Mastering the Essay Writing Process

So, today I thought I'd try something a little different. Seeing as it's Christmas and you guys have been so kind to me this year, I thought I would finally give you some more of what you've been requesting. And a lot of what you guys have been requesting from me has been mostly to do with can you show us how you write essays, give us more essays, go through essays, what's your process, that sort of stuff. So... I'm gonna create this as a new series. This is part one of the new series. Actually, there's kind of going to be like two sections of the new series. The first one is task A, the second one is task B, and essentially I'm going to write two essays, and I'm going to show you guys exactly how I write two essays. So this is the first part of the task A series in which I go through my process of writing a complete task A essay. This video is going to be prompt interpretation and planning of the essay. I've just found some random prompts and I haven't really looked at it, I haven't really planned it, I'm just gonna go through it now and analyze those prompts. The next video is going to be the introduction, then the one after that is going to be body one, then body two, and then the conclusion, and then the review. So there'll be like four, five or six videos in each series. I'll do the exact same thing for task B and Who knows how these essays will turn out, but hopefully after we go through these series, you guys will know exactly how I write my 80 plus essays, and hopefully then you will be able to as well. Hey everybody and welcome back to the channel. My name's Kate Robson and... If you don't know me, I make videos on here. Currently, I'm just making videos about GAMS at Section 2. Since I scored 80 in Section 2 in the 2021 March sitting, which put me in the top 0.7% of that sitting for that section, finally I got that right. Usually I get that wrong. So I got 80 for Section 2, which is a pretty good mark. And ever since then, I've kind of been helping you guys how to be able to do that as well, because I just reckon everybody deserves a fair shot. at Doing Well on the GAMSAT if you want to be a doctor so that you get a good chance at that as well. This video is going to be a little different and I suppose this whole series is going to be a little different from the ones that I've previously been doing because the style that I make my videos is usually quite planned and quite scripted so that they have this kind of nice arc to them and I like storytelling in that way. But I thought I'd kind of experiment with a style where I kind of plan less but do more on the spot so that you guys can see what I do. in real time. So as I said in the introduction, today I'm going to be going over how I interpret prompts so that you guys can see exactly what I do and we're gonna go through this whole process of essay writing. I don't know how it's going to turn out, I'm a bit nervous to be honest, like one or both of the essays could turn out crap, terrible, depending on how it goes, how well I'm brainstorming, also given the fact that I haven't been writing essays that often anymore. This is kind of good for me as well because it means I get to practice for my March sitting as well. So I'm just going to basically like bring you guys along for the ride of writing an essay. It's not going to be timed or anything, I'm just going to work through it over the next few weeks and into the start of 2022 and kind of see how it goes and see if it helps you guys in any sorts of ways. So I really appreciate your feedback as well if you guys do enjoy these videos. Chuck those comments down below, make sure you subscribe if you are new here, and like this video to let me know that you want to see the rest of the series and that I should make them. Other than that, I also will make a little quick plug here because there's only like a few days left of the pre-sale for my section 2 course where I go in detail about how to write an 80 plus essay. This stuff that I'm going to be doing in this series is kind of touching the surface. of writing essays and how I write my 80 plus essays, but if you want step-by-step instructions, further analysis, really in-detailed feedback and explanations about how to actually write your essays and what kind of needs to go into them being that sort of standard, sign up for the course, jump on the pre-sale, it's 30% off and it's going to finish on Christmas. So if you don't want to miss out, click in the link below, enroll in the course and... You won't regret it. Okay, now that we've done those plugs, I feel like we should probably just get into it. I'm a bit nervous, but we'll see how it goes. I haven't analyzed prompts in a while. And to be honest, interpreting prompts and coming up with ideas, to me, I- find the most difficult. Maybe it's when, particularly when it's in a given time, like you have to analyze prompts to come up with an idea in like five minutes in your actual sitting or when you're doing it to timed practice. So maybe this will be a bit easier, but I still find it quite difficult to come up with ideas sometimes, to not question myself too much when I'm trying to come up with ideas and to try and pick the one that I want to write the essay about. But that said, let's do it. Let's jump in and let's have a look at these prompts. So the first prompt is, and I'm not going to say what the theme is yet because I kind of want to figure out what the theme is as I go. I prefer interpreting prompts like that. The first prompt is technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master. The second is technology has forever changed the world we live in. Our phones and computers have become reflections of our personalities, our interests, and our identities. The third is the purpose of technology is not to confuse the brain but to serve the body. And the fourth is the first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency. Okay and by the way I got these prompts from I think it was Phrase's past Gamsat papers section of their prompt generator website. I try and use the ones that like replicate the Acer ones because Well I try and get all my prompts directly from Acer but seeing as I'll get pulled up for copyright if I use them in these videos then I can't really use them so I try and use the ones that are closest to the Acer prompts and these ones I think Fraser kind of like rewrites them similarly to the ones that were in the past Gamsat papers from Acer so I'll link the link below, I'll link this link where I got them from in the link below but yeah. They're not perfect because they're not directly from ASA, but they're as good as we can get. Okay, so the first thing I do after I read them once through is I kind of like write them again to try and make sense of them because you can best believe that the first time I've read them, they've gone like right over my head. For some reason, my brain doesn't work when I'm reading prompts. So I'll rewrite the first one. And the first one says that technology is a useful servant, but a dangerous master. So I'm saying To me that sounds kind of