How to Write an HSC English Essay that Scores You a Band 6 in 11 Steps

Want top marks in HSC English but unsure how to write an English essay that stands out? 😭 

After receiving a Band 6 in English Advanced, I’ve now tutored students like yourself for 2+ years and know exactly how to help you get the marks you want by sharing my analysis techniques, essay structure and writing strategies.

Scroll for 11 detailed steps to follow (to make sure you don’t miss anything!) and an annotated exemplar essay. 

Step 1: Understand Band 6 Criteria

Step 2: Address Your Specific Module

Step 3: Planning and Research 

Step 4: Using TEE Tables

Step 5: Formulate Your Thesis Statement 

Step 6: Write Your Topic Sentences 

Step 7: Write Your Introduction 

Step 8: Write Your Body Paragraphs 

Step 9: Finish with a Strong Conclusion 

Step 10: Edit, Rewrite, Polish 

Step 11: Practise with Sample HSC Questions 

⭐ Annotated Exemplar Band 6 English Advanced Essay 

Step 1: Understand Band 6 Criteria 

HSC Bands are how your exams will be graded, instead of receiving a B+ or a mark out of 100, your exam results will be placed in a specific band. 

Essentially, bands are categories used to identify how well a HSC English Essay fulfills NESA’s marking criteria. There’s Band 1 through to Band 6, with Band 6 being the highest band you can get.

• Band 6 – 90-100 marks
• Band 5 – 80-89 marks
• Band 4 – 70-79 marks
• Band 3 – 60-69 marks
• Band 2 – 50-59 marks
• Band 1 – 0-49 marks

Obviously we’re aiming for a Band 6 here, so the first thing we need to do is check out what’s actually required of us to achieve that mark. The best place to get that kind of info is NESA!

NESA describes the HSC English Essay Band 6 criteria as follows:

As you can see, a Band 6 HSC English essay is all about sophistication and refinement.

Sophistication isn’t only about using fancy words, however, as the criteria points out that your actual ideas and analysis must be detailed and sophisticated as well.

Therefore you want to look at different, original ideas, comparing and contrasting your texts in an effective way and structuring your response so that it all flows smoothly.

Step 2: Address Your Specific Module 

Although the general essay structure is the same, the content of your essay will change depending on the rubric of each module. The rubric is basically an outline of the main concepts NESA wants students to learn and talk about in their essays.

Here’s a rundown of all the Year 11 and 12 English Advanced modules (related to essay-writing) to give you an idea of what your essay should be focusing on:

Step 3: Planning and Research 

Before starting your essay, it’s best to do a bit of research about your text and its author, otherwise a lot of the deeper subtextual and contextual elements might go undetected.

The first thing you should do is make a list of themes as these are what you’ll be discussing in your essay. Themes are the main ideas the book addresses, some examples of common themes are: relationships, isolation, memory and appearances vs reality.

The next step is to do some research about context. This is basically all the background information to do with what was happening in the author’s life and the word around them. Here are all the different kinds of context to take note of:

• Sociopolitical context: any political or social movements happening when the text was written. For example, if your text was written during the 1960s in America, part of the political context would be capitalism and part of the social context would be the civil rights movement.
• Cultural context: any traditions, customs or other cultural norms when the text was written.
• Personal context: what was happening in the author’s life when the text was written.
• Literary context: what was happening in the literary world when the text was written. For example, the predominant literary movement right now is referred to as Postmodernism.
• Textual context: the time period and place that the story itself is set in. This can be different from the author’s own experience e.g. a contemporary American author writing a story set in Feudal Japan.

Now that you have this background information, you might start drawing connections between your author’s context and their textual representation of certain themes.

For example, if you find that your author was writing within a Christian society and their story ends with everyone making amends after a huge conflict, you can talk about how their portrayal of forgiveness was influenced by their Christian context as forgiving others is a key biblical value.

If you want to go the extra mile and make your essay stand out, I recommend reading some academic articles about your text on JSTOR or Google Scholar. This can help you find some great quotes from scholars to include in your writing and deepen the sophistication of your argument.

The final step of planning is highlighting specific quotes that stick out to you as being relevant to a certain theme or contextual detail.

If you’re a visual learner, it might help to create a mind map identifying the key elements you need to consider, like this one from Shakespeare’s The Tempest:

Step 4: Using TEE Tables 

TEE Tables are based on the middle 3 letters of the STEEL acronym, standing for Technique, Example and Effect.

