VCE English Question Thread

[Mhysa]

Hi guys
Can someone tells me what quotes I can insert in this paragraph relating to how photographs serve as a means to authenticate the events depicted in MAUS, since I heard it is vital to have more than two quotes in each body paragraph.

Photographs serve as an authentication of the story as they illustrate that the Holocaust did indeed happen and that the characters within ‘The Complete MAUS’ are real people. The inclusion of three “human” photographs authenticates the story   by offering “analogical images of ‘real’ human beings. These photographs corroborate the truth of the story being told. The second photo in the graphic novel is of Richieu, Art’s older brother. To see a picture of a small child who was killed during the war add even more to the seriousness of the events depicted. Even though Richieu appears early in the narrative drawn by Spiegalman as a small mouse, the actual photograph of Richieu reinforces and illustrates how real the events of 1930s are. Furthermore, the last photograph in ‘The Complete MAUS’, Vladek’s souvenir photo illustrates the reality of the holocaust as it depicts Vladek wearing a camp uniform. The “human” Vladek appears shockingly real, in contrast to his minimalist ‘mouse form throughout the text. The photographs serve as reminders of the reality of Vladek’s story, pulling the reader back from any fantasy world that reading Maus might have created.

[sarah2403]

heyy so with discuss prompts like Medea is a cautionary tale about being consumed by emotion. Discuss. would it be ok to use the following ideas for an essay
- The play Medea warns against allowing emotions to consume you
   - eg. character of Medea - emotion clouds reason - kills children
- The tale warns against allowing emotions to rule your decisions
   - eg. character of Jason - ambition rules decision - loses everything
- Medea also serves as a warning against inflicting patriarchal views
   - eg. views of women allow Medea to succeed bc she can manipulate men
   - eg. Medea's anger at role fuels her desire for revenge

thanks

[literally lauren]

"The worst affront to Medea is the desecration of her pride" Do you agree?

"Conflict stretches back into the past as well as into the future".

Can someone please help break these prompts down into arguments for me? How do I get three arguments for each, I've literally been avoiding these prompts for so long because they were so difficult.

What exactly were you having trouble with?
And don't worry, they were meant to be super hard, and even the simple act of thinking about them puts you ahead of a vast number of people around the state who only ever even think about the easy stuff!

In TR, is it better to have 1 example with through discussion or two examples that are more brief

Try to mix it up between the two. It can depend on the prompt as well; sometimes a 'depth-y' approach is more useful than a 'breadth-y' one.

being pragmatic here- i dont think i can remember a huge amount of quotes for MABO by tmr, lets say a write an essay of like 6-7/10, but do not have a huge selection of quotes/even modify-almost make up- a quote or two, and i have a pretty strict/smart assessor who catches on to that- how much would i be penalised? im thinking maybe a drop of a mark. Most of my evidence will be film technique based/example based.
thanks to whoever replies <3

It's okay to draw from techniques too, but try and mix it up with at least a couple of quotes per paragraph - hopefully that's achievable no matter what the prompt is.

Hi guys
Can someone tells me what quotes I can insert in this paragraph relating to how photographs serve as a means to authenticate the events depicted in MAUS, since I heard it is vital to have more than two quotes in each body paragraph.

Try to go back to the text and find quotes that support your assertions; there's not much point in me suggesting random bits of evidence to you! Ask yourself how do I know when you're making those assertions about what the text means or what the characters think/feel, and that should help you find some quotes to draw from

heyy so with discuss prompts like Medea is a cautionary tale about being consumed by emotion. Discuss. would it be ok to use the following ideas for an essay
- The play Medea warns against allowing emotions to consume you
   - eg. character of Medea - emotion clouds reason - kills children
- The tale warns against allowing emotions to rule your decisions
   - eg. character of Jason - ambition rules decision - loses everything
- Medea also serves as a warning against inflicting patriarchal views
   - eg. views of women allow Medea to succeed bc she can manipulate men
   - eg. Medea's anger at role fuels her desire for revenge
thanks

Definitely! Just be careful with your final paragraph as that might come across as a bit off-topic unless you can work in the idea of emotion in there too. But overall, that should give you a nice breadth of points to discuss!

[HopefulLawStudent]

Aaaaand I'm reading the dictionary again. 

Could you please check I'm using the underlined words correctly?

For the 2014 VCAA:

For Laikis' contention: Could we have said that Laikis is seeking to negate the support Yergon may have engendered by derisively attack her and her support for space exploration as delusional?

[literally lauren]

Aaaaand I'm reading the dictionary again. 

Could you please check I'm using the underlined words correctly?

For the 2014 VCAA:

For Laikis' contention: Could we have said that Laikis is seeking to negate ✓ the support Yergon may have engendered by derisively ✓ attacking her and her support for space exploration as delusional?

- undermines, challenging, or invalidating would also work as synonyms for 'negate' in this context
- derisively is a great word to characterise Laikis' tone in this case!

[HopefulLawStudent]

Thanks Lauren

Also:

Would "prevaricate" be too evaluative for LA?

[P.GUAN]

Hi Lauren,
For Section C should I use 2 language techniques per paragraph?

