English: Ask Me Anything

[Damoz.G]

I am stressing out over context, have not prepared anything tangible and good for half of the major context "areas" of prompts. What should I do in the next 30 or so hours?

Write a piece and then go to your teacher at school and go through it together so that its perfected.

That's your only option at the moment if you really want to do well with Context.

[Colokid]

does anyone know any examples where conflict resulted in something positive?

[EvangelionZeta]

Can you sit my Lit exam for me? Ty

Your mum.

Hi Hello!

My context is 'encountering conflict', and I have chosen 'Life of Galileo' as my text.
It is this first year at my school that this text has been chosen so my siblings arent able to help me.

In class we touched on the Julian Assange/Bradley Manning trials as real-world examples of conflict relating to the text.
I've been trying to find more cases of oppression but i cant seem to find any.

What do you suggest? Do you know of any historical examples I can refer to?

Thanks in advance

The Stolen Generations, the Bo Xilai trials in China atm, the Soviet Union in general...I think that's some stuff to get started with!  Also look at historical racism/oppression of women/oppression of homosexuals.  There's heaps and heaps of stuff on that.

would small spelling errors and the omission of the occasional 'the' absolutely devastate my mark?

and also, I have a little trouble (not too much, but a little) writing essays on TR questions that focus on a singular character. Somehow, I cant think of enough points to explore. Do you have any tips as to how to structure it? How would you do this question, for instance?

"Hermione's muggle background serve as a driving force for her character. to what extent does her past life govern her progression?"

Not absolutely devastate, but it would count against.  If you're going to make spelling mistakes and stuff, do it in later paragraphs - the key thing is to make sure your introduction reads really cleanly.

Re: the second, just think about it in terms of beginning, middle, and end.  Especially for character questions, they're often interested in character development - as such, going through the text in your essay in that way (but making sure that you are still focusing on IDEAS and ANALYSIS, not just on summarising the plot) is an easy way to go.

[play]

For Encountering Conflict is it better to use examples relating to major conflicts (as opposed to those that are more 'ordinary') as supplmentary texts?

[EvangelionZeta]

Thank you, Firstly for language analysis, should you try and analyse the whole article in one hour or try and pick out the most important,

for context, should you write 3 body para's or 4, apparently my teacher suggests 4 as their is more discussion but i never have enough time

for text response, should you also write 3 or 4 body paragraphs, im doing twelve angry men and apparently my teacher again says to write 4 body paragraphs, however i did a 3 hour trial exam in the term 3 holidays and only had 15 minutes left to  complete the text response section. but lately ive been timing my LA as it is the problem. however ive gotten it down to 1 hour, so i hope in the exam i can finish text response.

what do you recommend?

Pick out the most important, you will never be able to do EVERYTHING in the one article.

I prefer four, but if you can only get to three just stick to it.  You can get 10/10 with three BPs.  Ditto with text responses.  It's just something nice to do if you can achieve it - if it's too hard, don't bother, and stick to your guns!

I need some phrases that can be used instead of labelling techniques? Do you have any in kind please.

I subscribe to the school of labelling techniques actually, sorry :p

(EZ, would you like this thread to be EZ-exclusive, or are we free to contribute $0.02?)

Feel free!  I will probs be a bit slow so don't mind if people pick up my slack!

Hey!

I was wondering, in regards to the Text Response (Section A), do Assessors get extremely picky on quotes, in the case you can't remember it and write something completely different yet along the lines if that makes sense?

For e.g. in a practice essay for A Christmas Carol, I wrote: 'the children were jumping around, the fire was lit, and the potatoes were bubbling in the sauce-pan'. The original quote is: "... these young Cratchits danced about the table... he [Master Peter Cratchit] blew the fire, until the slow potatoes bubbling up, knocked loudly at the sauce-pan lid...'

Thanks!

They aren't SUPER picky but can just get very annoyed.  Just try to avoid this (especially when it's as much of a change as in the example), it's pretty easy to just memorise the quotes and not put yourself at risk!

1. Lang anal. If I run out of time would omitting the conclusion be ok?
2. Re: authorial comment for Ransom. My teacher is a marker and says it's fine to only mention Malouf's intention two or three times in an essay. Would you agree or disagree?

ily EZ

1. No.  Write at least a sentence or something - some markers are cray cray and will just penalise you pointlessly if you have nothing.  Avoid that risk.
2. It's definitely "OK", but mention authorial intention etc. as much as you need to - there's no harm in doing a lot of good analysis on it.  I'd also focus more on audience reaction tbh - that's the more interesting stuff in many ways. 

[flyhighx]

Hey guys!
Can you please give me a few ideas or even analysis for different whose reality prompts. I find it very hard to analyse in depth without talking about the character, therefore making it sound like I am simply retelling the story.
Prompts:
1.Our realities are constantly shifting
2. ‘Shared experience does not mean that people see things the same way.’
3.Sometimes people find themselves living in a world created by other people.
4. ‘We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are.’
Thanks!

[Inhibition]

Hey EZ
Im doing I and B as my context and Im doing an imaginative piece (similar to a GUAIA short story).
Im just gonna rely on that one sole creative piece and hope it lends itself to the prompt.
However, what should I do if I cant mold it to the prompt?
Should I just write it anyway in hopes that my leet writing skills can get me a decent mark?
Ive also done a few expositorys, though Im not as confident, and havent memorized those yet.
What do do?

