Thoughts on this Encountering Conflict prompt?

[Felicity Wishes]

Had my last English sac today and the prompts were terrible in my opinion. Out of interest, if you guys had this prompt for Encountering Conflict and The Crucible, how would you go about it?

"In conflict there is never anyone who is completely innocent"

[VivaTequila]

I didn't study the context, but what advice I can give you is this:

Don't do a generic "yes there are people who are bad but there are some people who are in between" or even worse just "yes there are people who are bad" response. That's what 90% of the submitted works on the exam will be like. You need to find a way to be individual, unique, and upbeat, and show the examiner that you know what you're doing.

Maybe discuss some revolutionary conflict in which someone in some bizarre conflict ended up being the good guy to one group or people and the bad guy to others, but in some twist the roles reversed, or something really fucked up like that. Discuss it well and try to be indie, because it gets you marks in English.

Just a caution more than anything of what not to do - I didn't study the context so I can't really recommend what TO do, but I know what would be a poor response just looking at the prompt.

[Yendall]

"In conflict there is never anyone who is completely innocent"

You could discuss a lot of things with this prompt. Out of curiosity, why do you think this is 'bad'?

Like VivaTequila has said, don't stick to agreeing or disagreeing with the prompt. Explore it.

[charmanderp]

Remember, this context isn't just about conflict; it's about encountering conflict. You need to explore various possibilities which you can make of the prompt. With the Crucible you'd want to form a thesis on how the different characters find conflict and how their different responses and ethical choices relate to the prompt.

[Felicity Wishes]

"In conflict there is never anyone who is completely innocent"

You could discuss a lot of things with this prompt. Out of curiosity, why do you think this is 'bad'?

Like VivaTequila has said, don't stick to agreeing or disagreeing with the prompt. Explore it.

I thought it was 'bad' because out of all of the themes we had time to study for, this was the one that I neglected. I generally find context prompts okay to explore but this one I was just stumped. -__-

[Yendall]

"In conflict there is never anyone who is completely innocent"

You could discuss a lot of things with this prompt. Out of curiosity, why do you think this is 'bad'?

Like VivaTequila has said, don't stick to agreeing or disagreeing with the prompt. Explore it.

I thought it was 'bad' because out of all of the themes we had time to study for, this was the one that I neglected. I generally find context prompts okay to explore but this one I was just stumped. -__-

Seems odd that you didn't have time to study innocence in the text. It's a major factor in the irony of it all.
You could've talked about:

• Abigail Williams ironic 'innocence' ultimately being one of the biggest sources of evil
• An innocent society crumbling to corruption
• Concepts of Puritan lifestyle, and how they are seemingly unbreakable until reality hits them, and they have nowhere to turn but their gospels
• McCarthyism and how innocent people were accused of communism, and why this was such an issue
• Arthur Millers comparison between Joseph McCarthys antagonism of the innocent and how that is mirrored with Salem as a community
• McCarthyisms political stance in comparison with Salems political stance (outline how a corrupt court can have the ultimate power, even if it is filled with moral indecency)

With these points, to relate them to the prompt you could address that when conflict appears to the communities, no-one remains innocent. They find ways to deal with the conflict which is mostly negative. The community of Salem turn to Lucifer, and whatever Lucifer encompasses they will find and they will end, no matter how innocent one seems to be they will almost always turn to evil.

However, arguments of the prompt could state that there are innocent people like the characters of Giles Corey, Rebecca Nurse etc. Which probably should be discussed somewhere. I personally wouldn't agree completely with the prompt, and I do agree that it is very hard to pick a side, but if you're writing in an expository style you can easily outline that the majority of people who encounter conflict aren't innocent or vice versa depending on your opinion.

[Felicity Wishes]

"In conflict there is never anyone who is completely innocent"

You could discuss a lot of things with this prompt. Out of curiosity, why do you think this is 'bad'?

Like VivaTequila has said, don't stick to agreeing or disagreeing with the prompt. Explore it.

I thought it was 'bad' because out of all of the themes we had time to study for, this was the one that I neglected. I generally find context prompts okay to explore but this one I was just stumped. -__-

Seems odd that you didn't have time to study innocence in the text. It's a major factor in the irony of it all.
You could've talked about:

• Abigail Williams ironic 'innocence' ultimately being one of the biggest sources of evil
• An innocent society crumbling to corruption
• Concepts of Puritan lifestyle, and how they are seemingly unbreakable until reality hits them, and they have nowhere to turn but their gospels
• McCarthyism and how innocent people were accused of communism, and why this was such an issue
• Arthur Millers comparison between Joseph McCarthys antagonism of the innocent and how that is mirrored with Salem as a community
• McCarthyisms political stance in comparison with Salems political stance (outline how a corrupt court can have the ultimate power, even if it is filled with moral indecency)

We didn't actually cover any themes in class and the teacher told us to stick with the essay questions she gave us and only one was about innocence/guilty and we were just told to do it in our own time and when I did it was quick and she made no comment on my Crucible paragraph despite it being weak. Hmm. Anyway. Thank you for the pointers.

[Yendall]

"In conflict there is never anyone who is completely innocent"

You could discuss a lot of things with this prompt. Out of curiosity, why do you think this is 'bad'?

Like VivaTequila has said, don't stick to agreeing or disagreeing with the prompt. Explore it.

I thought it was 'bad' because out of all of the themes we had time to study for, this was the one that I neglected. I generally find context prompts okay to explore but this one I was just stumped. -__-

Seems odd that you didn't have time to study innocence in the text. It's a major factor in the irony of it all.
You could've talked about:

• Abigail Williams ironic 'innocence' ultimately being one of the biggest sources of evil
• An innocent society crumbling to corruption
• Concepts of Puritan lifestyle, and how they are seemingly unbreakable until reality hits them, and they have nowhere to turn but their gospels
• McCarthyism and how innocent people were accused of communism, and why this was such an issue
• Arthur Millers comparison between Joseph McCarthys antagonism of the innocent and how that is mirrored with Salem as a community
• McCarthyisms political stance in comparison with Salems political stance (outline how a corrupt court can have the ultimate power, even if it is filled with moral indecency)

We didn't actually cover any themes in class and the teacher told us to stick with the essay questions she gave us and only one was about innocence/guilty and we were just told to do it in our own time and when I did it was quick and she made no comment on my Crucible paragraph despite it being weak. Hmm. Anyway. Thank you for the pointers.

Sorry to hear that, you should have been taught methods that are applicable to every prompt.