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literally lauren

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VCE English Question Thread
« on: January 11, 2015, 10:35:55 am »
+43
ENGLISH Q&A AND PAST QUESTIONS DATABASE

To go straight to posts from 2020, click here.

What is this thread for?
If you have general questions about the VCE English (or EAL) course about what the tasks entail or how to improve in certain areas, this is the place to ask!

However, if you're looking for text-specific advice (eg. 'How could I talk about character X from text Y' or 'Is my interpretation of Z correct?') then please make a new thread on the English page. This section is designed to be an information and advice resource, so keep your questions fairly general, if possible.

If you're looking for essay marking and feedback, go to the English Work Submission and Marking


Who can/ will answer questions?
Everyone is welcome to contribute; even if you're unsure of yourself, providing different perspectives is incredibly valuable in English, - since we all know there's rarely one "right" answer ;)

Please don't be dissuaded by the fact that you haven't finished Year 12, or didn't score as highly as others, or you're advice contradicts something else you've seen on this thread, or w/e; none of this disqualifies you from helping others. And if you're worried you do have some sort of misconception, put it out there and someone else can clarify and modify your understanding! 

I will endeavour to help wherever I can, but there'll be a whole bunch of other high-scoring students with their own wealths of wisdom to share with you. So you may even get multiple answers from different people offering their insights.


Which questions get included in the database?
The questions in the tabs below are ones deemed helpful to multiple people (ie. dealing with common pitfalls and struggles.) That is not to say other questions are less valid, but these are just the most common areas that students need help with, so please have a read through some before asking your own questions. If there are points that haven't been covered yet, or you'd like a more detailed explanation for an existing question, post here and we can update the database for everyone.

There's also a list of useful Language Analysis vocab attached to this post :)


TEXT RESPONSE
Preparation
What to discuss in a T.R. essay + picking out evidence? (helpful for early in the year)
The 'goal' of T.R. essays (scroll down to second response)
Using background information
Understanding the text

Planning
Planning T.R. essays (scroll down to second response)

Essay Structure
Teachers "recommending" structures

Introductions
What should be included in the intro? 
Structuring introductions
How to make introductions more sophisticated 
What makes an introductions stand out
Using quotes in the introduction (2)

Body Paragraphs
Wording of topic sentences
Choosing evidence from the text
Finding paragraph weaknesses? (scroll down to third response)
Appropriate explanation of evidence in essays (2)

Ideas
Coming up with original ideas
The difference between 'surface level' themes and 'in-depth' themes
Making simple ideas sophisticated
Memorising ideas
Exploring the impact of major/minor characters

Conclusions
Structuring conclusions (2)

Contentions
Strengthening contentions

Areas of Study
The most important criterion
Layers of Text Response texts
Learning about Views and Values with Harry Potter
Addressing views and values (ft. Paddington Bear)
Branching out from the text and explaining the marking process

Prompts
What are 'implications?'
How to discuss implications (2)
Dealing with difficult prompts
Why 'How...' questions aren't as scary as you think
Addressing 'Do you agree?' prompts

Quotes
Embedding quotes
Shortening and integrating quotes
Memorising and categorising quotes
Memorising quotes for the exam

Exam Preparation
Choosing your exam text before the exam (2)
Making the most of rereading texts
Planning in the exam + choosing exam text

CONTEXT
Criteria
A translation of VCAA's criteria?
Why memorisation is a massive pitfall
How to ensure relevance
Explaining the target audience
Originality in context pieces
How to approach Context studying

Intoductions
Why you shouldn't mention Hitler ;) and the importance of originality in context + my sample intro
What should be in an introduction?

Body Paragraphs
Structuring body paragraphs (2) (3)

General Stylistic Advice
Forms and styles: playing it safe
A basic overview of the three styles
Equal opportunity writing styles? + waxing poetic about The American Dream
Choosing a style

Expository Writing
Balancing examples with discussion + responding to prompts + expository structure?
Abstract discussion in expository essays (with pretty colours because Lauren learnt how to format)
Tips for expository writing
What to include in expository pieces - ft. cake

Imaginative/Creative Writing
Benefits of the Imaginative style? (scroll down to second response)
An explanation of the 'show, don't tell' rule for creative writing
Made-up stories

Persuasive Writing
Structuring a persuasive piece

Ideas
Generating ideas (2)
Managing different ideas at once
Going beyond the text: The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Year 12 English
Ratio of examples to discussion + questioning the prompts?
Using close analysis (ie. symbols, motifs) in a Context piece?

