VCE English Question Thread

[upandgo]

3 posts in one day :O
Anyway, I just wanted input from someone other than myself. When writing an expository essay (yep, it's context again ) someone suggested making a link to my text and making a link to a world example for every body paragraph. In a SAC, would that be expected? I'll ask my teacher after finishing my 2nd practice essay (2nd time I've done this) for her opinion but I'm still not finished so AN was the next best thing.

What I've been doing is having one solid example a paragraph and elaborating on that. And so far, it's been easier to refer to world examples than text examples. If that is better, in terms f length of paras, increased complexity I'm willing and will probs rewatch the film just to have it fresh in my mind.

recommendations??

Thank you

in my opinion any amount of external examples is fine as long as its relevant to the point you're making. the fact that you're including them is good because if you don't your piece will sound like a text response (the mistake i made when first writing context  ). perhaps it'd be beneficial to balance them out in your essay, in that you have an equal discussion of both external examples and textual evidence. that way your piece isnt filled with too many external examples and insufficient discussion of the text/film.

for SAC purposes it'd be best to go along with what your teacher says since he/she will be marking your piece!

[upandgo]

hi everyone  in regards to this prompt (stasiland):

'how does anna funder use visual imagery to describe the cheerlessness of life in the GDR?'

is it okay to occasionally incorporate the effect-on-reader approach from LA in my response? for example, in one paragraph i mentioned funder's description of 'monstrous grey buildings' in alexanderplatz, that 'made people feel small'. is it alright if i said that this description aligns us readers to liken the great size of the buildings to the large size of the stasi, and imagine the east german citizens to feel small and powerless compared to the stasi, thereby contributing to the absence of happiness and joy in the GDR? 
 

[oooo]

Hola AtarNotes. I've been told to not mention audience in a language analysis intro (just contention, text info, images and context) but rather in the body paragraphs. How would I approach this ?

[HopefulLawStudent]

For your SAC, your teacher's word is law. Basically for your SACs, if your teacher says jump, you jump instead of asking too many how and why questions. If they're telling you no audience, then no audience it is.

For your exam, it's up to you as to whether or not you follow your teacher and ultimately you have to make a judgement.

I personally don't believe there is a set "you must/must not mention the audience in the intro". And it's not like VCAA examiners are cackling every time they see an essay that does/does not refer to the audience and deducting 10 marks. If you flick back to the language analysis essays that are featured in the examiner's reports there isn't much consistency re: audience imo.

From the examiner's reports:
2014 - featured an "upper range response" that completely neglected to mention the audience in the intro.
2013 - implied the audience was  "households in the surrounding area", also an upper-range
2012 - explicitly referred to an "audience of teachers, librarians and senior school students"

[Swagadaktal]

For your SAC, your teacher's word is law. Basically for your SACs, if your teacher says jump, you jump instead of asking too many how and why questions. If they're telling you no audience, then no audience it is.

For your exam, it's up to you as to whether or not you follow your teacher and ultimately you have to make a judgement.

I personally don't believe there is a set "you must/must not mention the audience in the intro". And it's not like VCAA examiners are cackling every time they see an essay that does/does not refer to the audience and deducting 10 marks. If you flick back to the language analysis essays that are featured in the examiner's reports there isn't much consistency re: audience imo.

From the examiner's reports:
2014 - featured an "upper range response" that completely neglected to mention the audience in the intro.
2013 - implied the audience was  "households in the surrounding area", also an upper-range
2012 - explicitly referred to an "audience of teachers, librarians and senior school students"

Also need to keep in mind that sometimes pieces have more than one audiences. There will be some aspects of a piece that intend to resonate with one audience but not with another. So by mentioning it in the introduction it could limit you from having a sophisticated analysis of language use and its intended audience.

But if it's a specific event where only one type of audience is present then i'd suggest mentioning it. But if it's the age for instance, which has a wide range of audiences then it's not possible to limit it to one.

*can someone vouch for this? I don't see this happening much but I think it's pretty good stuff to have in ur L.A essays

[EvangelionZeta]

Examiners mark according to the exam criteria. The exam criteria does not explicitly state you have to mention the audience in the intro. I encourage my students not to include the audience in the intro, and generally they have gotten high marks for language analysis.

The only reason IMO you should mention the intended audience is if you can make some kind of use of it, eg. by commenting on how a specific language technique might create different kinds of effects for different kinds of audiences. That way, it's being used to show the examiner that you have a more nuanced appreciation of the persuasive effects of language (which is what they're really marking you on).

[NerdyPi]

Short question:
For a Medea text response essay, to what extent are we allowed to use as evidence/refer to the story of Jason and the Argonaunts?

Detailed version:
I'm current attempting to write a practice essay on the topic (from the AN sample prompts forum) " "You woman are all the same". To what extent are Jason's judgments validated in Medea? " , and I was going to write a paragraph about how Medea defined the societal expectations of women by choosing to follow/help Jason, and therefore chose her own husband (when this was usually done by husbands or fathers). However, as the prompt clear says "in Medea", I'm a bit worried about if I would be allowed to use this point, which although was referred to a lot in Medea, didn't actually occur in the play. Would this be ok, or should I stick exclusively to events that actually occur in the play? Thanks

[oooo]

Hello! Does anyone have any Bladerunner (Ridley Scott film) text response prompts they are willing to share?? 

[HopefulLawStudent]

Short question:
For a Medea text response essay, to what extent are we allowed to use as evidence/refer to the story of Jason and the Argonaunts?

