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March 29, 2024, 08:56:55 am

Author Topic: 50 in English, available for queries :)  (Read 339025 times)  Share 

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M_BONG

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #765 on: January 01, 2015, 02:46:50 pm »
0
Awesome advice guys! (Sorry lauren for hijacking your thread)
This is really great advice for Dickens (referring to the last sentence). Sometimes, you might need to reevaluate ideas about why you're reading or what makes something 'good' reading.

So true! For me, reading has always been a de-stresser and reading 'real' literature always caused me stress because everything is beneath the surface and implied and most of the time I don't understand it, haha. Time to get off the Matthew Reilly and the John Grisham, and give other authors a go :)


Catcher in the Rye is a pretty cool book to read for someone who has just finished high-school, or The Bell Jar if you're more inclined towards less insufferable protagonists*.

*Holden4lyfhatethephonies
I read Catcher in Year 10 - Holden is so YOLO. Good as time to read it, especially during puberty and stuff. Holden and his ducks and red hat, cute as.

allstar

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #766 on: January 05, 2015, 01:38:52 pm »
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hello,
this is a random question but:
what is something we as a society claimed to know but in reality until we are exposed to the seemingly impossible (cause we claimed to know that it wasn't possible), we realise maybe there is more to what we supposedly know???

this is related to my oral :)

thanks 

brenden

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #767 on: January 05, 2015, 01:52:22 pm »
+1
hello,
this is a random question but:
what is something we as a society claimed to know but in reality until we are exposed to the seemingly impossible (cause we claimed to know that it wasn't possible), we realise maybe there is more to what we supposedly know???

this is related to my oral :)

thanks
Newtonian Physics? *shrugs*
✌️just do what makes you happy ✌️

literally lauren

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #768 on: January 05, 2015, 02:56:00 pm »
+1
hello,
this is a random question but:
what is something we as a society claimed to know but in reality until we are exposed to the seemingly impossible (cause we claimed to know that it wasn't possible), we realise maybe there is more to what we supposedly know???

this is related to my oral :)

thanks

Pretty much all science stories in the media.

I might be misinterpreting your point, but perhaps the recent ebola outbreak?
ie. society claims to know: it's dangerous and no one should suffer, but 'out of sight, out of mind'
seemingly impossible happens: disease breaches the Western world
more to what we supposedly know: just how dangerous it can be

Not sure if that was what you're after, but if you're looking at misunderstood issues, I'd definitely go for something science-y because the general population's grasp of science is limited at best.

keltingmeith

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #769 on: January 05, 2015, 03:18:50 pm »
+1
hello,
this is a random question but:
what is something we as a society claimed to know but in reality until we are exposed to the seemingly impossible (cause we claimed to know that it wasn't possible), we realise maybe there is more to what we supposedly know???

this is related to my oral :)

thanks

I may be able to supply some help here:

This here is the [u]I Fucking Love Science[/u] (IFLS) Facebook page. They also have a full website if you don't want to traverse Facebook (I don't go directly to the website myself, preferring their Facebook updates). IFLS is essentially THE science website for the scientifically illiterate, aiming to promote a love of science in everybody. As such, IFLS often reports on new issues and discoveries in the media. Just a couple of days ago, they reported about protein activity, acting in a way that scientists didn't believe possible.

I don't know how helpful this will be, but here's a list of "discoveries" made in 2014, or stories, that just weren't true.

Also, two really big recent topics to discuss are vaccinations and climate change. Despite being old, they're STILL popping up in the media. Note that in both cases, it wasn't a situation of "we thought this was true, but turns out it's not", but rather of faulty scientific method, which enabled certain studies to release false results. Thus, people think that climate change isn't happening, and that vaccinating your kids is bad... (NOTE: NOT VACCINATING YOUR KIDS IS WORSE AND CLIMATE CHANGE IS A THING -cough-)

FINALLY, you may be hard done by looking for "something we believed to be true but no longer is". Rarely things that are made scientific theory will no longer be theory. There are a few exceptions, but generally if something might not be true, it's shot down during an earlier phase, before it becomes a theory. Aforementioned exceptions generally relate to things we admit to not fully not understanding (such as physics, and the whole relativity vs. quantum mechanics thing, or how our world was formed), and in which case you may find several theories relating to the subject, with the truth being some culmination of them all (hence why we take several theories - each work in different situations, so until we get the right one, we'll use ones that we know work for now).

