ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE English Studies => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English & EAL => Topic started by: cathtacular on October 28, 2008, 01:00:43 pm
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context is by far my most hated essay on the exam and my teacher told me thats why i should practice it... feedback would be awesome
"the place in which we live has an impact on our understanding of the world"
its a speech...
Every person in this room has a unique way of perceiving the world surrounding them, this statement is rarely challenged. Upon wondering what it is that determines our perception of the world I have concluded that it is the place in which we live that shapes the way we view our surrounding world. Ladies and gentleman, I am going to explain to you how threelandscapes are effected by where we live.
These landscapes, cultural, environmental, and personal are all greatly impacted on where a person lives.
I would like to start of by telling you about my father and my brother. When I was young my father would go away on an annual fishing trip with his friends every year, this fishing trip was there tradition and had lived prior to my grandfather. When my brother turned 18 he was then invited on this annual expedition where their ‘boys weekend’ was never discussed outside the walls created by the thick scrub surrounding them. This tradition was vital to the culture in our small town community, where all the men took such pride in this trip away from their normal lives. Sadly, my brother now lives in inner Melbourne and doesn’t go fishing any more as there is no great lake for him to escape to. This cultural tradition of fishing was created by the landscape of the town we used to inhabit. For my brother the importance of this tradition no longer resides with him because of the impossibility of him sustaining such a tradition within his new home.
I too live in inner Melbourne, I have a friend who moved to Horsham last year to help her family on their farm. My friend constantly reminds me that we have great water restrictions in place, I know that because of her consistent reminders I only spend two minutes in the shower, however I also know many of my friends do not understand the severity of the drought in rural Victoria. In Melbourne, there isn’t dry dams and constant reminders of our lack of water, instead there is free flowing faucets and great swimming pools filled with water. We do not see how the drought is effecting us because we do not live in the centre of its devastation, where as my friend sees first hand what a lack of water means for her family and their community. Because we cannot see then we do not know, my friend understands how precious water is because she lives everyday trying to conserve as much water as she possibly can, while in the city we do not see water as a precious luxury, instead we waste so much every day. My friend perceives this importance of her environment because she is submerged in its effects every day, in the city, we are uneducated to the importance of water conservation because of the lack of importance it is to us in suburbia at this time.
Just like I do not fully comprehend the effects of drought our country does not see the effects of many external issues that have risen. Australia is a lucky country, generally we feel safe in our homes we sometimes forget that other people do not feel safe because we do. Its hard to sympathise with an issue if it does not concern you, in the middle east people are fearful of their lives, they have personal physical and emotional scars that we will never be able to contemplate. What they do and where they live effect a person’s personal landscape. I myself believe I am very lucky and secure however, a documentary on tv last week gave me insight into people trapped in the middle east, these people were scared and had many mental scars, they often seemed that the world was an unfair and cruel place. This view of the world shocked me as it was in stark contrast to my own beliefs. I could not imagine the world being so cruel that you could hide away, I think the world is a wonderful place. This initial reaction of mine was probably a little unfair but given the chance to rethink the my view I understand that if I was in the same situation, a world ravished with war, then I too would probably believe the world to be a cruel and uninviting place. The lucky landscape we live in made me realise just how much of an impact where we live has on how we view the world.
As you can see a person’s view on the world is characterised on where they live, the environment one inhabits inevitably controls our views and values. We are given better understandings of the issues that affect us most, and gain insight and adopt values important to our heritage, our personal reflections reflect what is important around us in our external landscape and not just in our mental minds.
thanks...
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this is for the imaginative landscape?
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Your discussion is very good, however, you need to use your texts. I can't find any discussion in relation to Fly Away Peter / Jindabyne / Island / Robert Frost poems, which is concerning since context pieces are expected to have about 50% from your texts. In your last body paragraph, for example, link your war discussion with Fly Away Peter and Jim's experiences at the war. And when you talk about the fishing anecdote, perhaps relate it to Jindabyne.
My two cents.
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context pieces are expected to have about 50% from your texts...
Really? I was told to keep text references to at MOST 50% as the context essay is supposed to be more of an exploration of ideas than text response (which it could resemble if you use too many text references).
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we were told to keep it 70% (ideas) - 30% (textual).
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context pieces are expected to have about 50% from your texts...
Really? I was told to keep text references to at MOST 50% as the context essay is supposed to be more of an exploration of ideas than text response (which it could resemble if you use too many text references).
Ahh, really? Maybe i've been told something different, i've heard quite a few things about context but I generally thought that ideas are drawn primarily from the texts, so i've been doing more text based responses. I think how much text you want to put is ultimately up to you, but I'm assuming that you at least must make a few references to them.
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we had a guest lecturer come out to our school, and she said (and I don't if this is right) that you don't have to specifically show examples from the text there just has to be a link...
