VCE English Question Thread

[Sine]

Structure your paragraphs by arguments or ideas - then, use your evidence/interpretation to prove these arguments/ideas.

sorry wasn't talking about essays just general notes. Thanks 

[kimmytaaa]

hey
can someone who did 'the lieutenant'  give me with another idea for my prompt 'conflict creates a stronger relationship' ?

[HopefulLawStudent]

Heeeeelp.

What's the difference between anaphora and repetition??? Can you say anaphora is a language technique? Can someone give me an example of anaphora and how to use the word in a sentence?

[Swagadaktal]

Heeeeelp.

What's the difference between anaphora and repetition??? Can you say anaphora is a language technique? Can someone give me an example of anaphora and how to use the word in a sentence?

Anaphora is a type of repetition.
Google has the examples you need fam -- and you don't use the word anaphora in a sentence, you use the technique over a few sentences

[literally lauren]

hey
can someone who did 'the lieutenant'  give me with another idea for my prompt 'conflict creates a stronger relationship' ?

Which ideas have you explored already? And which relationships do you think you could talk about in the text? Obviously Rooke's dynamic with the other characters is worth talking about, but you could also examine the relationships between groups (eg. the white settlers and the indigenous people).

But I'd recommend going for the ideas first, and then zooming in to find textual evidence afterwards ie. once you've already got a good sense of what you want to convey in that paragraph.

Heeeeelp.

What's the difference between anaphora and repetition??? Can you say anaphora is a language technique? Can someone give me an example of anaphora and how to use the word in a sentence?

Repetition is the recurrence of a word, phrase, technique, or idea throughout a text.
Anaphora can be one or two things:

1. Grammatically, it's when the author uses a pronoun as a replacement for a noun.

For instance:
   'The Prime Minister has said that he doesn't want to invade the arctic tundra.'
- 'The Prime Minister' = Noun (technically Proper Noun, but whatevs)
- 'he' = Pronoun

This is in contrast to cataphora, which is where the pronoun comes before the noun
   'Following her recent interview in which she revealed that she hated puppies, the Vice Chancellor resigned in disgrace.'

It's basically a natural thing for English speakers to do, since otherwise you end up with sentences like:
  'The Prime Minister has said that the Prime Minister doesn't want to invade the arctic tundra'
and
   'Following the Vice Chancellor's recent interview in which the Vice Chancellor revealed that she hated puppies, the Vice Chancellor resigned in disgrace.'

So.. in a way... anaphora is a way for the author to avoid repetition by changing the phrasing around and assigning meaning to certain pronouns.

...but...

2. It also refers to repetition that occurs at the start of successive sentences.

For instance:
'I can't believe that I only scored a 19/20 on my last SAC. I can't believe my teacher could be so stupid. I can't believe I'm anything less than 100% perfect. And I can't believe that she wouldn't give me the extra mark when I begged on my hands and knees.'

In terms of its effect, it's quite similar to repetition, only calling it 'anaphora' when you see it can be a nice way to show off, and it allows you to comment on the way the author might want to create a link between those sentences.

eg.
'There's no justice for the teachers who have been fired. There's no justice for these innocent victims. There's no justice for good, honest people who are just trying to make the world a better place.'

^So in the above, I'm trying to make you view the teachers as innocent victims and good honest people, and the anaphora is helping me accomplish this be creating that rhetorical link in the phraseology.

In a sentence, you'd refer to it like you would any other technique,

eg.
'The author draws attention to the injustice of the issue through her use of anaphora in the phrase "there is no justice" which is reiterated throughout the piece. Not only does this amplify the sense of unfairness, but it also aids the author in establishing a link between the "good, honest" teachers and the notion of "victim[hood]"'

Hope that helps!

[Gogo14]

Its probably been said one thousand times, but it wouldnt hurt to answer one more.

I'm in year 11 and how can I really improve my english to have strong foundations for year 12.Doing mainstream english btw.

[vor0005]

Its probably been said one thousand times, but it wouldnt hurt to answer one more.

I'm in year 11 and how can I really improve my english to have strong foundations for year 12.Doing mainstream english btw.

Write essays. Get feedback (from a tutor/teacher etc.) Learn from the feedback. Repeat.

