English Extension 1 Question Thread

[elysepopplewell]

Hey,
I was wondering how I should structure my paragraphs for a general essay. Should I use TEEL, or is there another way to structure paragraphs?
Thanks.

Hey! Welcome to the forums
There are so many different structures you could use for Extension. If it helps, you can read my own essay here. I changed my structure about two weeks before the HSC exam. All year, I had a reasonably un-integrated paragraph style and then I changed it up at the last minute. TEEL is always a good starting point, but then you should be looking to change it up by doubling up techniques for a single quote, or giving the example then the effect, then vice versa. In Extension, it is expected that you'll respond to questions in a unique and effective way that shows your own personal style, so you'll have to find a structure that works and then be ready to change it up and manipulate it!

[elysepopplewell]

HEY 

I know this is a major throw back, but my browsing (lol procrastination) has led me to stumble upon and think about your proposed hierarchy for men and women on the home front. Super cool idea by the way 

I was just curious about the reasons that led you to place men/women with greater political awareness lower than those who were less informed. My take was that, men who felt the consequences of the political turmoil more personally would be perceived as weak and even dissenting. The implied doubt that comes with this obviously poses a threat to the governing powers and the public who (thoughtlessly) follow, making them for the most part unpopular (to put it lightly). Of course, we can see the consequences of these decisions amplified through Plath's experience which is why I see (and agree) with her place in the 'hierarchy'. Was this sort of the line of thought you were conveying?

Even if our thoughts were in two completely places, I'd love to hear your reasons for the order and maybe even thoughts on my interpretation (if you'd call it that haha).

Anyway, thanks for reading and hoping to hear back soon

This is absolutely the best kind of procrastination!

My hierarchy here is about the people least affected by politics, to the most. So, men in politics have the most power, they're the least likely victims. Men in the rest of society who don't have that direct control over politics, are the second group of least affected. Now, I'm being verrrrry basic here, because class or mental ability also come into these factors. But, men in general society are the next group. Followed by women. I would argue that because women were underrepresented (or like, not represented) in politics, seldom held positions of power in workplace or elsewhere, so voices were hardly heard on gendered issues.

So, for that reason, I think that men in politics had the most power, followed by men in society (purely because of their representation in politics, workplace, families and social context, and then women.

Plath had other experiences, characterised by being an artist of words, an educated woman, tortured creatively in her relationship, and her mental state.

Keen to know what you think, love a good ATB discussion

[bsdfjnlkasn]

This is absolutely the best kind of procrastination!

My hierarchy here is about the people least affected by politics, to the most. So, men in politics have the most power, they're the least likely victims. Men in the rest of society who don't have that direct control over politics, are the second group of least affected. Now, I'm being verrrrry basic here, because class or mental ability also come into these factors. But, men in general society are the next group. Followed by women. I would argue that because women were underrepresented (or like, not represented) in politics, seldom held positions of power in workplace or elsewhere, so voices were hardly heard on gendered issues.

So, for that reason, I think that men in politics had the most power, followed by men in society (purely because of their representation in politics, workplace, families and social context, and then women.

Plath had other experiences, characterised by being an artist of words, an educated woman, tortured creatively in her relationship, and her mental state.

Keen to know what you think, love a good ATB discussion

Ahhh ok, thanks for clearing that up  ! Well I don't have much to discuss now because I completely agree with where you're coming from haha. I'll definitely let you know if I have anything else to say (because I've been staring at my screen for 10 minutes) and we can pick up from there - maybe we'll end up discussing something completely different who knows 

[elysepopplewell]

Ahhh ok, thanks for clearing that up  ! Well I don't have much to discuss now because I completely agree with where you're coming from haha. I'll definitely let you know if I have anything else to say (because I've been staring at my screen for 10 minutes) and we can pick up from there - maybe we'll end up discussing something completely differing who knows 

I look forward to it! Having these kinds of discussions is very good practice for essay writing, because in the Extension course you have that freedom to be a bit banterous in your essays!

