English Advanced Question Thread

[elysepopplewell]

hey elyse, we don't know much about our listening task beforehand- just that they're going to give us an audio playing that relates somehow to discovery, a bunch of questions relating to the audio playing (some of these will definitely address language and audio techniques), and finally a 10 mark mini extended response relating to discovery, which we'll have to answer using the audio text as a related and also using our prescribed text (which for me is The Motorcycle Diaries)

Sheeeesh, not easy! My listening task wasn't as extensive as this. I'd make it a priority to be ready to write down quotes as they come from the audio. So, pen in hand, ready to write. Do you get to listen to it twice? If so, work out a game plan accordingly. Naturally, brushing up on audio techniques is super important as well. Consider diegetic and non diegetic sounds, tone of voice, volume, and possibly even accent? These spring to mind for me first but obviously not having a clue what this is about, the more you know and are comfortable talking about, the better! As for the last part, knowing the Motorcycle Diaries as best as possible is important! If you're looking for ways other students have analysed MD, have a look at the essay marking forum and scroll through to find a MD essay (there are definitely a few!) so you might see how others have approached it.

If you only get to listen to it once - the initial listen is everything. So work out your plan: writing quotes? Drawing? Scribbling like a crazy person?

[ssarahj]

hey elyse, we don't know much about our listening task beforehand- just that they're going to give us an audio playing that relates somehow to discovery, a bunch of questions relating to the audio playing (some of these will definitely address language and audio techniques), and finally a 10 mark mini extended response relating to discovery, which we'll have to answer using the audio text as a related and also using our prescribed text (which for me is The Motorcycle Diaries)

Sheeeesh, not easy! My listening task wasn't as extensive as this. I'd make it a priority to be ready to write down quotes as they come from the audio. So, pen in hand, ready to write. Do you get to listen to it twice? If so, work out a game plan accordingly. Naturally, brushing up on audio techniques is super important as well. Consider diegetic and non diegetic sounds, tone of voice, volume, and possibly even accent? These spring to mind for me first but obviously not having a clue what this is about, the more you know and are comfortable talking about, the better! As for the last part, knowing the Motorcycle Diaries as best as possible is important! If you're looking for ways other students have analysed MD, have a look at the essay marking forum and scroll through to find a MD essay (there are definitely a few!) so you might see how others have approached it.

If you only get to listen to it once - the initial listen is everything. So work out your plan: writing quotes? Drawing? Scribbling like a crazy person?

I did a listening task incredibly similar to this for Module A so I can definitely understand your stress! Fortunately my teacher set up a practise task in class for us so I already had a bit of an idea what to expect on the actual day. Here's some of my tips:
1. Make sure you read the questions before you hear the audio, then you'll have an idea about what you're supposed to listen for.
You'll most probably get to listen to the audio twice.
2. The first time I would recommend putting your pen down on the desk and just really listening and focusing on what the audio is about/its relation to discovery/any techniques/the big picture stuff you're going to write about in your 10 mark question.
3. The second time is when you have to scribble your heart out and write down any quotes that you'll need for your responses, once you've written the quotes move onto jotting down techniques/key words you don't want to forget.
4. Manage your writing time effectively so that you can leave the 10 mark until last (unless you're super confident) so that you've had some time to build up momentum and get comfortable writing about the often strange audio.

In terms of preparation, like Elyse said, get familiar with audio techniques! Also I practised my listening skills by using 30 second snippets from podcasts and going through steps 2-3 above writing out the "most important" quotes etc. This can be a little hard but it helped me to practise listening to something under pressure and actually comprehending/dissecting it.

Hope this helps 😃 😃

[Wales]

Hey all,

So I've been tasked to plan a creative writing piece over the holidays. I have a previous creative piece for belonging and I feel I can adapt it quite well to Discovery. Of course I will draft a new piece but if I feel like my previous piece was better would I be able to use that for my half yearly? Or would it leave notions of laziness etc. I'm just struggling to find a start, I want to write about something related to music but not sure ):

Thanks, Wales

[elysepopplewell]

Hey all,

So I've been tasked to plan a creative writing piece over the holidays. I have a previous creative piece for belonging and I feel I can adapt it quite well to Discovery. Of course I will draft a new piece but if I feel like my previous piece was better would I be able to use that for my half yearly? Or would it leave notions of laziness etc. I'm just struggling to find a start, I want to write about something related to music but not sure ):

Thanks, Wales

I don't think it appears lazy at all, but rather strategic. If your teacher requests a NEW piece over the holidays, then you have a problem, particularly if they were the teacher that marked your belonging piece. But, if it isn't so much about writing something original and rather just coming up with a discovery creative to get the ball rolling in time for half yearly exams, then I see no issue! Think carefully about discovery though, really put it at the forefront of your writing. It may mean that you need to do some very serious editing to your current piece, it might look entirely different when you've been through with it. If you have a story you like, whether it be the plot, the concepts, the characters, the settings, the language, or all of the aforementioned, then by all means use it again. You wrote it, afterall! It's yours to adapt and change as you please.

If you really want to start a new piece (which may be easier if you're too attached to your current piece to adapt) then start thinking about what you like in other texts, or texts you've created, and take little bits and pieces into a bit of a mind map. You like that music is used as therapy in that film? Great. You like the character from your belonging text? Great. You're fond of the way Dickens describes poverty? Perfect. Add them all together and you have the foundations for the beginning of a story.

Good luck!

[ssarahj]

start thinking about what you like in other texts, or texts you've created, and take little bits and pieces into a bit of a mind map. You like that music is used as therapy in that film? Great. You like the character from your belonging text? Great. You're fond of the way Dickens describes poverty? Perfect. Add them all together and you have the foundations for the beginning of a story.

