prac context essay

[cathtacular]

context is by far my most hated essay on the exam and my teacher told me thats why i should practice it... feedback would be awesome

"the place in which we live has an impact on our understanding of the world"

its a speech...

Every person in this room has a unique way of perceiving the world surrounding them, this statement is rarely challenged. Upon wondering what it is that determines our perception of the world I have concluded that it is the place in which we live that shapes the way we view our surrounding world. Ladies and gentleman, I am going to explain to you how threelandscapes are effected by where we live.
These landscapes, cultural, environmental, and personal are all greatly impacted on where a person lives.

I would like to start of by telling you about my father and my brother. When I was young my father would go away on an annual fishing trip with his friends every year, this fishing trip was there tradition and had lived prior to my grandfather. When my brother turned 18 he was then invited on this annual expedition where their ‘boys weekend’ was never discussed outside the walls created by the thick scrub surrounding them. This tradition was vital to the culture in our small town community, where all the men took such pride in this trip away from their normal lives. Sadly, my brother now lives in inner Melbourne and doesn’t go fishing any more as there is no great lake for him to escape to. This cultural tradition of fishing was created by the landscape of the town we used to inhabit. For my brother the importance of this tradition no longer resides with him because of the impossibility of him sustaining such a tradition within his new home.

I too live in inner Melbourne, I have a friend who moved to Horsham last year to help her family on their farm. My friend constantly reminds me that we have great water restrictions in place, I know that because of her consistent reminders I only spend two minutes in the shower, however I also know many of my friends do not understand the severity of the drought in rural Victoria. In Melbourne, there isn’t dry dams and constant reminders of our lack of water, instead there is free flowing faucets and great swimming pools filled with water. We do not see how the drought is effecting us because we do not live in the centre of its devastation, where as my friend sees first hand what a lack of water means for her family and their community. Because we cannot see then we do not know, my friend understands how precious water is because she lives everyday trying to conserve as much water as she possibly can, while in the city we do not see water as a precious luxury, instead we waste so much every day. My friend perceives this importance of her environment because she is submerged in its effects every day, in the city, we are uneducated to the importance of water conservation because of the lack of importance it is to us in suburbia at this time.

Just like I do not fully comprehend the effects of drought our country does not see the effects of many external issues that have risen. Australia is a lucky country, generally we feel safe in our homes we sometimes forget that other people do not feel safe because we do. Its hard to sympathise with an issue if it does not concern you, in the middle east people are fearful of their lives, they have personal physical and emotional scars that we will never be able to contemplate. What they do and where they live effect a person’s personal landscape. I myself believe I am very lucky and secure however, a documentary on tv last week gave me insight into people trapped in the middle east, these people were scared and had many mental scars, they often seemed that the world was an unfair and cruel place. This view of the world shocked me as it was in stark contrast to my own beliefs. I could not imagine the world being so cruel that you could hide away, I think the world is a wonderful place. This initial reaction of mine was probably a little unfair but given the chance to rethink the my view I understand that if I was in the same situation, a world ravished with war, then I too would probably believe the world to be a cruel and uninviting place. The lucky landscape we live in made me realise just how much of an impact where we live has on how we view the world.

As you can see a person’s view on the world is characterised on where they live, the environment one inhabits inevitably controls our views and values. We are given better understandings of the issues that affect us most, and gain insight and adopt values important to our heritage, our personal reflections reflect what is important around us in our external landscape and not just in our mental minds.







thanks...

[sisqo1111]

this is for the imaginative landscape?

[Survivor]

Your discussion is very good, however, you need to use your texts. I can't find any discussion in relation to Fly Away Peter / Jindabyne / Island / Robert Frost poems, which is concerning since context pieces are expected to have about 50% from your texts. In your last body paragraph, for example, link your war discussion with Fly Away Peter and Jim's experiences at the war. And when you talk about the fishing anecdote, perhaps relate it to Jindabyne.

My two cents.

[polky]

context pieces are expected to have about 50% from your texts...

Really?  I was told to keep text references to at MOST 50% as the context essay is supposed to be more of an exploration of ideas than text response (which it could resemble if you use too many text references).

[vce01]

we were told to keep it 70% (ideas) - 30% (textual).

[Survivor]

context pieces are expected to have about 50% from your texts...

Really?  I was told to keep text references to at MOST 50% as the context essay is supposed to be more of an exploration of ideas than text response (which it could resemble if you use too many text references).

Ahh, really? Maybe i've been told something different, i've heard quite a few things about context but I generally thought that ideas are drawn primarily from the texts, so i've been doing more text based responses. I think how much text you want to put is ultimately up to you, but I'm assuming that you at least must make a few references to them.

[Ashhh]

we had a guest lecturer come out to our school, and she said (and I don't if this is right) that you don't have to specifically show examples from the text there just has to be a link...

[Survivor]

Wow, really? So many different opinions. Sorry cathtacular, I may be wrong, forgot what I said about 50% text.

[polky]

we had a guest lecturer come out to our school, and she said (and I don't if this is right) that you don't have to specifically show examples from the text there just has to be a link...

Yeah pretty much you have to make references to the text.  You don't necessarily have to quote from the text, but some sort of link has to be demonstrated.

The main focus of your context essay are ideas surrounding the context, and the way you merge language and style to convey your ideas to your audience.

[shinny]

In a piece like this it's fine not to use them since it'd just be absurd to suddenly bring in, 'OH and that reminds me of how in Jindabyne...' But yes, as long as you have some CLEAR LINKS TO YOUR TEXTS (I wouldn't know, haven't studied these texts) then its all good. Even in a piece like this, perhaps slipping in some quotes from the book and putting them as your own words would work well (perhaps even just underlining this to make it more obvious to the examiner might help, I think they'll get the message) because nevertheless, there is still a criteria for clear links to the text, and I wouldn't want to be gambling my English score on an examiner realising the subtle links to your text.

[shinny]

As for the '50%' rule, I'd say it's basically an 'all or nothing' situation. If you begin to directly reference your text, then since it's meant to be a 'predominate text', then yes, I assume you'd have to keep using it and make it dominate over all other supplementary material (hence, around 50%). But yeh, if you don't directly reference it at all and just subtly link to it, then none is fine also.

[AppleXY]

Yeah, I also heard there's got to be links with the text.

But sometimes its really hard to integrate, because it goes against it

why can't english more simple, it's like the most  thing you've ever seen lol

[dusty_girl1144]

my school got told to keep it under 50% because u studied the text for a reason. ... whats the point in studying it if u dont show examiners how much u can incorporate. if u add reality ur may just end up retellng ur life / things thats been in the media that everyone already knows.

[jsimmo]

I'm not sure why people keep throwing around 'percentages'. You can write an essay and not even directly mention the text - just simply the ideas and concepts generated from it are fine. If your doing 'The Crucible' (Encountering Conflict) you can even just talk about Arthur Millers motivation for writing the play as a result of encountering his very own conflict and not even write anything about the actual play - because, your ideas stem from the novel itself.   Anyway, this is basically what I was told by a chief assessor (Ross Huggard).

[shinny]

Like I said, I'd say it's more of an all or nothing situation. If you do start using them, make sure you're consistent with that and maintain it as a primary text. But yeh, there's nothing wrong with not directly referencing them everywhere even in an expository, although I don't see why you wouldn't.