HSC Year 12 English Advanced Complete Course Notes (2022 - 2024) 1922394815, 9781922394811

Table of contents :
I Essays and Texts
General tips for acing your essays
First sentence: answer the question!
Clear and concise paragraphs
Integrated essays
Making a judgement
Depth and breadth
Conclusions
Personal voice
Approaching texts for the first time
Approaching a poem
Approaching a film
Approaching a still visual text
Approaching a novel
Approaching a play
Approaching a non-fiction text
General skills
Improving reading speed and efficiency
Improving handwriting speed and efficiency
Improving grammar and flow
Improving vocabulary
Documenting and applying vocabulary
Optimising quotes and sophistication
II Common Module
Introducing the Common Module
The syllabus
Related texts
Advice for choosing a related text
List of potential related texts
Using language
Figurative language
Evaluative language
In the exam
Section One
How to answer 3–4 mark questions
How to answer 6–7 mark questions
Section Two
III Modules
Module A: Textual Conversations
Rubric
Essay structure
Thesis statements
Body paragraphs
Suggested critical readings
Exemplar response
Module B: Critical Study of Literature
Rubric
Reading and research
Analysis
Essay structure
Thesis statements
Body paragraphs
Suggested critical readings
Exemplar response
Module C: The Craft of Writing
Rubric
Using literary devices
Varying sentence structure
Checklist
Adapting to purpose, audience, and context
Genre options
Poetry
Letters
Plays
Short stories
Speeches
Essays
Hybrids
School assessment
In the exam
IV Study Tips
How to study for English
How I studied for English Advanced (Emily)
Examples of study resources I created (Elyse)
Memorising Essays (Elyse)
Methods for memorisation
Making study resources
Example of analysing poetry
Example of analysing Shakespeare
V Exam Tips
Paper One
Pre-reading time
Reading time
Exam order
Timing
Paper Two
Pre-reading and reading time
Order of the paper and timing
VI Appendices
List of Techniques
Vocabulary List
Frequently Asked Questions

Citation preview

Year 12 English Advanced Complete Course Notes 2022–2024 Emily Tyrrell and Elyse Popplewell

Published by InStudent Publishing Pty Ltd 91a Orrong Cres Caulfield North, Victoria, 3161 Phone (03) 9916 7760 www.atarnotes.com As and when required, content updates and amendments will be published at: atarnotes.com/product-updates Copyright © InStudent Publishing Pty Ltd 2022 ABN: 75 624 188 101 All rights reserved. These notes are protected by copyright owned by InStudent Publishing Pty Ltd and you may not reproduce, disseminate, or communicate to the public the whole or a substantial part thereof except as permitted at law or with the prior written consent of InStudent Publishing Pty Ltd. Title: Year 12 English Advanced Complete Course Notes ISBN: 978-1-922394-81-1 Disclaimer No reliance on warranty. These ATAR Notes materials are intended to supplement but are not intended to replace or to be any substitute for your regular school attendance, for referring to prescribed texts or for your own note taking. You are responsible for following the appropriate syllabus, attending school classes and maintaining good study practices. It is your responsibility to evaluate the accuracy of any information, opinions and advice in these materials. Under no circumstance will InStudent Publishing Pty Ltd (“InStudent Publishing”), its officers, agents and employees be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on these materials, including any adverse impact upon your performance or result in any academic subject as a result of your use or reliance on the materials. You accept that all information provided or made available by InStudent Publishing is in the nature of general information and does not constitute advice. It is not guaranteed to be error-free and you should always independently verify any information, including through use of a professional teacher and other reliable resources. To the extent permissible at law InStudent Publishing expressly disclaims all warranties or guarantees of any kind, whether express or implied, including without limitation any warranties concerning the accuracy or content of information provided in these materials or other fitness for purpose. InStudent Publishing shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, consequential or punitive damages of any kind. You agree to indemnify InStudent Publishing, its officers, agents and employees against any loss whatsoever by using these materials. Trademarks "ATAR" is a registered trademark of the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (“VTAC”); "HSC" is a registered trademark of the Board of Studies Teaching and Educational Standards (“BOSTES”). VTAC and BOSTES have no involvement in or responsibility for any material appearing in these guides. Nor does BOSTES endorse or make any warranties regarding the material in these books or sold by InStudent Media Pty Ltd. HSC syllabuses and related content can be accessed from the BOSTES website. HSC examination questions and syllabus extracts are reproduced by permission, from NESA (http://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au)

