Unified State Examination in Russian is a mandatory exam that every student who completes grade 11 must pass in order to receive a certificate. Writing in the Unified State Examination in the Russian language plays a big role and is one of the most important tasks. It can bring a graduate up to 24 primary points or about 40 test points. That is why preparing for an essay is so important for students - a good essay can be the key to successful admission.
Criteria for essay content
In 2019, the criteria for evaluating an essay in the Russian language have changed somewhat. Until this year, the main part of the essay, for which students could get the most points, was the expression of their own opinion with argumentation and reliance on literary texts. However, this approach had its drawbacks, the main of which is the appearance on the Internet of many ready-madearguments. Therefore, many schoolchildren did not show their real level of preparation at the exam, but reproduced memorized phrases.
Probably because of this, changes were made. Yes, and the same skills - the ability to work with classical texts and argue their position based on them - schoolchildren work out when preparing for an essay on literature. At the Unified State Exam, now the student can get the most primary points (up to 5) for commenting on the source text.
Another point corresponds to the problem statement of the text. It is important to note: if the problem is formulated incorrectly or is completely absent in the text of the work, zero points are given for the criteria K1-K4. In total, the student loses 8 points.
The graduate receives one more point for formulating the author's position and his own attitude towards it with the justification of his opinion.
Composition structure
When preparing to write an essay on the exam, it is very important to know exactly the structure of this type of work and stick to it. Firstly, it helps not to get lost in the stressful situation of the exam, just follow a well-known plan. Secondly, do not miss the thread of the story, guided by all the criteria. According to them, a typical essay should have the following plan:
- Introduction, formulation of the main problem of the text.
- Detailed comment on the text to the problem.
- Author's position.
- Own position and its argumentation.
- Conclusion.
And now let's analyze the spelling of each itemmore.
How to frame the problem
The first thing a student should do when preparing for the USE essay is to learn to read the text and identify the problem that the author raises. To do this, read the text carefully. Perhaps even several times. Then mentally answer the questions:
- What is this text about?
- Who are its main characters?
- What events are happening?
- What time is described in the text?
This is to make sure you read the text carefully and avoid factual errors when writing your essay.
Next, you need to think about what idea the author tried to convey, what is the main idea of the text. Write it down in a couple of sentences, formulating the author's position. After asking a question to this part - this is the problem question.
In any artistic or journalistic text, as a rule, there are several problems. The student should choose the most, in his opinion, “obvious”, the one that is easiest to follow in the text. These skills can also be obtained at the time of preparation for the composition of the exam.
After you have chosen a problem, it is worth writing a short introduction - one or two sentences that gently introduce the reader to the topic of the essay. Quotations, aphorisms or definitions can act in this role. Next, you should identify problems or a problematic issue, complete the part with a concluding phrase.
So, in general, the first paragraph of the essay should look likeso: 1-2 introductory sentences + problem (“The text raises the problem […]” / problematic issue) + “It is on this important issue that [author’s name] suggests thinking”
Features of writing a comment
After formulating the problem, you need to start writing a comment. As already mentioned, the commentary is the most “valuable” part of the essay. Therefore, this stage is also important in preparing for the composition of the exam - text analysis.
The comment is a detailed explanation of the problem with the use of material from this text. In your comment, you should explain exactly how the author reveals this topic and by what means he expresses his opinion.
Comment is evaluated as follows:
- One example - illustration from text with explanation=2 points.
- The second example is an illustration from the text with an explanation=2 points.
- Semantic connection between the given examples=1 point.
Each example should consist of three parts: an example from the text, a quote and an explanation of the example. This means that the approximate outline of the comment is:
- 1 paragraph: example (small description of a specific situation from the text and using facts) + illustration quote + example explanation;
- 2 paragraph: the second example-illustration, designed according to the same plan;
- 3 paragraph: semantic connection between two examples.
The semantic relationship can be located elsewhere, for example, between examples. The main thing is not to forget about it! Otherwise, you may lose one point.
It is very important that the comment bewritten strictly on the problem that you indicated at the beginning of the essay. For example, if in the introduction your problematic question sounded like “What is so terrible about loneliness?”, You can’t reveal the problem of cruelty in the commentary. In this case, the comment will be marked "failed".
Formulation of the author's position
After the comment on the plan, the author's position follows. This is a small paragraph, which, as it were, summarizes everything that has been said before. During the problem formulation, the author's position has already been recorded as an auxiliary element, now it can simply be rewritten with minor edits if they are required.
Own position
Another important stage is the preparation for writing the exam. It consists in gaining the ability to formally express one's agreement with the author using the construction:
- "It's impossible to disagree with the author";
- "I fully share the position of the author."
