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VCE Stuff => VCE English Studies => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE English & EAL => Topic started by: 09Ti08 on August 09, 2013, 09:41:04 pm

Title: How to deal with topics that have two contrastive ideas?
Post by: 09Ti08 on August 09, 2013, 09:41:04 pm

Hello,

I can't come up with a proper terminology for this type of topic, so I apologize if the title confused anyone.

I am talking about essay topics that have the phrase "even though". For example, for "A Christmas Carol", we can have a topic like "even though Scrooge's transformation is too abrupt to be realistically convincing, Charles Dickens' Christmas message is still clear". It confused me at first because I never came across anything like this, so help would be appreciated!

1/ Do you think that I need to discuss both ideas in my essay? If yes, then how many paragraphs for each?
2/ Should I try to make a connection between the two ideas and discuss them in my essay? Is a cause and effect relationship a good idea to start with?

Title: Re: How to deal with topics that has two contrastive ideas?
Post by: teacher28 on August 11, 2013, 07:57:05 am

Here are some of the questions your essay should answer:

How is he transformed? (Before and after.)

Is it too abrupt? In what ways? Does that matter?

What is Dickens' message?

Be careful with this... remember it is not a review but a discussion of your opinion on a topic with explanation and evidence.

Title: Re: How to deal with topics that has two contrastive ideas?
Post by: Limista on August 11, 2013, 09:23:30 am

Quote from: 09Ti08 on August 09, 2013, 09:41:04 pm

Hello,

I can't come up with a proper terminology for this type of topic, so I apologize if the title confused anyone.

I am talking about essay topics that have the phrase "even though". For example, for "A Christmas Carol", we can have a topic like "even though Scrooge's transformation is too abrupt to be realistically convincing, Charles Dickens' Christmas message is still clear". It confused me at first because I never came across anything like this, so help would be appreciated!

1/ Do you think that I need to discuss both ideas in my essay? If yes, then how many paragraphs for each?
2/ Should I try to make a connection between the two ideas and discuss them in my essay? Is a cause and effect relationship a good idea to start with?

Question 1) So there are a few options for paragraphs. I'd write about all these, so then you have four body paragraphs:
a) Scrooge's transformation is NOT too abrupt to be realistically convincing, so Dicken's message is clear
b) Scrooge's transformation IS too abrupt to be realistically convincing, so Dicken's message is clear
c) Scrooge's transformation IS to abrupt to be realistically convincing,so Dicken's message is unclear
d) Scrooge's transformation is NOT too abrupt to be realistically convincing, so Dicken's message is unclear 

Question 2). Definitely make a connection - will get you higher marks because it shows more sophisticated analysis. The topic sentences (obviously will have to vary terminology so you don't sound like a robot) given above should provide the framework for each paragraph. Try and find things in your text that support each of these topic sentences.