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cosine

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #135 on: February 25, 2015, 05:33:52 pm »
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Bangla_lok

Thank you heaps. I know i have time to perfect myself, but my sac is next week and thinking that a week before the sac, that i cannot even write a single sentence about the book is destroying me. You see, why can't i write? Oh... :(
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heids

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #136 on: February 25, 2015, 05:49:01 pm »
+3
Thank you heaps. I know i have time to perfect myself, but my sac is next week and thinking that a week before the sac, that i cannot even write a single sentence about the book is destroying me. You see, why can't i write? Oh... :(

I just want to promise that I had EXACTLY the same issues (embarrassing admission - I even broke down and cried in my first essay SAC....).  When trying to write essays, I would get to the middle of say my first body para, and then just get stuck.  I would alternately cajole, yell, cry, tell myself it didn't matter, and bite my pen (or my hand :( ) really really hard.  It didn't work.  I just couldn't write another word.  And yet every other subject I found so easy!

Take comfort; two weeks before my last SAC (50% of unit 4) I couldn't write an essay.  Had I tried the SAC that week, I would have got a 0, I am absolutely certain; I would have just broken down and not written a sentence (I had done that in my final year 11 exam :'( ).  I finally said to Mum - 'If this goes on, I will fail English.  Can you MAKE me sit there until I have written an essay?'  So, she did.  I took 4 hours on that essay - crying and pleading her so hard to let me off - but it was finally finished.  We repeated it every day; in my one-hour unseen SAC, I got 80%. 

In fact despite all my SAC average was 85%, 2nd in weak cohort.  For me, it worked out (somehow) though mainly because I got lovely examiners :P

All the best!  I wish I could convey how absolutely terrified and stuck I was with English - but words are simply inadequate.  Confess it openly to your teacher/parents/friends/anyone who can help, and just write.  Something, anything, no matter how rubbishy it is, no matter HOW long it takes.  Don't stress at the start if you keep repeating the same vocab and your sentences sound clunky. And dot-points really really do help get up a bit of confidence.  You will master yourself!

P.S. Such melodrama! :P
« Last Edit: February 25, 2015, 05:58:46 pm by bangla_lok »
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literally lauren

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #137 on: February 25, 2015, 05:51:37 pm »
+2
Lauren, i need your help urgently.

I know the book, i know the prompt, i know the arguments, i know the quotes. However, i dont know how to put them into words. I sit here for hours, literally, whilst the ideas pop up in my head, but I CANT get them to paper, i just cannot find the appropiate words to sentence these ideas of mine :(

Alrighty, that was good timing :P So unlike the above, this is a 'I know what to say but not how to say it' case.

For starters, are you able to communicate things on a very basic level? ie. using very simplistic language and basic sentence structure? I'm assuming since you have some idea of the arguments that this is possible, so next: could you communicate this verbally? Some people find it easier to convey concepts by speaking than they would writing it all out, and it means you don't have to worry about formal essay structures or anything. If you find yourself stumbling here, then it probably is an issue with your understanding of the content. Revisiting some study guides or sample analyses/essays will probably help you sort your approach out.

Alternatively, it might be an issue with the vocab you have at your disposal. If you find yourself struggling to think of synonyms to reword your thoughts, or otherwise unable to articulate your interpretations and ideas, you'll need to build up the language to do so. Start with the most basic form of expression (eg. character X does very bad things, which makes the audience feel like they don't like the character) and then, use every English student's best friend: thesaurus.com to explore synonyms of 'bad.' Don't treat this as a test, or a very quick, once-off exercise. When the thesaurus spits back a nice word that you think fits, look it up in dictionary.com; explore synonyms of that word; think about hoe using another word would change the meaning of the sentence (eg. character X does malicious things vs. character X does repulsive things - these don't mean the same thing.)