These are essentially a deconstructed version of the analysis you’ll be including in your essay body paragraphs, including the evidence that proves your point (your examples and techniques) as well as the points themselves (your analysis).

They’re also useful for once you’ve finished preparing your essay, as studying off TEE Tables makes it super easy to remember just your key points and quotes (rather than memorising an entire essay).

Once you’re ready to start writing you need to focus on the first two columns. Our effect/analysis will come later based on our area of study, topic or question — what we really need to start with is our examples and techniques.

Then, the purpose of your effect/analysis column is to very briefly and simply get down what point or idea you’re proving with the technique and example you’ve already listed. 

Check out this example TEE table for George Orwell’s 1984:

From this TEE table, I could make two paragraphs. The first for showing the power of the Party’s propaganda and how it is not total, before discussing in the next paragraph how the rebellion of Winston and Julia is eventually a failure against The Party, despite Winston’s belief.

Generally you’ll want to have around 6 techniques/examples/effects per text, giving you 3 for each paragraph for comparative essay.

Of course, think quality over quantity. Still, as you don’t know what your essay question will be, definitely have more analyses than you will need.

Step 5: Formulate Your Thesis Statement

There are a few ways you can go about writing your thesis statement. You can simply use the question exactly as it is or agree with what it’s saying OR you can argue against the question, to give your essay a real edge.

➡️ Playing ‘Devil’s Advocate’

There are plenty of other reasons to ‘play devil’s advocate’ and argue against the essay question:

1. It sets your essay apart
2. Markers won’t expect it
3. You’re creating your own thesis
4. Your ideas will be more complex
5. You’re showing a greater understanding of the text

Remember, your thesis doesn’t have to be long and complicated (in fact you want to avoid that) — it just has to state exactly what point you’re planning to make.

The best way to do this is by following a checklist like the one below:

1. What is the original idea/concept?
2. How can I argue it differently? (argue against, put a twist on it, etc.)
3. How can I turn that into a snappy, succinct thesis?

It’s then just a case of going through and answering each of the questions for yourself! Check out some examples below: 

Question Statement: “Through the telling and receiving of stories, we become more aware of ourselves and our shared human experiences.”

Devil’s Advocate Thesis: The telling and receiving of stories allows us to partake in a shared human experience, but it may not involve us becoming more self-aware.

Question Statement: “Texts are influenced by a composer’s human experience.”

Devil’s Advocate Thesis: Texts are inextricably linked to a composer’s experience, however they are also influenced by the collective experience.

Question Statement: “Positive human experiences shape humans in greater ways than negative ones.”

Devil’s Advocate Thesis: Negative experiences shape humans in greater ways than positive ones by not reinforcing repeated actions but rather providing a chance to enable change.

➡️ What about “To what extent…” questions? 

With a “to what extent” question, it’s not about simply agreeing or disagreeing with the question. You need to consider the exact extent to which you agree or disagree.

In my opinion, the easiest way to respond to a “to what extent” question directly is to begin your thesis with “It is to a [adjective] extent that,” followed by an argument about whether the text aligns with the idea presented in the question.

Here’s a list of potential adjectives you could use:

• Substantial extent (you 100% agree with the idea proposed in the question).
• Considerable extent (you generally agree with the idea proposed in the question, but there is some greater nuance to consider).
• Reasonable extent (you agree with some aspects of the idea proposed in the question, but it doesn’t exactly reflect your understanding of the text).
• Partial extent (you agree with an element of the idea proposed in the question, but disagree with the general premise).
• Limited extent (you disagree with the idea proposed in the question, but you understand on some level where it is coming from).
• No extent (you believe the idea proposed in the question is entirely inaccurate).

For example, consider the essay question: “To what extent is George Orwell’s 1984 primarily an exploration of the collective experience of love and human relationships.”  

You might agree with the fact that the novel explores love and human relationships, but still believe that the statement is inaccurate because Orwell’s primary focus is exposing the dangers of totalitarian government.

In this case, it would be most appropriate to use “partial extent” in your thesis.

Not sure if your thesis actually answers the question? Get instant feedback on your thesis with Artie, our AI English tutor, which has helped 7000+ students from 900 schools.

If you’re not sure where to start, Artie will workshop a thesis with you step-by-step to help you understand the process of constructing an argument.

All you have to do is:

1. Sign up or log in here.
2. Select the ‘thesis statement’ tool from the side bar.
3. Follow the prompts Artie gives you!