Set Texts
Extent of set text usage (2) (3) (4)
Quoting the set text
'Jumping around' within the text, and why chronological exposition isn't worth much (scroll up a bit for an example involving a headless chicken)
Using texts from previous years

External Examples
Finding external examples
Tying in examples, and zooming in/out?
Trying to find examples (esp. for Encountering Conflict)
Categorising examples
Linking between examples
Sopistication of examples (scroll to third response) (2) (3)
Using risky examples (2)

Prompts
Questioning the prompts - with example (scroll to second response)
Dissecting prompts
Simplifying prompts - using the 2013 conflict prompt as an example
Unpacking prompts (2)
The importance of prompts


MISCELLANEOUS
Studying for English
Advice for Year 12s (2)
Improving in English
'Thinking' in English, with a chicken-flavoured analogy
Fascilitating self-improvement
Going beyond practice essays
Using high-scoring responses
Frequency of study
Typing or handwriting essays? (scroll down to second response)
Is a tutor necessary? (Spoilers! The answer is no.)
SAC Preparation (2)

Using Study Guides
Using study guides (2) (3)

Reading
Wider Reading
Reading academic journals?

Vocabulary
Acquiring new vocabulary (2)
Improving vocabulary (2) (3) (4) (5)
Circumlocating verbosity (2)
Vocab: evoke/provoke/invoke
Self-editing for expression
Improving clunky sentences (scroll down to second response)

General Writing Tips
Overcoming writer's block (2) (3) (4) (4) (5) (6)
Quality vs. Quantity: recommended word count?
Writing with clarity

Time Constraints
Dealing with time esp. in the exam (2) (3) (4)
Planning under timed conditions?
Timing of SACs
Cost/benefit analysis of planning under test conditions
How to prepare for time constraints
Concerns about timing + checklist to go through before a SAC (scroll down to second response)

Advice for non-Year 12s and other English subjects
Advice for Year 9/10 English?
General advice for year 11
English/EAL differences
English 3/4 without 1/2 (with Lit 1/2)


Exam Preparation
When to start studying for the exam
Exam Details (scroll down to second response)
Exam writing booklets
What to bring to the exam (2)
Assorted pre-exam questions 2015 (2)
How exam marking works
Day before the exam?

In the Exam
Order of essays (scroll down to second response) (2)
Timing in the exam
« Last Edit: February 26, 2020, 03:17:57 pm by PhoenixxFire »

Leezy

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2015, 09:36:41 pm »
+4
Hey Lauren,
Would you recommend starting a text response essay with a quote as the first sentence in the introduction? My tutor says that examiners apparently love students starting with a quote, but my teacher tells me to avoid it.

cosine

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2015, 11:19:43 pm »
0
I have started all my subjects besides english. Should this be worrisome?

Also, I think the reason why I haven't started is because I don't know where to begin... Someone who got 40 told me to read my books, but I cant even look at it lol :/
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Paulrus

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #3 on: January 12, 2015, 12:33:29 am »
+4
Hey Lauren,
Would you recommend starting a text response essay with a quote as the first sentence in the introduction? My tutor says that examiners apparently love students starting with a quote, but my teacher tells me to avoid it.
I don't think there's a definitive answer to this, because each examiner is going to have their own preferences. That said, I'm more inclined to agree with your teacher. If the quote isn't highly relevant to the prompt, it'll make your essay look a bit pre-prepared - and if it is relevant, it'd be better used in a body paragraph, where you can actually get credit for using it to substantiate your ideas. So personally, I'd avoid it :)

Instead, if you're not keen on writing a completely new intro from scratch each time, you can try opening with a contextualising statement related to your text. I generally started with something like "Informed primarily by his own experiences as a soldier, Wilfred Owen's anthology 'The War Poems' elucidates/reflects on/illustrates _____", and that bit there would be altered depending on the prompt. That way it doesn't really feel generic, but you still have a solid and malleable base to work from for each essay. Another example is "Silhouetted against the backdrop of ____", but so many people start with that line that you'd be better off avoiding it lol.

I have started all my subjects besides english. Should this be worrisome?

Also, I think the reason why I haven't started is because I don't know where to begin... Someone who got 40 told me to read my books, but I cant even look at it lol :/
Ideally you should have started by now, but there's still plenty of time. You should definitely begin by reading your texts as soon as you can. I don't think you necessarily have to read all of them these holidays, but if you're feeling short on time you should familiarise yourself with your unit 3 texts at the very least. You'll find that the year goes extremely fast and you won't have much time to read them once it's begun.