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Preface English is an incredibly rewarding subject when you apply yourself. Each text you study offers new worlds, ways of thinking, crafts, and ideas. In these notes, co-authoured by two outstanding English students, you’ll be guided through the genesis of a creative writing piece, the process of analysing texts, the fine-tooth combing of your essays, and how to handle the exam itself. Emily: I came first in the state for Advanced English in the 2016 HSC. Leaving school with an ATAR of 99.85, I grew up in a household full of literature and learning, thanks to my brilliant Mum, who is also an English teacher. The love of learning fostered through activities such as public speaking, debating, and tournament of the minds, is something that I hope to translate in my writing. Through providing a few tips and tricks I have learned, I hope to inspire similar appreciation of great works and guide you through your English studies. Elyse: I completed my HSC in 2015 with a Band 6 in Advanced English, and an E4 for both Extension 1 and Extension 2 English. Now, I study a Bachelor of Communications at UTS. Throughout high school, English was always my favourite subject and I was always fortunate to have passionate teachers. In these notes, I hope to inspire an interest (at least) or a passion (at best) for language, texts, and writing even in the students who are picking up this book knowing English is their weakest subject. For those who are playing their strongest hand with English, I hope you find ways to extend yourself in this book. Happy studies! — Emily Tyrrell and Elyse Popplewell

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Contents I

Essays and Texts

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General tips for acing your essays 1.1 First sentence: answer the question! 1.2 Clear and concise paragraphs . . . . 1.3 Integrated essays . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 Making a judgement . . . . . . . . 1.4.1 Depth and breadth . . . . . 1.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6 Personal voice . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.7 Approaching texts for the first time . 1.7.1 Approaching a poem . . . . 1.7.2 Approaching a film . . . . . 1.7.3 Approaching a still visual text 1.7.4 Approaching a novel . . . . 1.7.5 Approaching a play . . . . . 1.7.6 Approaching a non-fiction text

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General skills 2.1 Improving reading speed and efficiency . . . . 2.2 Improving handwriting speed and efficiency . . 2.3 Improving grammar and flow . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Improving vocabulary . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.1 Documenting and applying vocabulary 2.5 Optimising quotes and sophistication . . . . .

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Common Module

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Introducing the Common Module 1.1 The syllabus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Related texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2.1 Advice for choosing a related text 1.2.2 List of potential related texts . . 1.3 Using language . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.1 Figurative language . . . . . . . 1.3.2 Evaluative language . . . . . . .

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In the exam 2.1 Section One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.1 How to answer 3–4 mark questions 2.1.2 How to answer 6–7 mark questions 2.2 Section Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Modules

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Module A: Textual Conversations 1.1 Rubric . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Essay structure . . . . . . . 1.2.1 Thesis statements . . 1.2.2 Body paragraphs . . 1.3 Suggested critical readings . 1.4 Exemplar response . . . . .

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Module B: Critical Study of Literature 2.1 Rubric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Reading and research . . . . . . . 2.3 Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Essay structure . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.1 Thesis statements . . . . . 2.4.2 Body paragraphs . . . . . 2.5 Suggested critical readings . . . . 2.6 Exemplar response . . . . . . . .

