Context essays.

[rowshan]

Does anyone know how to go about answering these essay topics while including the wider implications in the answer?

[orangez]

Recently a VCAA exam assessor came to our school to talk about 'Shark Net'. To answer your question briefly, you don't necessarily have to talk about your text; you can draw from it ie talk about personal events/issues that relate to your text, and importantly, pertinent to your topic.

For example, she gave us an example of a student's work where the student didn't even mention her text once.

[sisqo1111]

do you still have that example to post up?

[marbs]

Recently a VCAA exam assessor came to our school to talk about 'Shark Net'. To answer your question briefly, you don't necessarily have to talk about your text; you can draw from it ie talk about personal events/issues that relate to your text, and importantly, pertinent to your topic.

For example, she gave us an example of a student's work where the student didn't even mention her text once.

I thought you couldn't do that.

Maybe she wrote about a movie, or another book that is part of the context.

For encountering conflict we have to write about one of or all of the crucible, the line, and Omagh

[sisqo1111]

you do not have to refer to your texts at all in writing in context.
you just have to make sure you use ideas presented in the text and that of your context.
i got a 30/30 for my context and did not refer to 'Fly Away Peter' at all. Instead i drew ideas brought out by the novel and from the context of the imaginative landscape.

[amyminchin]

you dont have to mention your text explicitly. like if your doing a poem you dont go "then the fly away peter spoke to me in silent words which permeated through the room like a resounding gong" it just sounds crap. you have to focus on the ideas presented, for example the crucible is about the witch hunts/mccarthyism yeah? (thats what my friend told, i'm doing frost and Fly Away Peter) so you do something relating to paranoia for instance and suspiscion or something similar... stuff like that.

[shinny]

but just watch out for in the exam that ur link to ur text is pretty much dead obvious. you dont have a written explanation to explain yourself so everything u write should have its purpose pretty much at face value

[sisqo1111]

yeh my teacher has drilled that in our heads lol

[rowshan]

That is a fairly interesting. I find that it is much easier to write context essays if it is not confined to discussing just the book. Extensive wider reading is required, lol, it hard to find time for that shit.

Why doesn't VCAA personal visit my school? not fair! Hmph! Maybe because i go to government school?

[shinny]

it doesn't have to be confined to discussing the book, but vcaa states there must be a predominate text which is one of the set texts within your essay. so sure, go ahead with using other material as evidence or inspiration, but don't base your whole piece on it

[rowshan]

So its the ideas in the text that really matter right? for example "the line" espouses the view that conflict promotes social solidarity, could i use this idea and not actually mention that it is from the line when responding to the prompt? If in a creative you are allowed to do that why cant I do the same in a expository or persuasive?

[jsimmo]

you dont have to mention your text explicitly. like if your doing a poem you dont go "then the fly away peter spoke to me in silent words which permeated through the room like a resounding gong" it just sounds crap. you have to focus on the ideas presented, for example the crucible is about the witch hunts/mccarthyism yeah? (thats what my friend told, i'm doing frost and Fly Away Peter) so you do something relating to paranoia for instance and suspiscion or something similar... stuff like that.

We got told that we had to explicitly mention the text (The Line) at least 6 times in our SAC. What I did was during the introduction I just mentioned "Throughout Arch and Martin Flanagans text 'The Line', we see how conflict can..."

and then throughout the main body paragraphs I then mentioned a few examples from the text to support my views..

however, the main idea of my essay was pretty much my own ideas about the context and was not directly pulled from the text we were studying.

[shinny]

It really depends on what style. In an expository, you're probably best to just directly reference the book as evidence, whilst in a persuasive, since often it would not suit your purposes to mention a fictional work since it is quite awkward as evidence, perhaps use the key ideas presented in the book and arrange them in such a way that it is quite obvious what it is referring to. Similar for creative. All in all, I'd say the safest way is just to adopt a piece of writing from within your book such as a newspaper article analysing the events or something, and you won't be penalised for lacking connection.

[amyminchin]

Another thign you could do is take direct quotes out of the text and incorporate them in your text. Like, if you have FAP then a quote like "this was the way he saw the world- on two levels" or whatever it is, would work really well within a imaginative piece about perspective or the relationship between man and nature or something. An obvious connection to the text which doesn't dominate or diminish your piece. (If it's imaginative)

[Dr Whom]

but just watch out for in the exam that ur link to ur text is pretty much dead obvious. you dont have a written explanation to explain yourself so everything u write should have its purpose pretty much at face value

Just a little bit about that which you might find interesting. In the exam you actual get space to plan out your context piece, which the assessor will almost definitely read. Just thinking logically about it then even if they're not supposed to change the mark because of that section it certainly can't hurt your chances. If I was reading it then read the plan and it was actually quite good where they were going with it then I'd be more inclined to give them a better mark.

Also I didn't mention Enduring Love once in any 3 of my context pieces. I got 80% and forgot one of my written explanations. So I guess it can't be extremely horrible to not mention it.