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March 28, 2024, 08:31:39 pm

Author Topic: 50 in English, available for queries :)  (Read 338995 times)  Share 

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Random_Acts_of_Kindness

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #540 on: October 08, 2014, 02:20:00 pm »
+1
Hi Lauren,

Wow, the quality of this thread is exceptional, I would pay good money for this. So much more worth than my tutor.

So I just wanted to say thanks and comment on the wonderful contribution you have made to my VCE life, and I am sure, that of many others. ;D
Ardent bibliophile. Full-time dreamer. Disiecti membra poetae.

Valyria

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #541 on: October 08, 2014, 03:13:50 pm »
0
Hey Lauren,

How did you go about analysing tone shifts? Right now, I can only skim the surface of a reasonable tone, the author employs a reasonable tone to convey their impartial stance on the [issue]. Even then, I feel as though I'm not analysing the tone sufficiently, should I include how the tone shift positions readers/incites a reaction from readers?

Secondly, what percentage of an expository essay in the form of a newspaper article, should be supplementary evidence and textual evidence (novel studied during the year)?

Would you recommend ending the conclusion of a text response with a quote in the format of, "(Author) confronts readers with the underlying message that (theme that can be applied to the real world) as stated by (character), (quote)"?
« Last Edit: October 08, 2014, 04:41:33 pm by Valyria »
2014 ATAR: [99.20]
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magneto

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #542 on: October 08, 2014, 04:34:44 pm »
0
hey lauren,
i know this probably sounds like a really stupid question: but...
what are the pros of having a plan b?
im trying to write an inspirational piece for the younger year levels at my school :)

katiesaliba

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #543 on: October 08, 2014, 08:06:46 pm »
0
Hey Lauren,

What advice do you give for writing practice context pieces? Should I be writing them under timed conditions even if my ideas aren't completely developed as of yet? Or, should I practise dissecting prompts and formulating ideas prior to writing under timed conditions? I struggle most with my ideas for context :\

Thanks!
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literally lauren

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #544 on: October 08, 2014, 09:00:37 pm »
+6
Cort,
It's by no means too late to try and fix these problems; in fact it's not until this stage of the year, once you're through learning all the content, that a lot of people finally get the change to fine-tune their approach. I'd say as a starting point, if you're making a claim in your abstract discussion, let's say, 'Conflict isn't always obvious to us, sometimes it's hidden under the surface and manifests itself in the form of unspoken tension or reticence.' Your first step should be to ask yourself 'how do I know?' Eventually this should force you into coming up with some sort of evidence-based justification, ie. 'well, you can see this sort of tension when a relationship deteriorates; the couple hit that point where they realise they have little to say to one another, and from there a chasm begins to form between them, gradually being filled up with all the little 'niggles' they have about one another, but never quite boiling over onto the surface. Such was the case on the most recent season of The Bachelor in which a love that was meant to last forever between the contestant and the 'winner' only ended up lasting mere weeks.' An interesting article by the Guardian discussed this in relation to our current reality TV landscapes.
No matter how silly or mundane you think your evidence might be, there's always a way to link it in. Keep questioning yourself, and you should be able to come up with some options.
Alternatively you could go about this from the opposite end and just look through random wikipedia/news articles until something piques your interest. Start with your set text and work out; the context books and films were chosen because of their relation to bigger ideas, so see if you can use them to propel you into other territory.

