that align with essay questions.

Daniel Thomas emphasizes the importance of understanding the different types of essay prompts, particularly the distinction between 'evaluate' and 'analyze.' He stresses planning each response carefully, stating a clear thesis and defining key terms both in introductions and throughout the body of the essay.

A major focus of the session is the practical advice on planning essay components and receiving continuous feedback. The importance of legible handwriting, common language use, and appropriate evidence selection is underlined to avoid losing marks due to presentation issues or irrelevant content.

Chapters

02:30 - 03:30: Introduction to the Session The chapter introduces the session by setting a casual and relaxed tone. There is a mention of some casual activities or objects such as 'rhubarb,' 'card,' and 'apple,' indicating a light, informal beginning. The speaker acknowledges the time of day, suggesting it's nearly 5 o'clock, which implies winding down or gearing up for the session. The overall atmosphere is informal, and the speaker expresses a sense of allowance for a laid-back approach at this particular time.
05:30 - 13:00: Importance of Essay Writing in Politics and Law The chapter discusses the significance of essay writing in the fields of politics and law. It highlights how essays serve as a critical tool for articulating arguments, analyzing legal issues, and influencing political thought. The chapter may explore various dimensions, such as how essays can aid in the formulation of legal opinions and political strategies, and the role they play in academic and professional environments. The importance of clarity, coherence, and persuasive writing is emphasized. Though the transcript provided is not complete, the chapter likely includes insights into how writing skills contribute to success in political and legal careers.
13:00 - 22:00: Debunking Essay Writing Myths The chapter titled 'Debunking Essay Writing Myths' appears to focus on the author's extensive experience in essay writing, likely over a span of five years since 2018. The narrator or author mentions having way more experience than expected, suggesting a level of expertise in the subject. There seems to be a tone of discovery or realization, as indicated by phrases like 'cooking with gas' and 'double check,' which might imply a process of discovering truths and debunking myths about essay writing. The summary cuts off, suggesting that many people may not fully understand or know about the common misconceptions addressed in the chapter.
22:00 - 31:00: Understanding the Essay Structure The chapter seems to begin with a conversation about setting up a stream or a recording. There is mention of a person named De H who might have temporarily left but is expected to return. There is a brief discussion about whether to turn a laptop back on, but it is decided that everything is fine. They are double-checking the stream setup, noting that there are about four people watching, with some possibly being different accounts of the same person.
36:00 - 47:00: Difference Between Evaluate and Analyze In this chapter titled 'Difference Between Evaluate and Analyze', the discussion focuses on online behavior, particularly how people might create false social media accounts for the purpose of self-promotion or liking their own content. There's a humorous element as someone admits to the act but seemingly no longer engages in it. The chapter might delve into the motivations and ethical considerations behind such actions, contrasting evaluation and analysis in the context of personal self-promotion on social media.
47:00 - 60:00: Technical Issues and Humor In the chapter titled 'Technical Issues and Humor,' the speakers Alex Ros and Daniel Tomlinson begin their session with a lighthearted introduction. Daniel acknowledges that it's a Tuesday, and they greet their audience on YouTube. Daniel introduces himself as the president of 'plea,' an organization responsible for organizing the session. The atmosphere is casual and friendly as they express gratitude to their viewers for joining the session.
60:00 - 70:00: Model Paragraph Explanation The chapter offers a master class in essay writing, addressing common misconceptions and providing helpful tips. It is positioned as a resource students can refer back to in the future. The session encourages engagement by inviting questions, which will be addressed towards the end to maintain focus. It is particularly timely, given an upcoming politics exam for year 12 students.
70:00 - 81:00: Conclusion Writing The chapter addresses the challenges people face when writing essays, specifically focusing on introductions and conclusions. The speaker notes that many students find these sections difficult, as evidenced by questions posed on social media. The intention is to explore why these parts of an essay seem challenging and to delve into techniques for crafting effective conclusions.
86:00 - 102:30: General Tips and Q&A The chapter discusses the importance of practicing and preparing for essay plans in the context of a politics course. Essays are highlighted as a significant component of the exam, comprising 50% of the exam mark and at least 35% of school-based assessment. The narrative emphasizes that despite the difficulty, investing time in honing essay-writing skills is worthwhile as essays play a crucial role in validations, investigations, and inquiries.