However, please note that this is more of an introduction and will not be counted as a complete answer. In order to earn 1 point for this criterion, you must also argue your position. There are two main ways to do this:
- Attraction of literary material. You support your judgment using an argument from the literature. You need to describe a specific situation and give it a short explanation as to how exactly it confirms your idea. In this, you can prepare for the final composition of the exam in the Russian language. Surely you have ready-madeliterary arguments.
- Judgment + judgment. In the same way, you can support your thought with a second judgment, for example, by expanding the thought or giving an example from life. You can use a quote from a famous person.
Regardless of which method of argumentation you choose, you can only get a maximum of 1 point. So it's probably not worth the effort to find literary arguments if it takes you a lot of time.
Writing a conclusion
The conclusion is not evaluated directly, but it is an important part of any essay, since it is the conclusion that gives it compositional integrity.
The conclusion should consist of a couple of sentences and be the logical conclusion of your work. The conclusion should be relevant and written strictly on the problem that you stated at the beginning, and correspond to the author's position.
To do this, you can reformulate the position of the author, expressing it in other words. Also in the output there may be incentive proposals, appeals. Considering their relevance, they can be a good way to end an essay.
Speech composition composition and literacy
When preparing for the composition of the exam, attention should be paid not only to its semantic content, but also to the form.
So, for the speech design of the text, the student can get 4 points. This block includes the following criteria:
- Semantic integrity and consistency of presentation. The absence of logical errors, as well as motivated division of the text into paragraphs - 2 points. If inwork there is 1 logical error or 1 error in paragraph division of the text, 1 point is set. If more mistakes are made, 0 points are given.
- Expressiveness of speech, variety of grammatical structure of speech. If the work is distinguished by originality and a variety of lexical and grammatical means, it receives 2 points for this criterion. Important: the maximum score can be set only if there is only one speech error in the work! If lexical or grammatical devices are monotonous, 1 point can be given. Otherwise, 0 points are given.
For literacy criteria, see the table.
The last criterion is an explanation. Ethical errors - a manifestation of disrespect or aggression towards the author of the text or anyone else, an offensive attitude. This criterion evaluates how correct the student is in his statements.
How to avoid spelling and punctuation errors
Obviously, unlike preparing for the essay on the exam in history or social science, for example, in Russian, you need to pay special attention to your literacy. As you can see, the criteria for evaluating an essay are quite strict, however, mistakes can always be avoided. Remember, an essay is not a dictation. You have the right to change the wording, break complex sentences into simple ones. If you're not sure about the spelling of a particular word, try to find a synonym for it by replacing it.
Of course, we should not forget about school Russian lessonslanguage, because the exam is aimed at testing this basic knowledge. You should also expand your vocabulary, apply knowledge of the rules in practice and develop visual memory by reading literature or solving problems.
Example of USE essay in Russian
Of course, the key to the successful completion of any task is practice. Only regular independent writing of essays and analysis of your mistakes can provide high scores. However, preparation may also include reading and analyzing other people's work.
The following, for example, is an essay written based on an excerpt from B. L. Pasternak's novel "Doctor Zhivago". It was written by future examiners at the lessons of preparing for the composition of the exam.
War is always a tragedy. But there are wars that are especially painful to watch - civil ones. What is the essence of the civil war, its special drama? It is this important question that B. L. Pasternak asks.
The author reveals his understanding of the civil war, describing Russia in the years after the revolution. The main character - Yuri Andreevich Zhivago, a military doctor, accidentally finds himself in the epicenter of the battle, becoming his involuntary observer. Despite the fact that he is on the side of the "Reds", at this moment he sympathizes with the "White Guard children". The fact is that he sees in them not only "reckless" youth, but also people "close to him in spirit" - the same circle with him. For him, they are not enemies, but brothers, equal to him both in upbringing, and cultural level, and in origin.
Already after the end of the battle, the doctorexamines two dead: a telegraph operator who fought on the side of the Reds, and a White Guard. He finds with them the text of the same psalm, which "was considered miraculous, saved from bullets." These people had just fought against each other, but now their souls were reconciled and were closely connected by one faith and one single desire - the desire to live.
With these examples, the author shows that despite all political and ideological differences, all these people are part of one people, united by one history and culture.
B. L. Pasternak believes that a civil war is a fratricidal war, forcing people of the same religion, of the same nation to destroy each other, which cannot be justified.
It's impossible not to agree with the author. Indeed, civil war is unnatural. People do not defend their country from the enemy, but, on the contrary, destroy it themselves. There are no winners or losers in a civil war, only shattered destinies, divided families and a tragedy that touched everyone.
In conclusion, I would like to say that any war is a great grief, but civil war is especially. Therefore, people should make every effort to avoid this catastrophe, and try to find other, creative, ways to resolve conflicts.
In this article, all the requirements for checking examination essays were stated in some detail, comments were given to them, and several plans for building their work were provided. This material can help you better understand what mistakes you make andhow can you improve your work for the successful passing of the exam.
