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Author Topic: VCE English Question Thread  (Read 847400 times)  Share 

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sjayne

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #300 on: April 17, 2015, 02:08:52 pm »
+2
How important is a sophisticated vocabulary, in order to do well on the English exam? :)

If you had a normal vocabulary but well-written pieces with good ideas etc, would the fact that you aren't the most sophisticated of writers, be a major issue?
Because often teachers tell me I am too verbose, and that I would be better off and clearer if I used simpler words, but  when I read  high-scoring sample responses, or even examples from teachers - the wording does tend to be quite sophisticated?

Thanks!

The closer you get to the 40+ scores the more important your vocab is.  I personally don't have a thesaurus in my head but that didn't necessarily affect my marks.

You want your work to sound good but you also want to write well so lots of vocab and poor discussion won't get you a high score. Similarly, good writing and  the vocab of a year 7 student isn't going to do anyone any favours. Use your words but use them well.
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JackSonSmith

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #301 on: April 17, 2015, 08:29:51 pm »
0
Open question to everybody.

What are your views/ recommendations about the use of comparisons and analogies in context pieces.

For example, studying encountering conflict, would I be able to successfully compare people to trees. ie. if someone is rooted in the place that they grew up in with their beliefs passed to them by their fore-bearers, they are unlikely to change their views, which in turn leads to long lasting conflict

etc.
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RazzMeTazz

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #302 on: April 18, 2015, 12:57:44 pm »
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Thanks for the wonderful advice DJA and sjayne!!

:) It really helped me out a lot!

chansena

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #303 on: April 19, 2015, 01:07:05 pm »
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Will upload on Saturday with the other bits and pieces :)
#still writing year 12 essays to procrastinate from writing uni essays.....

Hi

I am not sure where to look for the files you have uploaded in particular the hybrid essay / feature article. Could you please direct me to where they are :)
 
 
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scarletmoon

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #304 on: April 19, 2015, 06:46:12 pm »
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I need to write a persuasive essay on the prompt, "In conflict, anything is justifiable" I need some help on external resources I can use to support this prompt
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chansena

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #305 on: April 19, 2015, 07:23:25 pm »
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I need to write a persuasive essay on the prompt, "In conflict, anything is justifiable" I need some help on external resources I can use to support this prompt

-For encountering Conflict I always liked to use a soldier / child soldier concept as you could always mold the concept to any encountering conflict prompt. (Boko Haram)

-You could also use government leader possibly

- A mother and father figure protecting their child therefore they justify their actions / behavior

Hope this helped  :)





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"With But a Few Expectations it is Always the Underdog Who wins through Sheer Will Power" <-- (Motivational Quote )

vanessa14

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #306 on: April 21, 2015, 09:08:47 pm »
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Hey everyone,

I was just wondering, for language analysis, if I get 4 or 5 texts (short), 2 with the same contention and 2 with the opposing contention, and one that is an image on its own, can I say the image supports both contentions or do I have to choose one?

Just a bit confused on what to do! Im writing a practise essay and I'm not sure if I can use the image for both contentions...

thanks to anyone who chooses to help, it will be greatly appreciated.

heids

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #307 on: April 22, 2015, 08:53:36 am »
0
I was just wondering, for language analysis, if I get 4 or 5 texts (short), 2 with the same contention and 2 with the opposing contention, and one that is an image on its own, can I say the image supports both contentions or do I have to choose one?

Just a bit confused on what to do! Im writing a practise essay and I'm not sure if I can use the image for both contentions...

With the image, you always have to figure out its own contention (or what you imagine its contention could be).  Spend a while looking at it and thinking what is could be trying to make you feel or think.  It won't be trying to persuade the audience in two totally opposite directions at once!  If you're comparing the image with other articles, you're trying to find how it 'argues' similarly or differently to the other articles. So, you can CONTRAST it with two of the articles (how it argues differently/in opposition to them) and COMPARE it with the other two articles (how it backs up their contention; try to find a quote from these articles that show how the image tries to argue the same thing).