PLEAWA Masterclass - Mythbusters: Essay Writing in Politics & Law Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 second Le my chief okay might actually be right let me just Che rubab rubab card and apple come on it's nearly 5 o' I'm allowed to be slightly
00:30 - 01:00 you oh come on there we go are we live
01:00 - 01:30 looks like been Hing five years seriously yeah4 2018 way more experience than all right all right I think we might be cooking with gas excellent double check okay who knows many people are actually
01:30 - 02:00 here but at least this is going to be recorded that's true so we have one person his name is De H well he might have left and then you'll come back do you want me to turn my laptop back on no no we're good I'm just again double checking that the stream's all good to go we still got a minute you want to plug that into oh there are four people watching now two of them probably me just some different account numbers
02:00 - 02:30 yeah all righty do you create false Facebook accounts so that you can like yourself no not anymore come on all right it was can edit that I'm we
02:30 - 03:00 all right I think we should be good to go um Hello Alex Ros hi Daniel Tomlinson how are you I'm good how are you very well it's a Tuesday it is Tuesday isn't it yeah feels like wday yeah um hello to everyone uh on YouTube wherever you are tuning in and thank you for joining us um as Alex said I'm Daniel Thomas and I'm the president of plea um we organized a brief Little M by session
03:00 - 03:30 just a bit of a master class to take you through tips on essay writing and maybe break down some of the misconceptions that students have about essay writing so hopefully it'll be useful to you uh and it's something that you can come back to uh in the next couple of days um if you have any questions feel free to drop them in the chat and I will probably look at them towards the end of this session so that my attention isn't split too much yeah that's a good idea and this is probably really good given what's happening next Monday with our politics exam for year 12 so probably good time and if you have plenty of
03:30 - 04:00 friends out there you want to help uh in the competition for 8 Hour forward on the YouTube address to them absolutely um last week on the ple Instagram account I just thought it would be good to ask uh students you know what they wanted to know about essay writing just in preparation for this uh and apart from a lot of questions on introductions and conclusions I got an interesting question which was just why are they so hard um and so I thought it would be a good idea to start there and talk about a why they take up so much of the the
04:00 - 04:30 politics course uh why they are quite difficult and also why it might worth your time investing in practicing uh essay plans and preparing yourself for for the waste exam um and I came up with the following so essays represent 50% of the exam Mark and at least 35% of school-based assessment it's huge huge um and if you do essays as validations uh for investigations inquiries it
04:30 - 05:00 actually goes up to almost 45% yeah so that is almost half of p&l exactly in some schools um and if you just think about it one essay in the 8r exam is worth 12.5% of your final Politics on law school all things being that is that is more than usually two in-class assessments that go for 50 minutes each absolutely uh and the reason I think they take up so so much of the the course of the assessments at least is that it is probably the highest level
05:00 - 05:30 assessment we can offer it requires you to synthesize your content knowledge and not just you know a shallow uh level of content knowledge quite a depth of knowledge as well as skills the ability to actually articulate an argument the ability to link that argument to to relevant evidence that is detailed um and as as you were telling me like being able to do that with questions that often require you to discuss multiple things yes indeed the it is what makes politics and law both extremely interesting and also a subject that is very intellectual and very academic
05:30 - 06:00 you've got to have good historical knowledge you've got to have a really good grasp of the key terms that we use but ultimately I'll take that word that synthesis the capacity to bring all these what look like disparate points in the syllabus and hopefully by this stage in the course that's term four of year12 you understand that almost every single aspect of the course links to each other and in many ways that's what the essays are trying to draw out from you your ability to show that you can think broadly but you can think deeply as well
06:00 - 06:30 H um speak of like things that like link together when you have a look at this essay marking guide one of the reasons I think they are quite difficult is that many parts of the essay marketing guide feature or like if you think about evidence or if you think about um terminology it features in more than one section of the marking guide so for instance if you have a look at just evidence or examples it it features not only in your sort of discussion part of marking key but it also features in the evaluation part you can't have a sound
06:30 - 07:00 argument without evidence to support it ab and it also features in your conclusion because you need to draw that evidence together your conclusion is your appeal to the jury to find your you know your argument guilty or not guilty in any ways you got to bring the evidence back into it uh same thing with terminology so obviously we would expect you to demonstrate your understanding of relevant terms throughout the essay but if you can't do that then there's very little chance that you're going to have a cogent discussion and if you don't understand the basic concepts that you're discussing you can't evaluate indeed and you must treat your marker as
07:00 - 07:30 an intelligent person who knows little about the topic you're writing so even choosing which terms do you define is actually a really important aspect and I'm sure Daniel you've read a number of essays that were fundamentally dictionaries for the first oh boy uh and I think well first we'll we'll start off talking about essay structure just in general but we will get to the introduction fairly quickly because so many people uh so many students wanted to know about it but first before we get to specific part of the essay let's talk about essays in general because one of
07:30 - 08:00 the often uh spoken about myths is that my favorite well it's really just what essays should look like or that there is one form that an essay should take and particularly essays should include an introduction three body paragraphs and a conclusion well two of those bits are right the third body paragraph three body paragraph is definitely a big myth I I as I just said then you know the conclusion is like the appeal to the jury from a barrister an essay is in many ways um something that you should pred at on the the legal argument that
08:00 - 08:30 is used in court if you have a client you're not going to use the three best pieces of evidence you've got if you've got 10 outstanding pieces of evidence to prove your claim you're going to use them so why in an essay would you limit yourself to three main points or worse why would you have five or six really good points and you cram them all into one paragraph and hope that the re the reader of the essay at 11:00 at night is going to be able to discern and break away all of those components I do think
08:30 - 09:00 that maybe this this myth has come from this three body paragraphs is often just what students in terms of the amount that they write that is often is what they are capable of within 50 minutes that that's very possible I also think it's actually come from from the lower years where we first introduced writing essays to students in years quite often years eight and nine how much should I write well the easy respones just give me three good points and then that just keeps on going through so by the time they're near 11 it's ingrained in them