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Module C: The Craft of Writing 3.1 Rubric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Using literary devices . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 Varying sentence structure . . . . . . . . . 3.4 Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.5 Adapting to purpose, audience, and context 3.6 Genre options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.6.1 Poetry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.6.2 Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.6.3 Plays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.6.4 Short stories . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.6.5 Speeches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.6.6 Essays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.6.7 Hybrids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.7 School assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.8 In the exam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Study Tips

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How to study for English 1.1 How I studied for English Advanced (Emily) . . 1.2 Examples of study resources I created (Elyse) 1.3 Memorising Essays (Elyse) . . . . . . . . . . 1.3.1 Methods for memorisation . . . . . . . 1.4 Making study resources . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.4.1 Example of analysing poetry . . . . . 1.4.2 Example of analysing Shakespeare . .

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Exam Tips Paper One 1.1 Pre-reading time 1.2 Reading time . 1.3 Exam order . . 1.4 Timing . . . . .

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VI

Appendices

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List of Techniques

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Vocabulary List

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Part I

Essays and Texts

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1

General tips for acing your essays

Chapter 1

General tips for acing your essays MATES, TEEL, PEEL, *insert acronym here*, thesis?!? If you ever want to freak out your fellow classmates, tell them you’re not using the paragraph structure your teacher has drilled into you since Year 11. Madness ensues. Total illogical, unnecessary madness. There is no sure-fire way to write a brilliant essay. If there were, literature would not be adored as it is. It would all be very boring, and very plain (despite what you may already think of English). In saying that, you also can’t write a few disjointed ideas down in your exam, and expect it to earn you a high score. You can memorise every line of Hamlet, but if you can’t explain what it means, then your study will go to waste. So, how do you say what you want to say, and say it well? Your essay should start with a thesis. In it, you need to address the question, outline your essay, and introduce your texts succinctly but with flair.

1.1

First sentence: answer the question!

Chapter 1 – General tips for acing your essays

Do not be afraid to use the same words as the question. Do not dance around the point. Take a stance regarding the viewpoint, and run with it.

Your response to the question should fall in between these two ends. Pick a point, and stick to it. I would avoid choosing either extreme (unless it is a terribly written question), but I would also avoid sitting on the fence in the middle (unless you are very good at arguing). So, lean slightly to one side – either mostly agree or mostly disagree. This will allow you to create a ‘sophisticated argument’ that acknowledges the question’s complexity, yet still effectively argues a point. Take this question from the 2016 HSC for example: S AMPLE :

’An individual’s perception is intrinsically linked to the past.’ Though I agree with the question, I do think it is narrow. So, I’ll take an argument midway between the fence and the extreme. My opening sentence may look like this: S AMPLE :

Whilst one’s perception of landscape is inextricably linked to the past, landscape as a medium of memory and imagining evolves throughout one’s life. I find that a response like this needs further explanation. You have time here to make sure that the marker knows what your point is. It is also a great chance to throw in some terms from the syllabus, grounding your essay and probably appealing to some parts of the marking guidelines. S AMPLE :

Whilst one’s perception of landscape is inextricably linked to the past, landscape as a medium of memory and imagining evolves throughout one’s life. Accordingly, landscape as a representation of personal, cultural, and universal identity culminates across time and place. Then, introduce your texts. This is one part of your essay you can undeniably memorise. It can calm you in the exam room after blurting out a lofty thesis, and can catch your marker’s eye after reading the same introductions over and over again. Following this, you should outline the main ideas of your body paragraphs. Three ideas will suffice, but four is even better. In my own exams, I saved the fourth paragraph to come to a common ground amongst my texts – kind of like tying up all loose ends. 2

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1.2 Clear and concise paragraphs

