Hi Lauren,
I find myself not so much "creative" in Context and really lack of ideas. Can you give me some tips on how to improve this throughout the year? My context is Encountering conflict btw.
Thanks heaps Lauren
Sure!
Context can be the trickiest of the three tasks for a variety of reasons. Chief among which: sample essays won't really help. In Language Analysis you're expected to cover the same thing, it's just a mater of how well you structure/express it. In Text Response, though you might have different texts, the way you analyse and approach the prompts are the same. But for context, two completely different pieces could be given full marks. For this reason it's also hard to get right; it's inherently subjective. This is particularly bad for students attempting creative writing - I once got a feedback sheet from a chief assessor that said 'This is too risky, you might be given a 6/10 and that is an insult to you. Don't do this in the exam!!!' <-- lesson learned: you don't get any points for writing well unless your ideas are relevant and plausible.
You don't need to write creatively in Context, but you do need to be creative. Your writing can be purely expository, though that might be a little dry. I'd recommend hybrid essays (ie. either weave in some creative elements, like in the intro or conclusion, or try to make it persuasive so that your voice becomes stronger.) This skill can be developed throughout the year, try to work out where your strengths are in terms of writing styles. If you want to post something up here I'd be happy to help, otherwise your teacher might be able to assist you.
Re: lacking ideas. Okay, my advice to a friend was to write about anything. (for practice papers) She loved surreal art, so I suggested researching Salvador Dali's life and incorporating the conflicts he experienced into a response to the prompt. (yeah we did conflict too, and I never want to hear that word again but oh well) This is best done around late term 2/term 3, once you've grasped the basics of context's requirements, and come to terms with the texts you're studying. Find whatever interests you (movies, politics, history, literature, current events, people) and start developing a bank of examples you can use. eg. If our conflict essays dealt with the idea of power, then I'd link it to the leadership challenge in Australian politics, and how this compares with parliaments around the world, even the Arab Spring if I had enough time. Worst case scenario, just go back to the texts. Take the voice of a character or a narrator exploring their predicament. eg. I wrote one from the POV of Daisy from Paradise Road as she was composing her poetry. As she was choosing her words, I'd give voice to her inner monologue, contemplating the hardships the women had faced, and their resilient hope etc. etc.
I wrote in an earlier post the challenge for context lies in finding examples or points of discussion that few others would use. That's not to say the quality of your ideas/writing doesn't matter, but all that is acquired learning.
Assessors like reading about interesting things. It breaks up the monotony of: 'Conflict occurs often in human history. This can be seen in WW2 when Hitler does this and then in Australia asylum seekers do that...' There's nothing intrinsically wrong with these examples, but you need to employ them in a creative manner.
Boring them is the worst thing you can do.For Conflict in particular I'd recommend the news as a vital source of essay fodder. We were given handouts on everything from the War in Syria to the Evolution "debate." There really is no shortage of potential discussion here,
everything ties into conflict somehow. We turned it into a game, my friends would say 'coffee' and I'd say 'the debate between fair trade beans and regular, and the way the western world prioritises price over working conditions for our fellow man.' Yeah, we were the cool kids.
Read the paper every morning if you can, or have a little news feed tab open to skim through in your spare time (this will help for L.A. and vocab building anyway) and start accumulating ideas now so that you'll have a wealth of concepts to draw from in the exam. Breadth and depth, say that like a chant in your head. Cover as much as you can, since you're meant to be commenting on universal truths here, but don't forget to explore your examples rather than just cramming them in. Breadth and depth, breadth and depth...