Detailed version:
I'm current attempting to write a practice essay on the topic (from the AN sample prompts forum) " "You woman are all the same". To what extent are Jason's judgments validated in Medea? " , and I was going to write a paragraph about how Medea defined the societal expectations of women by choosing to follow/help Jason, and therefore chose her own husband (when this was usually done by husbands or fathers). However, as the prompt clear says "in Medea", I'm a bit worried about if I would be allowed to use this point, which although was referred to a lot in Medea, didn't actually occur in the play. Would this be ok, or should I stick exclusively to events that actually occur in the play? Thanks

Personally, I would avoid going too much into the whole "Jason and the argonauts" thing. The focus of your essay should be your text and while the text is based on the "Jason and the argonauts" myth, going on a huge spiel about it could be a bit of a risk. I would just stick exclusively to things that happen in the play.

[P.GUAN]

Hi,
I loved the  lecture today and I found it very helpful!! Just a question, what marks should I be aiming for my SACS and the exam to get a 30+ study score?

Thank you

[blacksanta62]

Hi,
I loved the  lecture today and I found it very helpful!! Just a question, what marks should I be aiming for my SACS and the exam to get a 30+ study score?

Thank you

Can't say I know for sure, you'd want a good rank and a exam score to compliment. This is probably best answered on the VTAC score discussion side of the forum which can be found here: Victorian Technical Score Discussion
What I will stress is that if you give English your best go and ask for advice and comments from your teacher and do well on the exam as a result of the effort you put in, you'll defs get a higher SS than 30 (wouldn't that be nice )

Now my question: On the last day of term we did our context SAC (worth 30 marks) and I feel as if I can already improve before my next context SAC which is about 4-5 weeks away (maybe...) and this ones out of 50! Does writing expository limit my marks in anyway or can I still score well based on the exploration of the prompt? Secondly, does going under the word limit (1000) mean you lose a mark? Or do teachers go, "uuhh, 3 pages worth of writing, close enough"? Or do they actually count every word?

Thank you

[HopefulLawStudent]

Now my question: On the last day of term we did our context SAC (worth 30 marks) and I feel as if I can already improve before my next context SAC which is about 4-5 weeks away (maybe...) and this ones out of 50! Does writing expository limit my marks in anyway or can I still score well based on the exploration of the prompt? Secondly, does going under the word limit (1000) mean you lose a mark? Or do teachers go, "uuhh, 3 pages worth of writing, close enough"? Or do they actually count every word?

Thank you

The style you choose to write in should not compromise your ability to do well. You are marked on your exploration of the prompt, your use of the text, etc, not on what style you chose.

You have a word limit? O.o

No one's gonna sit there and count every word  to make sure you're within the word limit. English teachers are v. busy people (a fact that my Year 11 teacher went to great extents to highlight to her class at around SAC + Exam time) and their time is better spent doing other stuff. As long as it looks about 1000 words you should be a-okay. (i.e. longer than a page but not 100 pages long)

[upandgo]

Now my question: On the last day of term we did our context SAC (worth 30 marks) and I feel as if I can already improve before my next context SAC which is about 4-5 weeks away (maybe...) and this ones out of 50! Does writing expository limit my marks in anyway or can I still score well based on the exploration of the prompt? Secondly, does going under the word limit (1000) mean you lose a mark? Or do teachers go, "uuhh, 3 pages worth of writing, close enough"? Or do they actually count every word?

Thank you

i reckon you can still score high with expository! not sure if this is correct (this is from my school) but most marks come from the exploration of the prompt  and with word count i highly doubt they count each word but i reckon it should be fine unless its obvious that you havent written much (eg, <2 pages).

[Sine]

I know that this will vary from between every student but what are the "general" things that differ between a 8/10 essay and a 9-10/10 essay?

^

[blacksanta62]

I'll answer your question first Sine: My teacher tells me that things like fluency and word choice (i.e. don't make it too clunky by using larger words which sound great but actually shouldn't be there) are important. It needs to "roll off the tongue".
She also says that correct punctuation and spelling (happens on my essays sometimes) are never a bad thing. All these factors could make assessors believe a mark should be deducted or added. And there's more important things like ideas used when exploring the prompt in context (the assessor will most likely have seen MLK  100+ times and could be a bit bored of reading the same thing), good analysis of language ("don't just signpost persuasive techniques, I already know what they are and how they work"-My English teacher) and use of quotes and all the other jazz needed in a text response (I'm sorry, I haven't written a text response for ages and have forgotten  what makes a good text response great ) 

i reckon you can still score high with expository! not sure if this is correct (this is from my school) but most marks come from the exploration of the prompt  and with word count i highly doubt they count each word but i reckon it should be fine unless its obvious that you havent written much (eg, <2 pages).

Thanks upandgo, hoping to get >22 out of 30, I would be over the moon with that

The style you choose to write in should not compromise your ability to do well. You are marked on your exploration of the prompt, your use of the text, etc, not on what style you chose.

You have a word limit? O.o

No one's gonna sit there and count every word  to make sure you're within the word limit. English teachers are v. busy people (a fact that my Year 11 teacher went to great extents to highlight to her class at around SAC + Exam time) and their time is better spent doing other stuff. As long as it looks about 1000 words you should be a-okay. (i.e. longer than a page but not 100 pages long)

The SAC sheet said we need at least 1000 words so I was weary. Thank you