[EvangelionZeta]

So for the exam I wish to write an expository essay for my conflict context, although it was previously known to me that an expository essay involves exposing both sides of the prompt and not taking a side, although through reading study guides, online tutorials and lecture notes, it states that I must choose a side and build my arguments for it through my body paragraphs. Wouldn't that simply make it a persuasive piece? Or am I meant to have an opinion throughout but incorporate the other side of the argument much more than you would with a persuasive piece?

Thankyou in advance!

The latter of what you explained - you want to EXPLORE the issue, but still probably have some sort of overall guiding perspective.

I am stressing out over context, have not prepared anything tangible and good for half of the major context "areas" of prompts. What should I do in the next 30 or so hours?

Prepare them!!!  Gosh, it should only take like 3-5 hours max.  Write two essays and do a couple of essay plans.  This is definitely something you can comprehensibly still pull off!  You'll be fine if you put in the work at this point

How important or necessary is it to create a plan before writing your text/context piece? and secondly is it bad to incorporate personal anecdotes to a context expository essay (I'm doing Identity and Belonging)?

@r2ndom I feel the same way you do, context is my weakness and it's stressing me out

1. Not 100% necessary, but I find it just makes you stay closer on topic and means you produce a better essay overall.  Just do it!

2. Yes it is, it comes across as lame, suggests laziness (you didn't do research!) and also is just not super convincing (I could make up a personal anecdote if I wanted to justify any random point).

This may be on another thread but I didn't know where to find it -

For my text response essays I find that I'm using a lot of "Through ______, (author) shows that _____".
 Is there any other ways of writing that? I'm being really repetitive and it sounds bad

The author's *insert verb* of *insert noun* suggests/portrays/exemplifies/reveals/elucidates/etc that _____.

eg. "The author's characterisation of Harry Potter..."

"The author's use of slow sentences in this passage..."

[EvangelionZeta]

does anyone know any examples where conflict resulted in something positive?

Look up the philosophy of Nietzsche - he's a massive advocate of conflict leading to positive things, especially with character building, appreciating life, etc..  Also consider how wars often lead to technological advancements, how disagreements in arguments lead to the advancement of knowledge (look up John Stuart Mill's defence of free speech), etc.

For Encountering Conflict is it better to use examples relating to major conflicts (as opposed to those that are more 'ordinary') as supplmentary texts?

I'd say so - stuff that looks more impressive is more likely to persuade examiners.

Hey guys!
Can you please give me a few ideas or even analysis for different whose reality prompts. I find it very hard to analyse in depth without talking about the character, therefore making it sound like I am simply retelling the story.
Prompts:
1.Our realities are constantly shifting
2. ‘Shared experience does not mean that people see things the same way.’
3.Sometimes people find themselves living in a world created by other people.
4. ‘We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are.’
Thanks!

First prompt:
P1 - Discuss how our upbringing influences our perception of the present
P2 - Discuss how our biases can also change the reality of the "past" in our memories
P3 - Discuss how this can lead to conflicts between people
P4 - Discuss how nevertheless sometimes there is the possibility of reality being stable

A lot of these points are transferable between prompts.

Hey EZ
Im doing I and B as my context and Im doing an imaginative piece (similar to a GUAIA short story).
Im just gonna rely on that one sole creative piece and hope it lends itself to the prompt.
However, what should I do if I cant mold it to the prompt?
Should I just write it anyway in hopes that my leet writing skills can get me a decent mark?
Ive also done a few expositorys, though Im not as confident, and havent memorized those yet.
What do do?

Write a second or even third backup story!! You still have time, don't be lazy, just make sure you're prepared enough for a variety of situations!  You only need three story "skeletons" realistically to cover 99.95% of all prompts.

[Damoz.G]

Obviously its different for everyone, but what order did you do your sections in? Also, why did you do them in that order? Just curious.

I plan on doing it in this order: C, B, A

[Blues Fan]

Do you recommend to do any study the night before the exam? Or will that just increase the stress?

[joy1010]

is it difficult to achieve a 8 on language analysis?

[Edward21]

HELP. I know for a text response, you pick a side of the prompt and sort of present your discussion to prove that. However, can you argue against a prompt in context?? I found one of Whose Reality? "It is often tempting, but is aways dangerous to seek to avoid reality" where I've found and developed ideas that even with facing reality, it's dangerous because of critique and conflicting opinions (mine's about Michael Leunig's The Lot and how the public responds to these). Anyway, back to where I started, do I have to agree with the context prompt, or can I argue or set out conditions for it to be valid and argue my point? Every other prompt has worked and I've been like awww yeah this is good, then I got this one and I'm thinking, no that's not how I think it should be and I was thinking can I argue against a context prompt???

[This-is-not-me]

I'm having some issues with timing.  I tried to do an exam today, and failed miserably
I mean I've done heaps of essay's in the past under timed conditions and went decent on my trial exam in school but for some reason I just can't get myself to write a good essay right now.  I don't know if its because I'm at home, or I don't have enough adrenaline but I can't concentrate right now.  What should I do?

[Inhibition]

I'm having some issues with timing.  I tried to do an exam today, and failed miserably
I mean I've done heaps of essay's in the past under timed conditions and went decent on my trial exam in school but for some reason I just can't get myself to write a good essay right now.  I don't know if its because I'm at home, or I don't have enough adrenaline but I can't concentrate right now.  What should I do?

Just dont worry about it, we all suffer from mind blanks. Just lightly skim through your notes until the exam, don't do anything too strenuous. On the day of the exam just do your best. As other people have said, when the paper is in front of you the adrenalin kicks in, and you know it's for real.
Nothing much you can do