2012 ENGLISH EXAM HELP - Interpreter, The Old Man, Growing Up Asian & General Qs

[werdna]

It's now Mid-August and most of you are now studying for your last English SAC! I have created this thread for exam preparation help for the texts I studied and currently tutor:

- Interpreter of Maladies (Jhumpa Lahiri)
- The Old Man Who Read Love Stories (Rolf De Heer)
- Growing Up Asian In Australia (Alice Pung)
- Language Analysis

If you are studying these texts and need some help, ask away! Ask me anything about these texts and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Feel free to ask general questions about English as well. Hopefully by the exam, this thread will act as a useful resource for everyone studying these texts - you should be starting on your revision and exam preparation very soon.

- PLEASE DO NOT POST UP ANY ESSAYS - DO THIS IN THE ESSAY SUBMISSION FORUM
- PLEASE ONLY POST QUESTIONS ABOUT THE LISTED TEXTS IN THIS THREAD
- FEEL FREE TO ASK GENERAL QUESTIONS ABOUT ENGLISH AS WELL!

[Jenny_2108]

I'm studying GUAIA and there are lots of short stories there. In identity and belonging essay, how many examples should I refer to?
I have a really bad memory lol so how can I remember the name of stories, authors and events?
Like I always remember the wrong author name of the story or the wrong scenario (messed them up most of the time in SACs)

About LA, there are some formulae we can apply but I dont know why the more I practise, the lower mark I got 
How many paragraphs do you recommend in a LA essay? How many examples should I write in a paragraph?
How long is LA essay supposed to be? Normally I write 650-800 words in 45mins. Is it too short?

[FlorianK]

Thanks alot andrew for this thread.

For Interpreter of Maladies:
How do you structered your essays?
One idea - one story, per paragraph or
one idea - multiple stories as evidence

[werdna]

I'm studying GUAIA and there are lots of short stories there. In identity and belonging essay, how many examples should I refer to?
I have a really bad memory lol so how can I remember the name of stories, authors and events?
Like I always remember the wrong author name of the story or the wrong scenario (messed them up most of the time in SACs)

About LA, there are some formulae we can apply but I dont know why the more I practise, the lower mark I got 
How many paragraphs do you recommend in a LA essay? How many examples should I write in a paragraph?
How long is LA essay supposed to be? Normally I write 650-800 words in 45mins. Is it too short?

Thanks for your question!

1. The way you use your set text in a context piece is entirely dependent on you and your chosen style of writing. As an example, I wrote straight expository essays where I would focus on an external example and a story example for each paragraph. I would link these two examples together within that same paragraph, and there would be 3 external examples and 3 stories discussed in the whole essay. In terms of 'remembering' everything, you should focus on studying around 8 to 10 stories and knowing them inside out. Choose stories from a broad range of ideas and values, so that you're not stuck when it comes to choosing stories for your essays!

2. When writing a language analysis, it is crucial that you 'hide' the way you use the essay formula. Everyone uses a formula in some way or form, however it is only the high-scoring students who are able to hide their use and be subtle about it. Make sure that the essay is generally coherent and cohesive. Each paragraph should focus on roughly 3 to 4 examples/techniques, and the overall length should be at least 800-900 words. Aim for 1000-1100 words if you want to get some detail and complexity in there - this is definitely doable in 55 minutes, with practise!

Hope this helps!

[werdna]

Thanks alot andrew for this thread.

For Interpreter of Maladies:
How do you structered your essays?
One idea - one story, per paragraph or
one idea - multiple stories as evidence

Thanks for your question!

For 'Interpreter of Maladies' essays, it is important that you plan these essays with themes, values and messages in mind. That is, do not look at a topic and immediately pick 3 short stories to focus your paragraph on! Most of the essay topics for this text are thematic. Therefore, you should choose 2 thematic ideas (eg. loss and longing, cultural alienation, etc.) that agree/disagree with the topic, and then choose 1 thematic idea that goes against the previous 2 - this acts as your 'however' paragraph which lends your essay to the whole 'perceptive understanding' that examiners look for. In this way, your paragraphs will start out broad with the topic sentence (and therefore zoom out on the idea), then will zoom in and delve deeply into examples from a specific story, and then will go back to broad with a linking sentence that zooms out.

