English Extension 1 Question Thread

[elysepopplewell]

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Hey!

As you may be familiar with if you have looked through the other English forums, English is my passion. Extension 1 English was my favourite of the English courses. This largely has to do with the fact that I studied: After the Bomb. My prescribed texts were: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Waiting for Godot and Sylvia Plath's poetry.

However! If you didn't study After the Bomb, I'm hoping to still be useful to you. Even if I can't be helpful (never say never), your peers will be. So let's use this thread as a way of asking questions about everything general. Don't hold back if something you want to ask is text related. We are one big ATAR Notes HSC family here, so anything you ask should be answered in a friendly and open environment.

Private message me if you need, but I'd love for you to post openly here so that everyone can see the response.

[tcjae1]

hey there!
im doing After the bomb, and im having trouble with my Waiting for Godot prac essay.

The question is:

On its first staging in 1953, a reviewer of 'Waiting for Godot' wrote 'we were waiting for this play of our time'. To what extent does this statement resonate with your own interpretation of the play? In your response engage with both the text as well as relevant socio-political and ideological standings.

Thanks in advance 

[elysepopplewell]

hey there!
im doing After the bomb, and im having trouble with my Waiting for Godot prac essay.

The question is:

On its first staging in 1953, a reviewer of 'Waiting for Godot' wrote 'we were waiting for this play of our time'. To what extent does this statement resonate with your own interpretation of the play? In your response engage with both the text as well as relevant socio-political and ideological standings.

Thanks in advance 

Hey! Wow this is such an interesting essay question. Your teacher has worded the last part of the question really well, I like it.
So, first of all, the reviewer is making a pun on the play's title. The reviewer is also responding to the fact that like the protagonist's, the viewers of the text were also in a completely paralysed, waiting, state. The Cold War was so much about waiting - waiting for a bomb to drop - waiting for a solution - waiting for a new time. Sounds like Vladimir and Estragon! Also, the politics involved a bit of banter - just like the text in the play! So in those ways - the statement resonates with me understanding of the play! Also, in the play, they say "All of mankind is us." In this way, the play is made universal. Just as the reviewer uses the shared possessive "our," inferring humankind, the protagonists also feel that the condition is shared.

So in there, there is mention of the sociopolitical side of things. The play, in many ways, was a catalyst for recognising the futility of the war by theatre-goers. So that is what the reviewer is recognising as the importance of the piece. Also, remember that this is a satire! It shed such a brutally truthful light on something so, so serious, even life-threatening.

If you want to take another interpretation, you can talk about the rise of nihilism during this time. This means that you espouse the interpretation that either Godot or Pozzo is a deity (whether you pick Pozzo or Godot to be the deity, you will find these two are very different interpretations!).

You could also take on the perspective of this being totally a metanarrative for economic systems. Who is the communist in all of this? Who is the victim of government here? Who is brutalised? Who is let down?

Does this make much sense to you? Post back to be and we can keep teasing out some more ideas!

[bmcclean]

Hey!
I do E1 and E2 and love both, I genuinely really enjoy both courses. I'm good at essay writing, in English Advanced I will usually get 95%-100%. However E1 essays are my downfall! I understand the themes and topics and texts but I just can't seem to get the standard of essay to get those top marks. Do you have any tips for specifically writing E1 essays? How can I practice writing for E1?


Thanks in advance   

[jonkhalil99]

Before you can ask a question, you'll have to make an ATAR Notes account here. Once you've done that, a little 'reply' button will come up when you're viewing threads, and you'll be able to post whatever you want!

Hey!

As you may be familiar with if you have looked through the other English forums, English is my passion. Extension 1 English was my favourite of the English courses. This largely has to do with the fact that I studied: After the Bomb. My prescribed texts were: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Waiting for Godot and Sylvia Plath's poetry.

