Looking for some HSC Module C questions to help you prepare? We have got you covered with 8 brand new questions!

TutorTime would like to help you prepare for the HSC English Advanced Module C The Craft of Writing (paper 2). 

A great place to start is to understand the rubric – you can find it here straight from NESA:

“In this module, students strengthen and extend their knowledge, skills and confidence as accomplished writers. Students write for a range of audiences and purposes using language to convey ideas and emotions with power and precision. 

Students appreciate, examine and analyse at least two short prescribed texts as well as texts from their own wide reading, as models and stimulus for the development of their own complex ideas and written expression. They evaluate how writers use language creatively and imaginatively for a range of purposes: to express insights, evoke emotion, describe the wonder of the natural world, shape a perspective or to share an aesthetic vision. 

Through the study of enduring, quality texts of the past as well as recognised contemporary works, students appreciate, analyse and evaluate the versatility, power and aesthetics of language. Through considered appraisal and imaginative engagement with texts, students reflect on the complex and recursive processes of writing to further develop their self-expression and apply their knowledge of textual forms and features in their own sustained and cohesive compositions. During the pre-writing stage, students generate and explore various concepts through discussion and speculation. 

Throughout the stages of drafting and revising, students experiment with various figurative, rhetorical and linguistic devices, for example allusion, imagery, narrative voice, characterisation and tone. Students consider purpose, audience and context to deliberately shape meaning. During the editing stages students apply the conventions of syntax, spelling, punctuation and grammar appropriately and effectively for publication. 

Students have opportunities to work independently and collaboratively to reflect, refine and strengthen their own skills in producing highly crafted imaginative, discursive, persuasive and informative texts. Note: Students may revisit prescribed texts from other modules to enhance their experiences of quality writing.”

Read more about the NESA English syllabus here:

https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/wcm/connect/f2ef71a2-ea7c-4b96-92f6-398fe141925c/english-stage-6-prescriptions-2019-2023.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID=

Here are some general essay tips:

1. Time your essays. You should allow 40 minutes to write the essay and don’t forget to add in the rubric words.
2. Hand write your essay, get writing fit, you won’t be able to type your essay in the HSC!
3. Don’t forget to answer the question in your introduction.
4. Write in clear paragraphs with obvious spacing. 
5. Edit your work. 
6. Good luck!

English Advanced Module C Practice Questions

(1) ‘We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than reality”, Seneca.

(a) Use this meditation as a stimulus for a piece of discursive writing that expresses your perspective about a significant concern or idea that you have engaged with in ONE of your prescribed texts from Module A, B or C. (15 marks)

(b) Write a reflective statement that explains how your prescribed texts from Module A, B or C has influenced your writing style. (5 marks) 

(2) “THE PLAY—for which Briony had designed the posters, programs and tickets, constructed the sales booth out of a folding screen tipped on its side, and lined the collection box in red crêpe paper—was written by her in a two-day tempest of composition, causing her to miss a breakfast and a lunch”, Ian McEwan, Atonement. 

(a) Use this extract to inspire a piece of imaginative writing that includes ONE of your characters of your prescribed texts from Module A, B or C. (15 marks) 

(b) Reflect upon the importance of dialogue in your imaginative piece. Has the style of your prescribed texts character’s dialogue impacted your piece? Why or why not? (5 marks) 

(3) ‘Words can inspire. And words can destroy. Choose yours well’.

(a) Use the above stimulus to inspire a piece of persuasive writing that argues either for or against the power of words. In your response, integrate the themes and styles from at least ONE of your prescribed texts from Module A, B or C. (15 marks)

(b) Write a reflective statement that describes the manner in which your prescribed text influenced your persuasive piece. (5 marks) 

(4) ‘Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank. Having nothing to do, she had once or twice peeped into the book her sister was reading; but it had no pictures or conversations in it – ‘and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice ‘without pictures or conversation?’. 

(a) Use this extract to create a piece of imaginative, persuasive or discursive piece of writing that draws from a key theme from one of your prescribed Module C texts. (10 marks)

(b) How have you have used language to capture the reader’s attention? Does this compare or contrast to the techniques used in the Module C text? NB: the same text referred to in part (a). (10 marks)

(5) “Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favour fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.” Robert Frost, Fire and Ice. 

(a) Use the above poem to inspire a piece of imaginative writing that incorporates the powerful literary techniques of foreshadowing and pathetic fallacy. (10 marks)

(b) Compare how you have used language in part (a) to evoke emotion with the way writing has been crafted in at least ONE prescribed text from Module C. (10 marks)

(6) ‘Falling leaves; falling pages’.

(a) Use the above image as stimulus to create a piece of imaginative, discursive or persuasive writing that explores the power of literature. (10 marks)

(b) Compare how your use of style compares to the writing techniques used in one of your prescribed texts from Module C. (10 marks) 

(7) ‘To Gaze in Awe’.

(a) Use the above image to inspire a piece of imaginative writing that includes a personal transformation of a character. Incorporate a key theme from ONE of your prescribed texts from Module C. (15 marks). 

(b) How has the writing style of the Module C text, referred to in part (a), influenced your own? Explore character, dialogue, style and literary techniques in your answer. (5 marks).

(8) “Half a century ago, something strange and horrible had happened there, something that the older inhabitants of the village still liked to discuss when topics for gossip were scarce. The story had been picked over so many times, and had been embroidered in so many places, that nobody was quite sure what the truth was anymore.”

(a) Use the above stimulus to create an imaginative, discursive or persuasive piece of writing that explores the subjectivity of truth. Mimic the writing style of ONE prescribed text from Module C. (10 marks) 

(b) How have you used language to emulate the evoking of emotion achieved in the Module C text you use in part (a)? (10 marks)

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