Thanks!!

[literally lauren]

Thanks Lauren

Also:

Would "prevaricate" be too evaluative for LA?

I swear I've used it once or twice, but in hindsight, it probably came across as evaluative, yeah. Maybe stick with a safer verb like 'suggests' and just use a tonal adverb to modify it if you find something that seems like an example of prevarication. Unless you get a piece where the author is condemning someone else for prevaricating, in which case you can use it Best to stick with safe alternatives for main verbs though; always play to your strengths in the exam!

Hi Lauren,
For Section C should I use 2 language techniques per paragraph?

Thanks!!

Aim for more than two, if possible. 2 per paragraph would only give you, like six overall, unless you plan on writing a heap of body paragraphs? And you'd need to incorporate the visual too, which also counts as analysis.

Remember that you can talk about other things like CONNOTATIONS too!

[knightrider]

This question is being asked for a friend.

first he asked me i havent done any timed pieces at all for english, but he said he knows the things from his text/ context.
He asked me how worried he should be about time?
i said if he knows everything good enough he should be able to handle the time constraints fine.

He wanted other peoples opinion on this what do you guys think ?

[EllaD]

hey guys,

so i just came across something on vce discussion space that said you shouldn't talk about 2 texts in context? i have been doing this all year and have been getting a+'s so i'm kind of confused, do assessors really care if you use one or two texts ??

thanks

[P.GUAN]

Hi Lauren,

So if I am writing about connotations in section C,  can I dedicate one whole body paragraph to connotations?

Thanks again!!

[HopefulLawStudent]

Lauren

For language analysis

HOW: language technique
WHY: author's intention
SO: effect on reader

Right?

What's the diff between WHY and SO?

[literally lauren]

This question is being asked for a friend.

first he asked me i havent done any timed pieces at all for english, but he said he knows the things from his text/ context.
He asked me how worried he should be about time?
i said if he knows everything good enough he should be able to handle the time constraints fine.

He wanted other peoples opinion on this what do you guys think ?

Tbh, not having done any time trials whatsoever might put your friend at a slight disadvantage as he potentially won't have found certain trouble-spots that might affect him in the exam. But you shouldn't tell him anything that's going to freak him out and make him think that he should do a whole 3 hour exam tonight or anything dumb like that Maybe encourage him to do a quick 15 min. reading time exercise just to put his mind at ease?

hey guys,

so i just came across something on vce discussion space that said you shouldn't talk about 2 texts in context? i have been doing this all year and have been getting a+'s so i'm kind of confused, do assessors really care if you use one or two texts ??

thanks

You need to nominate a "main text drawn upon," so whilst it's totally fine if you're using two, you need you need to have one, official 'primary' text

Hi Lauren,

So if I am writing about connotations in section C,  can I dedicate one whole body paragraph to connotations?

Thanks again!!

It's best to talk about connotations alongside the rest of your analysis. Maybe try and have one bit of connotative discussion + three techniques in each paragraph, and possibly a bit of the visual if you really need a formula.

Lauren

For language analysis

HOW: language technique
WHY: author's intention
SO: effect on reader

Right?

What's the diff between WHY and SO?

I'd say

WHAT: language technique
HOW: effect on reader
WHY: link to argument // SO: link to purpose <-- these are basically one and the same

"Why" = 'why would the author want to position readers in this way, or portray this idea as ____?'
"So" = 'so... why would the author...' etc.

Just different terminology that different teachers employ sometimes to make our lives difficult

[larissaaa_]

What exactly were you having trouble with?
And don't worry, they were meant to be super hard, and even the simple act of thinking about them puts you ahead of a vast number of people around the state who only ever even think about the easy stuff!

So for the Medea one, I've literally been staring at it for days and cannot come up with three arguments for it. I've reworded it to "the worst 'insult' to Medea is the 'violation' of her pride", I don't know if that's right but I still can't seem to think of three paragraphs for it!

And the conflict one I'm assuming it's talking about how the history of the conflict can also shape any future conflicts experienced?

[HopefulLawStudent]

Tbh, not having done any time trials whatsoever might put your friend at a slight disadvantage as he potentially won't have found certain trouble-spots that might affect him in the exam. But you shouldn't tell him anything that's going to freak him out and make him think that he should do a whole 3 hour exam tonight or anything dumb like that Maybe encourage him to do a quick 15 min. reading time exercise just to put his mind at ease?
You need to nominate a "main text drawn upon," so whilst it's totally fine if you're using two, you need you need to have one, official 'primary' text
It's best to talk about connotations alongside the rest of your analysis. Maybe try and have one bit of connotative discussion + three techniques in each paragraph, and possibly a bit of the visual if you really need a formula.
I'd say

WHAT: language technique
HOW: effect on reader
WHY: link to argument // SO: link to purpose <-- these are basically one and the same

"Why" = 'why would the author want to position readers in this way, or portray this idea as ____?'
"So" = 'so... why would the author...' etc.

Just different terminology that different teachers employ sometimes to make our lives difficult

What do you mean by link to argument???

I've been doing LA intuitively all year but apparently exam stress is screwing up my intuition...