Alternatively, it may be arguing a different thing altogether (or at least have a slightly different way of arguing); if so, you can contrast it with all the articles ;D

Remember, the image doesn't necessarily totally agree with the accompanying article(s) - if you can point out slight differences, your analysis is deeper and better.  Remember to make your links up if you can't figure out what the image is actually showing ;)
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literally lauren

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #308 on: April 22, 2015, 06:06:07 pm »
+4
Sorry, my bad. "Standard" structure was referring to the key argument-based analysis' or technique-based analysis'. I've never heard of one based on key players... Would you be mixing up the arguments and the techniques to show their intended effect on the audience? So like a build up?
Yes, it's essentially a 'build up' of analysis so it gives your piece a bit of direction - meaning you don't have to just float between random points of analysis and you can comment on overall persuasion by the end. It's not necessarily like 'mixing up the arguments' though; if anything you're structuring by argument (eg. one para on how the author manipulates the idea of censorship, one paragraph on how he wants us to feel about governmental responsibility, and one on the idea of freedom and security.)
Might be best to check some of the earlier explanations (pg 1 of this thread) and let me know if you're still confused :)

Open question to everybody.

What are your views/ recommendations about the use of comparisons and analogies in context pieces.

For example, studying encountering conflict, would I be able to successfully compare people to trees. ie. if someone is rooted in the place that they grew up in with their beliefs passed to them by their fore-bearers, they are unlikely to change their views, which in turn leads to long lasting conflict

etc.
DO IT!!! I'm a sucker for these kinds of metaphors/puns/all-round-bad-humour, so that sort of stuff can work wonders for making your writing more engaging.
It all depends what kind of piece you're writing; if it's a mega-conventional & formal essay, then this might seem a little out of place, but if it's more hybrid-y then you can get away with a lot more.

And the usual do-as-your-teacher-says-for-SACs-disclaimer-here.

Having said that, making the metaphors too cliched or forced can be problematic. It also depends how much you're utilising the comparison, ie. whether you're just making an offhand reference, or constantly revisiting the metaphor to strengthen the link.

Like most things in Context I'm afraid it just comes down to 'it depends.'  ::) It could complement your style and give the assessors a glimmer of hope as their coffee stained eyes drift to the piles of essays they still have to get through, or it could just make them grumble with irritation.

Ironically, it's best to contextualise these sorts of options because it all comes down to how you write, so I guess see how your teacher reacts when marking your essays? :)

I am not sure where to look for the files you have uploaded in particular the hybrid essay / feature article. Could you please direct me to where they are :)
Yeah, so... my precious little laptop gave itself an aneurysm and so the drafts I had are now on a hard drive I'm desperately trying to recover. Or, more accurately, a hard drive that my tech-inclined mate is desperately trying to recover while I prod him with sticks. I'm on a phone at the moment so writing whole essays isn't really an ideal option.
Suffice it to say that for feature articles, it'd be better to look at actual feature articles (ie. non-Context-based, like in The Australian or an online magazine) to get a sense for how the genre operates. It's a really 'open' form of writing, so having a go yourself and then adapting your method later is probably better than attempting to appropriate someone else's.
As for the hybrid, that is something I want to post an example of just because I know it's not often explained or demonstrated, so hopefully by this weekend I'll have either recovered the one's I was working on before, or will have written a new one :)

It'll be posted here when I'm done: English Resources and Sample High Scoring Responses

cosine

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #309 on: April 22, 2015, 06:19:23 pm »
0
What exactly goes into an expository essay, and what's the structure like?
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literally lauren

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #310 on: April 22, 2015, 09:03:19 pm »
+13
What exactly goes into an expository essay, and what's the structure like?
That's a little like asking 'what exactly goes into a cake'?

Are you baking a sponge cake, or a bedazzled chocolate cake complete with complex layers and fancy swirled icing flowers, or a cake made out of fish skeletons and earwax?

