What is the best approach to VCE English?

[nerdmmb]

Hey everyone!
I will be studing 1&2 English this year and having gone to the TSFX lecture, I'm slightly worried that I may not be on the right track since my English teachers at school are pretty crap in terms of feedback and guidance.

Up until today, I haven't focused on any of my 1&2 subjects , just on my 3&4 subjects. Now that I have a good English tutor, what else can I do to develop better writing skills?

Students who achieve 45+ in English- how do they do it? Do they treat English in year 11 the same way as they do in year 12?

Should I start writing essays everyday and analysing persuasive articles? Thank-you and your advice would be much appreciated!

[ashs_vb]

I got C+ and a D+ in my year 11 exams and 42 in English this year. Even though working hard in year 11 pays off, it is not a complete pre-requisite for you to do well in year 12. Do ALOT of practice, omg i can't emphasize this point more. I forced myself to do an essay a day for the term 2 breaks and I think it payed off. Don't be discouraged if you don't get immediate results, its a progressive thing. Plus, please, please don't thing that you have to write A+ essays in one hour. Work on quality, then get the time down, trust me, it's all about practice. Write about things you like or intrigue you, when i look back, i realize that i was inspired most by reading books and other people's pieces and a want to write better than them. Read ALOT, like I said, books, articles, magazines, newspapers, playboy...e.t.c. .

Really enjoy your work, in Section B i tried to be as creative as possible, i wrote a piece on cocaine abuse, perspective of a toy and a poem om immigration. Don't underestimate the power of your own story, expository reflections provide an amazing insight and sound REAL, it may sound silly but my teacher(examiner) told me that examiners love real stories because you are really grasping the essence of the task.

Treat Language analysis as a puzzle, think of it as an insight into the writer's mind and decoding this code that allows them to be influential through words, make it a game. With Section A, read, read, and read more. Try using mindmaps, they work really well!!, a quick way to plan is by aking a 5 min. mind map on the question and numbering each idea to see which paragraph you want to include it in. Channel your inner philosopher and take ideas from peculiar things so you stand out, just make sure it make sense!

And lastly try to enjoy it,i went from hating the subject to thinking about picking it as a breadth in uni, so keep your mind open, and go smash it!!

[drake]

if you are naturally good at english (unlike me), find and develop complex ideas for both text response and context, while simultaneously finding a formula for language analysis... if you are not naturally good at english (like me), then memorise LOTS haha... i guess this kinda worked for me in the end. i probably ended up memorising 10000+ words worth of responses to context, text response and even some language analysis stuff. but this method isn't very reliable - you have to memorise 'smartly' and things that you can apply to EVERY topic! also, if you want a true appreciation of the english language and all it entails, the memorisation is not the way to go... memorisation is pretty much just for the score (if you do it well). developing your ideas and challenging your english ability will probably be better if you like the language!

[Sergy01]

I hate/d English and got 44. I'd say there's no 'best approach', but I will say that you need to be consistent. I don't recommend an essay a night, but perhaps one per week/fortnight. I don't believe in writing heaps of practice essays (wrote about 10 altogether last year), because I think it's more about how you can achieve higher quality by knowing the material you write about and understanding how people write in order to emphasise or convey certain things.

Text Response:
So if you're doing a text response, know the text and understand what the author/writer/director is using this for. The deeper you analyse, the deeper your writing seems. You can find ways to use Metalanguage to strengthen essentially any point you make, and it's best to write naturally with the flow of a real, spoken argument so that the 'evidence' blends in naturally.

Context:
Get interested in the context (example: 'Whose Reality' - Begin a philosophical journey while you study it). I was sure my exam piece was total garbage, but context pieces are really loose like that. As long as there is purpose to your piece, and you include some references to text as well as your knowledge and understanding of the context (using 'real world' applications) your writing should be fine.