[sohum jain]

Hi
I have a few general questions about study and exam technique,
 1. how would you suggest studying essay/creative writing?
 2. Are there any resources you would recommend studying in regards to prose design, structuring creative writing/essays, manipulating language?
3. How do you suggest improving understanding of ways of thinking, key paradigms, and incorporate them in a less-than-explicit manner in your creative?
4. On a more personal note, what are your favourite books? Both for enjoyment and analysis?
5. What is the best way to study for longer term development as a writer?
6. How do you go about approaching an essay/ creative writing piece?
7.  What do you think constitutes a good essay/creative writing piece? (sorry if this overlaps a bit with stayz1337s' question) What do you think markers/teacher look for in specific, when marking their essays?
Lastly, how do you improve your ability to write description/ bring sophistication to your writing?
I apologise if the questions seem a bit vague, or even silly. As a new senior student, and member of atar notes, I hope you'll forgive me, if my questions aren't appropriately formatted, or are posted in the wrong thread.
Thank you

[elysepopplewell]

Hi
I have a few general questions about study and exam technique,
I apologise if the questions seem a bit vague, or even silly. As a new senior student, and member of atar notes, I hope you'll forgive me, if my questions aren't appropriately formatted, or are posted in the wrong thread.
Thank you

Hey there!
Welcome to the forums! You've absolutely put all of this in the right spot, I'm more than happy to help! I'll respond in bold to the questions below:

 1. how would you suggest studying essay/creative writing?
I think that both of these need to be progressive throughout the year. With your creative, start early, and constantly edit and evolve the work to become something you really enjoy. As the year goes on you will learn lots more about context, techniques, and so on, so it's important that the work does evolve with the new knowledge you gain. As for the essay, I understand it's difficult until you have studied all of the texts to create an essay to edit. So I suggest you read as many extension essays as you can to see the way people are conceptually approaching the texts you study, and then you'll be able to formulate ideas to take into the texts as you study them for the first time.
 2. Are there any resources you would recommend studying in regards to prose design, structuring creative writing/essays, manipulating language?
Not particularly, admittedly. There's no go-to resource I recommend in relation to this kind of thing, but just studying different scholarly readings about the texts, or texts from that period, online. Google Scholar might be a good place to start, or sometimes typing in your text name and then "university" net to it into google will give you those higher-order-thinking responses.
3. How do you suggest improving understanding of ways of thinking, key paradigms, and incorporate them in a less-than-explicit manner in your creative?
This is something that develops over the year, but I definitely recommend reading widely. Although your texts may express some of the key ways of thinking of the era, they may not express them all and you'll want to know the others in case they are what you want to explore in your creative. So read widely, even in terms of non-fiction. In fact, especially in terms of non-fiction. Often, describing the context alone in a creative will set the climate for expressing the ways of thinking.
4. On a more personal note, what are your favourite books? Both for enjoyment and analysis?
One of my all time favourite books is Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Both for enjoyment and for analysis. I haven't brought myself to read it again yet, though.
5. What is the best way to study for longer term development as a writer?
Reading widely is definitely key. Reading the kind of writing you'd like to write, but also other styles and genres. There's a lot to learn! If you're interested in Fiction, John Marsden's book "Everything I know about writing" is fabulous - I recommend it to all HSC students doing creative writing.
6. How do you go about approaching an essay/ creative writing piece?
My own Extension 1 creative piece came as a sequel to my Ext 2 piece. My Ext 2 piece was a short story of about 6000 words, and my creative for Ext 1 was a speech made by the same protagonist, except ten years later! Finding very unique little niches in your set genre/period is the way to go, I think. Find a situation that is very interesting to you, and just read as widely as you can about that, and then bring it to life. Essay writing was something I struggled with in Ext 1, I wrote very basic, non-integrated essays nearly all year before I decided I needed a rehaul before my HSC exam, and in that two week period before the exam I overhauled everything!
7.  What do you think constitutes a good essay/creative writing piece? (sorry if this overlaps a bit with stayz1337s' question) What do you think markers/teacher look for in specific, when marking their essays?
Essays, markers look for: exploration of ways of thinking, sophistication of analysis, sophistication of expression, and sophistication of ideas expressed by you!
Creatives, markers look for: originality, exploration of ways of thinking, control and manipulation of form and expression, and engagement.
The marking criteria available online for both of these shows the specific criteria for each band, but this is the way I always thought of it
Lastly, how do you improve your ability to write description/ bring sophistication to your writing?
Again, reading widely. The more sophisticated and admirable language you are exposed to, the better. This means reading other essays or creatives, published works of fiction or non-fiction, as well as scholarly writing. I think it's best to read short stories, and online articles, because they are small and easy to read quickly, but are also usually packed with great language!

