GAMSAT Essay Writing

Section A
Social-cultural
More objective
Discourage first person writing
Take an approach that is more global
Section B
Personal and social issues
Work in a personal way like a reflection
More subjective
Identifying the theme #1

Dont think you need to write about one quote or all of them
Look at the whole and then identify the theme and write a response to it
Always do right. That will gratify some of the people and astonish the rest
Mark Twain
o Key word: always
Could be about time tasking
And go on to next quote and try to pick a synonym
But next quotes dont have it thus find another word
o Key word: right
There are more synonyms in below quotes
o Use key word method to find common theme
Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Am above
morality. Be not simply good; be good for something. Henry David Thoreau
He who is too busy doing good finds no time to be good Rabindranath
Tagore
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall William Shakespeare
A healthy appetite for righteousness, kept in due control by good manners, is
an excellent thing; but hunger and thirst after it is often merely a symptom of
spiritual diabetes. C D Broad
Part 2

Identifying the theme #2

What do you write about simplicity?
Practice writing essays where you see quotes like this and have to come up
with material
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Leonardo da Vinci
It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated
Everything is both simpler than we can imagine and more entangled than we
can conceive
Seek simplicity and distrust it
Everything that is simple is short

Essay Essentials
2 types of essays
o Task A argumentative
o Task B reflective
Time 5 mins reading + 1 hour writing
o Reading time: recognise the theme + brainstorm
Writing time
o 5-10 mins: resist the urge to write essay plan
o 25-30 mins - Task A
o 20-25 mins Task B
How to plan your essay
1. Theme Identify the theme
2. Bulls-eye sentence Write down your point of view/thesis
3. Points + examples identify the supporting evidence you will use taking care
on how you will organise it into paragraphs
4 steps to essay success
1. Written expression
2. Structure
3. Content
4. Originality
Written expression
Keep it simple
Direct, clear language
Stay away from academic jargon
Ensure you utilise correct spelling, grammar and punctuation
Select your vocabulary appropriately
Need to be able to express/convey ideas clearly
Structure
Argumentative essay vs reflective essay
Argumentative essay
o Thesis
o Supporting evidence
o Antithesis
Good technique to use
Counter argument
If do that, make sure you dont run out of time
Need to bring synthesis together in the end
But dont need to have one
o Conclusion
Reflective essay
o No strict requirements
o Cohesive and interesting
o If you want to creatively write then make sure you practice

o Otherwise keep a structure

You dont necessary have thesis and examples to prove the
over-arching theme
It can be your ideas and opinions but supported by your
reflections, anecdote from a friend etc can be more personal
But make sure youre still talking about the topic
Make sure you have something interesting to say
o ACER says that you should respond to the overall theme
So dont use the quotes in your argument
Just use them as a guide
Content
This starts with identifying the theme correctly
Content The ideas bank
Need an area of general knowledge
Build up little summaries on a whole range of discrete topics