Do this more and more, and you'll find the same words keep cropping up over and over again. These are the kinds of words you want to be keeping track of in a workbook or notepad, and as you accumulate more synonyms, start interchanging basic words for sophisticated ones. But the only way to improve your confidence with these words is to find, document, remember, and practice implementing them. It can be a long process, but it's worth it in the long run, and the sooner you get started, the better.

Finally, if you're having issues with the actual essay writing part, then an extensive plan is probably your best bet. The process bangla_lok has outlined is excellent; start small and work up to big arguments.

Don't panic about not being able to just churn out 1000 words of magnificent prose just yet; you're only at the start of your studies, and you'll have to do a whole lot of fine-tuning and exploration throughout the year. The students who are able to write an essay with no hesitation or qualms are probably doing something wrong; you''re meant to have these troubles nice and early so you learn how to combat them before it's too late!

...that was a bit melodramatic... I meant before you get to a SAC or exam and don't have the resources to ask questions, or the time to contemplate your approach :) It's never really too late until ~30th of November or whenever the exam is this year.


edit: if it's of any comfort, you might not be the type of learner who benefits from churning out essays as a means of practicing. I would rarely even start writing pieces until a week before my SACs at the earliest, because I simply needed more time for my conceptual understanding to ferment and develop. In the meantime, I'd read heaps of analyses and other people's essays until I was completely familiar with the task and what I needed to do to get it right. But if I were to try writing an essay only a few weeks into studying the text, I'd either hit a total mental roadblock like you, or I'd just descend into mega-simplistic evaluations or summaries that wouldn't showcase my abilities, or help me learn.
By contrast, I had friends who would do nothing but write essays for English, no matter how mediocre they turned out, because for the sake of their marks, they found it more helpful to just get their brains in a writing mood, and worry about the content later.

It's best to work out where you fit on this spectrum and tackle your study from there :)
« Last Edit: February 25, 2015, 05:56:57 pm by literally lauren »

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #138 on: February 25, 2015, 06:03:32 pm »
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Lauren, i need your help urgently.

I know the book, i know the prompt, i know the arguments, i know the quotes. However, i dont know how to put them into words. I sit here for hours, literally, whilst the ideas pop up in my head, but I CANT get them to paper, i just cannot find the appropiate words to sentence these ideas of mine :(
I am having a very similar problem like you. I started writing an essay at 3 and now it's 6 and I still haven't finished my essay (expository). I know it's my first time and all but I have a SAC next week and I am kinda blank on how I am going to write a full essay in like an hour. What do I do?
Oh my god
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literally lauren

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #139 on: February 25, 2015, 06:11:10 pm »
+2
I am having a very similar problem like you. I started writing an essay at 3 and now it's 6 and I still haven't finished my essay (expository). I know it's my first time and all but I have a SAC next week and I am kinda blank on how I am going to write a full essay in like an hour. What do I do?
Oh my god

You have eight months to cut down on timing, don't worry about it now!

It's way easier to go from writing a good, sophisticated essay in three hours to a good essay in one hour, than it is to go from writing a mediocre essay in one hour to a good essay in one hour. Does that make sense?

Timing is easier to cut down on than sophistication is to build up. Develop your understanding and approach first, and not only will the timing just naturally get closer and closer to the exam constraints, but you'll find that if you're doing the task properly, you'll end up taking roughly the right amount of time anyway.

Also, it's not necessarily one essay per hour. If you know you can write one of the essays quicker (usually Language Analysis for most people, but can be Context as well, if that's your strength,) it'll give you more time to work on other areas. In my case, I knew I was find with L.A. and could write that in under 50 minutes, and I also knew there was no way I was ever going to write a Context piece in an hour, because I simply needed more time to think. So I got L.A. out of the way nice and quick, giving me over 10 minutes to plan and execute a good Context piece.