Unfortunately, there's no easy way around it (except for just reading Sparknotes, but you know... don't do that), you're going to have to tackle those books. Take them a bit at a time if you need to - once you actually start them, they'll feel a lot less intimidating and you might find that you actually enjoy them :)
2015-2017: Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) at University of Melbourne.

literally lauren

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #4 on: January 12, 2015, 01:02:14 am »
+4
Hey Lauren,
Would you recommend starting a text response essay with a quote as the first sentence in the introduction? My tutor says that examiners apparently love students starting with a quote, but my teacher tells me to avoid it.

I wouldn't say the examiners love it, but starting with a quote can be effective if done well. Note the difference here:
- "No longer would I be trampled, thrown about, or foiled." This determined shift marks a crucial turning point in the develpment of character in author's text.
- "No longer would I be trampled, thrown about, or foiled." In author's text, character undergoes many important changes in attitude.

The first would be safer, because it's explicitly stating the connection to the assessor. Put yourself in the shoes of a marker; you could read that second sentence and know what the student meant, but you're not allowed to give marks for the inferences you make.

If you're teacher isn't a fan of this style, then steer away from it for SACs, but if you want to keep it as an option for the exam, then by all means do so. Personally, I'd say unpacking the prompt is more important though. (Paulrus' example works really well for basically any prompt you come across, you'd just have to find something that works equally well with your specific texts.)

I have started all my subjects besides english. Should this be worrisome?

Also, I think the reason why I haven't started is because I don't know where to begin... Someone who got 40 told me to read my books, but I cant even look at it lol :/
It's never too late to start English ;D
At the very least, pleeeeeease read your texts. I promise it will help immensely to be able to think a step ahead. Even if you're reading through it in class, the things your teacher hints at and discusses will be way clearer if you already know the basic plot and character trajectories.

Places to start: (aside from reading your texts, which is very much step 1 in the whole process)
- Read over your Year 11 essays, marks, and feedback. See if there are common areas of weakness or if you don't understand where/ why you were wrong.
- Read some study guides (could be text-specific, or just general 'how to English' style things.) This can help clarify any conceptual errors you find in the reading of your own work.
- Read other people's essays. Depending which texts you're studying, there should be a few pieces floating around AN or the interwebs somewhere. Otherwise, you could also look at Language Analyses and try to familiarise yourself with the different ways of structuring essays.
- Sort out your oral. For most schools, this is the first SAC you'll do, but even if that's not the case, getting your speech or resources ready will save you a lot of time later. It's okay to wait until your teacher is explaining Text Response or Context concepts in class before you start analysing the texts or writing practice pieces, but the oral is pretty much self-directed, so get that out of the way, and you'll be able to dedicate more time to other subjects too.


JackSonSmith

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #5 on: January 15, 2015, 02:03:14 pm »
0
Could someone please explain what this means and perhaps provide an example where this is evident. (regarding a 9 to 10 out of 10 for text response essay)

‘demonstrates an understanding of the implications of the topic, using an appropriate strategy
for dealing with it, and exploring its complexity from the basis of the text.’ 
2014: Psychology
2015: English | Methods | Chinese SL | Specialist | Physics 

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ras

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #6 on: January 15, 2015, 02:50:51 pm »
+2
Could someone please explain what this means and perhaps provide an example where this is evident. (regarding a 9 to 10 out of 10 for text response essay)

‘demonstrates an understanding of the implications of the topic, using an appropriate strategy
for dealing with it, and exploring its complexity from the basis of the text.’

(anyone else please build on this answer I'm only going to answer it partially)

One way I always looked at this excelling at this criterion was ensuring that I addressed the nuances in a topic. For example, I studied Brooklyn and on a SAC got the topic 'Toibin's Brooklyn is an ultimately uplifting portrayal of love.' We were told that the high scorers on this SAC did not solely focus on romantic love in their essays, but also on other sorts of love, such as familial love, love for one's culture, love for one's country etc etc.

So essentially, I would see this criterion as looking at a topic, highlighting its key words, and brainstorming the implications of each key word, ensuring that you are exploring the nuances of the connection between these words and the text.

'An understanding of the implications of the topic' may also be referring to identifying how certain aspects of the text may contradict what is being stated in a topic. This may be addressed in the typical 'yes, but also no' approach to structuring a text response essay. It is extremely rare for an essay topic to be accurate for every section of a text, and examiners are often looking for you to recognise this and highlight the possibly problematic aspects of a topic. I always found this difficult to do well, as I would end up contradicting what I may have stated in earlier paragraphs.

In terms of 'appropriate strategies' for dealing with the complexities of a topic, I would usually aim to define key words in my intro. So if the word 'self-discovery' was in a topic I'd highlight in my intro that in my essay 'self-discovery' refers to a character gaining confidence, assertiveness, a clear idea of who they are, they stop being defined by others.