???
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Wow, really? So many different opinions. Sorry cathtacular, I may be wrong, forgot what I said about 50% text.
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we had a guest lecturer come out to our school, and she said (and I don't if this is right) that you don't have to specifically show examples from the text there just has to be a link...
???
Yeah pretty much you have to make references to the text. You don't necessarily have to quote from the text, but some sort of link has to be demonstrated.
The main focus of your context essay are ideas surrounding the context, and the way you merge language and style to convey your ideas to your audience.
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In a piece like this it's fine not to use them since it'd just be absurd to suddenly bring in, 'OH and that reminds me of how in Jindabyne...' But yes, as long as you have some CLEAR LINKS TO YOUR TEXTS (I wouldn't know, haven't studied these texts) then its all good. Even in a piece like this, perhaps slipping in some quotes from the book and putting them as your own words would work well (perhaps even just underlining this to make it more obvious to the examiner might help, I think they'll get the message) because nevertheless, there is still a criteria for clear links to the text, and I wouldn't want to be gambling my English score on an examiner realising the subtle links to your text.
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As for the '50%' rule, I'd say it's basically an 'all or nothing' situation. If you begin to directly reference your text, then since it's meant to be a 'predominate text', then yes, I assume you'd have to keep using it and make it dominate over all other supplementary material (hence, around 50%). But yeh, if you don't directly reference it at all and just subtly link to it, then none is fine also.
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Yeah, I also heard there's got to be links with the text.
But sometimes its really hard to integrate, because it goes against it :(
why can't english more simple, it's like the most thing you've ever seen lol
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my school got told to keep it under 50% because u studied the text for a reason. ... whats the point in studying it if u dont show examiners how much u can incorporate. if u add reality ur may just end up retellng ur life / things thats been in the media that everyone already knows.
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I'm not sure why people keep throwing around 'percentages'. You can write an essay and not even directly mention the text - just simply the ideas and concepts generated from it are fine. If your doing 'The Crucible' (Encountering Conflict) you can even just talk about Arthur Millers motivation for writing the play as a result of encountering his very own conflict and not even write anything about the actual play - because, your ideas stem from the novel itself. Anyway, this is basically what I was told by a chief assessor (Ross Huggard).
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Like I said, I'd say it's more of an all or nothing situation. If you do start using them, make sure you're consistent with that and maintain it as a primary text. But yeh, there's nothing wrong with not directly referencing them everywhere even in an expository, although I don't see why you wouldn't.
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if its 50% it sounds like a text response lol.
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i tried to use connections to the text subtly, more the themes, like tradition in jindabyne with the fishing trip, besides the text stuff, is there other criticisms like flow and grammar and things anyone has comments on?? thanks
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oh STRAIGHT ANSWERS PLEASE LOL >.<
im so confused :(
section A B C is what i know them as. not text response and stuff. im confused :(
so whats actually correct?
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Umm do you mean:
Section A = Text Response
Section B = Context Writing
Section C = Analysis
?
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yes thankyou :)
i didnt every refer sections to those names i just thought A, B, C ty :)
no i need to know which one can incorporate real life things and how much etc... coz yeah i dont wanna walk in and write EVERYTHING on the texts and nothing on real life... and examiners get bored of me :(
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I do pretty much exactly 50% and the examiner I've handed work to was fine with that.
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so say like you have 6 paragraphs not including intro and conclusion.... and 3 of them are made up of real life things?
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Real life things including:
-historical information
-current events
-real life examples
Eg. Today I wrote a context essay that ended up taking about
- legal and political factors associated with euthanasia
- and Melbourne Victory supporter groups in relation to:
"In the modern world, there are obstacles to maintaining personal independence"
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so say like you have 6 paragraphs not including intro and conclusion.... and 3 of them are made up of real life things?
I tend to have 3 body paragraphs, one for each idea with one example from my text which demonstrates that idea, followed by one example from supplementary material which demonstrates that idea
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so say like you have 6 paragraphs not including intro and conclusion.... and 3 of them are made up of real life things?
I tend to have 3 body paragraphs, one for each idea with one example from my text which demonstrates that idea, followed by one example from supplementary material which demonstrates that idea
Same here. With each of my 4 paragraphs, I follow my topic sentence with examples from the text then I tie it together with broader ideas/an anecdote.
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do you specifically refer to the text or just ideas or themes in the texts?
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so say like you have 6 paragraphs not including intro and conclusion.... and 3 of them are made up of real life things?
I tend to have 3 body paragraphs, one for each idea with one example from my text which demonstrates that idea, followed by one example from supplementary material which demonstrates that idea
Same here. With each of my 4 paragraphs, I follow my topic sentence with examples from the text then I tie it together with broader ideas/an anecdote.