09:00 - 09:30 and I'm sure you've seen them Daniel I have seen paragraphs that are one and 3/4 pages long absolutely um well I looked for a bit of advice on this and I know that this is a source of advice that students can access as well absolutely so they can head to the the Scara website they can head to the politics and law section and they can actually find the summary reports from all previous way exams and this is feedback from the markers as to what they have seen in the exam and their advice based on that and really you can see I'm not going to read the the uh
09:30 - 10:00 three parts that I pull out for you but really it comes down to your essay there there's no standardized format but it should be tailored to the essay question and you should structure your essay based on a thorough understanding of what that question requires and and that is to me probably the biggest concern Markus would have it's certainly one I have with my own students do they choose the question that looks Easy by reading it or do they choose the question that they have actually planned a response for um and for or as As Time poor as you
10:00 - 10:30 are uh I don't think any student should be choosing to do an essay simply because that one looks easy and the other one looks hard spend your reading time in your head writing down notes as to what you could actually answer um quite often the very easy questions uh end up being very very Broad and can be actually quite difficult to nail down the KE points yes all right so let's delve into I guess the the nitty-gritty of of an essay and let's start with the introduction y um my this is a myth my
10:30 - 11:00 introduction should include all uh relevant terms or sorry definitions for all relevant terms okay for me I think you need to Define usually there is at least one if not two key terms that are prescribed in in a question um to me I find most of the questions that are asked questions in two parts sometimes even three I saw one yesterday with um from the political and legal perspective the governor general um is both powerful and unaccountable to me there's three
11:00 - 11:30 components in there that you've got to be able to look at so sometimes you do have two or three key things you might need to get out of the way very early in order to to Define but if your essay is going to start with a series of definitions you're not going to pick up those five marks for introduction those five marks for introduction are the equivalent of a small test that you did sometimes during the year so your introduction I think needs to be very carefully planned before you put pen to paper absolutely and I think this myth comes from the fact that on the marking
11:30 - 12:00 guide there is this little section that says explain relevant terms and outlines parameters of discussion but what's interesting is that nowhere in this section does it say the word introduction no um so really if you want to you know Define relevant terms you don't have to do it in introduction you can as IEX said you really want to identify what are the critical terms that need to be in my introduction and you want to define those uh and explain them in a bit of detail yeah um but you can also do them in the body so if I'm talking about the influence of
12:00 - 12:30 political parties on the law making process then in a body paragraph I might focus on major parties it's suitable then logical absolutely to Define major party at the start of that paragraph and then you bring in your example Absolut which is where a mark would be allocated Absol um the alternative is there might be some sort of minor relevant terms that as you go it's important for you to just show that you are aware of what they mean um and a useful way to do this is say in the middle of a paragraph Where You Are are talking about know the
12:30 - 13:00 functions of parliament you're talking about the fact that the the executive dominance executive dominance 100% standing orders is not like the focus of that paragraph no but it is an important relevant term correct so you could use something uh we call it in a positive which is basically a phrase that describes the noun before it so if the noun is standing orders you put a comma after it you write a phrase a short definition the rules that govern the conduct of parliamentary business yep another Comm and you you have defined
13:00 - 13:30 definition explained because your marker is intelligent they be able to extrapolate from those handful of words you what standing with me absolutely um and having nice concise definitions I also think that's something they should practice yes that is something they should absolutely practice um outside of just preparing for a twark question yeah well a twark question is actually a far more detailed definition if you're asked what is meant by the term executive dominance that would require you know five to six lines to get the two marks absolutely so what should an introduction look like
13:30 - 14:00 well four dot points there yeah I think this is the best that I could come up with I think it carries it I think it certainly does um look your introduction has to um introduce the reader to what it is you're planning to argue one what is the question clarify what the question is what the question means to you it is actually quite interesting in this course that that I've said this so many times I've said an essay question and a student has seen it in a very
14:00 - 14:30 different way to what I was expecting and yet still got it right that's my faite and they are my favorites they're the ones that make me think and realize that the students can actually think quite broadly in what's going on so you need to be really clear about how you see the question you need to state where you stand on that question if it's an evaluate you need to describe your evaluation in some way that is um that that it is that there is substantial evidence that the claim is strong that there is limited evidence
14:30 - 15:00 that the claim is strong you need to be able to put those in you've got to define the key term or perhaps there might be a second term in it and something I like my students to do but it isn't always done by everyone I again I treat it like a barister before a jury this is your opening statement the evidence I'm going to use is if you said major parties influences on major parties you might say influences such as those internal the party room the role of the president of the Senate can influence while external features such as pressure groups lobbyists and uh
15:00 - 15:30 opinion polling sometimes just adding those additional bits in there really guides the market as to where you're going but what's great for you is the psychology in your head you now know you need to talk about those things and when you're going back over your essay have I talked about what I meant to oops no I forgot to mention Lobby groups therefore you can put those things back in and that's what I say the introduction needs to be very carefully planned you need to know what it is you're going to talk about well absolutely especially because as we said you will mention that
15:30 - 16:00 evidence in your introduction you will obviously include it in your body paradas but then you'll come back to it in your your conclusion so in a very structured way you are guiding your Reader through the evidence that you are going to use and why it is valuable in supporting your argument um outside of key evidence U which you only need to to briefly introduce the introduction you don't need to go into you don't need to go into detail no not at all and we'll show you an example of that in a moment um a obviously definitions for iCal terms those that feature in the question
