English: Ask Me Anything

[brenden]

*Just answering things I think are worth extra reinforcement or I think I can add something to. When there are new questions I'll answer them as they come and see how far incorrect EZeta thinks I am

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?

As EZ said, definitely pick out the most important.

I always wrote three body paragraphs for Text and that's how I teach it. I also did Twelve Angry Men for three body paragraphs (950ish words total) for full marks . As said, very possible to score very well with three bodies, so don't let it stress you out

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

I think for the most part techniques should be avoided, I think people really substitute it for proper analysis. That said, I don't think it should be entirely missing. I mixed it in lightly, so its okay if you feel like "oh no, I am going to have to identify a technique". It doesn't matter so long as you demonstrate a perceptive analysis of language.
Changing grammar around will help. Instead of "the author utilises negative connotations" you can easily say "<language>" connotes <x>
Or even "In saying '"x", the author... <language works in xyz way>"
"Through "<language>"...
Or "<language>" aims to instill ....
"<author> directly targets the younger fact of the audience, "harry potter" appealing to the secondary school students in the forum because xyz"

It's just a matter of writing what you want to say grammatically and showing the language you're about to deconstruct. Again, don't stress too much, if your teacher has been like ''YOU CAN'T SCORE WELL IF YOU DON'T LABEL TECHNIQUES'' - they're full of shit. Doesn't quite matter what you do. My teacher advocated labelling but I disagree. It's the demonstration of your skills that matter.

How important or necessary is it to create a plan before writing your text/context piece?

I agree with EZ re: the anecdotes.
The quotes question is ultimately a question for your to answer. Necessary relative to what? High marks? Your ability to write? Only you or a tutor/teacher can answer after examining your style and how much you benefit from plans. My text response plan consisted of:

- jury system
-3rd and 10th (these are characters)
-8th should be used (8th Juror as an example of how power should be used)

And that was enough for me to write a high quality piece. My context plan was non-existent. However, a student of mine doesn't struggle with timing, but can sometimes make his essay an illogical progression of ideas. For him, I recommended spending 5-10 minutes of his allocated 70 minute text-response just thinking about the structure of his paragraphs and the logical progression of ideas. Ultimately, this is going to benefit him far more than the sacrificed writing time. Do what's best for you.
(And, as stated by EZ, I think at least a very quick plan is pretty useful almost always just as a visual representation of your essay/ a reminder)

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

I did it in C, A, B, because I knew in an emergency situation I would be able to scrape something for context in a very short amount of time (saved me in the exam lelel). Like, I would most prefer to run over time and sacrifice my context, so that's why it was last.
My student has two plans: If, in reading time, he sees that the context prompt lends very heavily to one of his prepared 'outlines', then he does Section B first, because he can put out some of the more prepared things in 40-45 minutes. Thus, he does it second so that he has two finished pieces going into his text response with extra time. If he looks and the prompt is a curveball and he will have to write extremely off the cuff, he does Secion B last, so that he doesn't get bogged down and spend a longer time on Section B than he can afford. Putting it last in the second scenario enables him to do LA and Text response in 60ish minutes and forces a time limit on him for Sec B.

Regardless of the student, obviously Section C goes first.

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

I recommend stopping and just chilling out after 2 or 3pm (for the day before any exam, unless you're in uni and cramming), play some games our something. Between 8am-3pm, some light revision, reading some old essays, reading some  example essays, leafing lazily through your text and brainstorming some questions. That would be most ideal. If one were particularly underprepared, it might be worth extending the brainstorming/reading (or whatever will get them prepped most efficiently) later on in the day.

is it difficult to achieve a 8 on language analysis?

This is insanely subjective. For a student who is not particularly talented with the language or the subject in general, an 8 might be quite hard. For an elite student, an 8 (I'm assuming 16/20) might be relatively simple.
Whatever you're looking for out of the answer to this question, don't worry about it. Your success doesn't depend on the 'ease' of getting an eight; it depends on the prep you've done and the faith you have in your own learning. I understand this might be dissatisfying, so for the purpose of your question my answer is "somewhat difficult but accessible". Just have confidence in yourself and let VCAA spit the number.

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?

Well, if you've  done heaps in the past under timed conditions, I'm assuming you're very capable of writing under time (unless the last  time you successfully wrote a timed piece was in 2012, which I'm assuming is false). If last week in your school's trial exam you put out three pieces, well, you should have every confidence in yourself that you can do it again. Prep as if you normally would, leaf through old essays etc etc. Don't stress yourself out thinking "omg i have to write a paragraph in 15 minutes and if I can't I'm so fucked for tomorrow". You're okay, you'll do great . Just have the wholehearted belief that you can write it in the time and do your best tomorrow. Don't let the exam beat you in Birmingham.