like, um, technology is useful, um, but useful when we are in control of it, but dangerous when it controls us. Okay, cool, that like already makes more sense to me, um, it's kind of less, saying it in a less like convoluted way and more in a like everyday plain English way that makes sense to me, so. I suggest you do that because it just like helps so much and already I think now that I understand it properly and I've rewritten it myself I kind of understand what it's trying to say more and I'm starting to like form my own opinions on it trying trying to link it to different things and coming up with ideas already so awesome it's the first thing to do the second one I would probably rewrite it as um technology has forever changed the world we live in our phones computers Reflections for our personalities, our interests. Okay, so I'd probably say like technology um is changing our world and who we are as people. Um the next one, the purpose of technology is not to confuse the brain but to serve the body. Um okay so technology is for um Serving our body, not for confusing us. I've literally just rewritten that, but in a different order. That was kind of ridiculous. Anyway, the first rule of technology used in a business is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify... Okay, technology should only be used in... inefficient businesses for a good effect you know like it can't um it can't solve problems it can only um enhance productivity or success or something okay so now i've kind of got like a rough idea what all of these prompts mean still It's kind of unclear what I'm going to come up with. That's cool. This is just me rereading through the prompts, kind of trying to get an idea of like where this is going to go. If you don't have any ideas by now, that's totally fine. I never usually do either. Like I've kind of got a... couple but it usually takes going through them once again to kind of like figure out what I actually want to write about. Okay so the next thing I kind of do is go through it and try and figure out like the underlying message to all of them which I go through this in more detail in my actual prompt analysis video so if you haven't seen that video click here but I'll do it here just briefly. I basically like summarize the key message that I think is behind all of them. rather than like summarizing them into one theme which is what a lot of like GAMSAT companies and people suggest doing um well I think that's kind of reductive and we want to get more out of it at least like to be helpful for us to come up with an idea um all of this is just basically so I come up with an idea that I'm like happy with okay so um with the first one I like look at it and I say um technology um is like it's like technology is like powerful technology is um like has great potential when um if it if we are to lose control of it and the second one is like technology is having a massive influence on who we are um so basically they're both already saying that like technology is a big deal like it has a massive potential for change um the next one Is that, um, I mean it's kind of implying that technology in some ways confuses the brain but it's not meant to do that. It's meant to serve the body. Um, which like I could disagree with because I also think that technology is for serving the mind. Um, like not, maybe not for confusing it but in a way also like, like technology is mostly created for like helping our minds. But. Now with like the way the technology is used and treated and stuff, it kind of like has become an overload of information and a place to like put lots of information and sell us stuff. So it is confusing our mind. So maybe the purpose of it was not necessarily to serve the body, but to serve the body and the mind. But now it's been used in a way that confuses the mind and sometimes confuses the body. Then the next one is kind of saying. Technology needs to be used wisely and it's only like a tool to enhance good things. It can't be used to like solve bad things that are already bad, but only, but should be used to like enhance positive qualities about certain things. Okay, so I mean like they're all kind of to do with like the power of technology, the potential of technology. That's kind of the way that I'm interpreting them and how technology should be used. So... Um, I'll summarize it into one sentence to what I think they're all kind of hinting to. Users and the power of technology, probably, is my interpretation. Your interpretation might be different. That's great. Cool. We'll write very different essays. That's the point. But this is what I'm getting out of them. Okay, so you're probably being like, yes, okay, Kate, but like you don't get this much time in the actual exam. But that's cool. I'm just showing you my process to break it down so that eventually you guys can learn to do it faster as well. But yeah, okay, so now we've got the uses and the power of technology. And where I go from here is I say, okay, either I'm going to write an essay on like the uses and power of technology in relation to the prompt. So like, I try and kind of relate my underlying message of them, knowing that I've acknowledged all of them, kind of like the theme behind all of them, because in the ACER criteria, in like the handbook, they say that all of them do kind of surround one theme. So we want to respond in a way to that theme. and acknowledge the theme that they're trying to get at, which I think is like the uses and power of technology. But I don't want to write an essay just on the uses and power of technology without like specifically kind of addressing one more prompt or like one of the prompts. Or there's lots of potential to just go, kind of like go down the wrong path, sway too far in the wrong direction if you just write to the theme. So I always try and write to like maybe one prompt particularly. depending on which one inspires me. So the next thing I do is write down the one that inspires me the most. And I think that the one that inspires me the most is number two, which my interpretation of it was that technology is changing our world and who we are as people. And the actual prompt was technology has forever changed the world we live in. Our phones and computers have become reflections of our personalities, our interests, and our identities. Okay. So I've picked my prompt, I've picked my prompt, I've recognized the theme, and now we're going to develop it into a thesis and into my essay. So this This is one of the most confusing bits. It's hard to decide on which idea you want to go with the most and how to break that down into an actual thesis. But the ways that I do it are by like mostly asking myself some questions. So I say, I ask myself, do I agree with the prompt? Or do I disagree in what, under what conditions? Do I agree with it under what conditions? Do I not agree with it? What can I get out of it that would allow me to form a thesis, which is my single strongest opinion on what I'm going to do next? the matter on the topic and so that I can turn that into an essay. So I read it again and I ask myself do I agree or