So you're basically writing on 3 thematic ideas that relate to the topic, and you use examples from 1 story each paragraph to support the argument. This avoids the mentality of assigning one story per paragraph, because that only leads to plot retell! Your topic and linking sentences should be broad - and what I mean by this is, avoid mentioning any characters' names or events just yet, as this demonstrates your application of the text to not only the other stories and the whole collection, but also to humanity. To sum up, choose 3 thematic (not plot based) arguments, THEN choose examples from 1 story each paragraph. Whole essay should only need to focus on 3 to 4 stories. Good luck!

[Jenny_2108]

THANKS SO SO MUCH WERDNA 

I learnt about 12 stories but when I did my SAC, I couldnt remember exactly which story matches to which author.
If I study few ones, I wont have enough evidences for my essay because it has to depend on the prompt as well.
About external examples, can I refer to poems, movies, songs as well?  They are easier for me to remember than news

How about text response, how many words should I write to get high scores?

[werdna]

THANKS SO SO MUCH WERDNA 

I learnt about 12 stories but when I did my SAC, I couldnt remember exactly which story matches to which author.
If I study few ones, I wont have enough evidences for my essay because it has to depend on the prompt as well.
About external examples, can I refer to poems, movies, songs as well?  They are easier for me to remember than news

How about text response, how many words should I write to get high scores?

1. In terms of memorising which author = which story, I guess you'll just have to familiarise yourself with the pairings and just memorise it if you can! There's nothing worse than putting the wrong author to the wrong story in the exam... it's a very simple thing you can get right. And yep, this is why I suggest studying stories from a broad range, for example, study a story about family expectations, then a story about cultural experiences etc. You need to make sure that the stories are relevant to the key idea of the paragraph, and also generally relevant to the prompt. Yep, for your external examples, poems, movies, songs, historical events, infamous quotes, etc are all good to use! Whenever you use an external example, try to quote it as well if you're doing a persuasive/expository piece. Quote the song lyrics, quote dialogue from the movie, etc.

2. Same goes for text response, you should aim for 1000+ words just so you have enough room for detail and strong analysis. However, don't push yourself to write too much, you should write your essays naturally and only write whatever is essential and necessary. Everything must be there for a reason and must add to your analytical discussion. The last thing you want to do is ramble for an extra 200 words. Having said all this, you can definitely write a high-scoring essay in less words. It all comes down to your own style of writing and your way with words.

[FlorianK]

What do you think about Boori Ma?
What is your opinion on her life in the past?

[werdna]

What do you think about Boori Ma?
What is your opinion on her life in the past?

Thanks for your question - it is a very broad one so I'll only touch on a few things.

Boori Ma is a woman whose dislocation and disconnection with the rest of the world shields her from really discovering who she is. She is an exile and a stair sweeper. She has had past troubles and she has been, in some ways, mistreated by the apartment owners. Lahiri draws us to sympathise with Boori - it is also important to note that her life has been marred by 'partition'. And finally - she has been dispossessed with her home. 

[AllAboutTheLGs]

1. With Identity and Belonging context essay, is it good to bring in personal experiences as well? This is for expository btw. My teacher doesn't let us do creative.

2. For the ESL exam would writing straight expository be good enough for a 9-10? What kind of real life examples could I incorporate to not only produce an insightful piece but a top scoring one. I scored 29/30 for my SAC and I have another coming up, and I don't think my first one was that good so I just want to see how I can improve it. I use a lot of famous quotes and talk about the book a bit but I think I may be missing something.

3. Also for LA, considering us ESL students only have to write 3 paragraphs, and only have about 30 minutes to do so, how should we go about doing this?

4. More study score related but: I dropped 6 marks in my oral, but since then I've only dropped 2 marks from 2 essays. Unfortunately this means my ranking is about 5ish out of like 80 students? (Don't know how strong my cohort is .. ) How will this affect my study score if I'm aiming for a 47+? (Ideally a 50 would be awesome )

5. In terms of text response, do you think doing a film or a book is better? On The Waterfront tends to produce more straightforward questions, and I guess I could bs a lot about film techniques, but Year of  Wonders allows for more higher level and insightful responses. What do you reckon? (idk which one i'm better at)

[werdna]

1. With Identity and Belonging context essay, is it good to bring in personal experiences as well? This is for expository btw. My teacher doesn't let us do creative.