[simba]

In terms of reading time, how deep do you recommend we develop our plans for text response and context? And how long should we roughly be spending planning these sections before reading LA? Thank you

[brenden]

In terms of reading time, how deep do you recommend we develop our plans for text response and context? And how long should we roughly be spending planning these sections before reading LA? Thank you

Again, that depends on your exam strategy. I was extremely "yolo" for context, so allocated about 30 seconds to checking that prompt and hoping a story idea came to me, and I am a relatively quick reader, so in reading time I spent maybe four minutes on text response and pretty much all of the remaining  time on LA. The breakdown my student and I decided upon was 1 minute for context - enough to suss out which prepared idea he'll best be able to explore the prompt with, 3 minutes for text response, enough to decide on the prompt have have some ideas etc, with the rest on the LA because he's a bit of a slower reader.
So yeah, pretty hard to recommend on a universal bassi, but in general the majority of time should be spent on the LA. However much time you think you need for the LA, subtract that from 15 and divide the remaining  time between the other two in whatever way best suits your needs.
For you, simba, I don't recommend a deep text response plan. Your ideas are very good and progress logically, write down your three points and perhaps any juicy quotes you don't want to forget in the heat of the moment. No need to go super deep.
In general, I think a quick, efficient, minimalistic plan is most suitable, but others might disagree.
For context, I can't comment.

[awesomejames]

If there is a quote in the text response prompt how should we go about contextualising it in the essay?

[maree271]

For context I am writing an expository essay. Is it frowned upon or a disadvantage for me if I include examples from both of my texts in the essay (L.O.G and Paradise Road)/

[unfamila]

Stupid question, but is it compulsory to underline the text title or will inverted commas do. So would i bring in a ruler? 

[brenden]

If there is a quote in the text response prompt how should we go about contextualising it in the essay?

Err, I don't feel like I'm an expert on this because VCAA hasn't exactly confirmed my approach by giving me a good mark, but in my practice pieces last year I treated a quoted prompt similar to a normal prompt but usually analysed the quote provided.

Eg:
"Facts can be coloured by the personalities of the people that present them". To what extent is this true in Twelve Angry Men?

Obviously my whole essay would be devoted to the nature of facts, I might have one paragraph that it is in fact the jury system itself that colours the 'facts', and one on how they can be coloured by bias people and another on how they can be objectively presented by rational people or something along those lines. Which would apply perfectly to the same prompt with the same words but the quotation marks removed. The essay would essentially just be a discussion on to what extent the quote is true, with an analysis on the author's views/values on the actual prompt.
So, not really too different, the same as any other essay but I'd address the quote. Honestly, what matters is that you show a strong textual knowledge, a good understanding of the prompt and a good analysis. Perhaps there are essay conventions to do with quoted prompts that I'm unaware of, but I don't think the conventions of any essay are as important as hitting the criteria.
**Should EZ disagree, definitely defer to his answer.

Stupid question, but is it compulsory to underline the text title or will inverted commas do. So would i bring in a ruler? 

Nothing is really "compulsory" other than hitting the criteria. I'm a bit of a pedant and insist my students underline the title (or italicise it in electronics), but I don't see the examiner looking at a brilliant essay and then saying "they used inverted commas!  I'm deducting a mark!!!!"
I just think it looks more impressive to underline, as this is standard the current stylistic practice. It's also a lot more clear than inverted commas.
I mean, picture you were writing on Ransom or something and you wanted to say "x character holds y character for ransom" or you wanted to say "Thus, in Twelve Angry Men, Rose's characters are just twelve angry men"... inverted commas can get lost amongst cursive writing or not noticed or something. There's a guarantee they'll notice the underline so the text title is very clearly obvious.

[Green]

if i  was to mention techniques in LA would i make it sound clumsy?

[Damoz.G]

if i  was to mention techniques in LA would i make it sound clumsy?

If you label techniques? Yes, you would lose marks.

[vashappenin]

You won't lose marks for labelling techniques , just don't ALWAYS label them and try to refrain from the generic ones that everyone uses. You shouldn't have a piece with no labelled techniques at all - you learnt them from year 7 for a reason.. In saying that, don't just label everything
EDIT: This is what I got told by an assessor btw, not just making up random nonsense

[Damoz.G]

I guess thats true. Just as long as you talk about the implications of the phrases/terms/words and most importantly explain its effect on the reader!

[EvangelionZeta]

I am going to respond in more depth later when I get to a comp but I absolutely disagree with people saying avoid labeling techniques. You need to balance it - label techniques explicitly and ALSO analyze the way the language works. Better to have both.

[Green]

My teacher really adovocates labelling techniques that why i wanted feed back from experienced students.

[Colokid]

is it important to consider the other side of the argument in context and text response? i mean agree with the prompt but also consider the other side to give a more rounded approach? so only do this for context or also for text response?

[brenden]

I am going to respond in more depth later when I get to a comp but I absolutely disagree with people saying avoid labeling techniques. You need to balance it - label techniques explicitly and ALSO analyze the way the language works. Better to have both.

Yes - I agree with this, balance is important. Only Siths deal in absolutes.