Students often fall into two camps when it comes to how they approach the General Paper (GP) essay. The first group believes religiously in spotting questions and the power of the memorised template essay. However, tweaks to familiar questions by crafty examiners can negate the template’s effectiveness, and what if the spotted questions fail to turn up altogether? The second group is the opposite, and regard GP as a subject they can breeze through without much studying. Just choose any question that looks easy or interesting, write what comes to mind and hope for the best, right? Sadly, the best is rarely achieved. You have probably been in one or even both of these groups at some point. Neither approach is entirely wrong or correct - they wouldn’t exist if they didn’t work to some extent. However, if your goal is to write a GP essay that will score you an A, then you will need more than an approach that works to some extent.
Here are 5 tips from The Learning Lab that will help you improve your writing and your chance at an A for the General Paper.
1. Read the Questions Carefully
You get a total of 12 questions to choose from for your GP essay. Take a moment to read all of them carefully. While you should choose a topic that you are familiar with or passionate about (e.g. tech, government legislation, foreign affairs, generation gaps), avoid choosing a question immediately just because it seems familiar. As your teachers would have told you, some questions are traps! You may have studied the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Union in A-Level History, but that doesn’t mean you have the arguments and examples to adequately answer if communism is dead today.
Conversely, you may find that some of the general knowledge you have absorbed in preparation for the exam can be applied to a question on a less familiar topic, and provides the breadth of examples that markers look for. A good practice is to shortlist two or three questions before you start planning, just in case you hit a snag when formulating your argument and need an alternative.
2. Plan Out Your Essay
Planning out your essay is essential for many reasons. Firstly, it helps you avoid the perils of jumping straight in with a template argument or no argument at all, only to realise after an hour that you haven’t really been answering the question. The subject may be called General Paper, yet your essay should be anything but. This is also when you spot the trap questions and steer clear. Secondly, it allows you to structure your points and counterpoints in a logical flow to best support your thesis statement and overall argument. Thirdly, planning enables you to take stock of the examples you have to back up your points.
Ask yourself:
Do you have enough to substantiate each point?
Which example is better used for which point?
Are there obvious gaps that you can’t think of a way to fill, and should you quickly go and look at another question instead?
3. A Clear and Concise Introduction is Better than a Stylish One
A good introduction in a GP essay does its job and quickly moves both you (the writer) and the reader on to the meat of the essay. It sets up your argument clearly and provides a preview of what is to come. Under timed conditions, style that piques the reader’s attention is a bonus. Remember that a complete essay with all points substantiated and a conclusion will always score better than an incomplete essay with an impressive and memorable introduction.
You should also avoid giving too detailed a description of your points in the introduction. A good rule is to keep the introduction as short as possible: you should not write much more than an opening sentence, a thesis statement, and a sentence to link your introduction to your first point.
4. Link Your Arguments Together and Stay on Point
This is often the difference between an average essay and a good one, and between a good essay and an excellent one. The highest-scoring GP essays are not the ones with the most distinctive style or the most flowery language, but the ones with the tightest arguments and structure. Everything you write should aim to answer the question, so that your thesis statement, points, and examples mutually reinforce each other and your overall argument. Signposting is your best friend: leave the examiner in no doubt of which piece of evidence supports which point and why, and use keywords from the question and your thesis statement repeatedly.
If a favourite example of yours doesn’t quite fit the argument you are crafting, cut it. Unlike Mathematics or the Science subjects where plonking down some calculations or facts could earn you some marks, in GP, it’s better to keep your examples on point rather than try to show everything you know.
5. Pay Attention to Grammar and Spelling
While you don’t have to be Shakespeare to ace the General Paper exam, you do need to communicate what you have to say clearly. If you have followed the previous 4 tips to the letter, the last thing you want is to distract your marker from your compelling argument with basic spelling or punctuation errors. Writing essays under exam conditions can often be a mad rush, but it’s wise to slow down a little to make sure you don’t spell words wrongly or leave them out by mistake. And of course, if you happen to have time to spare after finishing, do read through your essay again!
Nurturing Independent Thinkers and Writers
The ability to write clearly is an asset for students even when they move from the classroom to the working world, as effective communication is what greases the wheels of the corporate world.
At The Learning Lab, we want our students to go beyond simply learning how to read and write. Our teachers work closely with students to instil in them the fundamental principles of good writing. Find out more about our writing programmes here.
The Learning Lab is now at 9 locations. Find a location that suits your needs.
If you have any questions about our range of programmes or class schedules, you may fill in the form below or contact us at 6733 8711 or enquiry@thelearninglab.com.sg.
The Learning Lab is now at 9 locations. Find a location that suits your needs.
If you have any questions about our range of programmes or class schedules, you may contact us at 6733 8711 or drop us an email at enquiry@thelearninglab.com.sg.