1.2

Clear and concise paragraphs

Though your thesis may be clear and strong, this will not make up for rambling in your paragraphs. This is where a carefully planned structure can prevent word vomit. But you don’t want these structures to inhibit your writing. It is important not to suffocate yourselves in these acronyms or stick to them too stringently. Instead, use them as you need, but be flexible with them. Throughout the year, you may feel comfortable to stray from this outline – that’s more than okay! It could help your personal voice and flow of your essays. Despite this, be cautious of running away with one point and forgetting the rest of your essay. Here is a general structure that I was taught: Point: this a sentence that highlights one perspective of your thesis. It should link to the question as well (thus affirming the very first line of your essay). Don’t make it too long, and avoid vagueness at all costs. Explain: clarify what you meant in the first sentence. This also stops the opening to the paragraph from being too wordy, as you’ll know you have these 1-2 sentences to explain what you meant. Example this is where your quotes, techniques, and analysis belong. Make sure this is relevant to the first sentence of your paragraph. Link at the end of your paragraph, make sure your marker knows that you’ve furthered your argument with this added perspective. Affirm your paragraph point, your thesis, and the question.

I did follow a general structure for each of my essays. But my structure did change slightly, however, according to the question. Once again, the most important thing in an essay is the question. So, whilst you may practise a specific structure before the exam, don’t be scared to change it!

1.3

Integrated essays

These were my favourite. Every essay that I wrote in HSC was integrated, and so I found this easy. It also was a foolproof way to hit the ‘highly sophisticated’ dot point in most marking criteria, as it shows an understanding of concept and universal effect, rather than how a text works within itself. Done poorly, however, these essays are vague and clumsy. So, only structure essays in this way if it works for YOU, and you alone. S AMPLE :

Emily’s Integrated Essay Plan Introduction: 1. Thesis (interpretation of question) 2. Supporting sentence 3. Introduce prescribed text, including: • Text name • Composer’s name • Year written/created (optional) • Medium (e.g. film, non-fiction, novel) • Context/audience (e.g. Elizabethan, contemporary American) • Themes (will become headers for body paragraphs!) 4. Introduce other related text (same as prescribed; themes should be the same) 5. Short sentence to lead into the essay (optional) Paragraph 1: (e.g. theme = power) 1. Link theme to thesis/question 2. Explain (if necessary; should be no more than a sentence) 3. Prescribed text – quote, technique, analysis in relation to theme

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Chapter 1 – General tips for acing your essays

Analysis is best specified to each module, so check in the dedicated chapters to ensure your essays are clever yet concise. In general, three quotes per paragraph is a good guideline to begin with. As you get better at your essays throughout the year, don’t be afraid to add some extra quotes as needed.

1.4 Making a judgement

4. Related text – its perspective on the theme as compared to the previous quote. Analyse why this is so, and how it is portrayed 5. Prescribed – repeat step 3 6. Related – repeat step 4 7. Concluding sentence: a statement that confirms how the theme is represented within the text. Include a larger, conceptual statement about the audience response and how we may then reconsider the question, in light of the theme (which in turn, affirms the thesis). Paragraph 2: (e.g. theme = identity) – same as previous paragraph Paragraph 3: (e.g. theme = value of language) – save your biggest concept for last! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Introduce one perspective on the theme, as strongly displayed in one text One text – technique, analysis One text – technique, analysis Provide contrary perspective using other text – technique, analysis Come to a middle ground – technique analysis for both texts Summarise middle ground in final sentence

Conclusion: Chapter 1 – General tips for acing your essays

1. Restate thesis 2. Name themes, in conjunction with texts 3. Restate middle ground, and contribution of the texts to the development of the thesis/ interpretation of question. The biggest problem people seem to find with this structure how to link their texts. It is for this reason that I chose to structure my essays thematically. This way, there is always a talking point between the texts.