16:00 - 16:30 or are directly related to the question uh in some way um and then brief outline of your supporting arguments and in my mind this is what it means by parameters you are setting because of some questions you could talk about many many things yes if you were asked to for instance analyze the roles of the high court obviously that's not the exact question but like analyze the three constitutional roles of the high court there are so many that you can choose
16:30 - 17:00 from Yes um so you are establishing for the the reader here is what I'm going to discuss in my essay here are my supporting arguments this is how it contributes to My overall thesis indeed and that is actually your path to 25 out of 25 so many students assume I can't get 25 because I can't talk about absolutely everything well if you've not if you've declared any introduction that the three biggest things about the Constitutional laes of the high court are then you're in a much stronger path to to ensure that you uh bringing to the attention of the marker these are the
17:00 - 17:30 most important things and I will also say the marker knows you can't write everything in the space of 50 minutes so they're not going to be cruel to you okay so let's have a look at throughout this presentation I'm going to what we're going to show you a introduction a model body paragraph and also a conclusion and all three of them are for this question which featured in last year's waste exam did indeed uh formal and informal methods of constitutional change have significantly altered the Commonwealth Constitution uh evaluate this claim with reference to
17:30 - 18:00 referendums referrals of power and challenge unchallenged legislation your favorite because obviously all three can change the Constitution can't they yeah it's we'll look at that when we go through what you um look look this question is actually one that I suspect a lot of students would shy away from because it looks so big and it's so complicated but if you're using your 10-minute reading time well You' actually be looking and going referendums how referendums changed well that's the formal method how they
18:00 - 18:30 changed the meaning in this instance as you said it's actually the written component then I'd be looking at referral yeah I can talk about referrals Mari darling um plan I can talk about um terrorism terrorism laws unchallenged legislation CSO and the Australian space agency yeah actually I could do this but so many students look at it and go there are so many components to that it's too hard yeah and what's interesting is in the marking guide for this question they mentioned you didn't have to discuss all three in equal depth absolutely bigness very good point a lot of students assume
18:30 - 19:00 everything has to have the same amount of words to it yeah whereas I I figured students would have more evidence and more discussion points for referendums uh whereas referrals of powers and unchallenged legislation would be very specific uh examples absolutely okay so let's have a look at a sample introduction for this um would you like to read it Daniel shall we read it aloud okay so a constitution is a set of principles According to which a nation is governed since 1901 the text and
19:00 - 19:30 meaning of the Commonwealth Constitution have evolved owing to formal and informal methods of change formal change Alters the wording of the Constitution through referendums formal polls held for eligible voters to approve amendments as proposed by the Commonwealth Parliament it's one of those POs positives I mentioned earlier this process outlined in section 128 of the Constitution has seen limited use and as a result has not led to significant change since 1901 only eight out of 45 proposals have passed such as
19:30 - 20:00 that establishing federal judges retirement ages in 1977 informal change Alters the meaning and application of the Constitution without changing its wording this can occur through referrals of state power such as anti-terror laws in 2003 and Commonwealth legislation passed without an appropriate head of power such as that establishing the CSO though more frequently used than referenda these methods have also failed to produce significant change as States oops as states have sought to preserve their legisl ative powers in turn the
20:00 - 20:30 claim has limited validity though all three methods have produced changed in the Commonwealth Constitution none have done so significantly y now okay I You' you've got it there you you've you've done your definitions you've explained what changes you've explained what formal and informal are and you've even brought into there the uh examples you're going to be discussing in Greater detail yeah all the the four dot points that we outlined earlier you can see them reflected in this uh intruction and this introduction is manageable it's
20:30 - 21:00 only it's like just over 150 words so written out I can't imagine that taking up a third of page maybe half yeah page and there is no correct size for in not at all um but it's manageable within the time constraints that you have because I I recognize a lot of people look at paragraphs and go oh can I do that within 15 minutes under time with a question I've never seen before correct but I think this is manageable especially when you consider like I'm just you know sort of hinting at the evidence I'm going to discuss very brief mentions of it and if you have planned
21:00 - 21:30 your response this should just flow very very smoothly for you so you're saying that students should plan their responsib I know I know they call me a radical that taking the taking some time to unpack a question and figure out how you can most effectively respond to it will always result in my experience in a higher Mark absolutely okay so that question was an evaluate question but sometimes students see
21:30 - 22:00 evaluate and analyze or even assess and they think they mean the same thing and they are not they are very very different from each other how do we know this well Scara tells us they've very helpfully gave us a glossery indeed and this is universal this is every single eight AR Force uses the same glossery so these words mean the same even in those alien subjects like biology or whatever analyze and evaluate mean the same thing um as in their different terms but they mean the same politics law so if we if
22:00 - 22:30 we take the the meaning from that glossery so evaluate means to ascertain the value uh that means to determine to make a judgment about the value or amount of and to make that judgment carefully so if you were asked to make a judgment about the significance you were using words like s Li to a limited extent or to to moderate extent to a significant extent yes because you are trying to indicate the extent value the amount of or the amount to which that
22:30 - 23:00 claim that you're evaluating is true exactly um analiz on the other hand is you are more identifying the components the parts of something how those parts relate to each other and then also drawing out the implications for the political and legal system or whatever it is you are asked to analyze with regards you're making I like to think of us you're making predictions about what likely to happen or why it happened this way it's it's less personal opinion less emotion to it do you want to explain
23:00 - 23:30 these these two examples sure absolutely so let's go to evaluate um example the unchallenged funding of universities has been significant in giving the Commonwealth important influence over the states not provided for in the Constitution so the use of the word significant and the use of the word important um are giving us a value that is we can ascertain how much the unchallenged funding of universities is actually worth in relation to a particular question about um unchallenged legislation if we go to
