the art of answering the question

I think I've finally done well enough in English to warrant passing on some nuggets of useful knowledge that I have gleaned from teachers or students (whether these students told me directly or I overheard and I inferred is not important xP).

I revealed this quick tip (click to skip to the tip) in 2u English today and I was surprised at how many people on the table found this new information.

Now let's pose our 3u question (SORRY SORRY) as an example:

A literary classic explores univeresal and timeless human concerns that can be continually transformed and appropriated into new contexts. What universal and timeless concerns have been appropriated from the original and how have they been reshaped to resonate with a contemporary audience..[sic]

Now in an exam, these keywords should stand out to you and burn into your brain immediately: universal and timeless concerns.
It's freaking repeated in the question, so you should instantly go "if I don't mention this, I'm kinda fucked."
Now the next most important keywords are: transformed and appropriated, reshaped to resonate.
The rest of the question is basically garbage to me. If you're more hax at English and can glean more information from that wall of text, please inform us all =). But for me, I wing it off of those 4 main phrases.

Now synonyms confuse the fuck out of English teachers. Or at least they pretend. When you mean "universal and timeless concerns" you MEAN "universal and timeless concerns." English teachers aren't dicks when the set the question (let's not mention marking though xP), so "universal and timeless concerns" is a very neat and concise way of wording it. Don't try to be fancy and say "notions that transcend the barriers of time and remain applicable universally" or any of that shit. I used to try that, thinking I was cool. Yes, you sound like you read the Thesaurus, but you are also deviating from the question, even if only superficially. In addition you wrote 7 more words meaning the same amount of bullshit than if you just said "universal and timeless concerns". Yes, it means exactly the same thing, which is the exact same reason why you shouldn't use it. Sure, it inflates your word count, but by now I've learnt that your word count is not important. Your word count is meaningless if it is filled with crap (ie roundabout sentences). When people ask me to ruthlessly chop their essays, I see strings of sentences that seem purposely worded to last about twice as long as what is necessary. When in doubt, "technique, example, effect". Concise as vacuum packed Styrofoam, and I use it 90% of an essay. I asked my teacher, and she said "It's better to have a boring, repetitive sentence structure than it is to have a sentence that goes nowhere in about 25 words."

But I'm deviating. This post will get too long if I post about Intro, Body, Conclusion. So I'll stick to question answering, which is a subtle art :L

So my advice that was somewhat of a revelation was "Remember your practice essay. But whenever you find a word or phrase that means either 'universal or timeless concerns', 'transformed and appropriated', or 'reshaped to resonate', then just substitute it in. If it makes sense in your sentence, and it means what you wanted it to mean before, then just sub it in. Those words you may have used before... notions, concepts, changed, rewritten, suit new audiences... they're all placeholders. Pronumerals if you like. Waiting to get subbed out."

But I had a valid question: "But if you keep using these words whenever you mean this, won't you sound like you're repeating yourself?"

My answer was that you really shouldn't be using gay conceptual words very often throughout your paragraphs. I'll go into more detail later, but in general, if you had 5 quotes in a paragraph, link 3, preferably 4, to the topic sentence OF YOUR PARAGRAPH. Link the remaining (hopefully one) to the overall question. So you're doing something wrong if any of these keywords appear more than 5 times throughout your whole essay.

The essay is a powerful yet extremely daunting thing. I am personally a much more mathematically inclined mind - I'm sure a great majority of you can relate. I like to break down things into formulas, relations, numbers, rules, logic. Towards the end of year 10 and throughout year 11, I've been developing the formula to an essay that teachers actually like.

BUT, while this formula works for me (this time), it may not work for you. I can't say for sure if this round of exams was a fluke or signs of formula fruition.

So my formula for answering the question:
-Write a practice essay
-Spot keywords in the questions
-Vomit out practice essay, but stick those synonyms in

But seriously, the best thing you can do is write essays and get feedback from your teacher. I can write all the shit I like here but at the end of the day I don't have any credentials, nor am I marking your essay.

So, to you, your English teacher is the biggest tool. Yes I intentionally worded it like that xP