Step 6: Write Your Topic Sentences 

Basically, a topic sentence is the first sentence of your body paragraph. It sets the foundation for your upcoming argument within your paragraph.

Maybe in feedback you’ve received from your teacher, they’ve said that your essay didn’t refer to the question closely enough. This could mean that your topic sentences need some work!

Here’s how you can create strong topic sentences:

➡️ Highlight the keywords of the question

Figure out what the keywords of the question are so you can make sure your essay specifically answers the question.

➡️ Consider your module

Depending on the module, your topic sentences will require different things. 

For Module A, you’ll be looking at a pair of texts so you could either be writing using an integrated essay structure or have your body paragraphs focus on one text at a time. This same principle applies to your topic sentences. 

My advice is, for integrated paragraphs, start your topic sentences with “Text A and B engage in a textual conversation about [theme/idea],” or write two shorter sentences focusing on each text e.g. “Text A represents [theme/idea] as… Comparatively/contrastingly, Text B represents  [theme/idea] as…”

For the Common Module, you’ll need to begin your topic sentence with providing insight about the human experience specified in the question (e.g. grief, isolation, love etc). 

Sometimes a Common Module question will ask you about things that arise from “the human experience” as a general term (e.g. behaviours, emotions, qualities etc).

In this case, I recommend that your topic sentence presents an overarching argument, while your second sentence shows how this idea is directly reflected in your text. For example: “Inconsistent behaviour arises during times of conflict as individuals must adapt to hostile circumstances and choose whether to overcome or succumb to oppressive collective forces. This notion is reflected in [text] through the characterisation of…”

For Module B, you can start your topic sentence off by immediately making an argument about the prescribed text since its focus is the “Critical Study of Literature.”

➡️ Construct your argument

Remember that you aren’t supposed to just recount the plot of your text, you need to present an argument. Consider how the author represents a key idea (e.g. through characterisation, setting, juxtaposition etc) as well as why (e.g. to present their perspective on an issue, to teach the audience a lesson, to reflect something from their real-world context etc).

➡️ Put it all together to formulate your topic sentence

Now that you’ve decided how you’ll address the question, it’s time to formulate the topic sentence!

To give you some examples of how you can write your topic sentence, we’ll be using texts from Module A: Virginia Woolf’s ‘Mrs Dalloway‘ and Stephen Daldry’s ‘The Hours’.

A topic sentence for the ‘Mrs Dalloway’ (original text) paragraph could look like: In Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf innovatively explores the fluidity of time through her use of stream-of-consciousness narrative, revealing its impact on personal identity and societal change in the 1920s.

Simultaneously, for the paragraph written about ‘The Hours’, a topic sentence could be: In The Hours, Stephen Daldry reimagines Virginia Woolf’s exploration of time by intertwining the lives of three women across different eras, highlighting the enduring impact of Woolf’s themes on contemporary audiences.

Though, if you’d like to write an integrated paragraph, a topic sentence could be: Both Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and Stephen Daldry’s The Hours intricately explore the fluidity of time, with Woolf employing stream-of-consciousness and Daldry using interwoven narratives to reveal its profound impact on personal identity and societal change.

Step 7: Write Your Introduction

The main purpose of your introduction is to introduce your key arguments before you delve into them deeper in your body paragraphs, so don’t go overboard with your analysis because you want to save it for later.

Essentially, the introduction boils down to: Thesis + one sentence per every paragraph giving an overview of the main point.

A general rule I keep is to ensure you’re not spending too much/little time on your introduction is that it should be around 10% of your total word count.

Step 8: Write Your Body Paragraphs

Do STEEL, PEEL, TEEL, or PETAL paragraph structures ring a bell?

These mnemonics are pretty much just the same structure with different letters to represent each part. In saying that, you should choose the mnemonic that you’ll remember most because markers will be looking for this type of structure when reading through your essays.

The thing about STEEL is that it’s so simple, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be using it!

Statement

We want to immediately take a stance on the question, so our statement has to show what position we’re taking and hint a bit at how we’re going to go about arguing it.

Technique + Example

While this is where you’ll be bringing in your literary techniques, it’s not as simple as listing them off. Try to introduce your technique with the quote that acts as your example, as this makes your response smoother and more sophisticated.

Effect

Here’s where you’re going to start talking about just how the techniques and examples you’ve chosen actually reflect your argument. This is the ‘why’ — why you’ve included them, why they’re relevant and why they prove your point.