[1tankengine]

Hi, I have a tutorial presentation for the elective Navigating the Global and I am struggling to find a related text.
The Objective is:
The Board of Studies is reviewing their prescriptions list for English Extension 1.
You are to present a related text that you believe could be incorporated in the Prescribed Text list for the elective – Navigating the Global.
The presentation should be presented to a panel of experts and be between 6-8 minutes. You must incorporate ICT in the presentation.
I was wondering if there were any related texts that come to mind.
Thanks

[ssarahj]

Hi, I have a tutorial presentation for the elective Navigating the Global and I am struggling to find a related text.
The Objective is:
The Board of Studies is reviewing their prescriptions list for English Extension 1.
You are to present a related text that you believe could be incorporated in the Prescribed Text list for the elective – Navigating the Global.
The presentation should be presented to a panel of experts and be between 6-8 minutes. You must incorporate ICT in the presentation.
I was wondering if there were any related texts that come to mind.
Thanks

Hey there! I hope you're enjoying Navigating The Global so far, I loved it so much 😃 What are your prescribed texts? Even though your assessment doesn't specifically mention it, I think it would make sense to choose a related text that you want to use for the rest of the year. I have a few related texts that I can suggest but it would make more sense to know your prescribed first.

[ash_mcalpine]

Hey,

Currently, I need to prep my knowledge on the paradigms in regards to Waiting for Godot. I've tried reading articles and what not but I just can't get my head around the main themes and ideologies explored in the text , anything would help!

Thanks heaps!!

[1tankengine]

Hey there! I hope you're enjoying Navigating The Global so far, I loved it so much 😃 What are your prescribed texts? Even though your assessment doesn't specifically mention it, I think it would make sense to choose a related text that you want to use for the rest of the year. I have a few related texts that I can suggest but it would make more sense to know your prescribed first.

Hi, yeah I really am enjoying the elective but i'm finding it a bit hard to wrap my head around it. My prescribed are - Lost in Translation by Sofia Coppola, Journey to the Stone Country by Alex Miller and White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Thanks 

[ssarahj]

Hi, yeah I really am enjoying the elective but i'm finding it a bit hard to wrap my head around it. My prescribed are - Lost in Translation by Sofia Coppola, Journey to the Stone Country by Alex Miller and White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Thanks 

Awesome 😃 Don't worry I remember feeling exactly the same as you this time last year! For better or worse, Extension English modules seem to have so much depth of content and so many ways of approaching it that you're pretty much always trying to get your head around something, even the day before the exam! So embrace that.  😀

I used (and loved) the short story Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice by Nam Le as well as the film The Rocket by Kim Mordaunt. There was definitely more resources and academic papers for Love and Honour, I found it harder to do contextual research for The Rocket, but they were both perfect for my essay (I used Adiga's novel and Levertov's poetry).

Here were some of my other short-listed texts:
- We Need New Names, NoViolet Bulawayo
- The Darjeeling Ltd, Wes Anderson
- The Global Soul, Pico Iyer
- Shaun Micallef's Stairway to Heaven, Shaun Micallef
- The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

[1tankengine]

Awesome 😃 Don't worry I remember feeling exactly the same as you this time last year! For better or worse, Extension English modules seem to have so much depth of content and so many ways of approaching it that you're pretty much always trying to get your head around something, even the day before the exam! So embrace that.  😀

Thanks for the confidence boost, it's comforting to know I'm not the only one!

I used (and loved) the short story Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice by Nam Le as well as the film The Rocket by Kim Mordaunt. There was definitely more resources and academic papers for Love and Honour, I found it harder to do contextual research for The Rocket, but they were both perfect for my essay (I used Adiga's novel and Levertov's poetry).