23:30 - 24:00 the example of analysis given the issues of increased Commonwealth power and disagreement by state Premier history indicates a referendum proposal to give the Commonwealth power to legislator and local government is likely to fail so what this is drawing on it's actually looking at what has happened in the past and is making a prediction on what will happen in the future it's analyzing what are the key components of a failed referendum increasing Commonwealth power increase um disagreement between State Premier and also what the history of a referendum will tell so evaluate is how
24:00 - 24:30 you the value you give to a particular argument particular idea analysis is simply trying to draw a conclusion absolutely I'm just actually going to get rid of us
24:30 - 25:00 let's try that oh God that was a hideous
25:00 - 25:30 I'm so
25:30 - 26:00 sorry should be a trigger
26:00 - 26:30 warning let's
26:30 - 27:00 try Okay should still be working
27:00 - 27:30 hopefully and I'll just make sure this
27:30 - 28:00 works
28:00 - 28:30 okay my God we are back do you want to
28:30 - 29:00 remove the um
29:00 - 29:30 Vision that
29:30 - 30:00 that's text that's coming up oh God
30:00 - 30:30 bless all right we're good to go lisia
30:30 - 31:00 thank you so much for guiding us through
31:00 - 31:30 this wonderful experience sorry about
31:30 - 32:00 our internet issues my internet issues
32:00 - 32:30 nothing to do with where we are
32:30 - 33:00 um where are we so so we just left off
33:00 - 33:30 talking through uh this model paragraph
33:30 - 34:00 uh where we split up uh a paragraph on
34:00 - 34:30 referrals of power into multiple Parts
34:30 - 35:00 because we felt like it made uh its
35:00 - 35:30 points clearer yeah greater Clarity yeah
35:30 - 36:00 greater Clarity more discussion in the
36:00 - 36:30 second half uh with a more robust link
36:30 - 37:00 to an overall evaluation whereas in the
37:00 - 37:30 first half just addressing what a what a referral of power is giving an example and illustrating how it changes the Constitution now in somebody paragraphs there is a temptation to just write in
37:30 - 38:00 detail what I call a narrative absolutely and that is what the uh the the marker feedback from Scara also says and it's the same from Modern History yes is that some students know examples so well and they've dedicated so much study time and they've and they've written it in their practice essays so extensively that they really do just sort of get the definition out of the way and just jump straight into an example and give a you know know on the this particular day this happened 1975
38:00 - 38:30 crisis is just the best for that one they just give this overall overarching historical narrative but which means there's no evaluation there's no analysis there's merely context absolutely and I was going to say if you look at that marking guide you're not providing any sort of discussion you are not linking it to some broader point about a concept you're discussion you're making General statements so if for instance I just went into like a more detailed narrative about I don't know 911 in 2001 and went
38:30 - 39:00 into detail about how this caused you know General hysteria amongst the public and as a result it motivated the state governments to refer their powers to the Commonwealth and I did that in more detail that wouldn't actually warrant any more Marks here because the example is merely the the vehicle is merely the light that you that shines that you can apply what you're talking about the example is not actually the essay the examp example is the proof it's the evidence abut to back up your statement
39:00 - 39:30 and that is why I think in this marking guide it talks about supportive examples if you are providing examples that are irrelevant or that are not made up or not sufficiently linked to your point then you cannot get marks indeed you know if you were to say for example Maro huh you know for example Maro demonstrated the power of the high court to uh set aside star de ceis and establish a new precedent then you've got it yeah then we're then we're we're talking um so no the more detailed the
39:30 - 40:00 example not necessarily the better and also I think if you're going into too much detail you're arguably wasting time could be spending more time on an evaluation the amount of times I've written on say is why are you telling me this and I'm trying to be nice okay so the I think this is the final one for body paragraphs is I can evaluate this is my this is one that gets me I can evaluate or even analyze by restating my thesis at the end of
40:00 - 40:30 each paragraph it is that classic which my students hate me saying correlation and causation are not the same thing just by stating which proves the Constitution is hard to change what and I think these two myths get they should be paired together because often what I find is students will give a detailed Narrative of an example and then go oh I forgot to link that to my point and just put their at the end exactly which proves the point um no it's not quite
40:30 - 41:00 right so we often talk about as we showed in that model paragraph evaluating through the paragraph um or constantly returning to your to your evaluation however this informal method of constitutional change is limited um therefore not only is this method RIT States would only refer their powers in areas of limited significance and then at the end sort of directly returning to the terminology of the question and making an explicit link just in case the marker just misses it and that is actually a point you're going to come up
41:00 - 41:30 with is that the marker is going to read everything over and over again until they get your point yeah which is not the case but we'll get to thatly um but certainly who who was it I think it was Ben Basel from all All Saints College who talks about beat to the marker as in beat them over the head with your evaluation like continually return to your evaluation throughout the paragraph Yes just don't make a re as I'm trying to say don't make a simplistic statement of therefore yeah it is true no you you've still you've still got to have B you got to have meat to that sentence
41:30 - 42:00 that brings it in you have to have supporting reasons not just saying therefore referrals of Power are not significant but referrals of Power are not as significant because yeah exactly because it's a valuation there's a value what is what is giving that value yeah and I think something that maybe isn't reflected in that glossery is that if you don't have a discussion if you have't examine both sides of an argument then you haven't evaluated you've made a general statement yeah okay so we're on to we jumped to conclusion a conclusion
42:00 - 42:30 is just a summary of my body paragraphs well let's look at once again the marking guide so to get a three a three out of three conclusion you need to draw together the argument linking the evidence so if you've planned effectively and I I told my students this like you're under time pressure you put so much effort into your body paragraphs you can write a really effective conclusion in five to six minutes if you've PL you know planned your essay and you know what evidence you've talked about throughout your
42:30 - 43:00 paragraphs and and this is practice yes if you but that's it if you practice conclusions um especially like throughout if you've done this throughout the year in preparation for your your in-class assessments then you should be trained into the habit of writing these five to six succinct conclusions five to six minutes scin conclusions so in my view if we draw together the argument you've got to think of it as each of your body pars being like a thread where you have sort of developed a supporting argument that