Bestie:
Study score predictions really aren't my forte; there's a thread for that. It's so dependent on rankings anyway, and you can always perform better in the exam than you do on practice pieces. I'm really not even comfortable predicting because I have very little understanding of the system, and I wouldn't want to shatter your self-esteem, or give you a false sense of security.
If you're asking what I got score-wise, I couldn't tell you. Our school was notoriously secretive, we only ever got rough bandwidths (eg. Very High, High, Medium etc.) If you're asking study-wise what it took, I put all thoughts of numerical scores out of my head and concentrated on what I knew I had control over :)

Random_Acts_of_Kindness:
Why thank you, kind ma'am; glad to be of use. Best of luck for your exams :)

Valyria:
Vocab is a good place to start; are you not discussing other tones because they're not there, or because you don't have the language to deal with them? Because for most texts (certainly the VCAA/Practice Papers) there will definitely be some key tones to analyse. The vocab sheet on the first page on this thread has a tone sheet attached if you need a place to start. It becomes a lot easier to deal with tonal shifts when you can recognise and categorise more than one :p
Yes, you can deal with how this influences the readers too, but don't overdo it. Likewise with the above post regarding how often to mention tone, you don't want to underdo it and not receive credit, but you also don't want to be cramming adverbs like 'emphatically' and 'aggressively' into every second sentence. Make the occasional passing reference,  then maybe analyse it once or twice if there's a major emphasis or a clearly provocative shift.

magneto:
As in... having a plan b for not getting the SS/ATAR you want? I suppose you could say something about how some things are just out of your control, and you don't want to have all your eggs in one basket, so to speak, only to be left with a sub-par score, for whatever reason, and have nowhere to go. Having a backup plan isn't defeatist, it's just pragmatic forward planning.
I assume that's what you're talking about, correct me if I'm wrong?

katiesaliba:
A little of both. If you are writing times pieces, there's no sense just stopping when you get to one hour, so continue writing and just use a different colour, or mark the place on the page that you're going overtime for. That should help you work out where you need to cut down (eg. 30 minutes spend on body paragraph 2, so not enough time for a conclusion --> start making that shorter, or break it in two.)
On the other hand, and this is quite unique to context, often practice paragraphs are sufficient. If you're trialing new ideas and examples, implementing them should only take a paragraph or two, so perhaps try some untimed versions and then see if you can reapply/rework those them into a different prompt under time later.
Also, try and be specific with your self-criticism. 'Struggling with ideas' doesn't really help you much; do you find it tricky to think of points to discuss, or arguments that you can base around these? Or is it a problem with using examples and evidence? Or is it a general problem with articulation - 'knowing what to say but not how to say it'? It's great that you're evaluating your capabilities and weaknesses, but the more closely you target the latter, the easier it will be to fix your mistakes :)

Jason12

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #545 on: October 08, 2014, 10:21:03 pm »
0
Do you have any tips on how to meet the 9-10 range VCAA criteria? My teacher says to try looking for language that not many other people would mention. Is that it? My vocabulary and sentence flow is supposed to be good but I tend to focus on language that most people would mention. However, If I don't include them will I be missing out on the main/important parts of the article and end up being too specific?

  • Shows a perceptive and sophisticated understanding of a range of ways in which the written and
    visual language positions readers in the context presented.
  • Develops a cogent, controlled and well-substantiated analysis using precise and effective language
    and expression.

« Last Edit: October 08, 2014, 10:24:48 pm by Jason12 »
2014 ATAR - 88

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knightrider

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #546 on: October 09, 2014, 12:07:56 am »
0
How do you reckon we should be writing essays

When it gets around exam time Lauren were you hand writing your essays or typing them up.
Which one do you think you should be doing?
How did you find the balance and were you mainly typing or handwriting.
Also did you time your self when you wrote essays before your sacs.
When did you begin to start timing yourself during the year.
What ways do you think is the best ways in which to utilize your teachers