Exam approach is something I'll tackle in more detail later in the year, but at this point, please don't stress yourself out by thinking you should be at an end of year standard already. You wouldn't expect yourself to be able handle any other exam by the end of February; English is no different. You still have content to learn, strategies to develop, and ages to work all this stuff out :)

heids

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #140 on: February 25, 2015, 06:18:02 pm »
+3
I started writing an essay at 3 and now it's 6 and I still haven't finished my essay (expository). I know it's my first time and all but I have a SAC next week and I am kinda blank on how I am going to write a full essay in like an hour. What do I do?

As I said just before, you're not alone :) I and many others like me have struggled exactly like that.

Try identifying what it is that makes you slower; do you:
 - just sit there staring at the page and hating yourself?
 - try a million ways to write a sentence because the vocab/expression isn't good enough?
 - have no clue where your essay is heading?
 - struggle to come up with any evidence/quotes?
 - have no ideas of what to say?

Then ask yourself/others how best to eradicate that issue(s).

Always write a plan first; this way you don't just land up stuck with no clue. 

Remember, though it's really really hard, it's often better to just write.  Writing nothing gets 0; writing something that sounds stupid may get 4-6/10.  Don't try to come up with better words/expression; just write what you've got!

But also essays don't have to be finished (unless you want 10/10) - I think I finished in one SAC only, and only completed one of my pieces in the exam ::)  Look, if you write 3 good paragraphs, the teachers tend to expect you could have continued well :P .

If you get stuck in a paragraph, start the next paragraph on a new page (always remembering to number pages so the teacher doesn't get lost), you can come back later.  A technique I often used when I had NO CLUE what I was going to discuss - write an impressive-sounding sentence in the intro/topic sentence, but then don't write any of the paragraph, since you have no idea.  You can leave multiple paragraphs unfinished, but always ensure you complete one just to show you know how :)

This is of course only if you really struggle with time/getting stuck/ideas... and only for the SAC, not for when you're practising.
« Last Edit: February 25, 2015, 06:19:39 pm by bangla_lok »
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literally lauren

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #141 on: February 25, 2015, 06:26:40 pm »
+6
If you get stuck in a paragraph, start the next paragraph on a new page (always remembering to number pages so the teacher doesn't get lost), you can come back later.  A technique I often used when I had NO CLUE what I was going to discuss - write an impressive-sounding sentence in the intro/topic sentence, but then don't write any of the paragraph, since you have no idea.  You can leave multiple paragraphs unfinished, but always ensure you complete one just to show you know how :)

On a smaller scale, this can also work well if you've having serious expression issues.

In one of my SACs (Text Response, I think...) I was about halfway through paragraph two when I stumbled on a word; one of those tip-of-the-tongue situations, and I ended up wasting close to ten minutes just trying to think of this word.

What I should have done, and what I recommend others do, is to write a simple word in its place. Let's say I was trying to think of the word 'magnanimous' and it just wasn't coming to me: I'd write 'generous' or 'nice' or 'kind-hearted' in its place, and then put an asterisk on the side of the page next to that line. Then continue writing as normal, as it's more important to get the content out. At the end, if you have a few minutes to spare, you can scan through the margins of your piece and look for those asterisked areas. Then you could either look something up in the dictionary in the hopes that there's a synonym listed that will trigger your memory, or just stare into space until an epiphany hits you in the face.

The same should be done if you're a bad speller; rather than crossing out a word half a dozen times or pondering the spelling of a difficult word, get something out, even if it's a synonym or an obviously wrong version of the word you're going for, asterisk the side, and come back to it at the end.

A single misspelled word, or some slightly repetitive vocab isn't going to detract from your mark as much as an entirely missing paragraph could, so focus on content first, and refine little things like spelling and expression later :)

Bit off-topic, but little strategies like this may be of some use to those struggling with timing etc.