1.4

Making a judgement

One thing that separates a responses is critical analysis. For all modules, it is crucial that you include evaluative language in all of your essays. This is because it is included in all of your A-range marking criteria for Advanced. The good news is that if you’re yet to integrate evaluation into your writing, it is a relatively easy skill to learn. Moreover, it could possibly push you up into a higher band, if used correctly and effectively. The simplest way to evaluate a text is through adverbs. In doing so, you should comment on how well the composer develops, challenges, or expresses a particular idea. It can also be used to commend or condemn how a composer has employed a specific technique. As always, the idea communicated through the quote should reinforce your thesis and thus the question. The way you would format such an evaluation would look something like this: • Critically analysing the technique (and therefore how well the idea is conveyed): e.g. ‘the composer skilfully juxtaposes the close-up shot to the accompanying non-diegetic sound in order to reinforce the notion that the personal cannot be separated from the political.’ • Critically analysing the idea: e.g. the composer juxtaposes the close-up shot to the accompanying non-diegetic sound, insightfully reinforcing the notion that the personal cannot be separated from the political. If you are confident in critically analysing, you can always figure out your own way to phrase analysis. I found many ways that worked for me that also assisted in forming my personal voice. For example: commanding the audience’s attention through the demand of a close-up shot, the composer implores the audience to reconsider the place of the individual amongst the cacophony of political discourse, poignantly represented through the patriotic, non-diegetic sound. At first glance, this appears much longer and more complex than the previous examples. However, I believe this type of analysis to be much more powerful, as it engages the marker and shows your personal insight into a text. Remember, your essay is a text working between composer and audience as well. Write to engage, to argue, to convince. 4

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1.4 Making a judgement

1.4.1

Depth and breadth

So how do you know how much detail is ‘enough?’ This is always a very tricky question, as not only is there an expected length to a response, but a forty minute time period to complete it in. This is where practice responses become important. At the beginning of the year, you absolutely must figure out how much you can legibly and coherently write within forty minutes. There is not much I insist upon, so this is a pretty big deal. Doing this early will give you plenty of time to build up strength in your hand, and work out what’s slowing you down during an exam. Here are some problems I encountered when I first did this, and the solutions I figured out during the year:

First, the quality of what you are writing must be addressed. It is only then we can look specifically at the length of your response. Though a smaller word count may separate a 19 from a 20 in the marking centre, the bulk of your marks are going to be earned in developed and insightful analysis. So really, the length of your response should be the last thing you’re worrying about. If you’re at the stage of perfecting your responses, you should look at your word count. By the time of my trials, I was writing around 1,000 words for a Modules essay. My Common Module pieces were around the 1,200 mark (creative and essay). Between this time and the HSC, I really focused on exam timing in order to squeeze in any extra information I could. Those extra sentences that add personality to your response – that would have otherwise been cut for simply the sake of finishing an essay – were added. By the exam, each essay would have had around 100 extra words, give or take. I had the added advantage of large handwriting, meaning that I filled extra exam booklets. As petty as this sounds, it does have an effect on the marker. If it’s a fantastic essay, it can make it seem comprehensive, all encompassing, like there is nothing else I could possibly say (a personal aim of mine). On the other hand, a mediocre essay can be severely worsened by length, making it seem a chore for the marker. The main point here is go into detail for a good reason! Otherwise, make the point and move on. Do not waffle for the sake of a word count.

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Chapter 1 – General tips for acing your essays