appleandbee

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #770 on: January 07, 2015, 06:37:17 pm »
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I have a couple of questions here:
1.I went to a VCE student resource centre today to buy some English stuff and the man working there (who was a Chemistry assessor, not an English one, but says that his wife assesses English) claims that in the Context section, on top of the two set texts, if I mention stuff on the other two, I get bonus marks. He also claims that I have to include a MINIMUM of two texts in my Context exam essay. Is this true, because I thought I only have to write about one text and include external examples?
2.Does external sources in Whose Reality tend to be overused e.g. mental illnesses (not that I’m doing that).
3.Does the Speech topic have to be a local issue?
Thanks in Advance  :)
VCE Class of 2015

Studying Anthropology, Philosophy and Biology at Unimelb

literally lauren

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #771 on: January 07, 2015, 07:17:29 pm »
+5
1. This is one of the many instances of one teacher giving recommendations and passing them off as requirements, I'm afraid. No, you don't have to mention more than one text and you certainly wouldn't get "bonus marks" for mentioning all of them. If anything, most assessors would probably dock points since you aren't going beyond the texts, you're just limiting yourself to multiple ones.
I suppose I could see the logic of reading a brief synopsis of the other texts since the prompt has to relate to all four texts, and so it can give you some insight into the kinds of angles the assessors are expecting.
The external examples are usually a lot more important to the marks because that's what you'll be using for your more unique and expansive discussion. In fact for expository essays, I'd suggest just referencing the text once in your first paragraph and then everything from then on is purely based on your other sources.
HOWEVER, your teacher will have their own recommendations for context, so trust their guidance for SACs.

2. Certain external resources are used quite often, but that doesn't mean they're used effectively. Something like mental illness is a very common example, but if half the people using it are doing so in a 'people who have mental illnesses have different realities, therefore sometimes people can have different realities' capacity, then doing some more sophisticated analysis can still help you stand out.

There's a reason these areas are so well worn, though; it's because they're often the best and easiest examples to convey. So it's more about the degree to which you're expounding upon the evidence than what specific evidence you're considering.

3. There are very few official requirements for the oral because it's just an in-school assessment. So you'll need to check with your classroom teacher about any additional stipulations they've put in place. Usually the only rule is that you have to find a news article from the Australian media since September or October last year. You might find it helpful to make your issue local by showing how climate change affects us on a nation-wide or community-based level, but otherwise it can be a global or international topic provided your school is okay with it :)

24bauer12

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #772 on: January 07, 2015, 07:34:09 pm »
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Hey Lauren,
What would be the best way to identify a target audience in a persuasive context essay without a statement of intention?
Thanks in advance!

literally lauren

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #773 on: January 08, 2015, 10:17:10 am »
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You should be able to make it clear through the content and focus of your speech, for instance if you're addressing a board of scientists about the potential discovery of alien life, your introductory sentence can be a less clunky version of 'Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm here to talk to you about the potential discovery of alien life. As a bunch of scientists, you will no doubt be wondering...'

Obvs blend it into the rest of your piece, but you might want to have a sentence or two that delineates who you're speaking to and why in a very clear way. This might depend on how creative or expository your piece is, since the persuasive style is really a spectrum between the two. (Like, are you writing an expository essay just with really strong opinions and arguments, or is it an actual speech with a constructed author/ audience/ issue?)

Ultimately if you've got an audience in mind, there should be a reason why they're so important, so find a place in your piece for you to make that connection clear to your assessor.

If not, and you're just being forced to choose an audience even if it has no relevance to your content, then I'd just use headings or subheadings to get my point across, eg. 'Submission for the 'How Would You Change The World' Essay Contest 2015' or 'Dr. Mahoney's Address to the U.S. Congress on Gun Control.'

literally lauren

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #774 on: January 11, 2015, 10:40:08 am »
+10
Howdy all,
I've decided to close this thread and start an official Q&A (stickied on the English board) for all general concerns. I'll still be answering questions, but I figured we'd open up the discussion so that people posting awesome answers here don't have to preface their advice with 'I'm not Lauren, but...' :)
I've imported all the links over to the new thread: English Q&A
Happy holidays!