Transcription
Hello. Hey ya. My name is Kettooko and I'm a medical student at the University of Free State. And in today's video, I'm going to give you tips on how to get a distinction for your English paper 3. These tips are more specifically for English home language. But having done African's first national language, they also do apply to English first language. Without wasting any time, let me help you get this distinction. Let's get into the video.
[Music]
So the best part about paper 3, whether it's English or Africans, is that it's quite simple, to be honest. The only difference about this paper to every other paper and of every test and exam and every subject is there's an awful lot of writing. Like, you can't go writing paper three on an empty stomach. There's no way whatsoever. So that's one thing about paper three. Even before you put pen on paper, you've pretty much already passed the paper, and I will get into that.
So the first point is, you already have 50% of the paper if you know your format. We do know that we have section A, which is our essay, uh, section B, which is our long transactional writing. Is it transactional? Yeah. And section C, which is our short transactional writings. So an essay is the writing, the big writing, right? Which is probably 50% of the paper. And then the long transactionals, your formal letter, informal letter, and email, so these long form a dialogue. And then section C, short form content, your diary, your directions, stuff like that, right? And what is important for you to know is to know the formats in all of these different sets of writing. Because if you go home and you start learning only a dialogue, a friendly letter, and a business letter, you're shooting yourself in the foot. Because none of these are short transactional. So you're already conceding those marks are short transactional. It's very important for you to know that. Hooray. My short transactional and long transactional are two completely different things. That's why I need to learn all formats because 50% of the paper is already the format. If you have a perfect format and your essay is out of 50, you already have 25, and the other 25 is about what you wrote. It's about content, right? Same thing with your with your diary and with your with your section B and your section C, your long transactional. If you have the correct structure of a friendly letter, the correct structure of a formal letter, correct structure of an email, the correct structure of, um, a dialogue, if you have the correct format of whatever that is, an obituary, you already have half of the marks. It's guaranteed. No joke, 50% rather. You can ask your teacher, ask your English teacher today or even tomorrow. Ask, say, "Ma'am, can't how many marks is the format?" It's exactly 50%. So you go into the paper, you already passed. And let's say you are someone who's aiming for 60%. You just need to get the other 10% by writing things that make sense. So the formats are already 50% of the paper. So nail them. Make sure drill them in. Make sure you have your formats the night before, you know all your formats. The morning of, you know all your. If someone says there's a space between, but those things matter. Those things matter to say, "Okay, in a business letter, you're going to have this address here, this one here, and you're going to have dear." All those things. Know those things to say, "Do I, do I, do I write my full name and surname? Do I address this person as "Sir Madam"? Do I say, "Hey there?" It's, it's, it's, it's very important to understand your formats and to. If you have to, desperate for marks now, you need to cram if you have to. Make sure that these formats, you drill them in here. Please make sure these formats are very important.
And then another important point that there is to make is that focus on making sense. Combs not winning marks. I mean, to those of you who know us, there's that guy. I don't think if you are marking his essay, you'd be impressed by the things that he says. Get better, cuz like, it doesn't help using these big words if you don't know how to use them. Like, use simple words, use words that make sense. Use words that make sense. Focus on making sure that when the examiner reads that thing, they're like, "Yes, sis. This kid is flowing. This kid is making sense." They read your story as if it's a novel to a point where the worst part of your entire story is the fact that it ends. Make sure that you make sense. Like, it's very important to make sense. It's very important that you make sense. Bombastic words do not win you marks. I promise.