However! If you didn't study After the Bomb, I'm hoping to still be useful to you. Even if I can't be helpful (never say never), your peers will be. So let's use this thread as a way of asking questions about everything general. Don't hold back if something you want to ask is text related. We are one big ATAR Notes HSC family here, so anything you ask should be answered in a friendly and open environment.

Private message me if you need, but I'd love for you to post openly here so that everyone can see the response.

Hey There!!
I'm doing the After the Bomb Module too, texts being, Waiting For Godot, An Artist of the Floating World and Sylvia Plath's poetry.

I need to hand in an essay by Friday answering the question,
"In After the Bomb, composers not only critique their personal and political values but also manipulate textual forms and features in response to their times. Evaluate this statement with reference to Waiting for Godot and a text of your own choosing."

Firstly, I don't have a related text yet organised and secondly I am not too sure how I should structure my response to this question.
Should I be worried?? 

Will appreciate any kind of help you can provide!
J

[elysepopplewell]

Hey!
I do E1 and E2 and love both, I genuinely really enjoy both courses. I'm good at essay writing, in English Advanced I will usually get 95%-100%. However E1 essays are my downfall! I understand the themes and topics and texts but I just can't seem to get the standard of essay to get those top marks. Do you have any tips for specifically writing E1 essays? How can I practice writing for E1?


Thanks in advance 

Hey! I'm thrilled to hear about your passion for English. Your scores in Advanced are awesome! Keep that up. In saying this, I see why you don't find it as easy in Extension 1. My experience was that I found it easier to write for Advanced, even though the course was more demanding (because you move between modules, in Ext 1 you stick to the one!).

Okay! First of all, have you tried to write an integrated essay? It's common in Advanced essays that paragraphs (with two texts) are structured like this:
Intro
Para 1 - thesis 1 and text 1
Para 2 - thesis 1 and text 2
Para 3 - thesis 2 and text 1
Para 4 - thesis 2 and text 2
Conclusion.

In Extension, the markers want you to take a standard structure and totally manipulate it to show a wonderful way with words. That's why you do Extension 1: You are better than just "good" with words. So I recommend that in Extension 1 - you start working with integrated paragraphs. You'll hear from some people that Extension markers only give the top marks to integrated paragraphs - I don't think this is true. Nothing in any criteria says this is true. However, the criteria does imply that you need to write more than a standard stock essay. You need to take big ideas, and really thread them through your texts - it needs to be seamless. So my number 1 tip for you is to play around with integrated essays - if you haven't already. Have you? Let me know. It is something I toyed with all year but I couldn't master it. Then after trials I thought "my essay is missing something...that missing something is a killer structure." So I scratched everything, started fresh, and wrote a very dense and complicated integrated essay - and I'm so proud of it haha. For some people, writing in an integrated manner is easy. I mean, orally, when comparing two texts, you flick back between texts without thinking. You just need to put that into written form.


Now, as for preparing...
This is sooooo hard! I'm sorry to say it. The reason being that, in Advanced, you can have a crack at predicting questions and be fairly close to the mark. Each year, the Extension 1 HSC exam is so different from the year before. It's difficult to pick - but look at the patterns. When you have an essay that you love - you need to prepare for exams by applying it to each past question available to you. Ask your teacher for the past half yearly papers and the past trial papers too. Use everything at your disposal.

I suggest that you prepare an essay...and more. By this I mean, you need to have an essay that you are proud of and love working with. It should be flexible but strong, it should have a thesis statement that you love, etc. But also, have a set of notes at home with other ways of viewing the text. Have prepared textual evidence that isn't in your essay, have perspectives stored in your mind (applying different paradigms for example, so in After the Bomb you could look at something from the perspective of a male or female, then look at a text from the view of a socialist, then a capitalist, so on and so on). This way, although you specialise in your essay, you have some extra knowledge that you can draw on if you are ever caught in a tricky situation because the Extension 1 essays can seem so wild. Usually, your in school assessments will be preparing you for your general understanding of the text rather than for the exams. So use this as an opportunity to make your textual understanding perfect, and then throughout the year, apply this knowledge to different questions, different essay styles, different perspectives, etc.