Can't agree with this technique more, especially for HSC English where its totally fine (and even admired) to mimic and incorporate stuff you've observed from other texts.

Straight away you're showing the marker that you understand that you're not the next J.K Rowling, and therefore you're not going to try and reinvent the short story in 1000 words. So instead you're going to show off how much you've learnt from the HSC English course + your own wide reading. Double thumbs up.

[xenbay]

Hey not too sure if this question has already been asked but is poetry the easiest thing to study as a related text?

[jamonwindeyer]

Hey not too sure if this question has already been asked but is poetry the easiest thing to study as a related text?

Hey hey! Maybe it has, I certainly don't remember all gee!

In my opinion, it is one of the easiest just due to the length of it. Far easier to analyse a poem than a full length novel. But you need to make sure you can get the required depth!

Visual texts and songs are other short forms that are a little easier to analyse too, but again, you have to ensure you get enough quotes/techniques out of it!

[elysepopplewell]

Hey not too sure if this question has already been asked but is poetry the easiest thing to study as a related text?

In my opinion, poems are super beneficial if you study them all year long because they are so densely layered: new meanings always come to light! I wouldn't say they are the easiest, only because I think that although they are short, a quick reading will only get you a very, very basic understanding. A short story, in my opinion, may be easier, simple because although it's length may be longer, there's less compounding of techniques. Alternatively, it could be that there is such a compounding of techniques in poetry that you find it easiest to approach...

In unseen texts, I struggle with poetry the most because of its density. If you're someone who can spot techniques easily, then perhaps poetry is the easiest for you!

[anotherworld2b]

Hi
I was hoping to get help with dealing with this question

1. Celebrities are human after all.
     Present an argument for, and against this statement.

I have no idea how to approach this question or what to write about.
What would be the best thing to do by the way if you run out of ideas on what to write about? (eg this question ^)

[jamonwindeyer]

Hi
I was hoping to get help with dealing with this question

1. Celebrities are human after all.
     Present an argument for, and against this statement.

I have no idea how to approach this question or what to write about.
What would be the best thing to do by the way if you run out of ideas on what to write about? (eg this question ^)

There isn't really a way for me to help you too much with this argument without doing it for you, since it is a very personal thing, so let me answer both of your questions at the same time.

If you are stuck on a question, you need to brainstorm key terms. This is always what I did when I was stuck (the copy of my Module A essay sitting locked away in NESA's vault will have a brainstorm on it). So here, that would mean brainstorming qualities of celebrities. What makes them human - Look for things like vulnerability. Can you think of a celebrity who has shown great vulnerability you could use as an example? What about other humane qualities?

Then look for inhumane things and do the same! I wager the recent US presidential candidates might give you a good play off between humane and inhumane characteristics

But yep, brainstorming is absolutely the way to go. Start with key terms, then build those into ideas, then build those into paragraphs

[Rathin]

Hey guys, I am quite worried about my progress in English. I don't have a Discovery Essay ready. First term I had a speech so I concentrated alot on it as it was 15% weighting 15 marks..and didn't have time to make a sample discovery essay. Will it be hard to convert my speech into the essay..in terms of the analysis? I will most likely need help doing it..so should I wait till my school starts and ask help from my teachers so get a tutor and get it done early?

[jamonwindeyer]

Hey guys, I am quite worried about my progress in English. I don't have a Discovery Essay ready. First term I had a speech so I concentrated alot on it as it was 15% weighting 15 marks..and didn't have time to make a sample discovery essay. Will it be hard to convert my speech into the essay..in terms of the analysis? I will most likely need help doing it..so should I wait till my school starts and ask help from my teachers so get a tutor and get it done early?

Hey Rathin! Definitely don't stress about not having an essay ready for AoS - I had barely written any AoS essays by this point in my HSC year (though keep in mind I didn't memorise my essays). I've taken speeches and turned the ideas into essay paragraphs - I don't think you'll have too much issue with it! The techniques, concepts and ideas should all still work. Rip them out of the speech and write them in dot point; then use that as a guide for your essay paragraphs. Don't write sentences straight from one to the other, because the tone might be a little different!

I reckon getting a tutor just for prepping an essay is overkill - Especially at this stage. I reckon you can start it now (we can help you with some ideas too), then run it past your teacher once school goes back?

[anotherworld2b]

I see now thank you for your help

There isn't really a way for me to help you too much with this argument without doing it for you, since it is a very personal thing, so let me answer both of your questions at the same time.

If you are stuck on a question, you need to brainstorm key terms. This is always what I did when I was stuck (the copy of my Module A essay sitting locked away in NESA's vault will have a brainstorm on it). So here, that would mean brainstorming qualities of celebrities. What makes them human - Look for things like vulnerability. Can you think of a celebrity who has shown great vulnerability you could use as an example? What about other humane qualities?

Then look for inhumane things and do the same! I wager the recent US presidential candidates might give you a good play off between humane and inhumane characteristics

But yep, brainstorming is absolutely the way to go. Start with key terms, then build those into ideas, then build those into paragraphs

[bsdfjnlkasn]

Sorry, I had no idea where to put this, but I was just reading the "improving your vocabulary" blog post where it mentioned sites designed to help improve vocab and expression.

Specifically ones which "provide you with words targeted at a certain reading level (pick a ‘high school à university/college’ level category if you can). The best ones will operate via association, so they won’t just give you a word and its definition – they’ll provide synonyms or sample sentences to help you see how a word works in context."

This really interested me and so I was wondering if anyone could recommend or suggest some websites which have these features? Maybe even the programs which allow you to set  "daily goals or challenges as a means of incentivising yourself to learn more."

Thank you!!!

[bsdfjnlkasn]

I just read in a critical reading the phrase "duplicitous dichotomy" and I was wondering if someone could explain to me what it means?

(My google search failed me)

Thank you