Login

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

March 29, 2024, 07:41:09 am

Author Topic: Prompts and Sample Language Analysis Articles  (Read 66883 times)  Share 

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

charmanderp

  • Honorary Moderator
  • ATAR Notes Legend
  • *******
  • Posts: 3209
  • Respect: +305
  • School Grad Year: 2012
Prompts and Sample Language Analysis Articles
« on: October 05, 2013, 03:48:20 pm »
+18
If you have links to sample texts you think are good to write LA essays on, post them here. I'll try to include the ones I think are really good in this first post.Language Analysis Sample Articles

DISCLAIMER: Just because I post an article here, it doesn't mean I endorse its opinion. I've only linked it because I believe its use of language in argument is conducive to analysis for the purpose of your practice.

Newspaper Articles/Print Media

Online Blogs/Opinion
Speeches
Visual media
Spoiler

Online sources for persuasive texts
VCAA English Exams
Spoiler

You'll notice that there are quite a few articles from different sources/authors on the same issues e.g. Afghanistan. Take a look at how each commentators writes differently within the same discourse, even if they're 'on the same side'.

Enjoy!

Spoiler
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/withdrawal-from-afghanistan-would-not-hurt-our-us-ties-20111123-1nuyv.html

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/australians-must-embrace-gay-marriage/story-e6frfhqf-1226356692553#

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/how-australia-can-solve-its-asylum-seeker-problem-20110624-1gjlt.html

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/youve-been-misled-on-boat-people-here-are-the-facts-20130718-2q5rv.html

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/21/cruelty-refugees-australia

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/shopping-for-pink-isnt-the-right-thing/story-e6frfhqf-1225984630426

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/transcript-of-julia-gillards-speech-20121010-27c36.html

http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm

http://badhostess.com/making-chelsea-manning-behave/

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/13/sophie-mirabella-hate

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4518400.html

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/39194.html

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2840150.html

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/08/why-teach-english.html

http://theconversation.com/national-press-club-address-glyn-davis-on-a-smarter-australia-12503

https://theconversation.com/ordering-the-vegetarian-meal-theres-more-animal-blood-on-your-hands-4659

https://theconversation.com/love-thy-neighbour-religious-groups-should-not-be-exempt-from-discrimination-laws-11634

https://theconversation.com/how-do-people-reject-climate-science-9065

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/1109_heraldsun09.pdf

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/C899

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/australians-deserve-a-government-they-can-trust-20130905-2t7wm.html

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/funding-cuts-a-concern-for-all/story-e6frgd0x-1226621964048#

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/consign-rudd-to-the-bin-of-history/story-fni0cwl5-1226691046953

http://rightnow.org.au/topics/asylum-seekers/the-economic-cost-of-our-asylum-seeker-policy/

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2693018.html

http://lofalexandria.com/2013/04/the-death-penalty-there-is-nothing-even-remotely-close-to-a-reasonable-argument-in-favor-of-the-death-penalty/

http://powerhouse.theglobalmail.org/tobacco-money-can-cause-loss-of-political-will/

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/it-was-inevitable-that-afghanistan-was-going-to-end-badly-20120419-1xa3s.html

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/gillard-on-target-as-taliban-fail/story-e6frezz0-1226331896515

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8811172/Its-a-fantasy-to-think-we-are-winning-the-war-in-Afghanistan.html

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/10/24/were_winning_in_afghanistan

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/live-animal-exports-a-struggle-to-the-death-20130507-2j5oz.html

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/tunnel-could-take-its-toll/story-e6freuy9-1226600977408

Some websites to check out
http://theconversation.com/au

http://www.tmglobalist.org/

http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion
« Last Edit: November 15, 2014, 04:54:56 pm by charmanderp »
University of Melbourne - Bachelor of Arts majoring in English, Economics and International Studies (2013 onwards)

charmanderp

  • Honorary Moderator
  • ATAR Notes Legend
  • *******
  • Posts: 3209
  • Respect: +305
  • School Grad Year: 2012
Re: Section C - Language Analysis - Sample Text Repository
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2013, 04:13:40 pm »
+6
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/withdrawal-from-afghanistan-would-not-hurt-our-us-ties-20111123-1nuyv.html

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/australians-must-embrace-gay-marriage/story-e6frfhqf-1226356692553#

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/how-australia-can-solve-its-asylum-seeker-problem-20110624-1gjlt.html

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/youve-been-misled-on-boat-people-here-are-the-facts-20130718-2q5rv.html

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/21/cruelty-refugees-australia

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/shopping-for-pink-isnt-the-right-thing/story-e6frfhqf-1225984630426

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/transcript-of-julia-gillards-speech-20121010-27c36.html

http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm

http://badhostess.com/making-chelsea-manning-behave/

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/13/sophie-mirabella-hate

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4518400.html

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/39194.html

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2840150.html

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/08/why-teach-english.html

http://theconversation.com/national-press-club-address-glyn-davis-on-a-smarter-australia-12503

https://theconversation.com/ordering-the-vegetarian-meal-theres-more-animal-blood-on-your-hands-4659

https://theconversation.com/love-thy-neighbour-religious-groups-should-not-be-exempt-from-discrimination-laws-11634

https://theconversation.com/how-do-people-reject-climate-science-9065

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/1109_heraldsun09.pdf

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/C899

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/australians-deserve-a-government-they-can-trust-20130905-2t7wm.html

