Who else is nervous?

[/0]

Another euphemism:
The new bushfire warning system uses "relocate" instead of "evacuate".
This is ironic considering the bushfire report stated that
"all bushfire warnings issued in Victoria must use clear language, avoid euphemisms, and contain explicit information"

[ngRISING]

any sites or anything to that? be good if there is lol..

nvm found one

the age - 10/09/2009
http://news.theage.com.au/breaking-news-national/new-bushfire-warning-system-unveiled-20090910-fj0m.html

[lynt.br]

They will probably have one topic on language being used to construct identity. It just seems too hard to pass  "fair shake of the sauce bottle" as a stimulus quote.

But with three topics there should be something that most people can write about. VCAA topics are usually pretty broad and rarely focus on one area in particular, with exception to that horrible 2007 topic about speech making.

For example, rather than have a question specifically about PC language, they would phrase the question like in 2007: "Language has the power to shock, offend and incite emotion". While PC would be a central issue to discuss in that topic, its broad enough that you can flesh out your essay with euphemisms, dysphemisms etc.

[arthurk]

What about when they focused on jargon in particular in some year
and i think they did focus solely on PC stuff one year as well
Usually that sort of stuff fits into one paragraph but vcaa makes it an essay

[vce_09_nearly_over]

i wanna cry atm, nothing is sticking in my head im looking @ my notes thinking what the hell

[Harbourmastah]

What about when they focused on jargon in particular in some year
and i think they did focus solely on PC stuff one year as well
Usually that sort of stuff fits into one paragraph but vcaa makes it an essay

yeah and specifically 'speech making' for 2007

[vce_09_nearly_over]

do people hav prac exams, they could share?? wanna do some tonight to get me in the mind set and ive done partically all the past exam papers
Thanxs in advance

[lynt.br]

What about when they focused on jargon in particular in some year
and i think they did focus solely on PC stuff one year as well
Usually that sort of stuff fits into one paragraph but vcaa makes it an essay

Jargon is a pretty big topic in itself. Remember that a lot of slang can be classifiable under jargon as well. You can look at the uses for jargon (linguistic precision, expediency, educational marker, social group marker) and misuse of jargon (To obscure, conceal, cause prolixity, create false authority, exclude).

You have areas such as profession specific jargon (medical, legal, computing, linguistic), group specific jargon (Teenspeak, surfie speak, skating speak etc) and the jargon of business and government institutions (to obscure, mislead, Jargon being used as doublespeak etc).

There should easily be enough in there to flesh out 800-1000 words of discussion with examples.

As for something solely on PC, remember you can branch out and look at euphemisms here. Look at how PC has facilitated social harmony or dulled our language. Changing attitudes towards what is considered PC.and the recent changes to promote equality. Basically if you measure up both sides of the issue, you can quite easily fill a whole essay on this topic.

2007's speech making topic was probably one of the worst I've ever seen. There's pretty much no chance that all three topics will be something like that anyway so it shouldn't be a concern. If you get a topic like this, just avoid it and go for the easier one.

[TheJosh]

do people hav prac exams, they could share?? wanna do some tonight to get me in the mind set and ive done partically all the past exam papers
Thanxs in advance

here you go

[arthurk]

What about when they focused on jargon in particular in some year
and i think they did focus solely on PC stuff one year as well
Usually that sort of stuff fits into one paragraph but vcaa makes it an essay

Jargon is a pretty big topic in itself. Remember that a lot of slang can be classifiable under jargon as well. You can look at the uses for jargon (linguistic precision, expediency, educational marker, social group marker) and misuse of jargon (To obscure, conceal, cause prolixity, create false authority, exclude).

You have areas such as profession specific jargon (medical, legal, computing, linguistic), group specific jargon (Teenspeak, surfie speak, skating speak etc) and the jargon of business and government institutions (to obscure, mislead, Jargon being used as doublespeak etc).

There should easily be enough in there to flesh out 800-1000 words of discussion with examples.

As for something solely on PC, remember you can branch out and look at euphemisms here. Look at how PC has facilitated social harmony or dulled our language. Changing attitudes towards what is considered PC.and the recent changes to promote equality. Basically if you measure up both sides of the issue, you can quite easily fill a whole essay on this topic.