literally lauren

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #547 on: October 09, 2014, 10:08:11 am »
+5
Jason12:
Ah yes, VCAA criteria... let's see...
  • Shows a perceptive and sophisticated understanding of a range of ways in which the written and
    visual language positions readers in the context presented.
This is code for 'has understood the task and done what you're supposed to do  properly.' The 'range of ways' emphasises the importance of breadth in analysis, but 'perceptive and sophisticated' discussion can only happen when you allow yourself enough depth, so balance is important. I'd say try and go outside the boundaries if you're only dealing with 'safe' language, or the most obvious techniques. Whilst esoteric stuff isn't enough to earn you marks on its own, it can be enough to bump you up higher if you're doing everything else well. And although the assessors are reading hundreds of essays all based on the same material, if you look hard enough, chances are you'll find something that few other people have considered. Don't stress if this doesn't happen immediately, but try and look at things from another perspective in order to secure a higher mark.
  • Develops a cogent, controlled and well-substantiated analysis using precise and effective language
    and expression.
Translation: 'student can do English good.' This is as much about metalanguage as it is about general sentence expression. If anything, probably more the latter; vocab enhances a piece, but syntax is the bread-and-butter. If your sentences are messy and unworkable then you won't be able to get credit for whatever analysis you've done. If you're only making small mistakes here and there, it's not a big deal and the assessors are quite forgiving of your writing quality under test-conditions, but you don't want to risk annoying them, so keep an eye out for your common pitfalls (eg. run-on sentences, wrong conjunctions, etc.)
Rather than aiming for VCAA's criteria, I'd recommend working out what, specifically, you're doing wrong at the moment. It'll be way easier to work out how to improve, and you'll probably notice your marks rising once you start fine tuning your approach.



knightrider:
At this point, handwritten ones are probably best. I can understand the appeal of typing, but if you're worried about time in the exam, you should definitely get used to how it feels writing for three hours, because it can take its toll on your hand.
I was handwriting essays all year and only ever typed up a couple I had to send to my teacher over the holidays, but that's mainly because I'm a messy typist than for any tactical reason :p
Not all of my pieces were timed though. I had a job in year 12 and was usually working from 4-9 or later, so I had to squeeze in study in all the in between hours. Most pieces were one's I'd start brainstorming on the bus/train in the morning, write the bulk of during study periods at school, and then finalise after work before bed. Everyone's different though; I knew people who would have to just sit down and block out the world for one or two hours in order to get through practice pieces. Find what works best for you, but I would recommend handwriting at this stage of the year to get used to the conditions.

Time-wise, it probably wasn't until late Term 4, just before SWOT-VAC that I felt comfortable writing an essay in under an hour. I'd done it before, but was never happy with the quality, so I worried more about the content right up until the exam. Again, everyone's different though, and I know what some people struggle with is physically writing that many words in that short a time period, so depending on your weaknesses it might be worth starting to time yourself now for the sake of getting comfortable.
What ways do you think is the best ways in which to utilize your teachers
Getting feedback will be your primary concern, though this will depend on the quality of your teacher's marking. Some just give you a score and some brief comments, others highlight your essay extensively looking for anything you can fix. Either way, there is definitely something to be learned from someone else reading your work.
Beyond that, teachers can also be great soundboards for your ideas and interpretations, though most will have at least 30 students to deal with, so don't take up too much of their time :) Just organising a time to sit down with your teacher and discuss certain characters in your Section A text, or going through a context prompt and discussing the different ideas you might use can be very beneficial.
Of course I'm aware that not all teachers are open to this, and in some instances you want to take what they say with a grain of salt, since everyone has their biases. In general though, teachers can be great study tools if they're willing to help. If not, you can always use your peers (and/or AN) to help clarify this sort of stuff :)


DJA

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #548 on: October 09, 2014, 07:39:33 pm »
+1
What is the best way to prepare for the context part of the exam? For conflict?

Other than having a bank of good textual moments to draw upon?
2014 - English (50, Premier's Award)| Music Performance (50, Premier's Award) | Literature (46~47) | Biology (47) | Chemistry (41) |  MUEP Chemistry (+4.5)  ATAR: 99.70

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brenden

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #549 on: October 09, 2014, 07:43:43 pm »
+1
What is the best way to prepare for the context part of the exam? For conflict?

