English Advanced Question Thread

[rainyyydays]

Hey guys, I am really struggling to come up with creative ideas. Everytime I sit down to get it done my mind goes completely blank of ideas. Any tips on coming up with ideas?

ahh worst feeling ever, my condolences! personally when I was struggling to come up with an idea, I just sat and started writing (with hardly an idea of where I wanted my story to go), I just described the setting I wanted to place my character in, the type of person I wanted her to be, and the structural decisions I wanted to make... and then this kind of led me to coming up with an actual plot and it kinda just happened.

also, you've probably heard this too many times, but teachers have a point when they say 'write what you know'. It literally could be the simplest idea, just some kind of discovery that you've made in your life, maybe its internal (perhaps protagonist could merely be an observer or something like that), maybe its external (like a physical discovery), and you just write about it with mad description and manipulation of language, and bam! youve got something. remember, its not your idea that makes your story great per say, but rather, the way you execute your ideas, and perhaps take the marker somewhere he/she was not expecting...

hope this helps 

[Fergus6748]

ahh worst feeling ever, my condolences! personally when I was struggling to come up with an idea, I just sat and started writing (with hardly an idea of where I wanted my story to go), I just described the setting I wanted to place my character in, the type of person I wanted her to be, and the structural decisions I wanted to make... and then this kind of led me to coming up with an actual plot and it kinda just happened.

also, you've probably heard this too many times, but teachers have a point when they say 'write what you know'. It literally could be the simplest idea, just some kind of discovery that you've made in your life, maybe its internal (perhaps protagonist could merely be an observer or something like that), maybe its external (like a physical discovery), and you just write about it with mad description and manipulation of language, and bam! youve got something. remember, its not your idea that makes your story great per say, but rather, the way you execute your ideas, and perhaps take the marker somewhere he/she was not expecting...

hope this helps 

Aha Thanks a bunch!! Admittedly it is frustrating to hear the 'write what you know' since you hear it so much but thanks anyway. It's good just for it to be reinforced.

[Fergus6748]

Hey again. Quick Q, I just wanted to know if anyone had a good structure for approaching short answer questions. My teacher has given me one but it feels really clunky and crude. I've been practicing using integrated essays as I like the sophistication it gives, but that can only really apply to the big 5/6 mark questions if at all. Thanks again.

[Mada438]

Hey again. Quick Q, I just wanted to know if anyone had a good structure for approaching short answer questions. My teacher has given me one but it feels really clunky and crude. I've been practicing using integrated essays as I like the sophistication it gives, but that can only really apply to the big 5/6 mark questions if at all. Thanks again.

Hey!
I would recconmend basing you answers off how many marks the question is worth.
E.g 1-2 marks=1 technique
3-4 marks=2-3 techniques
5-6 marks=3+ techniques

I tend to do:
1 sentence addressing the question.
Introduce techniques and analysis
1 line answering the question/summarising

I find this really works, as you answer the queston adequately enough to maximise your marks without going over board.
Hope this helps! 

[3.14159265359]

Hey! for mod c I'm doing Auden poems, and I got an essay question. how should I outline my essay and approach the question and what 2 poems work well together? what could a possible thesis be?

the question is:

" explore the ways in which ideas, events or situations are represented in 2 of Auden poems"

thanks

[nickwarrensmith]

Any feedback on this thesis for Mod C people and politics?


 The role of the individual in the broader political sphere, represented and expressed through various texts, is fundamentally governed by the perspectives and contexts of individual composers of such texts.
Thus, by discerning the purposes of such texts and the worldview of their composers, the responder is empowered to grapple with authority in response to political and authorial manipulation on a political and textual scale.



[owidjaja]

Hey guys,
Because I have a couple of essay plans prepared from previous assessments, would my arguments be malleable enough to be used in exams (apart from Mod A)?

[jamonwindeyer]

Any feedback on this thesis for Mod C people and politics?


 The role of the individual in the broader political sphere, represented and expressed through various texts, is fundamentally governed by the perspectives and contexts of individual composers of such texts.
Thus, by discerning the purposes of such texts and the worldview of their composers, the responder is empowered to grapple with authority in response to political and authorial manipulation on a political and textual scale.