43:00 - 43:30 supports your overall thesis and you are drawing them together to show how they work to support that overall argument and that must as it says here include your evidence you must return to the most significant evidence that you've discussed and yeah how you've used it to support your overall argument you that's it that is exactly it no so this is uh for the exact same question that we were looking at before this is the uh conclusion that I came up with again you're sort of talking about a third to
43:30 - 44:00 half of a page manageable within time constraints especially because you are repeating a lot of the you're not coming up with the spot you're repeating so the Commonwealth Constitution was designed to be difficult to change in both its wording and application this supports the principle of constitutionalism and prevents Hasty change being made to Australia's fundamental law I like it you like it I do like it do you think it's like a necessary start yes it's a it's a thesis statement for a conclusion as seen in the constitu uh
44:00 - 44:30 constitutional alteration social social services act 1946 which we assume is in the main body discussed it in my my referendum paragraph do not ever raise anything new in a conclusion because it's not evidence and you haven't used it to support your your argument you're not drawing together your argument if you're introducing you're actually making a new statement yeah so referendums have all to the wording of the Constitution with noteworthy consequences however as in 1999 institutional and political barriers have more frequently contributed to their failure limiting their overall
44:30 - 45:00 significance uh likewise informal methods of constitutional change have had limit limited impact while referrals of power required are required to create the family court of Australia in 1975 dropping in that evidence an unchallenged legislation required to pass uh the Science and Industry research Act of 1949 which sustains the CSI have been more frequently successful they have offered limited change to the meaning of the Constitution this is largely due to the state's reluctance to increase Commonwealth
45:00 - 45:30 power therefore this claim has limited validity though these methods May alter the meaning and operation of the Constitution none of the resulting changes can be cons considered significant so as I've gone through here I haven't just recapped this is what was in paragraph one uh like referendums this is what was in paragraph two referrals of power and an unchallenged legislation for each paragraph I have actually drawn out the supporting argument so for instance saying there are plenty of barriers that get in the way of referendums being frequently
45:30 - 46:00 passed in fact they're not they're very infrequently passed our referrals of Power are unre infrequently used as is unchallenged legislation because the state's reluctance to hand over power to the Commonwealth is there so I've drawn out that those supporting arguments and then and only then have I returned to My overall thesis you are writing what English teachers would call a persuasive argument absolutely you're bringing the evidence in and you're are persuading the reader that your point of view is the most Val point of view on a spectrum and in these in in your sort of
46:00 - 46:30 final sentence don't feel like you you shouldn't use the terminology of the question if you use the termin terminology of the question it will be most obvious to the marker that you are addressing the question directly as Ben basle says beat the marker um and so you you see if you maybe at a later dat go back to that question or look at the 2022 Mark and guide and have a look at this question I believe was question eight yeah it was unit three yes uh then
46:30 - 47:00 you can see that I'm using a lot of the the words in the question I'm using the words significant I'm talking about how they do alter the meaning and operation of the Constitution because that is what is mentioned in the actual question itself that is where your value is y and I've highlighted them there for you I wish I remembered that before got it on this Wonder okay oh dear favorite if I memorize essays uh Mr Rosier has just put his
47:00 - 47:30 head in his hands if I memorize essays I will be more prepared now I I'm gonna confess something when I was doing my Bas exams I was guilty of this I'm sure I I have certainly been guilty of that um teachers can be terrible we're like doctors we don't mind taking your own medicine uh i' I've certainly gone down that path but teaching content like this for a long time learned that I prefer to uh practice brainstorming yes I prefer
47:30 - 48:00 prefer to practice introductions conclusions and planning rather than an essay and then what I like to do is I like to change an operative word I like to change a key term out of it which forces me to change my planning in my prep uh I I'm a flowchart writer for when I do my planning um when I and I still do sit exams uh I do not practice a specific exam it locks my mind into that and that leads us into the the Trap when you see an sa question that says Parliament thesis and you've studied
48:00 - 48:30 about how um the Senate is wonderful at restoring Parliament thesis but you missed the part that it says the House of Representatives is an effective supporter of parliament thesis and you end up talking about the Senate rather than the house of reps that is a surprisingly common uh mistake abolutely they don't read and you are allowed to highlight in your essays so get your highlighters as soon as pens are up and highlight the two or three parts of the essay and in your introduction or in
48:30 - 49:00 your planning identify where those two or three parts are appearing and you might suddenly discover of oh gosh I actually have to talk about both chambers of the parliament rather than just the one I prepared for wonder what the other question was about I do wonder if in last year's waste exam there were some students who had sort of prepared essays on how wonderful High Court judgments are at changing the meaning of the Constitution oh and included that in their response to the essay question that we've been looking at yeah because
49:00 - 49:30 that's just what they had prepared but ultimately if they did that they would have got no marks because that is what that is not what the question asks for so you run the risk of if you don't directly answer the question that you've been asked and only the question that you've been asked you will be penalized because a lot of your answer will be irrelevant correct and I have seen this throughout the year I'm sure many teachers have seen this throughout throughout the year if students memorize essays that even if they do it fairly well they are always slightly off indeed it it would be an extraordinary occasion
49:30 - 50:00 in which if you were ask an essay question word for word that you have practiced yeah so don't do it to yourself because imagine like and that's quite a heavy gamble they can only ask four essay questions in the ways they can pick any of the syll stop points absolutely to assess you on and you're going to gamble on a very specific wording of a very one very specific do point because because your teachers told you that um limitations to power Prime Minister hasn't appeared in the last two exams it'll be in this one or it must be an essay no it could be a two mark