Hope some of this helps :D

literally lauren

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #7 on: January 15, 2015, 03:03:52 pm »
+7
Could someone please explain what this means and perhaps provide an example where this is evident. (regarding a 9 to 10 out of 10 for text response essay)

‘demonstrates an understanding of the implications of the topic, using an appropriate strategy
for dealing with it, and exploring its complexity from the basis of the text.’

I love this word!

Simply put, dealing with the 'implications' is the difference between writing about the words in the prompt, and writing about the ideas in the prompt.

Random thing from a 2012 practice exam to illustrate:
             'Which is more important to Antonio: to hunt and kill the jaguar, or to make amends for the past?'
This is from a film called The Old Man Who Read Love Stories. Don't worry if you haven't seen it; that's actually better for the purposes of this explanation.

So the simple approach typical of middle-band responses is to do this:
Which is more important to Antonio: to hunt and kill the jaguar, or to make amends for the past?
So there'll probably be one paragraph on the importance of the hunt for the jaguar and why that's important to Antonio, then one on how/why he makes amends for the past. The third might deal with these two in conjunction, or introduce a challenge by discussing other things that are important to the character. Whilst this is a safe approach, it's also very limiting.

In ras' method above, this 'key terms' approach works well because the definition of love is central to the way you would approach the question. Provided you were able to add sophistication in other ways, this is perfectly acceptable for certain prompt types, but if you need to look at overall implications/ 'between the lines' stuff and not just definition nuances, here's how:

Ask yourself: if what the prompt says is true, then what?
- If Antonio must prioritise either the hunt, or making amends, then the prompt suggests these two endeavours are mutually exclusive. Both cannot be of equal importance.
- If making amends cannot occur in the form of killing the jaguar, then that means the act of killing represents a refusal to atone for the past.
- Whichever option Antonio chooses, it is inferred that he does not care as much for the other.
- These external responses are indicative of what Antonio values/ finds more important. He cannot act in a state of cognitive dissonance; what he does reflects who he is.
- Antonio acts on what he finds important; his behaviour is a result of his beliefs
With each of these implications we can then ask ourselves 'is this the case in the text?' And filling in those blanks will give you a contention.

Up until you ask yourself this question, you don't need your textual knowledge. Don't bring up examples to demonstrate your points (yet!) Just examine the prompt using logic, and decypher what it is implying as well as denoting/ literally saying.

So a simple contention would be along the lines of 'Both the hunt and the idea of atonement are important to Antonio, but ultimately the hunt is more important.'
A better, more insightful contention would be: 'Antonio's prioritising of the hunt for the jaguar, despite it being an ultimately self-destructive pursuit, suggests his character does not intend to atone for his past mistakes.'
(Note, I'm not familiar with the text so these contentions might both be wrong, but we're looking for the structural differences in approach here, so it doesn't matter.)

As for the rest of that criterion, it's worth thinking about the "appropriate way to deal with the prompt" section. Basically this means that you can't just walk into any assessment writing a paragraph on pre-selected ideas, or in a rigidly pre-prepared manner. eg. The alternate prompt in the aforementioned prac exam was 'To what extent is belonging important in the film.' There aren't a lot of questions to ask here, so you'd have to add complexity in a different way, like defining belonging and examining all the different ways it is present or absent. You should also have a couple of structural methods at your disposal (eg. group paragraphs by thematic concern; start by talking about big ideas then 'zoom in' to the text, etc.) and then chose the most applicable one.

JackSonSmith

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #8 on: January 15, 2015, 10:12:24 pm »
0
Thank-you both for taking the time to help me - and I'm sure, many others. I'll give more thought to the nuances that are contained within prompts and the implications of the ideas suggested. I guess having a dictionary and reading time has been accounted for by the VCAA.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2015, 10:14:46 pm by JackSonSmith »
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cosine

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #9 on: January 15, 2015, 10:13:26 pm »
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Okay, so I miraculously read my book twice... now what? lol what should I do now?
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literally lauren

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #10 on: January 15, 2015, 10:33:35 pm »
+5
Okay, so I miraculously read my book twice... now what? lol what should I do now?
Still more reading to go :)

Now that you have an understanding of the basic plot, it's time to start working through external resources to compliment your interpretation. Depending on which text you're studying, you should just be able to type '>title< VCE English resources' into google and get a fair few good sites. If you really wanted to, you could invest in some study guides too, though there should be enough free stuff available.

Using these, you can develop your own resources. Start with the basics (character maps, chapter summaries, quote banks, etc.) as these will give you a good basis for later analysis.

It kind of depends what text you're studying though. Like, if it's a novel, you'll want to spend a bit more time on summary exercises to make sure you've covered everything. Contrarily, if it's a play, then you'll have to think more about performativity, staging, and the ambiguities of performance.

