Struggling to write essays in the HSC? This is the ultimate guide to writing an A-range (17-20) essay in the HSC!

Essays comprise 40% of your Final HSC Economics Exam, so getting a good grasp on them is paramount. You are required to respond to two essays in the HSC, Section III and Section IV. Each essay is worth 20 marks each.

Section III consists of two stimulus-based essays. You are required to pick ONE of them and respond to it.
Section IV consists of two non-stimulus-based essays. You are required to pick ONE of them and respond to it.

General Guide to Essays

Planning your Essay

In the HSC, your first writing booklet will consist of 8 pages, the first being the cover sheet, leaving 7 pages of writing lines.

On your first page, plan out our response! In your plan, write down what you aim to explain/discuss/evaluate for each paragraph. But why the first page of the writing booklet? Doesn’t that take up a full page of my writing space?

Although it may take up a page of potential writing space, you can always ask for more writing booklets! If you know you’ll write more than 6 pages, ask for extra writing booklets while you do your plan! Put your hand up and wait for the invigilator to give you extra writing paper. Additionally, planning on your writing paper makes it easier for the marker! This is because you show the marker on the first page exactly what you will be talking about in your essay, so as they read it, it makes it easier for them to follow along. The plan also provides a structure to follow so you won’t have a disjointed and unstructured essay!

Let’s take a look at Question 26 from the 2022 HSC Economics Exam! (Unfortunately, part of the stimulus is unavailable, however, we still have plenty to work with!)

When choosing your essay question, you should first break down the question and work out exactly what it asks! The first thing to note is the directive term for the one above. In this case, the directive term is analyse. What does this directive term mean? According to NESA, analyse means:

Identify components and the relationship between them; draw out and relate implications

So, for this question, we need to find the relationship between labour market policies and something else and the implications (effects) on economic growth and the distribution of income. For instance:

Labour market decentralisation results in wages being tied to productivity in the Australian Economy. An implication of this is that it results in a more inequitable distribution of income in Australia, as those who are less skilled have lower productivity and thus will receive lower incomes compared those who are more educated and have higher productivity.

Ensure you know your directive terms and how to respond to all questions, short answers and essays! You can find a list of common economics directive terms in the following document below.

When planning your response, also ensure that it is cohesive and logical. Basically, ask yourself if your plan will make sense to someone else if you show it to them and it is easy to understand! As we can see below, this is also stated in the marking criteria for every essay question.

Writing Your Introduction

There are a few things you should do in your introduction.

1. Answer the Question! I’ve found that students frequently forget to answer the question, so your first sentence (your “thesis) should directly address the question! For instance, using the above question, we could say “Historical and recent labour market policies have had many mixed implications on economic growth and the distribution of income and wealth in the Australian economy”. It doesn’t have to be complicated, just make sure it answers the question!
2. Define your key terms! For the question above, we would want to define labour market policies and the distribution of income, wealth, and economic growth!
3. Signpost your key arguments! Write down the main points you will discuss in your body paragraphs, which should come from your plan.
4. Link to stimulus (for Section III)! If it is a Section III essay, you should always link to the stimulus in each paragraph. How do we do this? Just say something like “as seen in the stimulus!”

Writing Your Body Paragraphs

Ideally, you should aim for 6-8 points (6-8 body paragraphs) in your essays. However, this isn’t a strict rule. Some students like to break up their paragraphs so they have multiple small ones, whilst others prefer one big paragraph! However, as seen above, you need to demonstrate comprehensive understanding to achieve a 17-20 essay, so we aim for 6-8 points!

For each body paragraph, we want to use the PEEL structure. Your classroom probably has a poster of this with a banana on it! Essentially, you want to in each body paragraph.

• Point: Tell the marker what this paragraph is going to be about. This is your topic sentence! For instance, “labour market decentralisation has resulted in negative implications in the equitable income distribution.” It doesn’t have to be fancy, as long as it tells the marker exactly what you will talk about in your essay and it answers the question!
• Explain: Explain to the marker what your point is. You may not necessarily always “explain”. It might be evaluate or discuss, but the general gist is to elaborate on our topic sentence.
• Example: Provide relevant examples and statistics to back up your arguments. Statistics are always your best friend. Ideally, you should have a bunch of statistics to use for all your essays!
• Link: Essentially, restate the point of your paragraph. “Link” back to the question! If necessary, link to the stimulus as well.

Now, you don’t have to follow this structure to the T. However, it provides a great start for your paragraphs!

Ensure that in your body paragraphs, what you’re writing is succinct and clear! Use proper economic terminology! The following shows an example of proper and improper use of economic terminology.

The introduction of the Fair Work Act (2009) had positive implications on the distribution of income in the Australian economy.

The JobTrainer Fund consisted of $2 billion dollars from the Federal and State Governments to improve Australia’s labour productivity by training jobseekers and young Australians in free or low fee programs.

The new labour policy led to income distribution to become bad.

They spent $2 billion in Jobtrainer to make Australians more skilled so that we can produce more things.

You might think who on “who on earth writes like this!” but I’ve seen it before!

For the question above, what are some possible points we can discuss?

1. Labour market decentralisation
2. Fair Work Act (2009)
3. Youth PaTH Program
4. Jobs and Small Business Package
5. JobMaker
6. JobTrainer
7. VET Training Programs
8. Changes to HECS
9. Addition of 11th National Employment Standard
10. Jobs and Skills Summit

As you can see, there are quite several points that we can use! You don’t have to use all of them; you’ll probably run out of time, but pick the ones you are most confident with!

Writing Your Conclusion

Your conclusion doesn’t have to be complicated; summarise everything you have discussed in a few quick sentences and answer the question again! In fact, if you’re running low on time, rewrite your thesis statement and move on to the next essay!