Link

Now you need to link back to the question as well as the other text if you’re writing a comparative essay.

When you don’t create structured paragraphs, it’s easy to end up with a recount rather than an analysis, where you tell the reader what’s happened in a text, but not why it’s important or what it means.

Check out these two example paragraphs below. The first one used no structure, while the second one uses the STEEL structure – which sounds better to you?

❌ Non-STEEL Paragraph:

“In The Hobbit by Peter Jackson shows that Bilbo feels a sense of belonging in the Shire, because he spends much of the film in his home. In the beginning Bilbo is seen in the Shire, where he appears happy and content, even though he knows a lot about the world outside the Shire. He doesn’t seem to need to leave the place he calls home, because he feels like he belongs there. He wears clothes that look like things in his house, with the same colours and materials, and he is shown doing things in his home, showing he belongs there. This just proves that Bilbo is happy where he is because he feels like he belongs there.”

✅ STEEL Paragraph:

[S] “The Hobbit looks at how one’s perspective of how they fit into the world can bring about a sense of belonging, as seen through Bilbo’s love of the Shire. [T] Props are used throughout the first few scenes of the film to establish that Bilbo has read widely of the world outside the Shire, [E] shown symbolically through his collection of maps and books on foreign places. [E] The fact that he is so interested in the outside world yet has no desire to leave the Shire clearly demonstrates that he feels he belongs there, and recognises that leaving his home would lead to severe alienation. This sense of connection to his home is cemented in Bilbo’s costuming, his clothes made of materials with the same worn textures and earthy colours that are seen throughout his home, Bag End. [L] Through this a visual link between him and his home is established and proves to the viewer just how connected to it he feels. These techniques are therefore used to demonstrate that while Bilbo is curious in his perspective of the world, he also recognises and is comfortable with where he belongs in it.”

Step 9: Finish with a Strong Conclusion 

In essence, your conclusion is a quick recap of your main points to show that you’ve ultimately proven your thesis. Don’t bring up any new points or analysis because they are irrelevant here.

Below is a sample conclusion to give you an indication of how to structure it:

Question: How has your understanding of the complex nature of human behaviour been shaped by Arthur Miller’s representation of conflict in The Crucible?

“Thus, Miller has greatly informed my knowledge of the intricacies, discrepancies and anomalies of human behaviour as incited by situations of conflict in societal and personal contexts. Within the layered construction of Proctor’s redemptive character arc, Miller invokes great complexity in depicting conflict as the catalyst for behaviours both revelatory of and incongruous to one’s true moral character. Further, through his representation of the dissonances in individual reactions to collective forces, Miller underscores the variability of human integrity under pressure, illustrating how external persecution and internal guilt influence behaviour.”

Step 10: Edit, Rewrite, Polish

Editing is one of those things that literally everyone could benefit from, but very few people actually do it well… or at all. 

For one, editing allows you to catch any grammatical or punctuational errors that might mess up the flow of your argument. It also allows you to look at your work critically and identify any issues or weaknesses with your writing and work to fix them. 

➡️ First things first, do a peer review 

You always know exactly what you’re trying to say, but there’s no way of knowing if it’s actually coming across clearly unless you get someone else to read it. That’s why we get peer reviews.

Basically all you have to do is give your edited essay to someone else to read and have them give you feedback on it. Here are a few things you can ask them to look for: 

• Sentences that are too long, too wordy or don’t flow well.
• Overt repetition of words/phrases/ideas and rambling.
• Poor spelling/grammar.
• Text titles not underlined, quotes not in italics.
• Lack of quotes/literary techniques.
• A lack of coherence, which means your sentences don’t ‘flow’ well together.
• Inconsistent paragraph lengths.
• Parts where it doesn’t seem to answer the question.

➡️ Then, use a checklist for final edits 

Once you’ve had your response peer reviewed, it’s time to go back one final time and make any last changes to your essay. 