Hey Nick! I think it works well, I think there could be slightly better phrasing on the "grapple with authority" bit to better encompass your argument, but I think it's a great Thesis

Hey guys,
Because I have a couple of essay plans prepared from previous assessments, would my arguments be malleable enough to be used in exams (apart from Mod A)?

Hey! They probably would beI'd say, I'd be testing them against practice exams to see how they go against a few questions

[henrychapman]

Hey guys,
Because I have a couple of essay plans prepared from previous assessments, would my arguments be malleable enough to be used in exams (apart from Mod A)?

Just have to tweak it to a question I reckon ! Mod C is probably the easiest to do it with, particularly for option B: people and landscapes because the underlying thesis is essentially that they share a symbiotic relationship. Mod B with critical study too - can definitely adapt. Discovery made need more tweaking but can be done also (if you're bold, even go against the question). Mod A is obviously more specific and could ask on one specific intertextual perspective. I'd just have extra quotes/analysis for all essays up your sleeve in case its a real left field question and your prepared stuff doesn't relate !

[millie.w]

I'm trying to find a related for Module C - Why Weren't We Told?
Would the Human documentary (2015) be a good related text?

[owidjaja]

Hey guys,
I came across a Mod A question where I'm not entirely sure how to answer: How does the presentation of the female in Metropolis compare to that of 1984? How do you account for this in terms of the context of each text?

I can talk about the Madonna/whore complex with Maria and the association of sexual desire with Julia but I'm not entirely sure what else to talk about.

There was also another question where I wasn't sure: How does a study of 1984 contribute to our understanding of the nature of hope in Metropolis?

If it only asked us to discuss about the nature of hope, I could come up with ideas on emotionality, human selflessness etc. But how does a text that is produced 20 years later influence an older text...?

[Mada438]

Hey guys,
I came across a Mod A question where I'm not entirely sure how to answer: How does the presentation of the female in Metropolis compare to that of 1984? How do you account for this in terms of the context of each text?

I can talk about the Madonna/whore complex with Maria and the association of sexual desire with Julia but I'm not entirely sure what else to talk about.

Well for Lang, he idolised his mother who was like the epitome of females around his time period and he was also very conservative and Christian. So he models maria after his ideal vision of a woman. He uses robot maria to highlight how the current societal changes taking place at the time would corrupt women and turn them into something resembling robot maria. Something land didn't want. So his portrayal is then both his perfect image of a women/warning of what will happen to women in the future.
As for Orwell... I'm not actually quite sure...

There was also another question where I wasn't sure: How does a study of 1984 contribute to our understanding of the nature of hope in Metropolis?

If it only asked us to discuss about the nature of hope, I could come up with ideas on emotionality, human selflessness etc. But how does a text that is produced 20 years later influence an older text...?

So when we look at metropolis, we see that there actually is hope at the end. That the head and hands can be mediated by the heart.
But in 1984, this hope is squashed completely and there is no happy ending at all.
I think when you look at it contextually, you see that Lang has hope for humanity which is why he has a hopeful ending.
But Orwell witnessed the rise of Hitler and Stalin and the brutality of the mid-20th century.
So i think it shows how much context can play a key role in how composers represent their ideas?

P.s these questions seem hard! where did you find them?

I hope this helps, sorry i couldn't be of more assistance!

[owidjaja]

P.s these questions seem hard! where did you find them?

The first question came from a list of essay questions the English department made up and gave to us 'if we're bored' lmao. The second one was from the 2016 CSSA Trial Paper :/

[talitha_h]

Hi, I was just wondering if I need to mention context for module C (people and landscapes) and if so, to what extent? Thanks.

[Bells_123]

Hi, I was just wondering if I need to mention context for module C (people and landscapes) and if so, to what extent? Thanks.

Hi! In the syllabus it does mention 'perspectives' a few times which relates to the personal context of you and the composer and how this influences their representations of people and landscapes. So I think it would be really important to mention context in analytical responses but you probably won't need to focus and compare too much on it like in the module A comparative study - it's more focused on how and what ideas are represented and what perspective/purpose/agenda the composer had in writing their texts.