It's not uncommon for teachers to warn students against creative writing, BUT if you find your strong point is in that style of writing, then definitely stick to it... But yes, for expository essays you can definitely bring in some personal experiences. Personally, I would use only one example in there (preferably the last body paragraph) because it does let down your flow and clarity of expression a little bit when you suddenly start using first person in what should be an objective and formal essay. I have not used personal experiences in any of my context pieces before, what I have done instead (in order to avoid the awkward first person) is to leech ideas and arguments from my own experiences - so you discuss the ideas without mentioning the details about the event, use the set text and other real life examples (eg music, movies etc) to support your view!

2. For the ESL exam would writing straight expository be good enough for a 9-10? What kind of real life examples could I incorporate to not only produce an insightful piece but a top scoring one. I scored 29/30 for my SAC and I have another coming up, and I don't think my first one was that good so I just want to see how I can improve it. I use a lot of famous quotes and talk about the book a bit but I think I may be missing something.

29/30 for your SAC is an excellent score! In terms of that 1 mark you lost, you should consult your teacher as to what you needed to improve on - what you don't want to ask them is why you didn't get full marks, because it is very difficult to mark or find a 'perfect' essay. For all students, I would encourage you to write essays according to the writing style you are best at. Try all 3 styles and see which one your writing really shines in. From what I can see, your strong point is probably expository writing. Real life examples can be things like song lyrics, poems, movies, books, historical events, famous quotes, theories, sayings, news, etc... list goes on really!!

3. Also for LA, considering us ESL students only have to write 3 paragraphs, and only have about 30 minutes to do so, how should we go about doing this?

Can't really help you on this as I don't tutor any ESL students at the moment, and therefore I'm not familiar with the study design.

4. More study score related but: I dropped 6 marks in my oral, but since then I've only dropped 2 marks from 2 essays. Unfortunately this means my ranking is about 5ish out of like 80 students? (Don't know how strong my cohort is .. ) How will this affect my study score if I'm aiming for a 47+? (Ideally a 50 would be awesome )

This has been widely discussed and debated on the forum, but it is your overall score for the unit that really counts - and of course your ranking. You should be fine with that ranking, however you definitely want to push yourself and get a higher average for the next unit. However, a medium or preferably high A+ in the final exam should do the trick!

5. In terms of text response, do you think doing a film or a book is better? On The Waterfront tends to produce more straightforward questions, and I guess I could bs a lot about film techniques, but Year of  Wonders allows for more higher level and insightful responses. What do you reckon? (idk which one i'm better at)

This thread doesn't focus on these texts, however what I have suggested to my own students is to study for the text they feel more comfortable writing on. So basically study for the text you know more about and have usually scored better in. It's all up to personal preference. It is also up to you whether you study for 1 or both of the texts. I would suggest studying for one because if you know your text inside out, you should be able to write on any topic that is thrown at you. But, if you're really unsure, study for both texts - but this will be extremely time consuming and you'll essentially be throwing away a text in the first 5 mins of the exam. Good luck!

[FlorianK]

How would you adress a topic that is basically two parts?
e.g. Lahiri's stories are not just about culture and migration; they are about the universal need for strong relationships.

Since we would have to write about that there is not much about the culture, but more about the need for strong relationships.

And:
Please improve my English; Interpreter of Maladies - Text response

[AllAboutTheLGs]

Thank you for you response
I'll ask her on Monday

[werdna]

How would you adress a topic that is basically two parts?
e.g. Lahiri's stories are not just about culture and migration; they are about the universal need for strong relationships.

Since we would have to write about that there is not much about the culture, but more about the need for strong relationships.

And:
Please improve my English; Interpreter of Maladies - Text response

For topics like these, you could easily break it down into one paragraph for culture, one for the need for relationships and then a however paragraph as well. Make sure everything is heavily related to the topic as it is easy to get off track. Remember that you are stating that the film ALSO explores the need for relationships.

[astone788]

Can you upload your GUAIA notes? I've been studying it mad hard, but I want my perspective on it to expand even more