My last tip for you bmcclean, is to think "what are the markers expecting of me that differentiates me from an advanced student to an extension student? What differentiates this essay from an advanced essay?" The idea is, in extension you talk about metanarratives, critical perspectives, you read scholarly articles, there's no flimsy concept based stuff (*cough* Area of study *cough*). This is dense, textual analysis at the highest level that you can turn out.

Does this give you a bit more direction? Talk to me about it, let me know! If this has given you more questions - ask them too! Thanks for posting

[elysepopplewell]

Hey There!!
I'm doing the After the Bomb Module too, texts being, Waiting For Godot, An Artist of the Floating World and Sylvia Plath's poetry.

I need to hand in an essay by Friday answering the question,
"In After the Bomb, composers not only critique their personal and political values but also manipulate textual forms and features in response to their times. Evaluate this statement with reference to Waiting for Godot and a text of your own choosing."

Firstly, I don't have a related text yet organised and secondly I am not too sure how I should structure my response to this question.
Should I be worried?? 

Will appreciate any kind of help you can provide!
J

I love that you signed off with "J." That is so After the Bomb in tone haha. I love it!

Okay, should you be worried? No! Unless worrying makes you inspired to not procrastinate, in which case, yes worry! But you are so early on in the piece - no matter how crappy the essay you turn in is, you will get enough feedback to give you direction to accelerate you into the next assessment. However, you obviously want to produce work at your best level so that you receive feedback to that level.

Now, your essay question is awesome, It's so broad and it's perfect for you at this stage because you're gathering your thoughts on each text for the first time in essay form.

So, you're structure. Start with an introduction. Introduce some non-text specific ideas first - show that you know the era. This is how I started my essay (Note: This was the last ever extension 1 essay I composed, my first essay introductions looked nothing like this haha - but I'm showing you to give you an idea of how you eventually should structure your essay.)

As a response to the shift in global consciousness that occurred in the wake of the second worldwide war, composers of the after the bomb era grappled with evocative ideas. Conservative morals of political compliance, gender roles and obedience to an omniscient God that characterised common ways of thinking before the atomic bomb are challenged by the texts of the post bomb era. Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot and Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove reflect incredulity towards conservative ways of thinking and the perceived truths. Similarly, Sylvia Plath’s poetic anthology Ariel and the 1959 Kitchen Debate between Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev represent opposing discourses of social importance. By drawing on common perceptions and social dichotomies, composers seek to challenge ways of thinking.

So open your introduction with non-text specific stuff. Flesh out the ways of thinking in the next sentence, then introduce your texts. Once you have an awesome introduction, you will have direction for the rest of the essay.

For your ORT? Have a look at these:

Picture book - The Wall: Growing up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis.
Film - The Lives of Others (such an intense movie, you'll be on the edge of your seat)
The Kitchen Debate between Khruschev and Nixon.
Propaganda Film - Duck and Cover
Graphic Novel - When the Wind Blows
Film - Dr Strangelove

I ended up using Dr Strangelove for my Waiting for Godot ORT. It's a very distorted, black comedy film (that I wouldn't watch for its comedic value because it's not my thing, but it's awesome for ATB in terms of new structures, satire, politics, personal). But any of the above are great. The Kitchen Debate works best with Plath's poetry.

Just take it easy, even if you sit down today and only write a killer introduction and a full essay plan - just do a paragraph each night for the week (ideally, more, so you can spend the last days editing) and you'll get through it. When you break it down like that it no longer seems to be something to worry about, does it? Just make a plan and stick to it. This is a great opportunity for feedback and experimentation. Use that to your advantage!

[bmcclean]

Yes! Super helpful answer. I have tried a little bit to work with integrated answers but haven't focussed on that particularly, I will now. Thanks, Brianna.