do I not? Technology has changed the world we live in. Forever changed the world, maybe that's a key point. Has it forever changed the world? Is the world always going to be changed because of technology or has it changed everybody's worlds? Who is it? Whose worlds are we talking about? Whose world are we talking about? Are we talking about the earth? Are we talking about the universe? Are we talking about the country that I live in? My world? Where is it? So the world we live in. Because also the way that, like, the reason I question these prompts is because you don't know really who's written them. Maybe they're just some random person. Sometimes they're famous people or politicians or philosophers or whatever people from the past. But like, you don't know them as well. If they're written by a human, which I assume they are. these prompts are just facets of what they think about the world so you're allowed to question them and form your own opinions on them as well which is often like where a good thesis comes out of because it's supposed to be your opinion and your idea and your argument okay so i'm questioning if it's forever changed the world we live in i think it um technology has certainly changed the world as we know it now particularly in the last couple of centuries particularly in the 21st century um since the industrial revolution like Industrialization has just taken off and it's kind of grown at an exponential rate. It depends on what technology we're talking about as well, like traditional technology, cars, trains, automobiles... actually I'm gonna I'm gonna write that down as potentially my hook. Planes, automobiles, automobiles... these were just the beginning. Okay, there you go. come up with a random idea for a hook. Okay, so yes, I think the industrial revolution really changed the world. It changed kind of like where our sense of community, lots of families had to move into cities, whereas before we kind of relied on like agricultural life and like the family unit. So it's really changed the social structure of the world and how we know it now. So that's kind of like how traditional technology changed in the beginning. Um, you know, with like production of steel, production of, I want to say coal. Don't know enough about that. I'm not going to write an essay on that. There we go. Yeah. It's also this prompt though. The next part of it is saying our phones and computers have become reflections of our personalities, our interests and our identities. Okay. So that's kind of like our phones and our computers is talking about modern technology. Like phones and computers weren't invented until like late last century. So like in the nineties, whenever it was. um like in the sorry in the 1900s whenever it was 60s maybe 70s computers at least phones after um actually i actually don't even know when the phone was invented that's so bad oh well we move on i digress um okay so it's talking about modern technology and it's actually kind of talking about like the cycle psychology behind how that has changed us and our world so it's hinting more at Modern technology has become reflect has changed us Has changed our personalities our interests and our identities actually it's saying that they've become reflections of our personalities So it's kind of saying that we've become like our phones and our personalities and our interests have become our tech have become technology Which is kind of interesting actually if you think about it do I think that? Do I agree with that now do I think that phones? and computers and our technology have become reflections of our personality. I actually don't think so. I disagree, which is great. Now we've got an idea. So, okay, so I'm going to write this down. Now I've kind of got an idea. I'm just going to write it down here and I'll say technology and the industrial revolution, maybe like the dawn of technology and the industrial revolution. So that's like late 1800s. I know this just from like previous research and from the news. This letter that I write, if you're not subscribed to that, also link in video description. The dawn of technology and the industrial revolution changed the world as we knew it. And I'll just put in like social structure, productive capabilities, like progress. like rate of progress it like really sped things up um but it is not but modern technology is not changing i mean i don't think i think it's changing us a bit but because i think it's changing potentially how our brains work i think that's really interesting part of the reason i'm studying neuroscience um And I think it has the capacity to like reconstruct our social, our um, what's the word, our sociology, the way that we operate and it is. Okay so I'll say instead, and modern tech has changed our Has modern tech-okay but I also think like modern technology we also don't know how much it's changing us yet because perhaps in like 100 or 200 years if we still exist on this planet at this rate of climate change um then if it still exists if sorry if we still exist then we don't know like i have no idea how much technology is going to change us and and change the world that we live in maybe it will completely change us but right now now it still feels like we also rely on like we have we're still animals like we still have like such primitive tendencies um with like fight or flight without with our biology without fight or flight reactions without fear our innate fear and our innate sense of love um so i don't think it will ever truly be able to change what it means to be human which is to love to fear to hate to feel I think it will, I think those parts of the human essence will never change unless we become robots, but then we are technology so that's a whole different thing. Okay so I'm gonna say modern technology has changed our social structure in many ways and has the capacity to change of what it means to be human, to love, to fear, to hate, to feel, unless we become robots. But then we are technology, so that is another question. Okay, so I've developed my idea, I've developed my thesis. My thesis is that, yes, technology has changed the world as we know it, and I can already see my first paragraph forming, which is going to be that, like, it's going, my example will be the industrial revolution and how that changed the social structure and our reliance on technology and how we acted as humans, how, how... The Industrial Revolution changed how we act as humans. That'll be my first paragraph. And I'll write that down as part of my plan. So, has changed our social structures, the rate of productivity, and social progress. And then I'll write my example, which is like the Industrial Revolution. And then I'll probably write down like a counter argument for that just in terms of my plan. And so it makes it easier to write my body paragraph later. My counter will be like, also, you don't have to think this is a good idea. Like this is just like all that I could come up with. Yeah, you might like disagree with me, but that's cool. Like you kind of want someone to be able to disagree with your thesis because that's a point like