ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE English Studies => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English & EAL => Topic started by: WhoTookMyUsername on July 29, 2012, 11:07:02 am
-
What examples do you guys use/used from real life for whose reality?
I'm looking for stuff online but not sure where to start (googling "reality" didn't help :P)
(covering all the major areas)
thanks!
-
Psychology, Philosophy, Sociology. Whatever's your poison. If you read the examiner's reports there was even a piece which spent almost half of its time discussing Salvador Dali (2008 I think). Whose Reality tends not to have real life examples in the sense that other Contexts have them. You would be hard-pressed to point to some recent event in the news and that it is 'replete with questions about the nature of reality'; Whose Reality as a context simply isn't like that. It is somewhat more... abstract.
Also if it is the Spies SAC you are preparing for specifically then it would probably be a good idea to identify which areas within Whose Reality are likely to be on the SAC :p (vis-a-vis the themes of the book perhaps). I'm not even sure that any of the prompts last year even contained the word 'reality', which suggests to me that your research is too generalised.
-
yeah it is too generalized at the moment, i wan't to try and narrow it down but i'm not too sure how. I realise nothing perfectly fits whose reality but connections can be found between things in the media (events as opposed to studies is what i'm trying to find) and whose reality but i'm not too sure where to start.
-
yeah it is too generalized at the moment, i wan't to try and narrow it down but i'm not too sure how. I realise nothing perfectly fits whose reality but connections can be found between things in the media (events as opposed to studies is what i'm trying to find) and whose reality but i'm not too sure where to start.
For Spies, I think researching about Memory, Time, Subjectivity/Perception, and the influence of other realities, might be a good step.
There's a few articles that my teacher gave us:
http://www.newscientist.com/special/the-grand-delusion
http://bioedonline.org/news/news.cfm?art=985
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2001/06/28/313347.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/13/our-memories-tell-our-story
-
Don't use random examples though, what are your pieces on? (ie. general ideas you'd have prepared beforehand)
-
one i did today was about "illusions are necessary to escape the reality of life"
-
Well, for all of my pieces, my external references were related to the text. For example, in one of my pieces on Spies, I did a crap load of research into his childhood and his father's memoirs (or something like that). So it was external, but also really easy to relate to any prompt as it was in-line with what I was saying about the text.
What type of external stuff are you looking for? Personally, I found it very difficult to weave things like journal articles or famous quotes or news-stories into my interview format pieces.
-
one i did today was about "illusions are necessary to escape the reality of life"
I'd think that would be more suited for Streetcar?
-
i like spies lol, spies has everything xD
-
LOL, but seriously, that's a Streetcar prompt :P
-
Don't use random examples though
Why not? Its about real life examples, you can choose whoever and whatever you think its suitable with the topic.
I did that with my SACs and it's not too bad
-
Don't use random examples though
Why not? Its about real life examples, you can choose whoever and whatever you think its suitable with the topic.
I did that with my SACs and it's not too bad
Haha, by "random" I actually meant "random", ie. doesn't match the prompt or look like they've been forced into your piece :P Don't use external examples if it's gonna make your piece look really tacky imo.
-
Don't use random examples though
Why not? Its about real life examples, you can choose whoever and whatever you think its suitable with the topic.
I did that with my SACs and it's not too bad
Haha, by "random" I actually meant "random", ie. doesn't match the prompt or look like they've been forced into your piece :P Don't use external examples if it's gonna make your piece look really tacky imo.
Yeah, it'll look like you're kind of pulling at the straws, which won't be great.
i like spies lol, spies has everything xD
Yes, but Spies is more focused on how subjectivity can cloud our perception of the world and how memories of events can change over time. Streetcar is more about Blanche using her illusionary realm to escape from the harshness of reality, and how one's illusions, although protective in nature, are obliterated by the power of the objective reality and can hence damage one's mental stability. So for those type of prompts it would be a lot easier to write with Streetcar.
-
In the two C&P pieces that I've written, I've preferred to make up my own example rather than source historical events. Much more flexible and less to remember.
-
In the two C&P pieces that I've written, I've preferred to make up my own example rather than source historical events. Much more flexible and less to remember.
My teacher actually discouraged that because she felt that the piece then lost a sense of authenticity. Personally, I take the same stance, especially if you are taking an expository or persuasive form (obviously creative is supposed to be creative -> made up or whatever you like).
-
In the two C&P pieces that I've written, I've preferred to make up my own example rather than source historical events. Much more flexible and less to remember.
My teacher actually discouraged that because she felt that the piece then lost a sense of authenticity. Personally, I take the same stance, especially if you are taking an expository or persuasive form (obviously creative is supposed to be creative -> made up or whatever you like).
Yeah fair enough. I guess to each their own, my teacher seems to believe that either are equally merited. That being said, most of the high-scoring pieces that I've seen use non-fictional examples.
-
On the note of real life examples, this is a pic I got last year, worth thinking about for Whose Reality? (it's a real photo btw, and these people have been interviewed about it later) - worth researching it if you think it helps :) (and yes, that is 9-11 occurring in the background :( )
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/02/911-photo-thomas-hoepker-meaning
(http://wevelostcontrol.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/thomas-hoepker-9-11.jpg)