ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE English Studies => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English & EAL => Topic started by: 123wsp on February 26, 2020, 09:20:11 am
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Could you please explain how to respond to how based prompts.
E.g. how does nine days explore the impact the past has upon the present?
I am unsure how to formulate contentions and TS from these types of prompts.
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That's a great question! My go-to explanation is that it's asking you to explain how the statement is true. So, in your example prompt, it's asking how is it true that the past has an impact upon the present. I've got a video up about how to brainstorm well for prompts so that you get a contention and TSs out of them here https://youtu.be/rdAnskFrDbY and here https://youtu.be/q3OgXVU19mw
Hope that helps! :)
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Thanks
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Don't write exceptions
For example, if you have a question of 'how author portray xxxxx in the text', then write 3(maybe 4? Depend on how many body p you need) ways of this, don't write something like 'some characters are not experienced xxxxx', etc.
I have a friend who is studying EAL and he writes an exception paragraph for how based question.
And then he failed that SAC.
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I think "how" questions are often asking you about genre features - how does the author help you understand something, demonstrate something ie what techniques/literary features are they using ... So, I'd suggest with your topic you could refer to the structure of the text and its "disjointed timeline" (not sure if that's a proper term), you could refer to the circumstances around Connie's life and death that make use of social context (of the past) and the use of distinctive narrative voices in each chapter, to convey personal strengths and weaknesses of those characters (eg Jean). You could also mention the motif of the photograph, finally seen by Kip at the end of the novel. Hope these comments are helpful.