VCE English Question Thread

[larissaaa_]

Is anyone studying This Boy's Life and can give me some tips on how to structure an essay around it? Like is it better to structure paragraphs according to characters or thematically? And what are some of the most common examples to structure essays around? I'm averaging A+'s but now my teacher has really high expectations for our last text response SAC on This Boy's Life on Wednesday but I feel like I am absolutely gonna screw it up, all my practice pieces have been horrible and I can't meet the time limit!

[Elizawei]

Hey guys, does anyone have examples of social class conflict that has happened in Australia? Looking for external sources for my context essay, but finding it hard to find real world examples

Thanks in advance

[Adequace]

Hey guys, does anyone have examples of social class conflict that has happened in Australia? Looking for external sources for my context essay, but finding it hard to find real world examples

Thanks in advance

Don Dale Youth Detention Centre.

[Elizawei]

Don Dale Youth Detention Centre.

Oh yeah! Thanks so much

[Sine]

What sort of holiday routine would one have for studying for the english exam? Would it be something like an essay a day?

[HopefulLawStudent]

What sort of holiday routine would one have for studying for the english exam? Would it be something like an essay a day?

Hell no.

If you do an essay a day, I can guarantee that you'll burn out and in the long run that'll be worse. Aim for one/two essays a week on top of like other English stuff that you do re:consolidating notes or whatever. If you aim too high, you'll burn and crash before the English exam and no one wants that.

[larissaaa_]

I've read when doing text response it's bad to structure your paragraph in the agree-agree-disagree order. does that mean if we are challenging the prompt and agreeing to it but also disagreeing in some way in each of our paragraphs we have to talk about why we agree and use examples AND why we also disagree and use examples? How do you do that without fence-sitting?

[HopefulLawStudent]

I've read when doing text response it's bad to structure your paragraph in the agree-agree-disagree order. does that mean if we are challenging the prompt and agreeing to it but also disagreeing in some way in each of our paragraphs we have to talk about why we agree and use examples AND why we also disagree and use examples? How do you do that without fence-sitting?

Pick a side.

I honestly can't think of a way where you can argue a case for agree and then turn around and argue a case for disagree and not get chewed out by an assessor... unless you were a wizard (m'kay, that was a bad joke). seriously tho it's not cohesive enough and reads like you have no idea what you're doing so you're throwing everything at the assessor with the hopes that they'll work it out and give you a 10/10 for trying (doesn't work that way, unfortunately).

[FallingStar]

I've read when doing text response it's bad to structure your paragraph in the agree-agree-disagree order. does that mean if we are challenging the prompt and agreeing to it but also disagreeing in some way in each of our paragraphs we have to talk about why we agree and use examples AND why we also disagree and use examples? How do you do that without fence-sitting?

Lauren explained what to do in this post: Re: I'm not scared essay help
Just that the title may be deceptive, as it is a text that a someone else is doing. Basically, you mostly agree or disagree with the prompt, with you contention being an "Although _______ ultimately ________ " statement.
Eg. Although the central female characters in the film are restricted by other things, ultimately they are limited by their gender.

As that would be the contention already establishes a mostly agree stance, they we need to put some challenge statements. eg. Despite Eve's rise to fame through her defiance of limitations placed upon women, most of the characters in the film are seen to be limited by their gender (probably not the best example). Now, you will need to integrate this sentence into your body paragraphs, as opposed to placing all of your "challenge statements" into one paragraph. Just do one of these per paragraph.

[larissaaa_]

Lauren explained what to do in this post: Re: I'm not scared essay help
Just that the title may be deceptive, as it is a text that a someone else is doing. Basically, you mostly agree or disagree with the prompt, with you contention being an "Although _______ ultimately ________ " statement.
Eg. Although the central female characters in the film are restricted by other things, ultimately they are limited by their gender.

As that would be the contention already establishes a mostly agree stance, they we need to put some challenge statements. eg. Despite Eve's rise to fame through her defiance of limitations placed upon women, most of the characters in the film are seen to be limited by their gender (probably not the best example). Now, you will need to integrate this sentence into your body paragraphs, as opposed to placing all of your "challenge statements" into one paragraph. Just do one of these per paragraph.

Thankyou! So basically, in each paragraph we just need a sentence or two challenging the prompt, but do we need examples from the text also challenging the prompt? So for example, if the prompt was "men and violence are inextricably linked in This Boy's Life" I would have my contention as something like: Although Wolff (the author) presents some of his male characters as somewhat benevolent and compassionate, ultimately men are shown to be linked to violence as they strive to achieve the American Dream. Then in each of my paragraphs I'll explain how the men are violent and give examples, then have like a few sentences here and there reminding the reader that not all of the men in the novel are violent? Or do I need to also need some examples in each of my paragraphs as to why not all of them are violent? I feel like I'm still contradicting myself

[Sine]

Hell no.

If you do an essay a day, I can guarantee that you'll burn out and in the long run that'll be worse. Aim for one/two essays a week on top of like other English stuff that you do re:consolidating notes or whatever. If you aim too high, you'll burn and crash before the English exam and no one wants that.

What would you or anyone else here suggest?

Any examples from people who have completed english previously?

[blacksanta62]

Yo guys, this may be personal preference, but how do I write a killer introduction for text response? It's been 6 months since I've written a text response and I have a SAC next Thurs. Would you recommend embedding quotes into intro?

Thanks

[goodbye]

So I've been reading a lot Ianguage analysis essays lately and a few of the high scoring ones used contractions; isn't this like one of the greatest no-no's of essay writing? Or is it just a language analysis thing cause it's not really an essay?

[blacksanta62]

So I've been reading a lot Ianguage analysis essays lately and a few of the high scoring ones used contractions; isn't this like one of the greatest no-no's of essay writing? Or is it just a language analysis thing cause it's not really an essay?

Really? Yeah, my English teacher has warned us that using informal language will change the quality of a piece. Could you provide just a snippet please? Maybe the analysis of the language used overshadowed it. I personally got a 17/20 for language analysis back in term 2 and I too read high range responses.

That mark brings me to my question: How can I improve my expression in my essay's? I think some of my sentences read awkwardly and when the teachers are cross marking, my mark is reduced as a result. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Also, when reading a novel, what things should I be annotating in pencil? Key quotes (short and sweet), important scenes etc. The novel I am reading is In the county of men by Hisham Matar.

Thank you

[goodbye]

Really? Yeah, my English teacher has warned us that using informal language will change the quality of a piece. Could you provide just a snippet please? Maybe the analysis of the language used overshadowed it. I personally got a 17/20 for language analysis back in term 2 and I too read high range responses.

That mark brings me to my question: How can I improve my expression in my essay's? I think some of my sentences read awkwardly and when the teachers are cross marking, my mark is reduced as a result. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Also, when reading a novel, what things should I be annotating in pencil? Key quotes (short and sweet), important scenes etc. The novel I am reading is In the county of men by Hisham Matar.

Thank you

Um, this isn't really one of the high scoring ones, but it's from Lauren's (so 'high scoring' in essence  ) blogpost on language analysis structure:

"...praise was welcome, it shouldn't be an expected part of..." (from her sample intro)

Also, I've done a bit more digging and I've found that a similar question was asked a few pages back. Someone answered that it's okay as along as it doesn't "mar your clarity". Can someone please second this? Also, is it just a L.A thing?