VCE English Question Thread

[tashhhaaa]

Hey everyone,
In a context piece, if your tone changes from an analytical/scientific tone to a more personal/reflective tone, can you justify this in your explanatory piece by saying something like, 'the tone changes constantly because it represents the fluid nature of our identity, and how it cannot be fixed, just like the tone throughout the piece'? Or should I be safe and stick with one tone throughout the whole piece?
(Identity & Belonging Context)

Thanks!

if you change the tone & language, you've got a hybrid :p

[scarletmoon]

I'm having trouble interpreting this prompt "In the film Mabo, the land plays such an important role it is like a character."
Specifically I am having trouble coming up with ideas to refute this as well as some complex ideas.

[BlueHydrangea]

For Context (expository style) is it better to write about 1 idea in a paragraph and thoroughly explore it, or to have multiple ideas in a paragraph that are briefly explored?

[Maca 13]

For Context (expository style) is it better to write about 1 idea in a paragraph and thoroughly explore it, or to have multiple ideas in a paragraph that are briefly explored?

I think that it might be best to have one idea per paragraph that you can explore thoroughly because it'll show your teacher/assessor that you have a good understanding of the text and the context, and that you can express complex ideas that others might not have thought of (in my opinion, that would probably get you higher marks than having a bunch of unexplored ideas in the one paragraph).
That's what I would do, I hope this helps! 

[StupidProdigy]

In the exam, I read that we can get another answer booklet. Can this be used as planning paper? It would just seem easier rather than flipping through pages to get to my rough plan on the blank pages...even though i probably should avoid wasting time writing a plan for the prompt...

[frenchtom]

Is anyone thinking of doing Medea for the text respond part of the exam?
I can't decide between Medea or the Thing Around your Neck.

[thaaanyan]

Is anyone thinking of doing Medea for the text respond part of the exam?
I can't decide between Medea or the Thing Around your Neck.

Yep! I'm doing Medea! I was gonna be totally biased an start extolling the virtues of Euripides, but then i just google Thing Around Your Neck and i found out it's by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who is an absolutely perfect human being. Americanah is the only thing i've read by her but omg. man. now i'm insanely jealous you got to learn both! (i have no advice btw i just wanted to say how flawless Adichie is)  pun unintended

[tashhhaaa]

Yep! I'm doing Medea! I was gonna be totally biased an start extolling the virtues of Euripides, but then i just google Thing Around Your Neck and i found out it's by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who is an absolutely perfect human being. Americanah is the only thing i've read by her but omg. man. now i'm insanely jealous you got to learn both! (i have no advice btw i just wanted to say how flawless Adichie is)  pun unintended

Is anyone doing The White Tiger??? Trying to decide between that and Medea

[cosine]

Is anyone doing The White Tiger??? Trying to decide between that and Medea

For anyone else doing Medea, I solely beg you, would you mind reading my Medea essays for feedback and improvements, and I can do the same for you too. Let me know..

[tashhhaaa]

For anyone else doing Medea, I solely beg you, would you mind reading my Medea essays for feedback and improvements, and I can do the same for you too. Let me know..

yeah sure! I have to write some first LOL but feel free to send through

[literally lauren]

In the exam, I read that we can get another answer booklet. Can this be used as planning paper? It would just seem easier rather than flipping through pages to get to my rough plan on the blank pages...even though i probably should avoid wasting time writing a plan for the prompt...

Some invigilators will get snarky with you if you ask for an extra booklet before you need it. Hell, the ones in my Lit. exam wouldn't even give me one until I'd completely filled up the last one, and then I had to waste precious minutes while this woman slowly walked up to the front of the room and then sloooooowly walked back and handed me the booklet. I nearly took her eyes out with one of my 17 backup pens -.-

If you look through the writing booklets <http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/exams/english/2014/english%202014_answerbook.pdf> you'll notice you have a 'rough work only' page at the start of each Section. This should probably be sufficient, and if you're writing more than three pages for your plans, you're probably going overboard :p Alternatively, the actual question booklet is yours to keep and scribble on, so if you don't want to flip pages back and forth, you can just do your annotations and planning on the spare space in that booklet. Most people do this for L.A. anyway
~~~

Also, with regards to choosing your exam texts and working on them, some of you might find it helpful to start up a thread dedicated to the ones your studing. The Christmas Carol and All About Eve threads were quite popular last year, and it means you get a chance to air your ideas and build on your knowledge with one another. Obviously not all of them will take off if there aren't enough students willing to contribute, but the more popular texts (esp. Medea, TBL, HIV, All About Eve, and Wuthering Heights if this is anything to go by) should attract some attention. You could even bump a few of the ones from last year if you can find them - i think they're hovering around pages 10-13 on this board :p I know a lot of people head into this final stretch of the year in the mindset that they have to protect their precious ideas under lock and key lest they give anyone else the advantage, but ultimately, you'll gain so much from expressing your readings and bouncing off one another than you will if you just burrow down and stick your head in the sand for the next six weeks. Just from experience (my own, and my students') discussing things with people in the same boat as you can help immensely. Plus you might even get a few students from previous years dropping in to contribute their own understandings, as well as a bunch of tutors/teachers that float around these boards

[duo0024]

Hey guys quick question. If you're given a prompt and it starts off with a quote, do you have to use that quote in your essay?
I've always thought the quote was to show that the prompt is applicable to the text/film.
Cheers 

[Alter]

You should definitely give reference to any quotes in TR prompts. They are there to guide you in a particular direction, and if you can pinpoint where from the text the quote comes from and what relevance it has to the question itself, the better off you will be. As a general rule of thumb, I try to do this before the end of the 1st body paragraph. If you do it later, it might seem like you crammed it in or you weren't really sure how it holds significance. Just my 2 cents.

[StupidProdigy]

For my context piece (essay), I'm thinking of having it structured with four pieces of evidence. Two of which are texts, one is a film (skin) and the other evidence will be personal stuff. Is four types too much or too little? And I'm also concerned about whether I shouldn't double up on using two texts as my supplementary sources? thanks

[banaidil]

Hi,
for a text response, how do you mention different interpretations in a sophisticated manner?