[elysepopplewell]

Yes! Super helpful answer. I have tried a little bit to work with integrated answers but haven't focussed on that particularly, I will now. Thanks, Brianna.

It's definitely a skill that needs to be worked on over time!

[jonkhalil99]

I love that you signed off with "J." That is so After the Bomb in tone haha. I love it!

Okay, should you be worried? No! Unless worrying makes you inspired to not procrastinate, in which case, yes worry! But you are so early on in the piece - no matter how crappy the essay you turn in is, you will get enough feedback to give you direction to accelerate you into the next assessment. However, you obviously want to produce work at your best level so that you receive feedback to that level.

Now, your essay question is awesome, It's so broad and it's perfect for you at this stage because you're gathering your thoughts on each text for the first time in essay form.

So, you're structure. Start with an introduction. Introduce some non-text specific ideas first - show that you know the era. This is how I started my essay (Note: This was the last ever extension 1 essay I composed, my first essay introductions looked nothing like this haha - but I'm showing you to give you an idea of how you eventually should structure your essay.)

As a response to the shift in global consciousness that occurred in the wake of the second worldwide war, composers of the after the bomb era grappled with evocative ideas. Conservative morals of political compliance, gender roles and obedience to an omniscient God that characterised common ways of thinking before the atomic bomb are challenged by the texts of the post bomb era. Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot and Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove reflect incredulity towards conservative ways of thinking and the perceived truths. Similarly, Sylvia Plath’s poetic anthology Ariel and the 1959 Kitchen Debate between Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev represent opposing discourses of social importance. By drawing on common perceptions and social dichotomies, composers seek to challenge ways of thinking.

So open your introduction with non-text specific stuff. Flesh out the ways of thinking in the next sentence, then introduce your texts. Once you have an awesome introduction, you will have direction for the rest of the essay.

For your ORT? Have a look at these:

Picture book - The Wall: Growing up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis.
Film - The Lives of Others (such an intense movie, you'll be on the edge of your seat)
The Kitchen Debate between Khruschev and Nixon.
Propaganda Film - Duck and Cover
Graphic Novel - When the Wind Blows
Film - Dr Strangelove

I ended up using Dr Strangelove for my Waiting for Godot ORT. It's a very distorted, black comedy film (that I wouldn't watch for its comedic value because it's not my thing, but it's awesome for ATB in terms of new structures, satire, politics, personal). But any of the above are great. The Kitchen Debate works best with Plath's poetry.

Just take it easy, even if you sit down today and only write a killer introduction and a full essay plan - just do a paragraph each night for the week (ideally, more, so you can spend the last days editing) and you'll get through it. When you break it down like that it no longer seems to be something to worry about, does it? Just make a plan and stick to it. This is a great opportunity for feedback and experimentation. Use that to your advantage!

Haha thanks!! Thank you sooooo much for the very speedy and helpful response!! This is honestly so awesome!

[tcjae1]

Thank you so much! This is a great starter for my essay!

[elysepopplewell]

Thank you so much! This is a great starter for my essay!

I'm glad - post back any time!

[sophiek_]

Hi!
I'm doing ATB too and the same prescribed texts as you did.
I have to give a presentation on the topic Fear, Espionage, Propaganda and Rebels: How the World Faced the Cold War Era.
I decided to focus my presentation around how the social and political reactions to the cold war produced fear and prompted the start of a culture of Espionage, Propaganda and Rebels.
 I'm using Plaths poetry but I've found it difficult to analyse and find aspects of the social and political reactions to the bomb in it. I was wondering if you have any advice on how to approach Plath in this context and more generally.
I also noticed that you used it in conjunction to the Kitchen Debate, which I'm also doing as an ORT, and I was wondering how you compared and contrasted these two texts and how you got them to work together?
Thank you 

[elysepopplewell]