Language Analysis:
Read the text as normal and think about how the text makes you react/feel, and then how other specific audiences would react. Once you have that, just identify what it was that prompted the response. You kind of need to put yourself in the mindset of both reader and author, and think about how influential people manage to persuade others.

TL;DR
Understand all the material, and as long as you have an opinion/reaction from analysing it you should be fine for writing any essay.

[dilks]

Although this answer isn't entirely relevant to the question as stated in the title of the thread, the OP did say that they wanted advice on how to prepare for VCE English as a student currently doing Units 1/2.

It is a hypothesis of mine (albeit one I would be reluctant to defend, since I have no evidence to back it up) that a significant portion of what one might be inclined to call 'a natural talent for english as a subject' is constituted merely by having a stronger literary background than other students. Students who read more books (and more challenging books) than their peers are going to have a better vocabulary, a better innate understanding of grammar, and because they read more books they are probably going to be better at interpreting symbolism, etc. So one of the things you should consider doing, which many students neglect to do, is to read a lot of 'literature' (a bit of a bourgeois word, I know) this year.

[Ronw2233]

I personally think the best way is to write and get feedback for it. I think it'd help you improve and I regret not doing this last year.

i did nothing for english last year

[brenden]

I agree with dilks and can back up his hypothesis anecdotally.

Just read as much as you can in Year 11 and also write a practice piece every fortnight or so. Year 11 isn't a prerequisite, but it's basically a free year for improvement. Eg, I didn't really go to school much in Year 11 so I had to go HAM for Year 12. I could have made things much easier on myself by studying in Year 11.

[mackintosh]

With other subject commitments and the short-ish time period that Year 12  actually is, I think that you will have to be very targeted in the way you approach English. As others have been alluding to, you just have to know the three separate tasks on the exam, how they are assessed and what examiners generally look for. Then go hammer and tongs at practising these- high quality honest feedback is a requisite (especially for Language Analysis, many people just do not understand the task) ; there is no point writing pages of irrelevant (to the VCE) material. If vocabulary is an issue then use thesauruses and read widely- while doing this, make a list of words that you are unfamiliar with- try to incorporate them smoothly into your writing. Also, I recommend reading opinion pieces and high-quality magazines like The Monthly, for example, that showcase good writing and sophisticated ideas (especially for Section B).

[nerdmmb]

Thank-you so much ashs_vb drake Sergy01 dilks serenaaa.s Brencookie mackintosh
I really appreciate your advice!

I got C+ and a D+ in my year 11 exams and 42 in English this year. Even though working hard in year 11 pays off, it is not a complete pre-requisite for you to do well in year 12. Do ALOT of practice, omg i can't emphasize this point more. I forced myself to do an essay a day for the term 2 breaks and I think it payed off. Don't be discouraged if you don't get immediate results, its a progressive thing. Plus, please, please don't thing that you have to write A+ essays in one hour. Work on quality, then get the time down, trust me, it's all about practice. Write about things you like or intrigue you, when i look back, i realize that i was inspired most by reading books and other people's pieces and a want to write better than them. Read ALOT, like I said, books, articles, magazines, newspapers, playboy...e.t.c. .

Really enjoy your work, in Section B i tried to be as creative as possible, i wrote a piece on cocaine abuse, perspective of a toy and a poem om immigration. Don't underestimate the power of your own story, expository reflections provide an amazing insight and sound REAL, it may sound silly but my teacher(examiner) told me that examiners love real stories because you are really grasping the essence of the task.

Treat Language analysis as a puzzle, think of it as an insight into the writer's mind and decoding this code that allows them to be influential through words, make it a game. With Section A, read, read, and read more. Try using mindmaps, they work really well!!, a quick way to plan is by aking a 5 min. mind map on the question and numbering each idea to see which paragraph you want to include it in. Channel your inner philosopher and take ideas from peculiar things so you stand out, just make sure it make sense!

And lastly try to enjoy it,i went from hating the subject to thinking about picking it as a breadth in uni, so keep your mind open, and go smash it!!

