for context, is it okay to use a book from a previous study design as an external example (of course, keeping focus on the main text)?
Yes, but double check to see if it's on the current English or Literature study designs, else you run the risk of having all evidence pertaining to that text nullified (ie. they just cross out anything even remotely related and you'll probably drop a few marks)
But generally the books on the English lists are quite good examples to use when demonstrating themes or giving counter-examples, so you should be fine with any previous selections. It can also be a 'shot-cut' to the assessors, in that you can basically guarantee they've read
Catcher in the Rye or
Catch-22, whereas more esoteric examples require a bit more explanation.
Zeitgeist,
It's definitely worth consulting your school if you're in need of examples,s but there are plenty around on the internet if you just google them. Not all of these are VCE-related since ItCoM has only been on the list for two years (meaning there's only a year and a half's worth of resources available) but they should still help in some respect:
http://www.enotes.com/topics/in-the-country-of-men/critical-essayshttp://www.cyberessays.com/lists/in-the-country-of-men/http://www.studymode.com/essays/In-The-Country-Of-Men-Essay-1927214.htmlThis was quite a good breakdown of the essay writing process:
http://vceenglish14.wordpress.com/in-the-country-of-men/And there's always the study guides if you can afford them:
http://www.tssm.com.au/browse-resourceitem-details/in-the-country-of-men-summary-notes-1034.aspxhttps://www.insightpublications.com.au/shopexd.asp?id=1861What is a good persona to adopt for a speech for context? I'm thinking a year 12 student conducting an oral presentation, but that's so cheesy... any ideas? I'm doing the context of Whose Reality? and drawing ideas from The Lot: In Words.
I'd advise against the 'Year 12 student coming to talk to you about context' since it can seem a tad lazy :p
If you're involving some sort of bigger issue then you could make it an address to parliament or some sort of committee eg. the reality of climate change, or the subjective realities that might dictate the views of a special interest group.
It depends how creative you're willing to get with the context, but given you're drawing on Leunig, you might consider some sort of social demonstration or presentation, ie. addressing a crowd of likeminded anti-materialist individuals.Or if you're subverting that idea, you can have a kind of context-less speech.
Page 14-15 of teh 2011 Assessor's Report had a good example of this. Granted it was for id&b and in response to a poetry collection, but many of the themes are quite similar. This probably verges on a more creative angle, so I'm not sure what you'd prefer, but maybe experiment with different ends of the expository <---> imaginative spectrum to find what works best
I was just wondering should I just know my texts for content/text well enough to apply to any prompt on the spot, or should I be practicing memorising ideas that are possibly applicable to the exam? With all my SACS I've had 6 prompts and 1 or 2 would be on it, so I've gone in memorising ideas for a few for the last few ones definitely knowing what would be on it.
EDIT: Totally forgot one massive thing I wanted to ask about. With my essays I usually write a lot, and sometimes my first body paragraph can be as long as three pages, writing for 30 or so minutes. As I'm doing Wilfred Owen, we have been told that if we want to show evidence alongside our key ideas, we should name the poem and analyse that poem, rather than quoting from multiple poems so we can get down to the real grit of the poem. What I was wondering was, would it be OK for me to do three paragraphs of what I'm expected to do with deep analysis of poems, and then another poem focusing solely on ideas, quoting singularly without naming the poems these single quotes come from to show Owen's POV on a larger scale or something? Thanks!
Re: memorisation, this is kind of contentious amongst teachers and tutors. Personally I fall pretty definitively on the 'real learning'>rote learning side, but even I had a couple of key phrases and points that I would go out of my way to bring up where relevant. I think the trick is to have more ideas you're comfortable writing than could ever fit in one essay. Perhaps aim for at least 10 major points (whether they're characters, themes, devices or messages; each text will have a different balance) as this should provide a good sample space for you to draw upon. But be prepared to sacrifice some for the sake of relevance. An essay that contains a lot of unrefined, fresh ideas that clearly haven't been tested to death in practice essays will still score better, than a beautifully polished piece with little to nothing to do with the prompt, so relevance trumps finesse every time.
I'd say the piece you write in the exam should always be a totally unique thing, even if you've written on something similar in practice pieces. It's better to have your synapses firing in the exam room, constantly thinking and re-evaluating and re-configuring your knowledge than it is to rely upon what you know you can churn out. So although I acknowledge the safety blanket of memorisation can provide some comfort, ensure you're capable of moving away from it when necessary.
With regards to your T.R. para lengths, even with massive handwriting three pages would be too long, so try and cut down. I think the method you've outlined might be a little restrictive; it's better to meld ideas and examples (or more specifically, extract the ideas from the examples) rather than just mentioning both separately. The preferred method for poetry is usually to deal with about two poems per paragraph, so 6-8 total in your essay, with tangential references in passing to other pieces. To discuss other poems you won't have to provide a lot of detail, especially if you've referenced it already and can just refer back to it, eg. 'This same disdain for authoritarian falsehoods can be seen in
Dulce's appropriation of propaganda...' instead of a very long-winded introduction preceding the quote, half a line should do.
The transitions are definitely trickier for poetry, but the same rules still apply, most importantly, you can assume your assessor has read the text and is sufgficiently familiar with it; your job is to elucidate the ideas relevant to the prompt and construct and argument, so don't feel you have to contextualise every quote or example too extensively.
And congratulations on the rapid mark rise by the way, you've earned it
AceVCE777:
If you're asking whether both Zorina and her dad know, then it's 'Do...' --> but in that case it should probably be 'Do Zorina
and her dad know about the tunnel.'
But if you're asking whether Zorina knows,
or her dad knows, but not both, then it's 'Does...'
Don't worry, I still get caught up in these weird grammar rules all the time. In most cases where pluralisation is confusing you, just separate into a simpler sentence and remove 'her dad;' would you say 'Do Zorina know about the tunnel' or 'Does Zorina know about the tunnel?' (note: this is assuming the second example from above where it's either Zorina or her dad as two separate agents.)