In a first step, you have to look for features such as the author, the title, the source and the paragraphs. Then, formulate your expectations towards the text.
In a second step, analyse the linking words and conjunctions of the text. How do they structure it? Linking words are like lighthouses, they lead the way.
After that, summarize your first ideas and results in a table.
Bsp.:
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Create such a table for every paragraph.
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And this is what a work sheet would look like.
Essay: Captain Cook Discovers
Australia
The
Europeans considered Australia to be 'terra nullius' or unoccupied land,
despite encountering the natives.
Explorers saw no fences or borders which in their culture would
symbolise some sort of ownership over the earth, therefore they regarded Australia to be land for the taking. However, Aborigines believed that the land itself was communal
property and that a large piece of country should not belong to any individual
- the land belonged to the whole tribe (Ward 13). Yet no endeavour was made by Europeans to "understand or accommodate
Aboriginal value systems" (Nile 49). Moreover, while the Aborigines were presumably the first to occupy
Australia, they received little acknowledgment for their find or connection
with the land. Captain James Cook
on the other hand, receives
much acclaim for discovering 'The Great South Land', although Aborigines, Asians and other
European explorers stumbled upon it before him. However, one cannot disregard the fact that Cook's was a
'discovery' and quite an important one at that, for he literally put Australia
on the map. Yet the term 'discovered' or
'discovery' according to the Macquarie Dictionary, refers to acquiring
knowledge of, learning of or finding out, for the first time. Therefore, Cook did not 'discover' Australia in the true sense of
the word, but rather he uncovered and revealed the potential of 'The Great
South Land' to the rest of the world.
As far as archaeologists know, the Australian Aborigines were the
first people to inhabit Australia. In
fact, the ancestors of the indigenous Australians were the first human beings
to cross oceanic depths between continents (Ward 1Yet 'for all but the last two hundred
years, the Australian Aborigines were almost completely isolated from contact
with other people' (Nile 32).
However, the first
people that the Aborigines may have encountered were the Asians.
In fact, the Europeans were the last to 'discover'
Australia. Many Europeans speculated
that there had to be a great unknown southern land - terra australis
incognita - to balance the landmasses of the northern part of the world. In fact, he confirmed that what the Dutch called 'New Holland' was
indeed 'The Great South Land' (Nile 105). In addition, he confirmed that apart from Australia and Antarctica, no
other southern continent existed (Nile 103). Thus he completed the jigsaw of the south. While Cook's discovery was beneficial in some aspects, it was
detrimental in others. Since European colonization and
settlement the traditional pattern of the lives of the Aborigines has been
massively disrupted and changed.
Therefore, from the view of the Australian Aborigines, it may be a
mute point to suggest that Captain James Cook or any other European discovered
Australia. In addition, while Cook's discovery was
extremely significant, one must take into account that Europeans were quite
confidant that a south land existed and it was simply a matter of time before
it was found.
http://www.jcu.edu.au/tldinfo/writingskills/essay/sample.html,
12.12.2012
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