Hi!
I'm doing ATB too and the same prescribed texts as you did.
I have to give a presentation on the topic Fear, Espionage, Propaganda and Rebels: How the World Faced the Cold War Era.
I decided to focus my presentation around how the social and political reactions to the cold war produced fear and prompted the start of a culture of Espionage, Propaganda and Rebels.
 I'm using Plaths poetry but I've found it difficult to analyse and find aspects of the social and political reactions to the bomb in it. I was wondering if you have any advice on how to approach Plath in this context and more generally.
I also noticed that you used it in conjunction to the Kitchen Debate, which I'm also doing as an ORT, and I was wondering how you compared and contrasted these two texts and how you got them to work together?
Thank you 

Hi Sophie!

Have you had a look at my extension essay? It is downloadable in the "free notes" section of the website. The Kitchen Debate and Plath's poetry was a lot of fun to analyse, I must say. The essay should show you my exact links (if you can't find the essay, message back and I'll link it to you). Because you have several of Plath's poems to choose from, I could choose little snippets from whichever ones suited me to suit the Kitchen Debate. So, I talked about capitalism. Obviously this is a big theme in the Kitchen Debate, but particularly in the Applicant too. So that was a great link to make there. That was probably my largest link. There was definitely a female perspective in the essay because that is what Plath's personas present. I talked about Morning Song and about Fever 103 (which is a difficult poem, so I just took the bits that were most relevant to me). So I essentially espoused a female perspective, and talked about the way capitalism has an enormous impact on a female's experience in the ATB era, and how the ways of thinking from the top of the political spectrum filtered down into a female's personal life.

In Plath's poetry, you really need to dig deep into the connections between political and the personal (adapt the personal to be social as well - they are very very deeply linked). So, the male-dominated politics of the time was very strong in sending a message that women were housewives (The Kitchen Debate says this explicitly). That role was forced upon them from a high level, which is why Plath feels the need to burn the sources of oppression at the beginning of Fever 103 to move from an "aguey" hell state to paradise. In terms of the housewife idea again, Morning Song is perfect for describing how removed Plath felt from the stereotype that was so oppressive. She couldn't sit comfortably in the image of a mother and housewife because it was so structured to perfection in a social manner, that the hardship of it was so covered. Plath uses the titular homophone morning/mourning here too.

So think of Plath as the bottom of the spectrum here.
It goes like this in my head:
Men in politics who feel superior.
Men in society who are still being affected by politics, but are still above women.
Women who are to serve the men (this is super prevalent in The Applicant).
Plath - here place in the hierarchy is difficult. You could say she is more oppressed than other women because she mentally is oppressed by the stereotypes, whereas other women are complacent (not all - of course - but in general at the time).

If you want to take a race perspective, you change the hierarchy again. But on a gendered perspective, this is how I saw it. So everything that happens in politics filters down. My FAVOURITE part of the ATB era was the domestic response. There was a magazine published in 1959 - Life magazine - that featured a couple who spent their honeymoon in a fallout shelter. It's so kitsch, I love it. The Cold War meant that the political situation filtered down into domestic lives, and people were told that the greatest strength against the dangers of the War was family stability. So everything was geared towards the home - which is why Plath's position is so fascinating because she defied all of this in her poetry because she refused to accept this pawn-like state.


Let me know if you need any more fleshing out!

[Chemystery]

Hii there!
At the moment I'm about half way through the Prelim course and need to do a comparative essay about the values within Beowulf (the  Seamus Heaney translation) and the two adapted texts of Gareth Hind's graphic novel and Robert Zemeckis' film. Not sure if you've done these texts, but any help on how to set up this extended response will be greatly appreciated!

Module: Texts, values and culture
"Gareth Hind's graphic novel 'Beowulf' and Zemeckis' 2007 film 'Beowulf' effectively engage a modern audience while retaining the cultural values and themes of the original text, the Old English poem 'Beowulf'.

Discuss with particular reference to the three battle scenes and use evidence from the text to support your answer."

Thank you!