Sponge recipe:
Plain and simple; everyone can make a vanilla sponge essay. It's all about getting the right measurements (ie. a balance between abstract, context-based discussion and close examination of evidence and examples.) Generally speaking it's best to start broad and work your way in, so following a standard introduction that unpacks the prompt, you'll commence with the first of 3 or 4 body paragraphs that begins by outlining a key idea, then gradually moves into a discussion of the examples (textual and otherwise) before finally rounding it all back off to the overall point that is your contention. There are some kind of formulaic ways of doing this, but a sponge cake made properly can be perfectly satisfying, so if you'd rather stick to this recipe then all you'll really have to do is fine-tune your essay writing abilities and collect as many varied examples as you need.

Chocolate cake complete with complex layers and fancy swirled icing flowers recipe:
This is slightly more ambitious for obvious reasons, and usually involves a lot more creative freedom in terms of how you construct things. There are still 'rules' in the sense of not adding 27 bags of chocolate melts (ie. cramming in heaps of external examples and giving your assessor type two diabetes) or forgetting the eggs (ie. not having any links to the prompt and turning your piece into a dry, inedible mess) but on the whole you can do what you like. There are many different ways to make a chocolate cake delicious, and there are many different ways to make the structure of an expository essay interesting.

Cake made out of fish skeletons and earwax recipe: (for disaster)
But it is of course possible to follow every structural 'rule' and still screw things up. I mean, technically if you mix a bunch of stuff in a bowl, pour it into a cake tin and chuck it in the oven for about half an hour, you've followed the instructions... but in reality you need a certain degree of common sense when it comes to what ingredients to include. For example, shredded coconut is fine in theory, but if your guests are allergic to coconut (or there are 7 years worth of Assessor's Reports telling you to stop using coconut unless you can do it properly) then you may have to rethink your approach.
This is why, as much as I hate doing so, I have to answer 'it depends' to so many questions about what Context should be. I could tell you 'don't use quotes; they're clunky, rarely well integrated, and often feel forced' and that'd be true, but there are heaps of examples of students using quotes well and in a way that contributes to the strength of their piece as a whole. Not every rule has exceptions, but there are so few rules anyway that it's tough to know what's appropriate and what crosses VCAA's arbitrary lines.


The best thing you can do at this point is to just start writing! No matter how directionless or 'wrong' it feels, just get some stuff down on paper, give it to your teacher/AN and let someone suggest a direction for you. In my experiences it's easier to make Context suit you - that is, playing to the strengths of your own writing style and manipulating your approach so that you're hitting the criteria in your own way. There are safer ways of doing this and there are risker ways, but overall Context pieces are like this whole spectrum of possible options... and not even a linear spectrum! It's like a 3D graph of different variations and combinations that work in some conditions but not others. So start with what you know and just see where that takes you.
« Last Edit: December 07, 2015, 01:33:50 pm by literally lauren »

cosine

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #311 on: April 24, 2015, 08:06:00 pm »
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Thanks so much lauren!!

My sac is next week and I have not yet written any practice essays, nor any form of practice. Where can I start? I mean my teacher hasn't given us any prompts so thats a disadvantage.
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chansena

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #312 on: April 24, 2015, 08:28:09 pm »
+3
My sac is next week and I have not yet written any practice essays, nor any form of practice. Where can I start? I mean my teacher hasn't given us any prompts so thats a disadvantage.


You want to start by doing some research into some external examples which you can use in your context. This could include famous people, quotes, poems, songs anything which you can tie into Identity and Belonging. You probably want to know about 6-8 different examples and have a few spares up your sleeve.

From there you need to decide which style of writing you are going to do
Creative, expository or persuasive.


The research stage is really crucial as it forms the backbone I suppose to your context piece.

And then it comes down to doing some practice pieces.

But I also like to practice breaking down prompts as I am quite slow to write context pieces. I practice by doing a plan for several topics.

Also the English Resources Page also has several ways of approaching context  English Resources and Sample High Scoring Responses

Hope this helped :)


« Last Edit: April 24, 2015, 08:32:40 pm by chansena »
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heids

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #313 on: April 25, 2015, 08:17:55 am »
+5
My sac is next week and I have not yet written any practice essays, nor any form of practice. Where can I start? I mean my teacher hasn't given us any prompts so thats a disadvantage.

I totally understand because (especially for my evil enemy Context >:() I always felt like this soon before English SACs.