you're putting forward an argument. So cool. Disagree. Yeah, maybe you think this is a bad idea. But this is what my brain came up with for now. Or maybe that's me being insecure. But maybe it actually is a good idea. Who knows? Okay. Anyway, so my counter will probably be like... Well, my counter is kind of my next point. But I think that it also hasn't changed... I'll also say like past and modern technology, I think, in this one. Um... The Industrial Revolution kind of inspired like, like, we'll also put like capitalism, um, meritocracy there as like facets of that. Um, always mention, you know, neoliberalism, um, like free market, whatever stuff that you can kind of like chuck in there that will also like sound like you know how the world works. Um, and then my counter argument is that Um, what's a good counter argument? Um, it hasn't, maybe it hasn't changed necessarily our biology. Um, but that's my next point. Okay, hold on. I'm going to write body two here and my body, my body two, my second point, the premise that my thesis is founded upon is that, um, um, Technology cannot change what it means to be human, to love, to hate, to feel, etc. To fear. These are primitive. primitive, raw, biological, that unless technology strips it away, or takes them away, um but also then like it could take it away so maybe my counter argument is that um tech might be used in the future to change Change us biologically, like, to strip away our emotions. Say, like, somebody with a big company deems emotions, like, not useful or something. then maybe our emotions will be taken away from us. But that's also like some sci-fi stuff that maybe is a bit big. But I can use it as a counter example. So, um, body 2 technology cannot change what it means to be human, to love, to hate, to feel, to fear, these are primitive raw biological things that unless text strips them away, um, that, that, um, That like kind of like have like an unchanged um that are make up our unchanged essence that make up like our existence um um but then also you could argue that like evolution can change anything So I'll just chuck that down in my counter thing, my counter argument. Like, slowly, albeit, but they can. But it can. Um... Um, so... yeah. I think my point is that... Even though I've come up with a lot of counter-arguments for this, I still kind of think that what it means to be human, the essence of what it means to be human, which I think is kind of like to feel, to think also, that I don't think technology can take away from us. I don't, like I can't, it's such an abstract idea but I cannot imagine a scenario in which technology took away our thought and took away our feelings without killing us. Okay. Yeah and I can expand on that like later for sure. Example Um, maybe my example is going to be something like, I mean, this is a tricky essay to write already. I'm kind of like seeing that. Um, my example is going to be, um, how thoughts and feelings, um, are the essence of humanity. Um, um, Maybe I'll also say like I could also define my scope to just be western democratic societies to make it a bit easier in terms of how it's changed our social structure especially because I don't know much about the way that non-western societies operate um just based on like my own experience has changed maybe like western especially if I'm talking about the industrial revolution because that kind of just implies like Britain and the US so yep um These are primitive, raw, unchangeable biological things. Okay. Thoughts and feelings are the essence of humanity. How can I prove that with an example? Like, aside from the fact that we all feel them. We all have them. So long as, like, we have our brain. Oh, there's that example of like the brain being a physical manifestation and your mind being... or your mind being the manifestation of it? I'm going to look maybe more into that. Um, physical counterpart, mind being um manifestation of your brain, like of your thoughts. So there's something about maybe I could link in a psychological theory here, that's probably warranted. Um... I could talk about, yeah, maybe like a psychological theory, which like right now I don't know, which would be bad if I was in the actual exam. But this is why we do prep work, because I can go and learn something that I might be able to use in this. So maybe in between this video and the next one, I'll go and do some research that I can take away with that. And then what that leads to. is that my thesis is saying that technology has changed us, has changed our social structures, but it will never change what it means to be human, which is basically like to think and to feel. Okay. Which is like basically what I've said in my points, but that's my thesis. My thesis has basically sprung from these prompts. Let's go back and check that I am actually going to be addressing the prompts. Yeah, confusing your minds, the uses and power of technology. Perfect. So I'm addressing the uses, the power of technology to change who we are as humans. Now. We'll see how that goes. But essentially, that's kind of how I plan my essays. Obviously, that has to happen in a lot less time than I've done it here. But... The key things I do, prompt interpretation, coming up with a thesis just based on whether or not I agree with the prompt that I want to write about, trying to hash that out into an idea, and then breaking that down into two parts, into my point one and my point two, and then I kind of start writing my essay from there. So yeah, I hope that helps maybe give you an example of what it's like to break down prompts. Trust me, this is hard, especially for Task A essays because I prefer Task B, but that's just me. So if you find this difficult, that's all good. If you were not following where I was thinking, then hopefully you'll be able to follow the Task B one that I do that I'll be putting out later this week. But other than that, I really hope this helps you see an example of how someone who has scored highly here. kind of goes through and breaks them down. If you're not doing this, I suggest you do it. Really try and focus on breaking down the prompts and looking at your prompt interpretation and coming up with your thesis is one of the most important bits of your essay because if you do it well and you dedicate enough thought and time to it, it's going to make the rest of your writing, your essay easier because you've already done the difficult bits and the difficult bits are the thinking bits. So yeah. Look out for the next video that's going to be coming out on Sunday, hopefully, which is Boxing Day. So it's my late Christmas present to you guys. You're probably celebrating at this time and I hope you are. I hope you get some time off and you're taking some time off GAMSAT. But if you're not, then check out these videos. I hope you come along for the ride. If you're not subscribed as well, subscribe. And I'll be putting this series out over the next few weeks and into the start of 2022. So yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed that. I hope you found it helpful. And look forward to writing your essays. Or not.