• Handwriting: do not rely on your extra fast, extra cursive handwriting to save the day in the exam room. It is messy and your teachers will get annoyed. Having ‘clear and coherent’ writing is part of the marking rubric, and some markers will interpret it as determined by handwriting. If they are constantly stopping in order to figure out what the hell you’re actually saying, your writing is not coherent. I found that towards the end of my responses, my handwriting would become bigger and loopy. Though this meant I used more writing booklets (classmates: “wow you wrote so much, how great!”) it did not equate to more marks (teachers: “wow you wrote so much crap, how am I supposed to mark this?”) Moreover, you may find that your handwriting is actually slowing you down. If you do not already write in cursive, identifying your weaknesses early may allow you time to pick up running writing. For some, this can make a massive difference to how much they can write. There are many benefits to printing as well, which can be just as fast as cursive if you’re an avid writer. It is also generally neater. If you are still having problems with writing, perhaps try a different pen (uniball eye pens are my favourite), changing how you grip your pen, or how you angle your paper. These small fixes can make a huge difference, and most importantly, save your marks. • Thesis: trying to be too clever too quickly was one of my biggest downfalls. Perhaps at the time, I thought it sounded like the most profound thing ever written. Reading it back, I sound like exactly what I was: a 17 year old that had little understanding of the world and what I wanted to say. Your task in the HSC is not to be original. It does not matter if what you write has been written a hundred times before. You are not in a philosophy course. Write simply yet with purpose, and answer the question. Do not use big words for the sake of using big words. Do not try and be overly complex, as this means you will spend a majority of your essay explaining yourself. You do not have time. I suggest now going through the pieces you have written with a few different coloured highlighters. With one colour, shade your quotes. With another, shade the technique and analysis. Another, the thesis of each of your paragraphs. All that is not coloured is explanation that could be definitely shortened or culled completely. Breaking the habit of explaining yourself is hard and may take time, but will improve the clarity of your work greatly. You may also be able to squeeze an extra analysis paragraph in, or add more textual references, because of the time you’ve saved in revising your work.

1.5 Conclusions

1.5

Conclusions

The little old lady supervising the exam called five minutes to go what seemed half an hour previously, and you’ve yet to finish your last paragraph. Do you: a) finish the paragraph quickly to make sure you have a decent conclusion, or b) focus on tightening up the paragraph and don’t stress about the conclusion? Pick b; always pick b. Your conclusion should not introduce anything new, and really, should only reinstate your thesis (or the first line of your entire essay). In this case, it does not matter if it’s absent. Of course, it’s better to have one, but where you are stretched for time it is best to finish your analysis in your last paragraph. It is much easier to guess what you might say in a conclusion than where your analysis may lead at the end of your paragraph. I found this to be especially true in my own essays, as I would always save my strongest analysis for the final paragraph. I too, found myself in a similar position mentioned above in the final essay in Paper Two. I vividly remember writing one sentence for my conclusion, thinking that time up would be announced by the time I had ended it. Realising this was not so, I pushed a half-hearted second sentence out, recounting the general themes of the essay. Pens down. I had written the smallest conclusion in my entire school life in my last English exam. Well done to me.

Chapter 1 – General tips for acing your essays

As you can tell, I’m not a big fan of conclusions. You prove your point in the body of your essay. Your mark is determined in those paragraphs. No witty comment made at the end is going to secure you any marks. However, if you would like icing on the cake, I recommend coming up with some clever phrases specific to your modules. These can be rote learned if you would like, which would also provide some relief between pieces in the exam. A second sentence may restate your texts, and the main themes of your paragraphs. A third could restate the question and your position on it. In my opinion, no more than three sentences are needed. Time can be better spent on your analysis – which will be of greater benefit to you anyway. Alternatively, you could be getting to the very end of your analysis and realise that you are writing nothing on topic at all and you are fading away into dribble. If the ends of your paragraphs aren’t that strong or clear, then your conclusion might be a chance to salvage that. The conclusion is the very last thing that your marker will read before they bring together their final thoughts about your work and assign it a mark. If you are writing aimlessly, lost in wild analysis that hardly relates to anything, the conclusion could be what ties it together. Take a breather, and start pulling your convoluted ideas together. Of course, being clear in your analysis is a better option that being clear in your conclusion. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the way that everyone works in an exam. Consider: is it worth stopping the waffle in the last few minutes, taking a breather, and powering through a conclusion that shows that my ideas aren’t crazy and are somewhat cohesive? This could be the opportunity you need to string together the words above and send a final, mark-saving message to the assessor that you are capable of cohesive thoughts!