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #142 on: February 25, 2015, 08:17:16 pm »
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Thank you so much banga_lok and literary lauren, although im still not confident :(

Can you have a quick read of my introduction, from the play Medea, its a text response:

Euripides’ play, ‘Medea’, explicitly explores the instant repercussions that betrayal and guilt may lead to. The author’s depiction of the justice system is made evident, as the protagonist of the play, Medea, gets away from her barbaric actions unharmed, and guarded by the gods. Throughout the course of the play, both Jason and Medea demonstrate a degree of social injustice, as they both contribute to the corruption that Euripides condemns. However, after the concluding events, Medea’s guilt exceeds that of Jason’s, as she commits the most ‘unholiest of all deeds.’ Despite Jason instigating the conflict between them, Medea took it one-step further and surpassed Jason’s guilt, as her egocentric nature would not tolerate humiliation.
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literally lauren

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #143 on: February 25, 2015, 09:40:06 pm »
+3
Thank you so much banga_lok and literary lauren, although im still not confident :(
That's alright, but turn that lack of confidence into something constructive, rather than allowing it to work to your detriment. In my book, not feeling confident is a better motivation for work that feeling confident; just give yourself some tangible targets to reach and those feelings will become more manageable.

If you're posting essays, please use the Submissions sub-forum instead, but I might start making an exception for practice paragraphs...
Euripides’ play, ‘Medea’, explicitly explores the instant this isn't really true of the text; the repercussions of both Jason and Medea's actions take awhile to come to fruition repercussions that betrayal and guilt may lead to. The author’s depiction of the justice system one of the noteworthy features of Medea is that there is no institutionalised justice system, and that Medea must seek her own (vigilante) justice is made evident, as the protagonist of the play, Medea, gets away from expression is a little weak (but at the very least, I know what you're trying to get across, so don't worry too much.) Something like 'escape the consequences of' might work better here her barbaric actions unharmed, and guarded by the gods. Throughout the course of the play, both Jason and Medea demonstrate a degree of social injustice, as they both contribute to the corruption that Euripides condemns. However, after the concluding events, Medea’s guilt exceeds that of Jason’s, as she commits the most ‘unholiest of all deeds.’ Despite Jason instigating the conflict between them, Medea took it one-step further and surpassed Jason’s guilt, as her egocentric nature would not tolerate humiliation. Everything else up until this sentence is okay, but you want to end your intro on a strong/ contention-driven note, rather than a specific piece of evidence. Since I don't know what prompt you're writing on, I can't really give you an example, but try and round this off so you don't end up repeating arguments (ie. 'Medea exceeds/surpasses Jason's guilt')

I think understanding the Text Response criteria might help put your mind at ease.

The number one thing teachers are looking for is your relevance to the prompt. If you're continually answering and exploring the question, you're on the right track, and you've pretty much already secured yourself a 6 or so. Secondly, they're looking for the quality of your ideas. If your only argument is that Medea did a bad thing by killing her children, therefore her character is worse - you're unlikely to score well in this area. Comparing and contrasting characters is usually a good starting point for adding sophistication (eg. yes, Medea commits multiple murders, but why is Jason's murdering of Medea's hopes less significant? What is Euripides saying about the two characters' actions? Do they cancel out?)
Lastly, you're assessed on your use of language and expression. This won't sway the mark as much as you think; it can definitely be an inhibiting factor for breaking into the A+ range, but if you're communicating solid ideas sufficiently, this criterion isn't really a big deal. Your language has to be fit for purpose; it doesn't have to comprise of stellar "ten-dollar" words that the assessor's never heard of.

Just based on this introduction, it seems like vocab is an issue for you, since you'll either lean on paraphrasing yourself, or using slightly colloquial language to get your point across. BUT YOU ARE GETTING YOUR POINT ACROSS! I can read that intro and have a good sense of your contention, and your main arguments, which is more than I can say for a lot of "high-scoring" responses in the Assessor's Reports that score 8s and 9s. I'm not saying that's how highly you'd score - especially since this is only an intro, and a minor part of the marking scheme, but I'm saying good clarity and sophisticated ideas are more important than sounding sophisticated. Don't beat yourself up about your writing not sounding like it's a profound explication of a classic text. It's a high school essay, and it's barely the start of the year.