So... I'm gonna create this as a new series. This is part one of the new series. Actually, there's kind of going to be like two sections of the new series.

The first one is task A, the second one is task B, and essentially I'm going to write two essays, and I'm going to show you guys exactly how I write two essays. So this is the first part of the task A series in which I go through my process of writing a complete task A essay. This video is going to be prompt interpretation and planning of the essay. I've just found some random prompts and I haven't really looked at it, I haven't really planned it, I'm just gonna go through it now and analyze those prompts.

The next video is going to be the introduction, then the one after that is going to be body one, then body two, and then the conclusion, and then the review. So there'll be like four, five or six videos in each series. I'll do the exact same thing for task B and Who knows how these essays will turn out, but hopefully after we go through these series, you guys will know exactly how I write my 80 plus essays, and hopefully then you will be able to as well.

Hey everybody and welcome back to the channel. My name's Kate Robson and... If you don't know me, I make videos on here.

Currently, I'm just making videos about GAMS at Section 2. Since I scored 80 in Section 2 in the 2021 March sitting, which put me in the top 0.7% of that sitting for that section, finally I got that right. Usually I get that wrong. So I got 80 for Section 2, which is a pretty good mark.

And ever since then, I've kind of been helping you guys how to be able to do that as well, because I just reckon everybody deserves a fair shot. at Doing Well on the GAMSAT if you want to be a doctor so that you get a good chance at that as well. This video is going to be a little different and I suppose this whole series is going to be a little different from the ones that I've previously been doing because the style that I make my videos is usually quite planned and quite scripted so that they have this kind of nice arc to them and I like storytelling in that way. But I thought I'd kind of experiment with a style where I kind of plan less but do more on the spot so that you guys can see what I do. in real time.

So as I said in the introduction, today I'm going to be going over how I interpret prompts so that you guys can see exactly what I do and we're gonna go through this whole process of essay writing. I don't know how it's going to turn out, I'm a bit nervous to be honest, like one or both of the essays could turn out crap, terrible, depending on how it goes, how well I'm brainstorming, also given the fact that I haven't been writing essays that often anymore. This is kind of good for me as well because it means I get to practice for my March sitting as well.

So I'm just going to basically like bring you guys along for the ride of writing an essay. It's not going to be timed or anything, I'm just going to work through it over the next few weeks and into the start of 2022 and kind of see how it goes and see if it helps you guys in any sorts of ways. So I really appreciate your feedback as well if you guys do enjoy these videos.

Chuck those comments down below, make sure you subscribe if you are new here, and like this video to let me know that you want to see the rest of the series and that I should make them. Other than that, I also will make a little quick plug here because there's only like a few days left of the pre-sale for my section 2 course where I go in detail about how to write an 80 plus essay. This stuff that I'm going to be doing in this series is kind of touching the surface.

of writing essays and how I write my 80 plus essays, but if you want step-by-step instructions, further analysis, really in-detailed feedback and explanations about how to actually write your essays and what kind of needs to go into them being that sort of standard, sign up for the course, jump on the pre-sale, it's 30% off and it's going to finish on Christmas. So if you don't want to miss out, click in the link below, enroll in the course and... You won't regret it.

Okay, now that we've done those plugs, I feel like we should probably just get into it. I'm a bit nervous, but we'll see how it goes. I haven't analyzed prompts in a while. And to be honest, interpreting prompts and coming up with ideas, to me, I- find the most difficult.

Maybe it's when, particularly when it's in a given time, like you have to analyze prompts to come up with an idea in like five minutes in your actual sitting or when you're doing it to timed practice. So maybe this will be a bit easier, but I still find it quite difficult to come up with ideas sometimes, to not question myself too much when I'm trying to come up with ideas and to try and pick the one that I want to write the essay about. But that said, let's do it.

Let's jump in and let's have a look at these prompts. So the first prompt is, and I'm not going to say what the theme is yet because I kind of want to figure out what the theme is as I go. I prefer interpreting prompts like that. The first prompt is technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master.

The second is technology has forever changed the world we live in. Our phones and computers have become reflections of our personalities, our interests, and our identities. The third is the purpose of technology is not to confuse the brain but to serve the body.

And the fourth is the first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency. Okay and by the way I got these prompts from I think it was Phrase's past Gamsat papers section of their prompt generator website.

I try and use the ones that like replicate the Acer ones because Well I try and get all my prompts directly from Acer but seeing as I'll get pulled up for copyright if I use them in these videos then I can't really use them so I try and use the ones that are closest to the Acer prompts and these ones I think Fraser kind of like rewrites them similarly to the ones that were in the past Gamsat papers from Acer so I'll link the link below, I'll link this link where I got them from in the link below but yeah. They're not perfect because they're not directly from ASA, but they're as good as we can get. Okay, so the first thing I do after I read them once through is I kind of like write them again to try and make sense of them because you can best believe that the first time I've read them, they've gone like right over my head.

For some reason, my brain doesn't work when I'm reading prompts. So I'll rewrite the first one. And the first one says that technology is a useful servant, but a dangerous master. So I'm saying To me that sounds kind of like, um, technology is useful, um, but useful when we are in control of it, but dangerous when it controls us. Okay, cool, that like already makes more sense to me, um, it's kind of less, saying it in a less like convoluted way and more in a like everyday plain English way that makes sense to me, so.