[literally lauren]

Its probably been said one thousand times, but it wouldnt hurt to answer one more.

I'm in year 11 and how can I really improve my english to have strong foundations for year 12.Doing mainstream english btw.

Write essays. Get feedback (from a tutor/teacher etc.) Learn from the feedback. Repeat.

^ +1

Most importantly: know exactly what you need to work on and where your weakness are at the moment.

Also read heaps. It's good for your brain in general, not just VCE English.

Also also, there's a tonne of advice if you look through the links in the first page of this thread, so there'll be some more specific stuff there.

Also also also, if you're in Year 11, you'll be dealing with this study design so familiarising yourself with that is a good place to start.

[kimmytaaa]

Which ideas have you explored already? And which relationships do you think you could talk about in the text? Obviously Rooke's dynamic with the other characters is worth talking about, but you could also examine the relationships between groups (eg. the white settlers and the indigenous people).

But I'd recommend going for the ideas first, and then zooming in to find textual evidence afterwards ie. once you've already got a good sense of what you want to convey in that paragraph.
Repetition is the recurrence of a word, phrase, technique, or idea throughout a text.
Anaphora can be one or two things:

1. Grammatically, it's when the author uses a pronoun as a replacement for a noun.

For instance:
   'The Prime Minister has said that he doesn't want to invade the arctic tundra.'
- 'The Prime Minister' = Noun (technically Proper Noun, but whatevs)
- 'he' = Pronoun

This is in contrast to cataphora, which is where the pronoun comes before the noun
   'Following her recent interview in which she revealed that she hated puppies, the Vice Chancellor resigned in disgrace.'

It's basically a natural thing for English speakers to do, since otherwise you end up with sentences like:
  'The Prime Minister has said that the Prime Minister doesn't want to invade the arctic tundra'
and
   'Following the Vice Chancellor's recent interview in which the Vice Chancellor revealed that she hated puppies, the Vice Chancellor resigned in disgrace.'

So.. in a way... anaphora is a way for the author to avoid repetition by changing the phrasing around and assigning meaning to certain pronouns.

...but...

2. It also refers to repetition that occurs at the start of successive sentences.

For instance:
'I can't believe that I only scored a 19/20 on my last SAC. I can't believe my teacher could be so stupid. I can't believe I'm anything less than 100% perfect. And I can't believe that she wouldn't give me the extra mark when I begged on my hands and knees.'

In terms of its effect, it's quite similar to repetition, only calling it 'anaphora' when you see it can be a nice way to show off, and it allows you to comment on the way the author might want to create a link between those sentences.

eg.
'There's no justice for the teachers who have been fired. There's no justice for these innocent victims. There's no justice for good, honest people who are just trying to make the world a better place.'

^So in the above, I'm trying to make you view the teachers as innocent victims and good honest people, and the anaphora is helping me accomplish this be creating that rhetorical link in the phraseology.

In a sentence, you'd refer to it like you would any other technique,

eg.
'The author draws attention to the injustice of the issue through her use of anaphora in the phrase "there is no justice" which is reiterated throughout the piece. Not only does this amplify the sense of unfairness, but it also aids the author in establishing a link between the "good, honest" teachers and the notion of "victim[hood]"'

Hope that helps!

Hey Lauren,
I have explored the relationship between Tagaran and Rooke, how her arrival changed his perspective. Also, I have talked about what he did for the Indigenous people.

[literally lauren]

Hey Lauren,
I have explored the relationship between Tagaran and Rooke, how her arrival changed his perspective. Also, I have talked about what he did for the Indigenous people.

If you're doing a standard expository essay, you don't necessarily have to use the text in every paragraph. In fact, your piece will likely be a lot stronger if you can integrate external evidence and stop things from being too 'text response-y.' So you could look into some real world parallels that pertain to the ideas in the text, eg.
• The Colonial History of Australia
• The Stolen Generation (possibly a bit overused, but still interesting if explored well)
• Kevin Rudd's Sorry Speech
• The 'Closing the Gap' Campaign
• Charity Programs like AIME
• This Debate (started by a radio shock-jock who said we should have another stolen generation for their own good because Indigenous culture is rife with alcohol abuse and low SES living conditions -.-)
• Other examples of racial tension, especially between native and colonial cultures.