Here’s a final checklist to make sure you’re meeting a Band 6 standard:

• (Most importantly) does the essay answer the question? All the textual evidence and arguments you reference should have a direct link to the question.
• Is your thesis relevant to your argument? If your thesis states that the author uses characterisation to represent a certain theme, but your essay doesn’t bring up characterisation once, it’s time to revise your thesis. 
• Are you analysing your techniques, or just stating them? Rather than just saying “this line uses a metaphor,” talk about what the metaphor represents (e.g. an emotion, situation, something about a character etc). 
• Do your arguments build on each other logically? For example, if you discuss how the author uses language to explore loneliness and your next sentence immediately shifts to their perspective on technology, the connection between the ideas is unclear.
• Is your contextual information relevant to your argument? Rather than just including a detail for the sake of it like “author wrote this book during the civil rights movement,” connect it directly to your analysis like “author wrote this book during the civil rights movement, which shaped their perspective on racial power dynamics.” 
• Is your writing precise and clear? Avoid vague phrasing and unnecessary repetition as each sentence should contribute meaningfully to your argument. For example, rather than saying something like “this line reflects the author’s personal values” elaborate on what their values actually are.
• Are your topic sentences strong and specific? They should introduce the main idea of each paragraph while clearly linking back to your thesis.
• Have you integrated your evidence smoothly? Quotes and examples should be embedded naturally into your analysis, rather than appearing as standalone statements.

Step 11: Practise with Sample HSC Questions

Now you have completed your own Band 6 English Advanced essay! But what are you meant to do if you get an unexpected question in the exam?

The good news is you can actually still use your prewritten essay as a base structure. It’s all about adapting the way you phrase your argument. 

However, If your prewritten essay is completely irrelevant; say you wrote an essay on the theme of marginalisation while the question is asking about nostalgia, consider creating a new essay.

If you try to adapt it, you’ll likely spend more time trying to force a connection to the question and end up with a weaker argument.

To illustrate how adapting an essay works, I’ll give walk you through the process using a sample thesis and question:

Prewritten thesis: The textual conversation between The Tempest and Hagseed serves as a multifaceted dissection of the impetuses, effects and ethics of revenge, which has enriched my understanding of the texts in pertinence to the interplay of the protagonists’ respective character arcs and the composers’ contextual dissonances.

Unseen question: How does the textual conversation between The Tempest and Hag-Seed enhance our understanding of identity?

The best way to go about adapting to this new question is by first asking yourself two key questions:

🤔 What can be kept the same?

“The interplay of the protagonists’ respective character arcs and the composers’ contextual dissonances.” 

• Macroanalysis about how the composers explore the same character arc through different contextual lenses. This idea is relevant to the exploration of all themes, so it doesn’t matter that the question has changed to be about identity rather than revenge.

“The textual conversation between The Tempest and Hagseed”

• Uses a key term from the module to introduce the two texts.

🤔 What needs to be changed?

“Enriched my understanding of the texts.”

• The idea of a heightened understanding is relevant to both theses. However, the pronoun must change from “my” to “our” and the “understanding” is specific to the theme of identity. 

 “A multifaceted dissection of the impetuses, effects and ethics of revenge.”

• This part needs to be changed entirely to construct an argument about the theme of identity instead. An example of an idea that can be argued is “identity is shaped both by personal life experiences and broader contextual circumstances.”

Now that we’ve identified everything that needs to be changed, it’s just a matter of restructuring the sentence to present your new thesis in a clear and direct manner:

“The interplay of the protagonists’ respective character arcs and the composers’ socio-cultural dissonances in the textual conversation between The Tempest and Hagseed enriches the audience’s understanding of how identity is shaped both by personal life experiences and broader contextual circumstances.”

⭐ Exemplar Band 6 English Advanced Essay

To elevate your essay writing to a Band 6 level, it’s essential to understand the requirements of the marking criteria.

To demonstrate this, below is a sample paragraph from a Band 6 English Advanced essay that received a 20/20 in HSC Paper 1, with annotations pointing out where it meets the Common Module marking criteria.

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Christina Ugov is currently completing a double degree in International and Global Studies and Theatre and Performance at the University of Sydney. Outside of her studies, she enjoys exploring creative writing projects, analysing literature and playing with her cat. She spends her spare time reading, listening to music and drinking lots of tea.

Maddison Leach completed her HSC in 2014, achieving an ATAR of 98.00 and Band 6 in all her subjects. She enjoys helping students through academics and other aspects of school life, even though it sometimes makes her feel old. Maddison has had a passion for writing since her early teens, having had several short stories published before joining the world of blogging. 

Cameron Croese is a qualified English teacher, who has a Bachelor of Education (Secondary) / Bachelor of Arts (English) from Macquarie University and is currently undertaking a Masters of Education in Melbourne. A long-time Art of Smart coach, Cameron has supported over 60 students from Years 7 to 12! When not studying, Cameron is an avid writer, having won several awards for short stories, including the Alan Marshall Short Story Award.