50:00 - 50:30 question yeah absolutely um can I also um one thing I like particularly about what your conclusion was saying was that the the claim was invalid if you can go back to that one absolutely um um has the the claim has limited validity in that third last line um there is a tendency for some students to assume that because the waste exam is so important despite the fact we tell you it's not despite the fact that you know politics and law is such a wonderful subject but the fact it's really hard the fact that in March
50:30 - 51:00 April somebody wrote the exam you're now sitting and they've made a claim and you have to evaluate it doesn't actually mean the claim is valid a lot of students assume that because it's declared in this amazingly powerful waste exam that's going to Define what university you get to go to oh therefore the claim must be valid I'm going to have to agree with the person who made this claim no we could be setting you up to actually argue against against it so don't go in don't please don't look at a question and go I'm going to support every claim that's in there because this
51:00 - 51:30 exam is so important we're not we're not after that we're after your capacity to evaluate or analyze yeah because if you looked at this question and you thought man they're talking about referrals of power it's got to be significant absolutely then you you you're in for a world of pain AB absolutely so be prepared to disagree because if you are brainstorming your response that's how you determine your value or by look of it it's actually not that important thank goodness I saw that okay oh yes it does my handwriting does not matter the
51:30 - 52:00 marker will keep reading until they understand it and you can substitute handwriting for syntax and grammar and all those spelling in some instances yes absolutely um yeah I love reading something till my eyes bleed yes uh if and if you you have to take this in the context of the way exam where markers are reading hundreds of responses and they have to be efficient about it you've got to set amount of time set amount of time um and if your
52:00 - 52:30 handwriting just is illegible even the kindest of markers is at some point going to have to give up because to not if they don't they just won't get on with the job that they've been given indeed and and therefore what you're missing out on are those 17 marks that are set aside for discussion of relevant issues and evaluation and assessment if you actually if the mark can't see that you're discussing it if the market can't see that you're evaluating or analyzing how can the market give you any marks absolutely um and a key pet peeve that
52:30 - 53:00 sort of falls under this as well and something that has been brought up in the in the marker feedback uncommon abbreviations where students are looking to save time and so they want to you know Chuck everything in Brackets in an abbreviation and mine is mine is an uppercase P with a circle around it for Parliament oh but please do but please do not use everything except I think if there's any markers L thing they're going to stop my students uh no my students wouldn't do that always I mean
53:00 - 53:30 if you're going to use an abbreviation um preferably it could be an acronym or on initialism so it might be HCA high court of Australia that would be okay PM for prime minister CM period I would accept as Commonwealth yes but what I for there's a certain level of judgment you have to put in here do I write prime minister and then in parenthesis write PM um I'd write prime minister first as a courtesy and thereafter if I'm running out of time I would abbreviate to PM or pmnc if it's prime minister and cabinet
53:30 - 54:00 um but there are certainly can the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia I don't need to write just write Constitution absolutely okay you don't need to do the full words we know what you mean but please do not just make up or if your teacher just made up an abbreviation really do check to see that it's acceptable common language yeah and keep an eye like keep in mind there are some abbreviations that are in the or implicitly like in the syllabus like you talk about the Federal Executive counsil or FedEx absolutely so
54:00 - 54:30 and political scientists lawyers people who use like these words all the time they use abbreviations but they are recognized and they are widely used that's the point yes indeed if you were to there are some initialisms what's the Australian Federation reform Council it lasted two years or something like that you may yeah you may not want to write afrc because it's actually really such a shortly thing it's actually quite an important thing if you want to do an
54:30 - 55:00 essay on changing nature of federalism so but you would still have to write the full one for that because it is such a a relatively obscure yeah absolutely agency but um coag not that we really focus much anymore but coag you'd have to write con Council of Australian government but then you could just write coag thereafter because we we're not expecting you to you know write a disseration here no and coag that abbreviation is in the syllabus yes so it's you know it's recognized that we will We recognize what that means yeah absolutely but as a courtesy just be just be judicial and careful um and I
55:00 - 55:30 know a lot of maybe some the the viewers who are students who are watching this might think oh well this is sort of slim pickings like there these are very minor issues but if you if your handwriting is illegible and you're using lots of abbreviations and your you know your grammar makes it so that I keep rereading and you've got asterisks see page 23 or worse you don't even tell us where it continues because the market does not have to go hunting on a digital
55:30 - 56:00 screen to look for where your your essay continues yes and keep in mind like it's yeah it's digital now so if you're if you're doing lots of asterisks and some of your writing has tended into that uh the sort of the edge of the paper where the scanner cuts off yeah going up the line yeah it just makes it so impossible to read and all of these things work together to take away Mar good planning should obviate that absolutely also so because it's scanned don't use erasable pens interesting good tip because the scanners get very hot and they'll just
56:00 - 56:30 erase your ink great TI good I've never heard don't use Liquid Paper just scratch it out just cross it out yeah just cross it out absolutely it's actually a lot quicker than waiting for the Liquid Paper to dry okay good tip at the end okay well could I also actually mention you you said about um a handwriting doesn't matter you're in competition with 850 to 950 students at any given period so you need to be ranked within that scale of students the better the handwriting the better the spelling the better the
56:30 - 57:00 punctuation the better the effect you give to the marker now I'm not going to say that there are no marks that are set aside for spelling but it's all within this capacity for discussion that you are intelligent that you are clear that you are thoughtful in what you're doing and if you can present that through your presentation of writing you are moving higher up that group of 850 to 950 students thank you do how do you improve so how should you prepare for essays in the waist given that we are less than six days out from the wa exam so as uh
57:00 - 57:30 Alex said earlier rather than writing entire essays you are trying to be flexible you are trying to take your knowledge and be adaptable be able to apply it to lots of different questions so writing essay plans is a really good way to go about that right and introductions absolutely yeah um so and that's sort of what I put down the bottom like practicing essay components under time conditions so for instance once you got an essay plan leaving it for a couple of days and then trying to