And on that note, you want to expand your vocabulary. Expand your vocabulary, please, because that's going to help you an awful lot. I remember I learned like, throughout the year. I mean, if you're in grade 12 right now, it's probably too late to do that. But throughout the year, when I hear my teacher say things like, like, even when you're reading our drama, I, I did "The Picture of Dorian Gray" for the novel. Even when you're reading that, the moment I hear someone say "disintegrate," what's that? I wrote it in my dictionary. Start that word. I, I, the dictionary app on my phone. I start the word. I had someone speak about dilapidation in in geography. Houses dilapidate. Oh, cut that down. By the end of the year, I've expanded my vocabulary because I know new words. Each time I hear a word that I don't know, I don't go, "I try to learn that word." Read this word. You don't know it. I take this word and I try to learn it. Try to learn these words. So that's what you want to do. Expand your vocabulary. There's nothing more boring for an examiner than reading a text, an essay, or a transactional writing that has so much "and," "but," and "so," like, and so, yeah. Okay. So, dude, give this person something interesting. Give this person some. Instead of saying, um, let me see. Instead of saying, "Okay, so, uh, Ketto ran for the position to be the coach of the team, but he did not get it, and that was unfortunate, and he did get other positions though, even though those are not the positions that he wanted, and he is." Come on, dude. Say something like, "Although Ketto wanted the position as coach, he however got the position as this." Use those words. "Although," "however," even things as simple as to say, "the very least," makes you sound so smart. It's not a big word. Everyone knows the words to say, "the very least." Everyone knows those words if you do English home language. Because if you're going to be listing things like a house, a car, a what? What? To say, "the very least." So, you've only counted a few. I think this and this and this. But either way, that's the point I'm making. Expand your vocabulary.
And another point that I have to make is specifically on a dialogue because I loved choosing a dialogue, but it always gave me problems, which is the wrong thing to do. You can't go for something that you know you have problems in. When you go choosing whatever you're going to choose, when you look at a text, and I mean, you know, sometimes you look at maybe you, you came here saying, "I'm preparing to write a friendly letter." Then when you get there, "Hey, the topic, a friendly letter does not have that much content, and the dialogue makes sense." But you know, you don't know the format of a dialogue properly. That's that's tough. That's why you need to learn all your formats. Gets difficult, especially with subjects like Africans, where the only one that you understand there is, is the one whose format you did not learn. So what you want to do is learn these forms properly, especially the dialogue. Learn for yourself, between speakers, do I skip a line or not? Do I start writing immediately after the name, or do I put a colon right after there? When you say "hey," do you say "hey," or "hey," then you put a comma, then you continue? It's very important to know such things. It's like, for example, you know what I always used to say is is that when you say, "Hey, how you doing?" It would always be, "Hey, how are you doing?" But turns out when I got to a dialogue in MRI, that it's, "Hey, cuz you're talking to like, 'Good morning, sir,' not 'Good morning, sir,' no, 'Good morning, sir.'" So after you say the name, after the comma, to say, "I'm talking to you more." So such things are very important in a dialogue. And everything to master the punctuation. Simple punctuations can make you lose marks. Remember what said, 50% of the paper is the format. Grammar and punctuation are really important, especially for an English home language student. So, make sure and always remember that said that 50% of the paper is the format. So, if you're going to be making these small miscellaneous mistakes, a, a, so please fix, fix your life now. Fix your life.
And the last tip for this video is, you want to always make sure that you stay on topic. Stay on topic. Not make sure, stay on topic. Yo, nothing is, is, is going to be more detrimental for your marks than an examiner reading that in the beginning. Your story starts off by you talking about, um, a 12-year-old lady who, um, goes to school at, uh, Paramedas Primary School, and this and this. And then suddenly, at the end of your story, even though she was 10 years old, she found it difficult. Didn't you say she's 12? That that becomes a problem. Stay on topic. Stay on topic. Don't start going off. Let the examiner be able to picture everything happening. Set the setting in the in the introduction. Set it. Set the thing that you want them to think the entire time they're reading the story. In the beginning, when you start, when you say, uh, uh, "Often people do this, this, this," and let the examiner picture that. Use their, their mind's eye to be able to see what you're saying. Be able to implant thoughts in an examiner and stay on topic so that everything makes sense. Remember what I said, bombastic words, if not used correctly, are never going to save you. What's going to help you is making sense, speaking in chronology. Make sure that the things that you do follow an order. Make sure that they follow a sequence. There's no way that you can tell me that this person recovered and then they had a surgery. What did they recover from? But okay. Okay.
And so that has been so. Thank you for watching this video. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And if there's any tips or any advice that you have for me or for us in the comment section, let us know down below and we'll be very excited to get to that. And yeah, otherwise, don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe. Stay happy and healthy and peace.
[Music]