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/funding-cuts-a-concern-for-all/story-e6frgd0x-1226621964048#

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/consign-rudd-to-the-bin-of-history/story-fni0cwl5-1226691046953

http://rightnow.org.au/topics/asylum-seekers/the-economic-cost-of-our-asylum-seeker-policy/

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2693018.html

http://lofalexandria.com/2013/04/the-death-penalty-there-is-nothing-even-remotely-close-to-a-reasonable-argument-in-favor-of-the-death-penalty/

http://powerhouse.theglobalmail.org/tobacco-money-can-cause-loss-of-political-will/

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/it-was-inevitable-that-afghanistan-was-going-to-end-badly-20120419-1xa3s.html

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/gillard-on-target-as-taliban-fail/story-e6frezz0-1226331896515

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/8811172/Its-a-fantasy-to-think-we-are-winning-the-war-in-Afghanistan.html

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/10/24/were_winning_in_afghanistan

http://www.theage.com.au/comment/live-animal-exports-a-struggle-to-the-death-20130507-2j5oz.html

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/tunnel-could-take-its-toll/story-e6freuy9-1226600977408
« Last Edit: October 05, 2013, 06:55:43 pm by HarryPoderp »
University of Melbourne - Bachelor of Arts majoring in English, Economics and International Studies (2013 onwards)

charmanderp

  • Honorary Moderator
  • ATAR Notes Legend
  • *******
  • Posts: 3209
  • Respect: +305
  • School Grad Year: 2012
Re: Section C - Language Analysis - Sample Text Repository
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2013, 06:19:10 pm »
+2
I'd encourage everyone to post their examples here as well, I can't sustain this thread on my own! And it'd be good to get a diversity of pieces to analyse as well, as opposed to just what I read casually.

Past VCAA English exams can be found here: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/vce/studies/english/englishexams.aspx

Don't forget the sample exam: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/exams/english/english-samp-w.pdf
« Last Edit: October 11, 2013, 11:02:12 pm by TheBoyWhoDerped »
University of Melbourne - Bachelor of Arts majoring in English, Economics and International Studies (2013 onwards)

charmanderp

  • Honorary Moderator
  • ATAR Notes Legend
  • *******
  • Posts: 3209
  • Respect: +305
  • School Grad Year: 2012
Re: Section C - Language Analysis - Sample Text Repository
« Reply #3 on: October 11, 2013, 10:32:12 pm »
+2
I've redirected this post here: Language Analysis - Forms of Persuasive Texts

If you want to discuss further, go there.

First time contributor, long time teacher and tutor. For each thing I d/l from here, I'll post some wisdom back.

Ask yourselves - how many opinion pieces from 'major newspapers' have been on the exam since 2000?

Answer: none.

There have been consultancy reports, speeches, local newsletters, letters, magazine articles, blog entries, ads, emails etc.

But no standard 'opinion piece'. Be ready for something more specialised with a fairly clear target audience whose values, knowledge and typical use of language has been targetted. Ever since the disaster of the "tattoo" exam piece, you can expect the examiners will stay in their shells and keep the issue and format fairly traditional. Two speeches with slides in three years make me think it might be time for an online article with links again. Analyse the format and image in terms of how it suits the purpose of the piece. And for god's sake don't obsess over 'techniques'.
Advice duly noted, but I still think it's worth practising using opinion pieces from newspapers. As a tutor myself, my students analytical abilities particularly for this section of the exam have gone from a C standard to an A+ standard by just grabbing everything from newspaper to tweets and Facebook posts and analysing them, and opinion pieces are highly conducive to practice.

Furthermore, the VCAA sample exam, which was posted in August of this year, included an opinion piece for Section C: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/exams/english/english-samp-w.pdf

I do agree with your sentiment regarding not obsession with 'techniques'. I think students enjoy the safety of thinking PLTs are all that LA requires, but for the most part that standard 'list' and the concept of PLTs in themselves is mostly arbitrary. Much more important to analyse purpose and think of the articles on a level beyond simply isolated incidences of language. The author's contention and arguments as well as an active audience's response should really be the crux of the essay, leading on to then understanding the role of language in persuasion.

--------------

For the future everyone, this thread is not intended for discussion. Unless you're going to post an article/persuasive text please refrain from posting, as much as I appreciate posts saying how useful this thread is. If you want to discuss something, create a new thread.
« Last Edit: October 11, 2013, 11:05:18 pm by TheBoyWhoDerped »
University of Melbourne - Bachelor of Arts majoring in English, Economics and International Studies (2013 onwards)

charmanderp

  • Honorary Moderator
  • ATAR Notes Legend
  • *******
  • Posts: 3209
  • Respect: +305
  • School Grad Year: 2012
« Last Edit: October 11, 2013, 11:10:29 pm by TheBoyWhoDerped »
University of Melbourne - Bachelor of Arts majoring in English, Economics and International Studies (2013 onwards)

charmanderp

  • Honorary Moderator
  • ATAR Notes Legend
  • *******
  • Posts: 3209
  • Respect: +305
  • School Grad Year: 2012
Re: Section C - Language Analysis - Sample Text Repository
« Reply #5 on: December 09, 2013, 06:31:21 pm »
0
A link to the 2013 exam, in the interim to VCAA posting it on their website.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/358twi
University of Melbourne - Bachelor of Arts majoring in English, Economics and International Studies (2013 onwards)