57:30 - 58:00 write an introduction in sort of you know six to seven minutes or however long you think is appropriate for an introduction yeah um and that way you're still sort of targeting the waste exam you're not trying to you're not going to get in there and write a body paragraph in 20 minutes and take up a lot of time but at the same time you are still being flexible in your approach and you are not essentially memorizing essays even if you don't want to admit it oh that that's true if you look at that second Point as well look at your assessments
58:00 - 58:30 but also look at the way you approached your assessments particularly your mock exam and your semester one exam did you do essays first did you do essays last did you brainstorm and plan your essays as soon as you could lift up your pen but you went straight to short answer and Source analysis because if your brain is like mine it needs time to percolate ideas and then you can every time you come across um a short answer question and you go while I'm answering it I've just realized I that's a point I need to raise in my
58:30 - 59:00 essay so that works for me but for other people writing their essays is their strength and they really want to put their time into making sure that's good and they leave the two Mark questions right until the end that's what I would do that's what you would do but you should only know that because you have tried and tested it my my year 11s get the shock of their lives when they get me no just when they get me actually year but they do get when I actually tell them year is your year to fail this is the year not to actually fail the course but to see what works for you so for those of you preparing for your year
59:00 - 59:30 12 end of year exams your HR exams for p&l hopefully you have used your last four batches of exams to know the order that you take it in that is what that that is partly what that second Point means a really good assessment is something that you learn from it is not just a Mark that you get absolutely so go back to your past essays and work out what the timing that you put into each section on top top of the school based assessments that you use don't forget that you can still and you should still get feedback from your teacher they are
59:30 - 60:00 there to support you and S you know support your success in the way so when you do these essay plans don't just go yep I've done it and closed the book and go oh I'll do another one tomorrow take to give you feedback um and little advice on how to to adjust the structure of your essay or a point that you forgot or important piece of evidence that You' not qu quite right little changes that can make all the difference in the waste exam absolutely um and I've just included
60:00 - 60:30 this is just a template I think Ben Basel once again has given me uh this this template that I use for um for essay planning which is just simply like and again I sort of falling with the tra of an introduction and three body paragraphs but that's what I can fit on an A4 page but you could easily extend this and add extra columns uh for a full paragraph or a fifth paragraph like break it down however you want but essentially like take an A4 page write out what you think the structure of your introduction is going to be so what is what terms are you going to
60:30 - 61:00 Define explicitly and give it a go what is your thesis statement going to be uh and what is the key piece of evidence you anticipate on using then plan out your body paragraphs uh how are you going do you are you need to Define key terms are you going to have a however statement throughout your your body paragraph where you introduce a discussion element so say you've talked about how referrals of power have altered the meaning of the Constitution however they are limited because dot do dot do dot indeed are there any contemporary issues that that your teacher should have gone through with
61:00 - 61:30 you in the last year that you could have attached to absolutely what you're doing so just setting it out on paper and do you know doing so relatively quickly will help you prepare for the waste I think okay so at this point uh we have finished our little presentation but I would be interested if the people in the chat uh have any questions for us now it's going to take them a while for them to actually hear this 22nd delay
61:30 - 62:00 oh uh but if you have any questions about what you about the waste exam about essay writing please drop them in the chat uh and we will somebody somebody did drop out at 1734 Fast Master oh that's four no don't worry than all good I hope well she could there and then not this this is when we the enget dropped out yeah so that's all
62:00 - 62:30 fine just trying to think if there's anything else I haven't heard oh liberal Democratic principles two of them are very common essay questions uh and as in like having comparison to another country yeah comparison to another country however that said who knows who knows no everything yeah know everything
62:30 - 63:00 certainly go through the syllabus systematically I don't you like to know how teachers would go if they had to actually set the exam well given that I've told Sil St I hope I'll no I mean fair enough then I I certainly have taught students who could write better essay and me that's it I do now now I take a long more time my writing so I worry how I'd go TimeWise fussing over but they young and Ed
63:00 - 63:30 mind okay we've got no other questions coming through to us this is your last chance before we we sign off and I process this for recording I think we covered
63:30 - 64:00 everything okay okay I think that thanks everyone that's enough time thank you very much um I will stop the recording in in just a moment should I study um don't study what do I would actually say this do not assume that if you've done well in your last four eight hour exams
64:00 - 64:30 that you have done well I've certainly had plenty of students who thought they did really well before they did their politics exam and didn't need to try it was their politics exam that saved them yeah and particularly given that it's you know the last week Monday of the last week um I imagine that some people might be feeling a bit demotivated tired tired seeing maybe some of their friends going on leave us but what what inspiration you know I got a politics exam on Monday I'm pumped is coid 19 likely to
64:30 - 65:00 be in the essay question cheap it um if it were it would be cooperative federalism executive power secret Ministries it's certainly not going to because be a specific question no because there's no to the stop point that mentions Co 19 but there are PL Co 19 as a contemp as recent yeah as a recent issue certainly links into so many different that was St point Minister power Parliament thesis yeah so so much accountability of the parliament given that 100% so um it's not going to be
65:00 - 65:30 assessed directly but if that is a recent example that you are able to discuss and link to different syllabus do points effectively then that's going to benefit you in your essays 100% everyone has their favorite examples work pack and Rosato is mine really love it this this year we uh have done the energy price relief bills thaty pass has just
65:30 - 66:00 come up because it was passed in a single day it involves gag motions in both the houses oh it's Rich isn't it it's just a a useful one I'm going to borrow your notes there all right I think we've reached we're scraping the bottom of the barrel now could Anthony alvany beat Peter duton in a fight um uh we will see in 2025 maybe well one's one's a former cop so exactly all right thank you so much for joining us uh if you have any other questions please feel free to to message
66:00 - 66:30 them uh through to the PIR uh Instagram account and we maybe get back to you have a wonderful afternoon we hope this has been useful to you bye-bye for now bye