Chansena's advice is great.  Firstly you should have some background ideas and examples - from the text and external - about your context, a step that always overwhelmed me so I got into context SACs clueless.  This close to the SAC, I wouldn't stress so much about this, as I think you need to practise planning and writing an essay.  See Lauren's list of examples to help you.  When the SAC is over, please start researching for the future.

For prompts, see Re: Prompts and Sample Language Analysis Articles.  With a really long list of prompts, I never knew which to start with.  So I'd put them in a numbered list, and then use a random integer generator to randomly select one.  I suggest you decide to do say 10 plans + 2 full essays/pieces before the SAC (that was arbitrary, do however many you want/can), and randomly select prompts for these.  (Obviously cross off a prompt once you've done it).

Plans are great.  If you're doing expository, brainstorm the prompt, trying to think of it from all angles, etc. etc., and trying to throw in examples from your text and external examples.  Then gather your notes into a proper plan: write your contention, your 3-4 main ideas, and then dot-point how each paragraph will run - the examples you'll use, and what you'll draw out of them etc.  The more detailed you do it, the more valuable it is.  But it's not as scary or time-consuming as actually writing an essay.  It's crucial to write lots of plans and/or essays, since you'll be exposed to a random prompt in the SAC and have to actually write it.  Doing lots of random samples beforehand really helps boost your confidence and skills :D.

Finally, don't think it's too late to do anything and panic.  Write a list of what you want to achieve before the SAC (i.e. specific things, like 'write 5 detailed plans on randomly selected prompts') and tick them all off as you go.  Remember, anything you do - even if you just write one essay or come up with one external example the night before - is still going to be beneficial.  Try not to feel so overwhelmed that you don't even start.  I totally understand how tempting it is to do this, but breaking it down into small specific steps can help :).  Come up with something to do EVERY DAY between now and then.

EDIT: inserted a couple of smileys to make you feel better :D
« Last Edit: April 25, 2015, 03:50:59 pm by bangali_lok »
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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #314 on: April 25, 2015, 01:01:59 pm »
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I totally understand because (especially for my evil enemy Context >:() I always felt like this soon before English SACs.

Chansena's advice is great.  Firstly you should have some background ideas and examples - from the text and external - about your context, a step that always overwhelmed me so I got into context SACs clueless.  This close to the SAC, I wouldn't stress so much about this, as I think you need to practise planning and writing an essay.  See Lauren's list of examples to help you.  When the SAC is over, please start researching for the future.

For prompts, see Re: Prompts and Sample Language Analysis Articles.  With a really long list of prompts, I never knew which to start with.  So I'd put them in a numbered list, and then use a random integer generator to randomly select one.  I suggest you decide to do say 10 plans + 2 full essays/pieces before the SAC (that was arbitrary, do however many you want/can), and randomly select prompts for these.  (Obviously cross off a prompt once you've done it).

Plans are great.  If you're doing expository, brainstorm the prompt, trying to think of it from all angles, etc. etc., and trying to throw in examples from your text and external examples.  Then gather your notes into a proper plan: write your contention, your 3-4 main ideas, and then dot-point how each paragraph will run - the examples you'll use, and what you'll draw out of them etc.  The more detailed you do it, the more valuable it is.  But it's not as scary or time-consuming as actually writing an essay.  It's crucial to write lots of plans and/or essays, since you'll be exposed to a random prompt in the SAC and have to actually write it.  Doing lots of random samples beforehand really helps boost your confidence and skills.

Finally, don't think it's too late to do anything and panic.  Write a list of what you want to achieve before the SAC (i.e. specific things, like 'write 5 detailed plans on randomly selected prompts') and tick them all off as you go.  Remember, anything you do - even if you just write one essay or come up with one external example the night before - is still going to be beneficial.  Try not to feel so overwhelmed that you don't even start.  I totally understand how tempting it is to do this, but breaking it down into small specific steps can help :).  Come up with something to do EVERY DAY between now and then.

EDIT: inserted a couple of smileys to make you feel better :D

Thank you heaps, and many thanks for the smileys too haha :)
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