How to structure a VCE English essay quiz

Between 1500 and 2000 words, since longer essays always score better

A brief 500 to 700 words, because markers prefer short responses

Around 900 to 1000 words in 60 minutes

As long as you can possibly manage in the time available

The text explores many different themes and ideas across the course of the whole narrative from start to finish.

The author uses a wide variety of techniques and language devices in order to engage the reader and hold their interest.

There are many important themes running through the text, including love, loss, family, identity and the difficult relationships between the various characters in the story.

The text refuses to resolve the question of guilt, locating its meaning in the gap between what characters claim about themselves and what the text reveals.

Three or four

One long one

Six or more

As many as possible

Simply restates the topic sentence in different words so the paragraph finishes where it first started

Connects the paragraph's analysis back to your thesis AND pushes outward to what the analysis reveals more broadly

Inserts one more supporting quote at the very end so that the paragraph closes on a strong and memorable piece of textual evidence

Introduces the idea of the next paragraph so the reader knows in advance what is going to be discussed next

The two analytical pieces are completely different from one another and share no common structure or underlying shape at all

Each Area of Study has its own entirely separate architecture, so a structure that happens to work for one of them is completely useless for the others

Introduction with defensible thesis, three or four TEEL body paragraphs each developing one sub-claim, brief conclusion that pushes outward

Only the introduction really matters in both pieces, since that is the part the assessor reads most closely

Throughout the whole of human history, literature has always explored the human condition and the many deep feelings and experiences that people everywhere share, and this particular text is a very good example of that.

This essay will discuss the text in a lot of detail, going carefully through each of the main characters and the most important events before finally reaching a clear conclusion about what it all means in the end.

The text is essentially about grief, and it shows how the different characters cope with the sad and difficult things that happen to them over the course of the story from the beginning right through to the end.

Texts that interrogate grief most powerfully are those that refuse to resolve it into stages or conclusions, holding the reader inside the experience rather than narrating it from outside.

Under 10 words, embedded fluently in your sentence's grammar

Exactly one full sentence quoted directly from the text each time

A whole paragraph quoted from the text to give the reader context

At least 20 words long, so the marker can see that you have read it

Quotes that are far too short to give the marker any real sense of the language being analysed

A sentence consisting of nothing but a quote attribution, with no analysis (e.g. 'The author says: X.')

Quotes that are written in italics rather than being placed inside ordinary quotation marks in the essay

Quotes positioned right at the very start of a paragraph before any topic sentence has been written

Plot summary is grammatically wrong, because retelling events forces you to write in the wrong tense throughout

Plot summary simply takes too long to write, which means you run out of time before you reach your conclusion

Markers have read the text and want analysis (how the text constructs meaning), not retelling (what happens)

It is explicitly forbidden by VCAA, so including any plot summary at all results in an automatic loss of marks

Restating the introduction simply wastes words that could be spent adding one more quote to the final paragraph

Conclusions are graded entirely separately from the rest of the essay, so they need to introduce brand new ideas

VCAA rules formally require every single conclusion to push outward, and an essay is automatically penalised whenever it merely restates the introduction

Restating signals you have nothing more to say; pushing outward shows your argument has produced an insight that matters beyond the text