2007's speech making topic was probably one of the worst I've ever seen. There's pretty much no chance that all three topics will be something like that anyway so it shouldn't be a concern. If you get a topic like this, just avoid it and go for the easier one.

Going on examiners report people were marked down for referring to anything about PC or slang in the jargon essay

[vcestudy123]

what happens if we run out of lines in the essay? can we get a second booklet or something??
thanks

[lynt.br]

What about when they focused on jargon in particular in some year
and i think they did focus solely on PC stuff one year as well
Usually that sort of stuff fits into one paragraph but vcaa makes it an essay

Jargon is a pretty big topic in itself. Remember that a lot of slang can be classifiable under jargon as well. You can look at the uses for jargon (linguistic precision, expediency, educational marker, social group marker) and misuse of jargon (To obscure, conceal, cause prolixity, create false authority, exclude).

You have areas such as profession specific jargon (medical, legal, computing, linguistic), group specific jargon (Teenspeak, surfie speak, skating speak etc) and the jargon of business and government institutions (to obscure, mislead, Jargon being used as doublespeak etc).

There should easily be enough in there to flesh out 800-1000 words of discussion with examples.

As for something solely on PC, remember you can branch out and look at euphemisms here. Look at how PC has facilitated social harmony or dulled our language. Changing attitudes towards what is considered PC.and the recent changes to promote equality. Basically if you measure up both sides of the issue, you can quite easily fill a whole essay on this topic.

2007's speech making topic was probably one of the worst I've ever seen. There's pretty much no chance that all three topics will be something like that anyway so it shouldn't be a concern. If you get a topic like this, just avoid it and go for the easier one.

Going on examiners report people were marked down for referring to anything about PC or slang in the jargon essay

The examiners report states that people were marked down only if they deviated too far away from the topic. Slang is relevant, but it should not be the only thing you discuss, the report even brings it up as a valid discussion point:

jargon marks group boundaries by defining group membership through the use of language unique to the group, such as slang and technical language

The sample high scoring essay also brought up teenspeak slang/jargon:

The jargon that we use can also promote in-group solidarity, which ensures cohesiveness because the members of the group are made aware by language where they belong. When a group is freely conversing about ‘volleys’ and ‘backhands’ they are aware that they belong to the same interest group of tennis. This knowledge can increase the closeness and familiarity within a group because the use of jargon helps the members of the group relate to each other. If a new member joins a group, they will try to immediately pick up on the jargon, so that they feel part of the group. This happens often with teenagers who want nothing more than to be included, and their lexicon will alter to ‘teen jargon’ or ‘teenspeak’ to add lexical terms such as ‘mad’ (good) or ‘wak’ (bizarre but good). Jargon creates cohesiveness because the members of an in-group will know through the use of language who belongs together
and by sharing the use of jargon a stronger social rapport is built.

The question asks to discuss the functions of both professional and popular jargon. The latter implies that jargon created within social groups to facilitate effective and efficient communication, such as slang, is a relevant discussion point.

When I was talking about PC language, that was in reference to if there was a question that focussed entirely on PC language. In a question on jargon, there should be no reason to bring up any discussion on PC language.

Also, 2004 was the old study design. From 2006 onwards, essay topics have generally been broader and less specialised or focussed on one particular topic. This is most likely going to be the case with the inclusion of stimulus material which usually encompass a range of discussion points pertinent to the topic.

what happens if we run out of lines in the essay? can we get a second booklet or something??
thanks

Yes.

[ngRISING]

hmmph. 800-1000 words on jargon. seems reasonable but which subsystems can i relate it to.
lexical choice to include/exclude or use jargon.
syntax mainly contained jargon then it would mean that they're fairly familiar and a regular use of the jargon?
semantics?
morphology?

[arthurk]

So are we considering slang as a subset of jargon

[lynt.br]

hmmph. 800-1000 words on jargon. seems reasonable but which subsystems can i relate it to.
lexical choice to include/exclude or use jargon.
syntax mainly contained jargon then it would mean that they're fairly familiar and a regular use of the jargon?
semantics?
morphology?

It's a poor type of question because you really can't expand that much from beyond lexicon. Jargon is essentially a subset of lexicon. If you really wanted to, you might be able to bring in semantics and discourse (topic matter) or morphology (abbreviations, acronyms).