Alternatively, if you have to use another example from the text for some reason, consider using it to explore the prompt in some other capacity so that you're not just proving it right. For instance:
'Conflict creates stronger relationships.'
- Why does it create them?
- Do we try to create stronger relationships, or do they happen automatically?
- Is it the conflict that creates these relationships, or our response to the conflict?
- How are these relationships 'stronger?' What does stronger mean? Is stronger better?
- Is this always true? Are there some relationships that are damaged by conflict?
- Why are these relationships important?

Hopefully that'll help get you started

[kimmytaaa]

If you're doing a standard expository essay, you don't necessarily have to use the text in every paragraph. In fact, your piece will likely be a lot stronger if you can integrate external evidence and stop things from being too 'text response-y.' So you could look into some real world parallels that pertain to the ideas in the text, eg.
• The Colonial History of Australia
• The Stolen Generation (possibly a bit overused, but still interesting if explored well)
• Kevin Rudd's Sorry Speech
• The 'Closing the Gap' Campaign
• Charity Programs like AIME
• This Debate (started by a radio shock-jock who said we should have another stolen generation for their own good because Indigenous culture is rife with alcohol abuse and low SES living conditions -.-)
• Other examples of racial tension, especially between native and colonial cultures.

Alternatively, if you have to use another example from the text for some reason, consider using it to explore the prompt in some other capacity so that you're not just proving it right. For instance:
'Conflict creates stronger relationships.'
- Why does it create them?
- Do we try to create stronger relationships, or do they happen automatically?
- Is it the conflict that creates these relationships, or our response to the conflict?
- How are these relationships 'stronger?' What does stronger mean? Is stronger better?
- Is this always true? Are there some relationships that are damaged by conflict?
- Why are these relationships important?

Hopefully that'll help get you started

hey Lauren
are you able to read my essay if you are free? Ill message you

[literally lauren]

hey Lauren
are you able to read my essay if you are free? Ill message you

Will do; I'm happy to give general tips via PM, but if you want full corrections/feedback, post it here and I'll get back to you

[Gogo14]

If i decided to write an essay each week, what could I write about and how can I motivate myself to continue this routine throughout the year as I often slack off. 

[literally lauren]

If i decided to write an essay each week, what could I write about and how can I motivate myself to continue this routine throughout the year as I often slack off. 

If you're the kind of student who doesn't stick to timetables and study regimes normally, then committing to an essay per week is probably just going to burn you out and leave you detesting English by the end of the year.

Instead of angling for numerical goals, try and work on your qualitative weaknesses instead. Make a big list of everything you'd like to change about your current ability level, or perhaps a list of all the things you wished you knew how to do... for instance:
- get better at writing topic sentences
- be able to think of the right evidence when writing in time conditions
- learn how to do visual analysis for L.A.
- be able to remember more varied quotes and use them in sentences
- stop myself from repeating words in the prompts over and over again in essays
- be able to express ideas more efficiently

..etc.
and you can just target one or two of those goals each week. So your starting point might be to post here and/or ask your teacher about some area of assistance (e.g. remembering a greater variety of quotes and implementing them in your analysis --> 'yo teacher, can you show me how to do this?' + 'sup ATAR Notes, lend me your wisdom.') Then from there, you have to write, say a paragraph where you test this out. You can mix and match here; maybe it's a paragraph one week, an essay plan the next, and a full essay the week after that - it's up to you - whatever you think will be most effective for that specific point of weakness. After that, you can post what you've done or give it to your teacher to check, use that feedback to refine what you've done, and then move on to the next point.

I guarantee doing this^ will be far more efficient than just churning out an essay every week and hoping that improvement happens automatically, and it'll make you feel better since there'll be a tangible sense of progress you're making (i.e. 'On Monday, I didn't know how to write conclusions for Text Response; now it's Friday, and I do. I am an English god!') as opposed to having a pile of essays at the end of the year with nothing to show for it.

[eth-dog]

Hey, i don't know if this is a bit of an obvious question but how would you introduce an argument into an oral. Would you just go straight in for example ' a common argument is...' or would you introduce the argument somewhat secretly and very smooth?

Thanks in advance