Skip to content

6 min read中文

Essay-Writing Lecture Notes

High school Chinese essay-writing lecture notes on reading the prompt and establishing the thesis, reading the task and source material, and structural thinking methods such as parallel, progressive, and contrast-unity structures.

Machine-translated from the Chinese original.

0.webp

Handout backup
Supplementary handout backup

Reading the Prompt and Establishing the Thesis, the Soul of the Essay

  • Source material
  • Task
  • Topic

Theme is not the same as title.
Theme is not the same as thesis/intent.

How to Read the Task

  • Prompts
  • Requirements

Choose two or three keywords from the material to present the China you know.
Base your thesis on two or three of the given sentences, and cite them appropriately.

Advocating that everyone “love labour, starting with myself.”
Each generation has its own opportunities and missions, its own challenges. You grow and travel alongside China in the new century, chasing and realizing dreams together with China’s new era.

  • Form (no need to overdo it)
  • Practical genres just need to be reflected
Genre

Combining the material content… write a speech
…a letter to a family member

Simply reflecting the scenario is enough

Title

Using “How I See the College Entrance Exam” or “My College Entrance Exam” as a subtitle, write an essay
Using “The Resilience of Civilization” as the title, write an argumentative essay

▲ Directly Related to Time, Space, and Identity

Write a speech addressed to students at your school
On September 30, 2049, write a National Day greeting letter to a “centennial figure of merit in China”
Imagine it sealed in a “time capsule” to be opened in 2035, for the 18-year-olds of that time to read

Standard Requirements

Requirements: engage with the material, choose a good angle, settle on a thesis, make the genre clear, and give the piece its own title; do not write to a formula, do not plagiarize; do not reveal personal information; at least 800 characters.
Choose one of the two topics below and respond as required. At least 700 characters.

How to Read the Material

“Rough thesis-forming”
Touching on the material

Specific-Event Material

Find → List → Transform

First, Find
  1. Find the subjects, look at the event (note primary vs. secondary)
  2. Find the attitude, look at the stance

During “World War II,” to improve fighter aircraft protection, British and American military authorities surveyed the distribution of bullet holes on planes that survived combat, and decided to reinforce wherever the holes were most numerous. However, the statistician Abraham Wald insisted otherwise, pointing out that more attention should be paid to areas with fewer bullet holes, because planes hit hard in those areas rarely made it back, and that data had been overlooked. It turned out Wald was right.
After several years of experimentation, Xiaoyu built on traditional craft to develop a new kind of flower tea and obtained a patent for it. But soon after mass production began, the market was flooded with counterfeit, low-quality knockoffs. Xiaoyu realized that rather than watch this newly emerging industry decline so quickly, it would be better to lead the effort to regulate the market first. So she made the production process public and led the drafting of a local standard, which the relevant local government authorities then issued and promoted. These efforts gradually paid off, the new flower tea industry grew larger and larger, and Xiaoyu, focusing her energy on leading her team in continuous innovation, ultimately became a widely respected leader in prosperity-building.

Second, List

List out phrases and sentences: play down the specifics, output the viewpoint

Third, Transform
  • Turn words into sentences
  • Turn simple sentences into compound sentences
  • Turn the negative into the positive

Non-Specific-Event Material

  1. Find the subjects, look at the direction
  2. Turn words into sentences, simple sentences into compound sentences, negative into positive

Facing opposing viewpoints

  1. Look at the task requirements first
  2. Either is acceptable (pick one / write comprehensively), keep the right outlook

Fully Abstract Material

Extract the keywords (distinguish primary from secondary)
Each thing has its own nature; water at its blandest, salt at its most flavourful. Water added to water is still water; salt added to salt is still salt. Sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty: the five flavours blend, coexisting and giving rise to one another, producing a hundred varied tastes. So it is with things, so it is with affairs, and so it is with people.

Centre on the core, use the material as a springboard for your own point

How to Handle Special Forms of Material

  • Look at the task requirements first
  • Three methods (may overlap): (1) similarities-and-differences method / (2) split-and-combine method / (3) thread method

Nod (quick lead-in, quick lead-out)
Split and correspond (break apart and match up)

Multiple Pieces of Material
Chart-Type Material

Convert the elements of the image (subjects / events) into words

Structural Thinking Methods, the Skeleton of the Essay

Three-Part Structural Thinking Method

  • Core: logic

Common three-part structures: parallel / progressive

Using Why as the Thread

Main thesis Labour creates value, labour brings happiness (still to be refined)
Sub-thesis 1 Labour helps individuals realize their achievements and value, bringing every labourer joy and happiness from the heart
Sub-thesis 2 Labour drives the development and progress of society, bringing every labour-loving nation passion and hope
Sub-thesis 3 Labour is the cornerstone by which humanity creates material and spiritual civilization, giving humanity the strength and warmth to endure

Using What to Do as the Thread

Main thesis Stay true to yourself, create a wonderful life (still to be refined)
Sub-thesis 1 Staying true to yourself means constantly striving to learn and improve, recognizing yourself clearly and correctly
Sub-thesis 2 Staying true to yourself means not changing your original intent when facing temptation, and standing firm and moving forward when facing difficulty
Sub-thesis 3 Staying true to yourself does not mean rejecting all outside voices, but absorbing them clearly and using them for your own purposes

Using the Material Itself as the Thread (not recommended / used to play it safe / used for nested structures)

  • What is it
  • Why
  • What to do

Main thesis Building a community with a shared future for humanity through a spirit of integration (still to be refined)
Sub-thesis 1 (What is it?) The spirit of integration is a spirit of harmonious coexistence, drawing on each other’s strengths, and coexisting and giving rise to one another
Sub-thesis 2 (Why?) Only through integration can humanity become more united, and only through integration can humanity become stronger
Sub-thesis 3 (What to do?) Integration is not a simple stitching-together, but a kind of mutual growth and mutual achievement built on deep mutual understanding and empathy

Using Time as the Thread

Past → present → future

Main thesis Proud of past achievements and glory, striving for the future and tomorrow
Sub-thesis 1 At 18, looking back on the 18 years I have lived through, the great achievements created by the Chinese people fill me with deep pride
Sub-thesis 2 At 18, I am willing to advance together with the times, carrying forward the spirit of unity, striving, diligence, and courage passed down by our forebears, and contributing my own light and heat
Sub-thesis 3 At this moment when you are 18, how do you view your tomorrow? On the day socialist modernization is basically achieved, what opportunities and mission will you have?

Two-Part Structural Thinking Method

  • Core: contrast + unity

★ for / against
past / present
internal / external (attribution: internal factors ↔ external factors)
similarity / difference
★ theory / reality
▲ whole / individual
▲ greatness / ordinariness (divinity ↔ humanity)

Four-Part Structural Thinking Method (suitable for narrative essays)

Time slices, with setup, development, turn, and conclusion
An 800-character essay typically writes four scenes

One-Part Structural Thinking Method

  • Refining / optimizing the essay’s overall thesis or argument

Common approaches: the questioning method / falsification (pre-set assumptions)

0.webp
0.webp