Hey I know this is really late to be asking this, but how would you recommend going about doing a text response for poetry? I'm going to do John Donne's poems and I was wondering how much I should talk about his life and times.
Thanks! 
For starters, never limit a paragraph to a single poem if you can avoid it. The big challenge with poetry and story stories is to unite/consolidate the text and talk about how things connect together; conducting three or four separate analyses of three or four poems/stories is more typical of mid-range responses.
Thematic connections are awesome, and if the prompt allows, I'd recommend breaking down the topic into three or four core concepts that you can explore using a variety of poems in each para. As for the author's life and times... try to minimise that stuff. If it's relevant, you can include it, but harking on and on about historical background info kind of just distracts from your focus on the text. But if it is actually aiding your analysis AND you can integrate it with textual analysis, then go for it! (Use the half sentence rule - e.g. 'Donne's preoccupation with metaphysical conceits can be seen in the imagery of 'Valediction' where...' as opposed to: '
Donne was preoccupied with metaphysical conceits. This can be seen in the imagery of 'Valediction' where...' - so your use of background info is visibly connected to some other part of your discussion, rather than having a whole sentence like the underlined one which isn't as relevant to the task).
do topic sentences always have to be in one sentence? I'm finding that in a lot of my essays the topic sentence is usually two sentences because I can't seem to succinctly explain my paragraph in one sentence
You can stretch it out over two, and it can be good to explore your key idea before launching into evidence, though it may also be worth practising your conciseness just so you have the option of quicker, sharper T.S.s if you need them
Quick question, I've been hearing different things and I am unsure which way to go, but with context, is it best to mention at least one text in every paragraph with it relating to an external example? Or can you write one paragraph on one text, then another on an external example, and so on? Thanks!
Either of those would be fine!
It depends how well your set text works with your external examples, but for either scenario, you want to make sure your piece ties together nicely. For instance, you should try and avoid having one paragraph on the text, and then two or three other paragraphs that are entirely unrelated (e.g. 1. 'here's a discussion of a book' 2. 'here's something that happened in the Australian media this year' 3. 'here's something that happened in WWII.' 4. 'here's an anecdote about my experiences.') Ideally, you want some kind of link that ties them together, or some kind of common thread running through your piece, no matter your text+example combination. (e.g. 1. 'here's a discussion of how this novel addresses dealing with change' 2. 'here's a significant change that was going on at the time the text was set/written' 3. 'here are some of the consequences of those changes for today's society' etc.)
Could someone please confirm the following:
- The LA visuals will be black and white, right? And they'll be clear, right? Had a practice exam a few days ago and the printer the teachers used to print it out was legit so low quality that it was a real struggle to make out what the visual even was... (seeking peace of mind more than anything really)
- I hope this isn't the case but god forbid I hit the first hour and have like a paragraph to finish and a conclusion to do. Do I cut it short and work on the others and come back to it if I have the time or do I finish it? Is it better to have a complete essay and compromise the quality of another or an incomplete essay and not compromise the quality of the other two essays?
Visuals will absolutely 100% be black and white unless VCAA splurge on a colour printer this year
For some reason, the GAT is in colour, but the English exams never are
<-- visual art student tears
Printing quality will also be good; the scans on VCAA's site are sometimes kind of dodgy, but the printed ones are always clear enough.
Re: sticking with one essay or jumping to the others, that's up to you. If it's a whole other paragraph you've got to do, I'd maybe go to the others and just ensure you can write enough for each of them, but maybe try and speed things up to ensure you get an extra ten or so minutes at the end. Basically, it's better to have three essays that are worth 9/10 and are all a bit imperfect because you cut each of them short than one that's worth a 10/10 and is utterly immaculate and complete with two others that are only worth 7s because you sacrificed time you should've devoted to those ones.
But on the flip side, you might be able to race through the end of a paragraph and a conclusion in about five minutes to save yourself the trouble of coming back and re-acquainting yourself with the material, so you might also decide that's a better option in the heat of the moment. Either would be fine, so don't stress about picking the wrong choice if you're in that situation
edit: beaten by Jason
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