The priority at the moment is ensuring you go into Year 12 with a solid understanding of the book you're studying, and the requirements of a T.R. essay. So long as you're comfortable with that, you should be fine :)

Auralee

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #11 on: January 16, 2015, 05:30:10 pm »
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Hi Lauren! I love writing and reading, however I have never been able to bring myself to read a novel twice. I am wondering how you persevere and tackle even the most sullen of VCE texts.

Also, I am really struggling with Language Analysis. I am a fairly proficient writer, however have always found difficulty in this part of English. I have read your sample essay, which by the way is out-of-this-world awesome, but I do not know how I can work towards that. I have also read through your guide but still have trouble in actually composing sentences and paragraphs that flow nicely and are cohesive. How would you suggest I proceed?


literally lauren

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #12 on: January 16, 2015, 08:32:12 pm »
+5
Hi Lauren! I love writing and reading, however I have never been able to bring myself to read a novel twice. I am wondering how you persevere and tackle even the most sullen of VCE texts.

Also, I am really struggling with Language Analysis. I am a fairly proficient writer, however have always found difficulty in this part of English. I have read your sample essay, which by the way is out-of-this-world awesome, but I do not know how I can work towards that. I have also read through your guide but still have trouble in actually composing sentences and paragraphs that flow nicely and are cohesive. How would you suggest I proceed?
VCE texts are not to be read for fun. Except Shakespeare, who is God.

I treated the second/third readings more like dissection exercises. Rather than sitting down to read them cover-to-cover, I'd constantly be stopping to google things, compile annotations, add quotes or other notes to my collections, or just making general scribbles.

Unfortunately some texts are just... well, sullen. Try and make them interesting, maybe by researching the history of the author or the zeitgeist. Otherwise, you can always make your analysis interesting by considering different points of view, eg. the audience of the time, and contemporary audiences (if applicable.)

With the exception of maybe three or four texts, I'd argue that every one on the list has some kind of interesting component to discuss.

Re: Language Analysis, it's great that you've already identified that you need to improve flow, now work out why your essays/ paragraphs/ sentences aren't flowing. eg. are you
a) running points of random analysis together with no clear thread, just because you want to cover as much of the article as possible?
b) jumping from the analysis of language to the contention without connecting threads?
c) cutting the analysis too short so that it feels stilted?
d) letting the analysis stretch out too long, or taking several sentences to say what could have been said in two?
e) not using the right linking words; so your ideas flow, but not the actual sentence structure?
f) not able to connect one discussion/ point of analysis to another?
g) not able to connect the stages of analysis (what-how-why: see first post for links to explanations)
h) any combination of the above, or other...?

Being a good writer helps immensely, and once you're aware of the specific problem, fixing it won't take long at all. Just narrow it down as much as possible. Biggest and most helpful question to constantly ask is 'do I not know what to write, or do I not know how to write it?' At the very least, this should help you to work out whether you need to develop your conceptual understanding of the task/ criteria, or if it's an issue with approach/ language/ vocab/ sentence structure.

« Last Edit: January 17, 2015, 10:02:12 am by literally lauren »

JackSonSmith

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #13 on: January 17, 2015, 04:57:56 pm »
0
I had a go at thinking, and have come up with a revised contention for my practice essay on "This Boy's Life". Am I on the right track?

Prompt: Discuss the conflict between Jack's desire for freedom and his desire to belong.

Original contention: Jack has an internal conflict between wanting to be free and wanting to belong.

Contention after thinking: Jack's desire to belong, despite it requiring him to betray his true self, suggests that he does not truly wish to be free – but to be free of the person that he was. (modeled after Lauren's example)
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Start where you are. Use what you have.  Do what you can. – Arthur Ashe

Auralee

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Re: VCE English Question Thread
« Reply #14 on: January 17, 2015, 06:07:22 pm »
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Hi Lauren (again!) Thank you for that advice. I think that I will try and instead of 'reading the whole book again', maybe read the important bits or find other ways to enhance my understanding of the novel (e.g. research, reading other interpretations etc).

As for language analysis, I believe I know 'what' to write - I'm fairly good at identifying the techniques used by the writer - however am constantly struggling to find a way of fabricating a piece of writing that isn't just:

technique --> effect on audience

technique --> effect on audience

etc, etc etc,

Literally my essays just look like dotpoints right now, which obviously doesn't earn you the high scores.

Any suggestions in how I can generate more fluidity in my writing?

Much thanks,
Auralee
« Last Edit: January 17, 2015, 06:14:06 pm by Auralee »