Other than having a bank of good textual moments to draw upon?
Philosophyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Historrrryyyyyyyyyy. (For anyone whose interested - could be relevant to Identity and Belonging or Conflict - think of the way that Australian history/culture is actually defined by war/conflict. WW1 directly after Federation, WW2 in our historical young adulthood if not adolescence, the overshadowing of the Cold War/Nuclear threat... You could make a case that concepts of mateship, giving, honesty and all the other good "Aussie" things are a product of conflict... You could also make the opposite case, that we're a bunch of conservative scaredy-cat racists because of our warring history!)
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literally lauren

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #550 on: October 09, 2014, 09:35:08 pm »
+3
What is the best way to prepare for the context part of the exam? For conflict?

Other than having a bank of good textual moments to draw upon?

The strength (and breadth) of your examples is the main thing at this point. Unless you struggle with expression, (which isn't an issue for you) then it's pretty much just a matter of developing the most foolproof repository of evidence to wow your assessors.

Along with philo and history, lit. and sociology offer quite a bit to discuss too. I'm told the assessors are particularly fond of generalisable examples; interdisciplinary stuff that combines an abstract theory, a historical event, a fictional representation, and a contemporary event, for instance.
The amount/depth you go into with these can fluctuate; you could combine anywhere between two and seven within a few sentences or an entire essay.

And as usual, stuff you're interested in will usually be more interesting for an assessor to read. So provided you're discussing things in a sufficiently sophisticated manner, you should be fine :)

Jono_CP

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #551 on: October 09, 2014, 09:51:15 pm »
0
Hi Lauren,

For language analysis, do you recommend going through and possibly rote-learning a few of the intended effects for persuasive techniques which do not actually relate to an actual analysis of an article? Or, is it more centred around the article, in terms of the intended effect for the reader? Can another term be used instead of the 'reader', or is this a commonly accepted convention?

Thanks :)

literally lauren

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #552 on: October 09, 2014, 10:53:17 pm »
+2
For language analysis, do you recommend going through and possibly rote-learning a few of the intended effects for persuasive techniques which do not actually relate to an actual analysis of an article? Or, is it more centred around the article, in terms of the intended effect for the reader? Can another term be used instead of the 'reader', or is this a commonly accepted convention?
You should 'memorise' them in the sense that you should understand what the techniques do, generally. But when it comes to writing the actual analysis, it always pays to be more specific. Sentences like 'The author's use of rhetorical questioning prompts readers to reexamine their own beliefs regarding the issue, and thus be more susceptible to the author's contention' are basically worthless. Spitting out definitions won't earn you much, but commenting on how it affects certain readers is definitely preferable. (Background info is especially important here, don't just reference it in the intro and leave it alone. If it's a presentation to a bunch of scientists at a professional conference as opposed to a collection of housewives at bookclub, how are the techniques going to be different?)

'Audience' is a good alternative to 'readers,' though be careful as VCAA have used speeches in the past, so 'listeners' or 'audience members' was needed there. 'Audience works for most things,' just like 'text' works for books, plays, films, poetry, etc.
The assessors are quite forgiving of repetition in L.A. provided it's not too overblown. They know there's an element of formula application involved, so don't worry if it feels like the word 'readers' comes up again and again. That's probably a good thing.
If you're using it thrice a sentence though, then you might need to get creative with the pronouns and sentence structure :)

yang_dong

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #553 on: October 10, 2014, 11:24:59 am »
0
Hi Lauren,
I'm writing an essay on David Malouf's Ransom: Ransom focuses on the masculine world. There is only a minor role for the feminine. Discuss.
Is it possible to make the assumption that gossiping/chattering (which Somax does... strange how Malouf is using a guy that does the gossiping despite the fact that I'm contending that its something rather girly... is there significance in that?) is a very feminine trait. Becasue it helps Priam to discover his inner ordinary human, suggests that there is an important role for the feminine in the novel?

thank you

brenden

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Re: 50 in English, available for queries :)
« Reply #554 on: October 10, 2014, 12:35:14 pm »
+2
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