ANECDOTE!!! i was looking for that word for like 3 days now! ty for the memory boost :)
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The lecture I went to on the weekend, suggested really, no more then 30% text examples. The emphasis is on the 'big picture ideas'.
Im basically, having an intro with no text, just broad ideas, same with 1 other paragraph, then including a general paragraphs with text based examples to support my contention really. I'm trying to work in a personal reflection if it fits the prompt, I',m finding the context the easiest piece to write, and its my highest scoring piece too!
How is everyone else (who is doing Imaginative Landscape) including the 'imaginative' part of their discussion? Id be interested to see.
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im doing the imaginative landscape. do u think the prompt will be similar to the one in the sample 2008 exam? cause it was for the vate sample one.
would you by any chance have any other prompts from practice exams?
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so say like you have 6 paragraphs not including intro and conclusion.... and 3 of them are made up of real life things?
I tend to have 3 body paragraphs, one for each idea with one example from my text which demonstrates that idea, followed by one example from supplementary material which demonstrates that idea
Same here. With each of my 4 paragraphs, I follow my topic sentence with examples from the text then I tie it together with broader ideas/an anecdote.
I am doing it in a similar manner, and my teacher really loves it.
In the exam i will be writing an expository piece with three body paragraphs. Each paragraph will deal with a seperate idea, and i will use evidence from the text to back it up. In my third paragraph i have now changed my course of direction - i will most likely include a different form of evidence (i.e an external example relating to history or something) just to give the examiners what they want. For 'Whose Reality' i usually talk a lot about a lot of philosophical matters such as morals and beliefs influencing perceptions and individual characteristics forming the basis of these morals. Nevertheless, i have also been told to remove a small smount of the textual evidence i have been including merely to make it not seem like a text response.
I think expository writing is so easy and enjoyable - i don't understand this whole percentage thing like jsimmo argued, but basically, this AOS is so broad that nearly anything goes. My only advice would be to not write a short story that goes on a rampage and deals with none of the ideas from the text/context. If you're writing in a creative manner, and closely relating the ideas to the prompt and to the text, then i think the examiners will treat each student differently.
Additionally, this is new to the study design, so of course everyone has different perspectives on how much evidence you should include and what form you should write it. The examiners are going to be marking a lot of varied pieces of writing - some will be deplorable, and others (like all of ours) will be extraordinarily awesome. Nontheless, everyone is different, just as the Context's argue, haha.
Sorry for my rant.
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Hmm so what I've been doing for my persuasive context essay is:
Introduction: no mention of texts, general introduction to prompt, work in the ideas explored in the essay
Paragraph format: About 3-4 sentences discussing paragraph idea, then 1 or 2 examples from the text. If more than once stance can be taken about the idea, then I'll write another 2-3 sentences about the alternative view with an example or two from the text.
Usually 3-4 paragraphs, each with new ideas. Usually refer to real life events if possible.
Conclusion: no mention of text, sum up ideas and restate contention, usually end with a famous quote (yay for google quotes :D)
Would this be acceptable? I use 3 books to refer to for my ideas.
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That's how I'm planning to do my piece. I'm planning to write an imaginative piece (kind of like a story), with 5 or 6 paragraphs, and briefly relate it to my main text (The Secret River). I guess I will go through it in such a way that at the beginning, I will have the issue unsolved, and ultimately, there will be alternative ways to resolve the issue. I don't really think I should mention any other texts besides the one I need to mention. Is this really a good idea, or would it seem too bland?
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im doing the imaginative landscape. do u think the prompt will be similar to the one in the sample 2008 exam? cause it was for the vate sample one.
would you by any chance have any other prompts from practice exams?
Yeah I reckon that it will be quite broad. I have a few if you want them.
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sissqo i have a bajillion of practice imaginative prompts which i will post tomorrow as i am going to sleep now :)
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sissqo i have a bajillion of practice imaginative prompts which i will post tomorrow as i am going to sleep now :)
Oh, yes please, that would be awesome :)
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I've always gone 70% texts and 30% ideas. I severely don’t trust the examiners to seek my links without spelling it out to them. Expository essays would pretty much have to go this way unless your writting a personal reflective exposity piece which is more 40/60. Short stories are just death on paper....
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yes the prompts would be awesome!
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im generally going to template my expository essay's paragraphs as:
1) personal experience
2) my nominated text
3) contemporary issue
i think an expository piece is the best option to choose. i just dont see how you can EXPLORE the ideas of the prompt effectively in a persuasive form, given as you are lending yourself to a one-sided opinion. for imaginative, it may be a good option to choose if your writing and creative talent is very, very good; however, if it isnt, the implicit links seem like a gamble.
just my opinion though...
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i have about 15 which i will upload here or in the notes section??
could you please give my piece a mark out of 10 (at the very beginning of this thread)
thanks :)