Thank-you! I've only recently started to write an essay per week.. Hopefully that helps Using new vocab makes my writing quite peculiar so I might need to work on that

I hate/d English and got 44. I'd say there's no 'best approach', but I will say that you need to be consistent. I don't recommend an essay a night, but perhaps one per week/fortnight. I don't believe in writing heaps of practice essays (wrote about 10 altogether last year), because I think it's more about how you can achieve higher quality by knowing the material you write about and understanding how people write in order to emphasise or convey certain things.

Text Response:
So if you're doing a text response, know the text and understand what the author/writer/director is using this for. The deeper you analyse, the deeper your writing seems. You can find ways to use Metalanguage to strengthen essentially any point you make, and it's best to write naturally with the flow of a real, spoken argument so that the 'evidence' blends in naturally.

Context:
Get interested in the context (example: 'Whose Reality' - Begin a philosophical journey while you study it). I was sure my exam piece was total garbage, but context pieces are really loose like that. As long as there is purpose to your piece, and you include some references to text as well as your knowledge and understanding of the context (using 'real world' applications) your writing should be fine.

Language Analysis:
Read the text as normal and think about how the text makes you react/feel, and then how other specific audiences would react. Once you have that, just identify what it was that prompted the response. You kind of need to put yourself in the mindset of both reader and author, and think about how influential people manage to persuade others.

TL;DR
Understand all the material, and as long as you have an opinion/reaction from analysing it you should be fine for writing any essay.

Thank-you! I feel slightly guilty now.. I've only read my texts- now I'll try picking out important info

Although this answer isn't entirely relevant to the question as stated in the title of the thread, the OP did say that they wanted advice on how to prepare for VCE English as a student currently doing Units 1/2.

It is a hypothesis of mine (albeit one I would be reluctant to defend, since I have no evidence to back it up) that a significant portion of what one might be inclined to call 'a natural talent for english as a subject' is constituted merely by having a stronger literary background than other students. Students who read more books (and more challenging books) than their peers are going to have a better vocabulary, a better innate understanding of grammar, and because they read more books they are probably going to be better at interpreting symbolism, etc. So one of the things you should consider doing, which many students neglect to do, is to read a lot of 'literature' (a bit of a bourgeois word, I know) this year.

Thank-you! I'll definitely start doing that! Basically, should I read only the texts that I'll be studying this year or also other books?

With other subject commitments and the short-ish time period that Year 12  actually is, I think that you will have to be very targeted in the way you approach English. As others have been alluding to, you just have to know the three separate tasks on the exam, how they are assessed and what examiners generally look for. Then go hammer and tongs at practising these- high quality honest feedback is a requisite (especially for Language Analysis, many people just do not understand the task) ; there is no point writing pages of irrelevant (to the VCE) material. If vocabulary is an issue then use thesauruses and read widely- while doing this, make a list of words that you are unfamiliar with- try to incorporate them smoothly into your writing. Also, I recommend reading opinion pieces and high-quality magazines like The Monthly, for example, that showcase good writing and sophisticated ideas (especially for Section B).

Thank-you I agree. I'm just worried about texts and traditions now since it has different styles from English which is so inconvenient

[grannysmith]

Lol I haven't even read the set texts #ftw

[cute]

I'm only starting VCE English this year myself, but this is the advice that was given to me by the English domain teachers at my school.

• Read all of your texts during the summer holidays (NOW) and take notes on plot, characters (the general basic things that help you to understand the text as a whole)
• Obtain an outline of what your class is doing for each SAC and write notes against the study design to ensure that you meet all criteria
• Try and use Year 11 as a year to refine all of your essential English skills (writing mostly)

Other than that, I think it might be best to work closely with your teachers in order to refine all of your techniques and writing and things.

[dilks]

Basically, should I read only the texts that I'll be studying this year or also other books?

Other books.