Here were some of my other short-listed texts:
- We Need New Names, NoViolet Bulawayo
- The Darjeeling Ltd, Wes Anderson
- The Global Soul, Pico Iyer
- Shaun Micallef's Stairway to Heaven, Shaun Micallef
- The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

Thank you so much! You have saved my Extension English 1 hopes! 
I'll be sure to look into those texts and see which one will best apply to my understanding of the topic. Again, thank you.

[ssarahj]

Hey,

Currently, I need to prep my knowledge on the paradigms in regards to Waiting for Godot. I've tried reading articles and what not but I just can't get my head around the main themes and ideologies explored in the text , anything would help!

Thanks heaps!!

Hey! Just as a preface I'm not heaps familiar with your text however my advice would usually be to read as much as you can including all the Spark Notes and Cliff Notes and all the other simplified notes you can get your hands on. But since you've already made a solid effort at that I think one of the best things that you can do is to try and have a conversation with someone (maybe your teacher or class mates) and literally just chat about everything you know about Waiting for Godot. Just talk it out. Samuel Beckett's stuff can be pretty hectic and hard to grasp, so verbalising it may help you to solidify knowledge you didn't realise you had. It might sound a bit ineffectual but give it a go and see if it helps 😃

[elysepopplewell]

Hey,

Currently, I need to prep my knowledge on the paradigms in regards to Waiting for Godot. I've tried reading articles and what not but I just can't get my head around the main themes and ideologies explored in the text , anything would help!

Thanks heaps!!

Hey there! You're asking a big question, it's Beckkett after all

So much of Waiting for Godot's paradigms are about your interpretation. Following on from Sarah's suggestion about having a conversation about the text: What/Who do you think Godot is?

The most obvious answer for a lot of people is Godot is representative of God, or a deity. What are the complications with this? I mean, the name denotes it. But also: Godot never arrives (spoiler). So, does God never arrive? Is this a metanarrative for the existential crisis of the cold war? Everyone is waiting for a Heavenly saviour, everyone's waiting around, kicking dirt, just waiting to be saved - and that religious figure never delivers? So this is one of the main ways of thinking here: the religious way of thinking. This manifests itself in the text in more ways than just "What is Godot" but I think that question is a great place to start. Lucky's speech definitely suggests this reading. I suggest this article for some easy reading on this concept.

Another reading of the text would say that Godot is a socio-economic paradigm. We look at the relationship between Pozzo and Lucky and we very much see an exploitative relationship, a master and a slave. This can be seen that Pozzo is the embodiment of the aristocracy in capitalism, and Lucky is the embodiment of the working class. Later in the text, Pozzo returns as blind, Lucky is the same as before, except on a shorter rope so that they are more equal. Is this the start of communism in the text? Equality?

Vladimir and Estragon can be seen as the working class as well - they complete each other, they do as they are instructed to be promised something good (the arrival of Godot) but this never delivers. Thus, their belief in the coming of Godot is actually their oppressor and not just their saviour. Surprisingly, there's a good Prezi on this that I think would be worth checking out because it has quotes from the text there as well.

On perhaps the simplest viewing: we could say that Godot is just the embodiment of an empty promise. You could say the entire Cold War is an empty promise, with governments lying to their own people about their superiority, about the promise of elitism, capitalism, socialism, equality, and the promise of an ending war.

[QC]

Hi, I have an idea for the setting of my ATB creative but I don't really know what will happen/what perspective I should take, any ideas would be great thanks
My setting is during the Cuban Missile Crisis, as the soviets tried to get Missiles to Cuba, the  US started to drop depth charges if they saw submarines on the radar in order to get them to rise to the surface as they had a blockade on soviet missiles from Cuba. One time this happened (possibly the first time) a soviet sub thought that it was US fire and that WWIII had broken out. Because of this, they were going to launch their own nuclear weapons in retaliation but required unilateral approval from the three officers in command as they were too low to contact Moscow for info. It turns out that 2 of them agreed but 1, Vasili Arkhipov, didn't and in effect saved the world from nuclear annihilation. I'm not sure how to make this setting into a story/ what would really happen. Thanks.