I suggest you do that because it just like helps so much and already I think now that I understand it properly and I've rewritten it myself I kind of understand what it's trying to say more and I'm starting to like form my own opinions on it trying trying to link it to different things and coming up with ideas already so awesome it's the first thing to do the second one I would probably rewrite it as um technology has forever changed the world we live in our phones computers Reflections for our personalities, our interests. Okay, so I'd probably say like technology um is changing our world and who we are as people. Um the next one, the purpose of technology is not to confuse the brain but to serve the body. Um okay so technology is for um Serving our body, not for confusing us. I've literally just rewritten that, but in a different order.

That was kind of ridiculous. Anyway, the first rule of technology used in a business is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify... Okay, technology should only be used in...

inefficient businesses for a good effect you know like it can't um it can't solve problems it can only um enhance productivity or success or something okay so now i've kind of got like a rough idea what all of these prompts mean still It's kind of unclear what I'm going to come up with. That's cool. This is just me rereading through the prompts, kind of trying to get an idea of like where this is going to go. If you don't have any ideas by now, that's totally fine. I never usually do either.

Like I've kind of got a... couple but it usually takes going through them once again to kind of like figure out what I actually want to write about. Okay so the next thing I kind of do is go through it and try and figure out like the underlying message to all of them which I go through this in more detail in my actual prompt analysis video so if you haven't seen that video click here but I'll do it here just briefly.

I basically like summarize the key message that I think is behind all of them. rather than like summarizing them into one theme which is what a lot of like GAMSAT companies and people suggest doing um well I think that's kind of reductive and we want to get more out of it at least like to be helpful for us to come up with an idea um all of this is just basically so I come up with an idea that I'm like happy with okay so um with the first one I like look at it and I say um technology um is like it's like technology is like powerful technology is um like has great potential when um if it if we are to lose control of it and the second one is like technology is having a massive influence on who we are um so basically they're both already saying that like technology is a big deal like it has a massive potential for change um the next one Is that, um, I mean it's kind of implying that technology in some ways confuses the brain but it's not meant to do that. It's meant to serve the body. Um, which like I could disagree with because I also think that technology is for serving the mind. Um, like not, maybe not for confusing it but in a way also like, like technology is mostly created for like helping our minds.

But. Now with like the way the technology is used and treated and stuff, it kind of like has become an overload of information and a place to like put lots of information and sell us stuff. So it is confusing our mind. So maybe the purpose of it was not necessarily to serve the body, but to serve the body and the mind.

But now it's been used in a way that confuses the mind and sometimes confuses the body. Then the next one is kind of saying. Technology needs to be used wisely and it's only like a tool to enhance good things.

It can't be used to like solve bad things that are already bad, but only, but should be used to like enhance positive qualities about certain things. Okay, so I mean like they're all kind of to do with like the power of technology, the potential of technology. That's kind of the way that I'm interpreting them and how technology should be used. So... Um, I'll summarize it into one sentence to what I think they're all kind of hinting to.

Users and the power of technology, probably, is my interpretation. Your interpretation might be different. That's great.

Cool. We'll write very different essays. That's the point.

But this is what I'm getting out of them. Okay, so you're probably being like, yes, okay, Kate, but like you don't get this much time in the actual exam. But that's cool. I'm just showing you my process to break it down so that eventually you guys can learn to do it faster as well. But yeah, okay, so now we've got the uses and the power of technology.

And where I go from here is I say, okay, either I'm going to write an essay on like the uses and power of technology in relation to the prompt. So like, I try and kind of relate my underlying message of them, knowing that I've acknowledged all of them, kind of like the theme behind all of them, because in the ACER criteria, in like the handbook, they say that all of them do kind of surround one theme. So we want to respond in a way to that theme.

and acknowledge the theme that they're trying to get at, which I think is like the uses and power of technology. But I don't want to write an essay just on the uses and power of technology without like specifically kind of addressing one more prompt or like one of the prompts. Or there's lots of potential to just go, kind of like go down the wrong path, sway too far in the wrong direction if you just write to the theme.

So I always try and write to like maybe one prompt particularly. depending on which one inspires me. So the next thing I do is write down the one that inspires me the most. And I think that the one that inspires me the most is number two, which my interpretation of it was that technology is changing our world and who we are as people.

And the actual prompt was technology has forever changed the world we live in. Our phones and computers have become reflections of our personalities, our interests, and our identities. Okay.

So I've picked my prompt, I've picked my prompt, I've recognized the theme, and now we're going to develop it into a thesis and into my essay. So this This is one of the most confusing bits. It's hard to decide on which idea you want to go with the most and how to break that down into an actual thesis. But the ways that I do it are by like mostly asking myself some questions. So I say, I ask myself, do I agree with the prompt?

Or do I disagree in what, under what conditions? Do I agree with it under what conditions? Do I not agree with it?

What can I get out of it that would allow me to form a thesis, which is my single strongest opinion on what I'm going to do next? the matter on the topic and so that I can turn that into an essay. So I read it again and I ask myself do I agree or do I not?

Technology has changed the world we live in. Forever changed the world, maybe that's a key point. Has it forever changed the world? Is the world always going to be changed because of technology or has it changed everybody's worlds? Who is it?

