Questions about language analysis in the exam

[soccerboi]

1. Are students informed prior to the exam whether they will be analysing one or two articles, or do we have to be prepared for both?

2. Will the article/s always be accompanied by a visual element/image or are there times when there will just be an article/s without any visual to be analysed?

Thanks

[Liuy]

1. Prepare for both
2. VCAA has placed an emphasis on analyzing visuals, so there most likely will be at least one image if not more.

[Seems madam?]

You won't know how many texts for language analysis will be in the exam so prepare for both.

You can be certain that there will be an image in the text for language analysis. I can't find the quote from VCAA but our teachers told us that there will definitely be an image in the exam; I think there is a line in the study design saying that we'll have to be able to analyse "visual features", so how else would they examine this without an image?

[aabattery]

Re language analysis... be prepared for anything!!
vcaa could give you anything and expect you to analyse it so just be ready to be very flexible... (in the exam...)

[EvangelionZeta]

Following on from what aabattery said, I would seriously suggest developing a couple of emergency strategies for very strange language analysis tasks (eg. the 2011 one...).  You can't be sure of what they might give you, so try and make said strategy as broad as possible (eg. "If there is one strange thing, I will give it its own paragraph" or something along those lines)

[soccerboi]

Ok thanks everyone, jus out of curiosity, what was wrong with the 2011 exam for lang analysis? Ive heard a lot of people complaining about it.

[pi]

Ok thanks everyone, jus out of curiosity, what was wrong with the 2011 exam for lang analysis? Ive heard a lot of people complaining about it.

A few things:
1) Some people did not expect the from of a blog
2) There were comments at the end that many people disregarded
3) Some people wrongly interpreted the pictures wrong (eg. one was actually a book cover)
4) The contention was harder to find than in past exams
5) It was on the longish side

[Panicmode]

Ok thanks everyone, jus out of curiosity, what was wrong with the 2011 exam for lang analysis? Ive heard a lot of people complaining about it.

A few things:
1) Some people did not expect the from of a blog
2) There were comments at the end that many people disregarded
3) Some people wrongly interpreted the pictures wrong (eg. one was actually a book cover)
4) The contention was harder to find than in past exams
5) It was on the longish side

Agreed -_-. Not to mention the whole "stolen article" fiasco...

Moderator action: removed real name, sorry for the inconvenience

[paulsterio]

In addition to what pi's said

1) True, you have to expect really random forms, I expected an article, because 2010 was a speech, didn't think they'd repeat it. But I was wrong
2) I analysed the comments, like I devoted a paragraph to each comment basically.
3) I recognised that one was a book cover, and the other was Maori, but how is that relevant?
4) I still don't understand the contention, I've read it about ten times now, and had people point it out to me
5) It wasn't too long, but there was a really laborious article
6) VCAA pirated it from The Age

I think it was difficult in that it was just not as cohesive and in your face as some of the previous articles.

Moderator action: removed real name, sorry for the inconvenience

[pi]

3) I recognised that one was a book cover, and the other was Maori, but how is that relevant?

I didn't recognise the book cover... Fail.

2) I analysed the comments, like I devoted a paragraph to each comment basically.

Wow, I'm pretty sure I only did two of them.

[ellecee]

I think a lot of people were thrown by the article as many go into the exam thinking that the contention is just either for/against the issue, when it can in fact be quite complicated.
But yeah, the article was a little dodgy with its lack of conventional persuasive techniques and the unexpected comments. Maybe because LA can get quite monotonous for examiners and VCAA are trying to separate students through these dodgy techniques - first the slideshow pics in '10 and now the comments.

[Mech]

In addition to what pi's said...

You got a 42 in English. Quit pining for a higher mark and move on. 

Moderator action: removed real name, sorry for the inconvenience