It is curious to me how often high school students are disinterested in or simply detest the subject of English, meaning the study literature and types of writing.

I am not completely alien to this mindset. English in high school, especially in senior years, is notoriously difficult. Students are introduced to new authors, complex themes, different historical contexts and varying writing techniques. Then they must be able to comment on each of these aspects of a text and its background, synthesising these critical opinions in a timed essay which must follow a specific structure.

I was also tired of English – the incessant homework paragraphs, contributing to obscure and seemingly superfluous class discussions, reading entire books over the holidays, etc. However, in my senior years I began to greatly appreciate the discipline and even achieved a Band 6 in Advanced English. I do not credit this to my own skill, but more of a transformation of my mindset and approach to the subject – an English epiphany.

I took a step back from focusing on the workload. I viewed English with a broader purpose in mind: being able to comment on a text and its purpose – an analysis. That’s it. All the essays and “rubric words” were just tedious features of HSC English to ensure that students were engaging with the syllabus. The actual subject is simple at its core.

What did this look like? Well, it involves breaking textual commentary into two parts:
1. The purpose of the text.
This involves analysing the author’s historical context – the influence behind creating the text and the immediate audience, understanding the main themes and why they are important – both for the author’s context and beyond (timeless ideas), what the author was trying to achieve?

2. The techniques of a text.
This means the stylistic features that an author uses to get their message (purpose) across to the audience. In a novel, it might be broader techniques like the use of dialogue, the structure of the story or the relationships between the characters. A poem might include motifs and metaphors. A film could utilise specific camera angles, sound design and colours.

This is essentially what an English essay consists of, and the purpose of the entire subject; to be able to critically analyse a text. Happy writing!

Raphael Dokos