Whose worlds are we talking about? Whose world are we talking about? Are we talking about the earth? Are we talking about the universe?

Are we talking about the country that I live in? My world? Where is it? So the world we live in. Because also the way that, like, the reason I question these prompts is because you don't know really who's written them.

Maybe they're just some random person. Sometimes they're famous people or politicians or philosophers or whatever people from the past. But like, you don't know them as well. If they're written by a human, which I assume they are.

these prompts are just facets of what they think about the world so you're allowed to question them and form your own opinions on them as well which is often like where a good thesis comes out of because it's supposed to be your opinion and your idea and your argument okay so i'm questioning if it's forever changed the world we live in i think it um technology has certainly changed the world as we know it now particularly in the last couple of centuries particularly in the 21st century um since the industrial revolution like Industrialization has just taken off and it's kind of grown at an exponential rate. It depends on what technology we're talking about as well, like traditional technology, cars, trains, automobiles... actually I'm gonna I'm gonna write that down as potentially my hook. Planes, automobiles, automobiles...

these were just the beginning. Okay, there you go. come up with a random idea for a hook.

Okay, so yes, I think the industrial revolution really changed the world. It changed kind of like where our sense of community, lots of families had to move into cities, whereas before we kind of relied on like agricultural life and like the family unit. So it's really changed the social structure of the world and how we know it now.

So that's kind of like how traditional technology changed in the beginning. Um, you know, with like production of steel, production of, I want to say coal. Don't know enough about that.

I'm not going to write an essay on that. There we go. Yeah.

It's also this prompt though. The next part of it is saying our phones and computers have become reflections of our personalities, our interests and our identities. Okay. So that's kind of like our phones and our computers is talking about modern technology. Like phones and computers weren't invented until like late last century.

So like in the nineties, whenever it was. um like in the sorry in the 1900s whenever it was 60s maybe 70s computers at least phones after um actually i actually don't even know when the phone was invented that's so bad oh well we move on i digress um okay so it's talking about modern technology and it's actually kind of talking about like the cycle psychology behind how that has changed us and our world so it's hinting more at Modern technology has become reflect has changed us Has changed our personalities our interests and our identities actually it's saying that they've become reflections of our personalities So it's kind of saying that we've become like our phones and our personalities and our interests have become our tech have become technology Which is kind of interesting actually if you think about it do I think that? Do I agree with that now do I think that phones?

and computers and our technology have become reflections of our personality. I actually don't think so. I disagree, which is great. Now we've got an idea.

So, okay, so I'm going to write this down. Now I've kind of got an idea. I'm just going to write it down here and I'll say technology and the industrial revolution, maybe like the dawn of technology and the industrial revolution. So that's like late 1800s. I know this just from like previous research and from the news.

This letter that I write, if you're not subscribed to that, also link in video description. The dawn of technology and the industrial revolution changed the world as we knew it. And I'll just put in like social structure, productive capabilities, like progress.

like rate of progress it like really sped things up um but it is not but modern technology is not changing i mean i don't think i think it's changing us a bit but because i think it's changing potentially how our brains work i think that's really interesting part of the reason i'm studying neuroscience um And I think it has the capacity to like reconstruct our social, our um, what's the word, our sociology, the way that we operate and it is. Okay so I'll say instead, and modern tech has changed our Has modern tech-okay but I also think like modern technology we also don't know how much it's changing us yet because perhaps in like 100 or 200 years if we still exist on this planet at this rate of climate change um then if it still exists if sorry if we still exist then we don't know like i have no idea how much technology is going to change us and and change the world that we live in maybe it will completely change us but right now now it still feels like we also rely on like we have we're still animals like we still have like such primitive tendencies um with like fight or flight without with our biology without fight or flight reactions without fear our innate fear and our innate sense of love um so i don't think it will ever truly be able to change what it means to be human which is to love to fear to hate to feel I think it will, I think those parts of the human essence will never change unless we become robots, but then we are technology so that's a whole different thing. Okay so I'm gonna say modern technology has changed our social structure in many ways and has the capacity to change of what it means to be human, to love, to fear, to hate, to feel, unless we become robots.

But then we are technology, so that is another question. Okay, so I've developed my idea, I've developed my thesis. My thesis is that, yes, technology has changed the world as we know it, and I can already see my first paragraph forming, which is going to be that, like, it's going, my example will be the industrial revolution and how that changed the social structure and our reliance on technology and how we acted as humans, how, how... The Industrial Revolution changed how we act as humans.

That'll be my first paragraph. And I'll write that down as part of my plan. So, has changed our social structures, the rate of productivity, and social progress. And then I'll write my example, which is like the Industrial Revolution.

And then I'll probably write down like a counter argument for that just in terms of my plan. And so it makes it easier to write my body paragraph later. My counter will be like, also, you don't have to think this is a good idea.

Like this is just like all that I could come up with. Yeah, you might like disagree with me, but that's cool. Like you kind of want someone to be able to disagree with your thesis because that's a point like you're putting forward an argument.

So cool. Disagree. Yeah, maybe you think this is a bad idea.

But this is what my brain came up with for now. Or maybe that's me being insecure. But maybe it actually is a good idea. Who knows?

Okay. Anyway, so my counter will probably be like... Well, my counter is kind of my next point. But I think that it also hasn't changed...