Chances are, your teacher will be marking with leniency at this point since you're not expected to have the entirety of Text Response under wraps and ready for the exam right now. And in the even s/he's a strict marker, everyone at your school will be in the same boat, and the marks will be moderated in scaling.

Keep at it, and don't let a lack of confidence stop you from becoming more confident :)

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #144 on: February 25, 2015, 10:06:16 pm »
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Hi Lauren,

I am a little bit stuck on how exactly to generate my ideas and get them down onto paper. Also with the styles, I am really confused as to which direction to take for my context piece (my SAC is in two weeks :l).
How did you generate discussion when you began to write? Would you recommend doing a full expository length piece or should I mix it up with a personal anecdote or example?

I am so stuck and don't really know how to prepare for my SAC!
Any tips?
(My context supporting text is Death of a Salesman for Whose Reality? by the way.)

Thank you so much :)

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #145 on: February 25, 2015, 10:07:58 pm »
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That's alright, but turn that lack of confidence into something constructive, rather than allowing it to work to your detriment. In my book, not feeling confident is a better motivation for work that feeling confident; just give yourself some tangible targets to reach and those feelings will become more manageable.

If you're posting essays, please use the Submissions sub-forum instead, but I might start making an exception for practice paragraphs...
I think understanding the Text Response criteria might help put your mind at ease.

The number one thing teachers are looking for is your relevance to the prompt. If you're continually answering and exploring the question, you're on the right track, and you've pretty much already secured yourself a 6 or so. Secondly, they're looking for the quality of your ideas. If your only argument is that Medea did a bad thing by killing her children, therefore her character is worse - you're unlikely to score well in this area. Comparing and contrasting characters is usually a good starting point for adding sophistication (eg. yes, Medea commits multiple murders, but why is Jason's murdering of Medea's hopes less significant? What is Euripides saying about the two characters' actions? Do they cancel out?)
Lastly, you're assessed on your use of language and expression. This won't sway the mark as much as you think; it can definitely be an inhibiting factor for breaking into the A+ range, but if you're communicating solid ideas sufficiently, this criterion isn't really a big deal. Your language has to be fit for purpose; it doesn't have to comprise of stellar "ten-dollar" words that the assessor's never heard of.

Just based on this introduction, it seems like vocab is an issue for you, since you'll either lean on paraphrasing yourself, or using slightly colloquial language to get your point across. BUT YOU ARE GETTING YOUR POINT ACROSS! I can read that intro and have a good sense of your contention, and your main arguments, which is more than I can say for a lot of "high-scoring" responses in the Assessor's Reports that score 8s and 9s. I'm not saying that's how highly you'd score - especially since this is only an intro, and a minor part of the marking scheme, but I'm saying good clarity and sophisticated ideas are more important than sounding sophisticated. Don't beat yourself up about your writing not sounding like it's a profound explication of a classic text. It's a high school essay, and it's barely the start of the year.

Chances are, your teacher will be marking with leniency at this point since you're not expected to have the entirety of Text Response under wraps and ready for the exam right now. And in the even s/he's a strict marker, everyone at your school will be in the same boat, and the marks will be moderated in scaling.

Keep at it, and don't let a lack of confidence stop you from becoming more confident :)

Thank you so much for that Lauren!

So do you think my language/vocab is a little weak? If so, how can I improve on this?

Thanks once again, i really appreciate the effort you put into this!
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literally lauren

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #146 on: February 25, 2015, 11:32:47 pm »
+2
Hi Lauren,

I am a little bit stuck on how exactly to generate my ideas and get them down onto paper. Also with the styles, I am really confused as to which direction to take for my context piece (my SAC is in two weeks :l).
How did you generate discussion when you began to write? Would you recommend doing a full expository length piece or should I mix it up with a personal anecdote or example?
There's a fair bit of Context-related stuff on the previous page of this thread, and the very first page has a collection of FAQs for each area, so check those out first and see if your questions have already been answered.

