Context Essays

[cohen]

For the context essay, should we draw from multiple sources, and not just the set text?
For example, My school is using Growing up asian in Australia for our Context (Exploring issues of identity and belonging).
Should i read the other texts, and watch witness aswell, or just draw from the selected text?

[werdna]

There's a lot of freedom with the context section, so it's really up to you. Personally, I like to find extra material to support my findings - newspaper articles, photos, anecdotes, etc. - and you can incorporate these extraneous ideas into your writing, along with your set texts, given that it suits the style/type of writing. In saying this though, you don't actually have to explicitly use the set text in your context essay.

[Tobias Funke]

With Context you actually aren't supposed to simply draw from the set text, instead you should be integrating the text into your piece, whilst also having a well rounded piece (you don't actually have to do an essay) which relates to the prompt. I'm doing Whose Reality so I (as inspired by shinny) am planning to watch a movie a week which tends to draw upon a rather distorted view of reality.

Basically, you get an amazing amount of freedom to do as you please

EDIT: as Burberry pointed out once before, extraneous means irrelevant

[werdna]

With Context you actually aren't supposed to simply draw from the set text, instead you should be integrating the text into your piece, whilst also having a well rounded piece.

This is the way you approach it. But yes, you can definitely draw from the set text and take these explicit examples into your writing. For example, you could incorporate actual quotes and evidence from a text and use this in a formal expository essay. Ask the others on here; there are many students who have done this. To the OP, if you want to take up AndyLedHead's approach, you'll need to take the ideas, not explicit examples, from GUAIA and blend/weave those into your writing.

as Burberry pointed out once before, extraneous means irrelevant

There are two definitions for 'extraneous' - see this. I've used the word 'extraneous' in the sense that you should try and find some extra/external material, not irrelevant material.

[EvangelionZeta]

The "core" formula my school endorsed is a balance between the "primary text" (50%), and second text (25%) and a real world example (25%).  For the secondary text, it can either be another on the list for your context, or any text/"idea" of your choosing.  I'd say this is a fairly safe path to take. 

[werdna]

The "core" formula my school endorsed is a balance between the "primary text" (50%), and second text (25%) and a real world example (25%).  For the secondary text, it can either be another on the list for your context, or any text/"idea" of your choosing.  I'd say this is a fairly safe path to take.  

Would this be for the end-of-year exam/second context SAC context piece? Because you wouldn't include your secondary text in your first context SAC.. how did your teachers recommend you do the first context SAC?

[EvangelionZeta]

The "core" formula my school endorsed is a balance between the "primary text" (50%), and second text (25%) and a real world example (25%).  For the secondary text, it can either be another on the list for your context, or any text/"idea" of your choosing.  I'd say this is a fairly safe path to take. 

Would this be for the end-of-year exam/second context SAC context piece? Because you wouldn't include your secondary text in your first context SAC.. how did your teachers recommend you do the first context SAC?

It's for the exam and the second context SAC, yes.  Obviously don't do this for the creative writing SAC.  :p

[Ghost!]

The "core" formula my school endorsed is a balance between the "primary text" (50%), and second text (25%) and a real world example (25%).  For the secondary text, it can either be another on the list for your context, or any text/"idea" of your choosing.  I'd say this is a fairly safe path to take. 

That's a really good tip, thanks EZ. So, if you were writing a straight expository essay, would that formula equate to a structure similar to say;

Intro
Para1 - Primary Text
Para2 - Second Text
Para3 - Primary Text
Para4 - Real World Example
Conclusion

Would that structure make for a good essay?

[werdna]

That could be a possible approach you could take, TGI, but you could also incorporate 2 examples in each paragraph. In an expository essay, the main idea or topic sentence of each body paragraph should be a general concept. Then, you'd have 2 examples explaining this concept, and also linking back to the given prompt. Don't take the percentages too seriously though, as that'd make your writing a bit too formulaic IMO. Just ensure that, within your paragraphs, the evidence you provide from your primary text is superior to the stuff you quote from new world examples and your secondary text.

This post probably made hardly any sense, let me know if I need to clarify anything.

[Andiio]

Draw examples from Pokemon!

[EvangelionZeta]

@werdna, it's up to your own style really.  My school endorsed something along the lines of what TGI said (although I'd say apart from having Primary Text as para 1, you can just do them in whatever order - mix and match!), and it seems to have worked for the past few years on the whole. 

[Ghost!]

That could be a possible approach you could take, TGI, but you could also incorporate 2 examples in each paragraph. In an expository essay, the main idea or topic sentence of each body paragraph should be a general concept. Then, you'd have 2 examples explaining this concept, and also linking back to the given prompt. Don't take the percentages too seriously though, as that'd make your writing a bit too formulaic IMO. Just ensure that, within your paragraphs, the evidence you provide from your primary text is superior to the stuff you quote from new world examples and your secondary text.

This post probably made hardly any sense, let me know if I need to clarify anything.

LOLOL werdna, settle down, I know how to write an essay.

@werdna, it's up to your own style really.  My school endorsed something along the lines of what TGI said (although I'd say apart from having Primary Text as para 1, you can just do them in whatever order - mix and match!), and it seems to have worked for the past few years on the whole. 

Yeah, mix and match was basically what I had in mind, thanks for making context writing seem that little bit more simpler EZ :3

Draw examples from Pokemon!

What did you have in mind, that sounds great!

[EvangelionZeta]

Whose Reality: Talk about Ash Ketchum, and how his reality is shaped by his desire to prove a Pokemon Master.

Identity and Belonging: Talk about the Pokemon species as a whole, and how they feel compelled, against what is realistically good for them, to "team up" with and serve humans because that helps them belong. 

Encountering Conflict: Talk about how conflict can occur even in situations where neither side is particularly enraged, for instance in Pokemon Battles.

Imaginative Landscape: Talk about how Pokemon are all merely the fabrications of Ash's overactive imagination.

:3

[Andiio]

Whose Reality: Talk about Ash Ketchum, and how his reality is shaped by his desire to prove a Pokemon Master.

Identity and Belonging: Talk about the Pokemon species as a whole, and how they feel compelled, against what is realistically good for them, to "team up" with and serve humans because that helps them belong. 

Encountering Conflict: Talk about how conflict can occur even in situations where neither side is particularly enraged, for instance in Pokemon Battles.

Imaginative Landscape: Talk about how Pokemon are all merely the fabrications of Ash's overactive imagination.

:3

LOLLLL

Yeah, and you can bring in all those weird views of how the Pokemon world is simply a dream of Ash's

[Russ]

as Burberry pointed out once before, extraneous means irrelevant

There are two definitions for 'extraneous' - see this. I've used the word 'extraneous' in the sense that you should try and find some extra/external material, not irrelevant material.

Both of those definitions mean something that doesn't belong