I'll also say like past and modern technology, I think, in this one. Um... The Industrial Revolution kind of inspired like, like, we'll also put like capitalism, um, meritocracy there as like facets of that. Um, always mention, you know, neoliberalism, um, like free market, whatever stuff that you can kind of like chuck in there that will also like sound like you know how the world works. Um, and then my counter argument is that Um, what's a good counter argument?

Um, it hasn't, maybe it hasn't changed necessarily our biology. Um, but that's my next point. Okay, hold on. I'm going to write body two here and my body, my body two, my second point, the premise that my thesis is founded upon is that, um, um, Technology cannot change what it means to be human, to love, to hate, to feel, etc.

To fear. These are primitive. primitive, raw, biological, that unless technology strips it away, or takes them away, um but also then like it could take it away so maybe my counter argument is that um tech might be used in the future to change Change us biologically, like, to strip away our emotions.

Say, like, somebody with a big company deems emotions, like, not useful or something. then maybe our emotions will be taken away from us. But that's also like some sci-fi stuff that maybe is a bit big.

But I can use it as a counter example. So, um, body 2 technology cannot change what it means to be human, to love, to hate, to feel, to fear, these are primitive raw biological things that unless text strips them away, um, that, that, um, That like kind of like have like an unchanged um that are make up our unchanged essence that make up like our existence um um but then also you could argue that like evolution can change anything So I'll just chuck that down in my counter thing, my counter argument. Like, slowly, albeit, but they can. But it can. Um...

Um, so... yeah. I think my point is that... Even though I've come up with a lot of counter-arguments for this, I still kind of think that what it means to be human, the essence of what it means to be human, which I think is kind of like to feel, to think also, that I don't think technology can take away from us. I don't, like I can't, it's such an abstract idea but I cannot imagine a scenario in which technology took away our thought and took away our feelings without killing us.

Okay. Yeah and I can expand on that like later for sure. Example Um, maybe my example is going to be something like, I mean, this is a tricky essay to write already.

I'm kind of like seeing that. Um, my example is going to be, um, how thoughts and feelings, um, are the essence of humanity. Um, um, Maybe I'll also say like I could also define my scope to just be western democratic societies to make it a bit easier in terms of how it's changed our social structure especially because I don't know much about the way that non-western societies operate um just based on like my own experience has changed maybe like western especially if I'm talking about the industrial revolution because that kind of just implies like Britain and the US so yep um These are primitive, raw, unchangeable biological things. Okay.

Thoughts and feelings are the essence of humanity. How can I prove that with an example? Like, aside from the fact that we all feel them.

We all have them. So long as, like, we have our brain. Oh, there's that example of like the brain being a physical manifestation and your mind being...

or your mind being the manifestation of it? I'm going to look maybe more into that. Um, physical counterpart, mind being um manifestation of your brain, like of your thoughts.

So there's something about maybe I could link in a psychological theory here, that's probably warranted. Um... I could talk about, yeah, maybe like a psychological theory, which like right now I don't know, which would be bad if I was in the actual exam. But this is why we do prep work, because I can go and learn something that I might be able to use in this. So maybe in between this video and the next one, I'll go and do some research that I can take away with that.

And then what that leads to. is that my thesis is saying that technology has changed us, has changed our social structures, but it will never change what it means to be human, which is basically like to think and to feel. Okay. Which is like basically what I've said in my points, but that's my thesis.

My thesis has basically sprung from these prompts. Let's go back and check that I am actually going to be addressing the prompts. Yeah, confusing your minds, the uses and power of technology. Perfect.

So I'm addressing the uses, the power of technology to change who we are as humans. Now. We'll see how that goes.

But essentially, that's kind of how I plan my essays. Obviously, that has to happen in a lot less time than I've done it here. But...

The key things I do, prompt interpretation, coming up with a thesis just based on whether or not I agree with the prompt that I want to write about, trying to hash that out into an idea, and then breaking that down into two parts, into my point one and my point two, and then I kind of start writing my essay from there. So yeah, I hope that helps maybe give you an example of what it's like to break down prompts. Trust me, this is hard, especially for Task A essays because I prefer Task B, but that's just me.

So if you find this difficult, that's all good. If you were not following where I was thinking, then hopefully you'll be able to follow the Task B one that I do that I'll be putting out later this week. But other than that, I really hope this helps you see an example of how someone who has scored highly here.

kind of goes through and breaks them down. If you're not doing this, I suggest you do it. Really try and focus on breaking down the prompts and looking at your prompt interpretation and coming up with your thesis is one of the most important bits of your essay because if you do it well and you dedicate enough thought and time to it, it's going to make the rest of your writing, your essay easier because you've already done the difficult bits and the difficult bits are the thinking bits.

So yeah. Look out for the next video that's going to be coming out on Sunday, hopefully, which is Boxing Day. So it's my late Christmas present to you guys.

You're probably celebrating at this time and I hope you are. I hope you get some time off and you're taking some time off GAMSAT. But if you're not, then check out these videos. I hope you come along for the ride.

If you're not subscribed as well, subscribe. And I'll be putting this series out over the next few weeks and into the start of 2022. So yeah, I hope you guys enjoyed that. I hope you found it helpful. And look forward to writing your essays.

Or not.

Transcript for:Mastering the Essay Writing Process

Transcript for:
Mastering the Essay Writing Process