How to generate ideas will depend on the style you're writing, and your chosen style will be dependent on your strengths, and your teacher's preferences (though not necessarily in that order :P) There are some explanations in earlier posts, but ultimately, since SACs are internally marked, you want to be catering to your teacher's whims.

I would definitely recommend writing an fully expository piece for practice, but if you want to vary it up with some imaginative paragraphs or creative anecdotal intros, go for it. There are no strict rules for Context aside from what your teacher assigns.

'Preparing' for the SAC is also a matter of preference. Much like the previous few questions, not everyone will find churning out essays to be the most helpful exercise. Reading, discussing, and even simply thinking can be much more useful exercises, and then you can start writing full pieces once you're comfortable.

My usual first response is to get someone to identify their worst-case scenario. What kind of prompts would screw you over completely? What sort of areas would leave you totally lost? Are there any key words in particular that you think you're totally ill-equipped to deal with? (eg. for WR: maybe you could handle anything to do with subjectivity and perception, but anything about truth or clashes of realities would be too hard to deal with.)

After that, you know where to start angling your study so you're not just aimlessly writing on prompts with no real direction.

So do you think my language/vocab is a little weak? If so, how can I improve on this?
Like I said above, start with the words and phrases you know you need to improve upon. For a text like Medea, you know you'll probably be dealing with concepts like vengeance and justice in almost every essay, so it's worth finding some synonyms for these. Brainstorm these (with the help of a thesaurus) and then consciously implement these words in your writing. You'll have to make this a deliberate process at first, but it'll become automatic before too long.  Going through some general 'good word' lists for Year 12 English can't hurt either.

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #147 on: February 26, 2015, 12:38:15 pm »
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Should I categorize examples for my context, eg. subjectivity, memories, illusion/perception and conflicting realities? I find that some of my examples suit illusion-related prompts and not memory-related prompts. I've seen some students manage to mould their examples to suit a range of prompts, but I'm personally more comfortable with examples for specific prompts.
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literally lauren

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #148 on: February 26, 2015, 02:46:18 pm »
+1
Should I categorize examples for my context, eg. subjectivity, memories, illusion/perception and conflicting realities? I find that some of my examples suit illusion-related prompts and not memory-related prompts. I've seen some students manage to mould their examples to suit a range of prompts, but I'm personally more comfortable with examples for specific prompts.

Yes, but be flexible.

Most examples should link to three or four key areas (try and minimise the amount of highly specific ones that only relate to one minor area.) You should also have a few 'generalisable' ones up your sleeve that can be adapted to several vastly different prompts.

It depends what kind of writer you are; you could memorise 20 and then pick five that work on the day, or memorise seven broad ones and tailor the four or five most relevant ones to the prompt.

In fact, the process of grouping them can be a very helpful exercise in and of itself. Rather than just writing
eg. leadership spill --> deception; power; subjectivity
give yourself an opportunity to explore the potential of your examples. It won't just be about linking them in different ways - your essay should be examining the evidence from different perspectives depending on the point you want to make. And whilst there may be a couple of sentences here and there that can be the same, a fair chunk of your discussion will have to be altered each time to suit the prompt.
Whether you want to do this in the form of dot-point/sentences for each example, or a mindmap of connecting arrows linking the ideas together is up to you.

But yes, sorting through examples is definitely worthwhile, and it'll help you work out where the gaps are in your exploration. Don't be too strict with the categories though, and be prepared to add more throughout the year as you uncover more prompts and examples :)

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #149 on: February 26, 2015, 03:06:45 pm »
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can someone help me?
Right now I am doing mainstream English, but I want to do Lit next year. Does it matter if I didn't take unit 1/2 of Lit ? And whats the difference between English and lit?