A few days before the National Secondary Education Examination (Enem) – which will have tests on November 21st and 28th – many students are betting on memorization techniques, late-night studies and simulated entrance exams. But, and the preparation for the essay, is it up to date? The text is essential for good performance on the exam, warn teachers, who shared with the CNN essential tips for writing a 1000 grade.
Enem usually brings current social themes to the newsroom, so being aware of recent events in the world is important for the good development of the text.
In 2020, for example, the theme of the Enem’s writing was “the stigma associated with mental illnesses in Brazilian society”. In 2019, it was “democratization of access to cinema in Brazil” and in 2018 the theme addressed was “manipulation of user behavior by controlling data on the internet”.
In other words, the subjects covered are usually quite different and what counts is being connected to contemporary themes and structuring your writing in the best possible way. Like? Check out the teachers’ tips below.
correction manual
Enem has very objective correction criteria, and these criteria can be found in the correction manual of Inep (National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira). This manual is delivered by Enem to brokers, as explained by the writing teacher of the Poliedro Guarulhos course and the Parthenon College, Pedro Muller.
“For example, 1/5 of your grade is a criterion called proposed intervention, which is to present a solution to the problem. Most essays do not ask for this, so the unsuspecting student can write an essay and forget to do it, or they can do it, but not in the way that Inep asks for it”, explains Muller.
According to the professor, Inep has five criteria for the intervention proposal: “it has to have action, agent, means, purpose and detail. What I would say is for the student to look for the manuals and pay attention to these objective criteria”, he says.
This is an important tip, the student to go after the correction criteria. According to writing teacher Isabel Sodré, from Descomplica, a good text strategy includes reading and studying well-regarded essays.
“On the eve of the test, Enem publishes the participant’s booklet, where we can find some very good essays, top marks, with comments from the panel saying why that essay was well evaluated or not. A good study strategy is to learn to write good text, reading good texts, good argumentative dissertations”.
text structure
The teacher explains that the best way to structure the text is for the student to think about the causes or consequences of the problem presented, since the topic of writing is always a social problem.
“And then putting two causes and consequences as the thesis of the text and developing one in each paragraph, and the introductory paragraph, with four paragraphs in total, that would be a path”, says Muller.
It is important that the participant has very well defined and understood what is in the “theme sentence”, says writing teacher Isabel Sodré.
“Enem’s theme phrases usually work with axes that formulate that phrase, so there are parts that cannot be forgotten. In 2015, for example, Enem asked to talk about the persistence of violence against women, and many people ignored the “persistence”, which gave the thematic analysis a more historical character. So, a starting point to hit the newsroom is to check it out, to understand the topic in its globality, this is essential”, says Sodré.
Importance of reading
That reading is essential for a good performance in tests, everyone already knows. However, it is worth including in the reading from the classics to journalistic matters. While one stimulates creativity and helps structure the text, the other keeps an eye on contemporary issues that will be covered in Enem, in addition to the content repertoire.
“Reading does help, literature and journalistic texts, because Enem requires from candidates a greater knowledge of the world, a case study about the society in which that person lives. So, reading literary works can even help to develop the lexicon, reading journalistic publications can also help. In addition to developing the habit of reading good texts, reading good essays, essays that obtained grade 1000”, says the writing teacher.
Can series, movies, comics be a reference in the newsroom?
If you think that the weekends of marathon series on streaming were in vain, forget it! According to professor Isabel Sodré, this is the time to use this content in the essay, but with caution, as long as it fits into the proposed context.
“In the socio-cultural repertoire, despite the fact that a large part of the newsrooms that we see circulating, they often have classical references, from philosophers, sociologists, from classical antiquity, in short, these references are super relevant, but it is important to understand that the Enem’s bench is waiting for a text project”, he says.
“So, if the student knows any series, music, movie, comic book, who works with some scene or event that has to do with the text, and thinks they can link up with the argument, this is the time, super valid!”, adds.
The teacher says that the idea in writing Enem is to use some constructive repertoire to show better recognition of the theme in her own experience.
“You can go through these more classic, more formal structures, but what is consumed in everyday life is also very relevant. Pumped series, which can bring topics in vogue in society, can help people to wreck the newsroom,” he said.
Topics
Given the variety of topics that can be addressed in the essay, which has the title kept confidential until the time of the test, it is difficult to nail the topic that will be used for the Enem essay this year, but the teachers bet on issues related to the environment.
“In view of the political problems involving Inep’s employees, I think the tendency is for it not to be a controversial issue. Something like bullying in schools, the garbage problem, the problem of scarcity of water resources; I think it will be an issue that is not a political divide”, says Pedro Muller.
“Themes that will talk about the environment and the way in which natural resources have been exploited and the impacts, can be an interesting subject for students to review”, highlights Isabel.
The Enem will be applied on November 21st and 28th to 3,109,762 participants, being 3,040,871 for the printed version and 68,891 for the digital one.
Reference: CNN Brasil