1.6

Personal voice

Throughout my entire HSC, every English teacher I came in contact with insisted on developing a personal voice. Though that phrase was never explicitly defined, each teacher was able to point it out in exemplar responses and, eventually, my own work. So, to demystify what seems to be the easy way to a Band 6, we can breakdown ‘personal voice’ into four different characteristics. Aim to achieve each of these, and your essays are sure to catch your English teacher’s eye! • Engage with the question: this may seem obvious, but it’s easily missed in the stress of the exam room, or the exhaustion of a late night, last minute essay. Neither teachers nor NESA markers are going to be so kind as to let you talk about whatever section of the text you like or understand the most. Rather, they will give you a key focus which you absolutely must talk about. For example, the 2016 HSC Module B questions were very specific. S AMPLE :

‘How does Yeats use contrast to explore the personal and political concerns in his poetry?’

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1.7 Approaching texts for the first time

1.7

Approaching texts for the first time

As a general rule of thumb, acquaint yourself fully with the techniques of all text types that you could be presented with. Even if you don’t study a still visual text in your modules or AOS, you may come across it in the unseen texts in Paper One, meaning you shouldn’t skip over any techniques in preparation! When you’re dealing with any text, a comprehensive and explained list of techniques for you to reference in your response and analysis will be really helpful. Start a list of techniques for each text type at the start of the year and add to them as you progress through the HSC – you’ll know every technique there is to know in no time. We’ve started a list for you at the back of this book!

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Chapter 1 – General tips for acing your essays

This would require a thesis based upon why contrast works, and what it reveals about the personal and political context and ideas within W.B Yeats’ oeuvre. Tackling the question head-on will show markers that you have a definite idea of what you’re talking about, exuding confidence from the start. Trying to squeeze in your own thesis with the focus of the question will often make your essay messy, as it then tries to prove two different points. Instead, bring your personal take on the texts into your analysis • Original, but not outlandish, analysis: here, you get to show off. This is where you can reinterpret the terms of the question to show that you understand the depth of a text. Because, of course, there is an infinite amount of interpretations – none of which are wrong! However, some can sound a little silly if you don’t back them up. This is where the question comes into play once again. Interpret your quotes in terms of the question, in order to show how your thesis, and in turn the question, is evident within your texts. Similarly, you can use your analysis to challenge your thesis. This will provide a well-informed voice, and jump off the page as confident yet not cocky. In saying this, I would only attempt this type of analysis once you have nailed analysing in terms of the question. • Write, lots: and I don’t mean in terms of practice essays. Yes, they are very important, but writing for yourself is important as well. I strongly suggest keeping a journal throughout your HSC year, or perhaps writing a page or two when you feel strongly about a subject. Not only will this help you to collect your thoughts in times of stress, but it will give you a sense of your own writing. You’ll find yourself using words that you may have picked up from the texts you’re studying, and tackling ideas in depth that previously, you’ve only thought of in passing. In my experience, this translated to a natural flow of ideas in exams – particularly in creative writing. The same voice could be cultivated through activities such as public speaking, debating, or even discussing texts with friends. Overall, you want to develop your opinion. Doing so before the exam will prevent the word vomit we all fear within those 2 hour papers. As I said, practice papers are important, but I wouldn’t worry about them too much at this stage. Your teacher may already be setting your class regular essays. If not, I would suggest one essay a week at the moment. Before your half yearlies, aim to be writing more than that – if time allows. If not, remember that an essay should only be taking you 40 minutes. There is plenty of time before your half yearlies to pump out Common Module essays a week out from the exam. Though it is not ideal for stress levels, it will benefit in the long run. Nail the Common Module now, so you won’t have to spend too much time on it for final exams. By that time, your essays will exude a voice that is all your own, as you’ll know your texts inside and out! • Remember your marker: personal voice is a relief for markers, because it is rarely perfected (or employed, for that matter), and believe it or not, teachers actually do want to award brilliant responses. They want to hear that someone has learned and benefited from the module. Most importantly, they are not afraid to learn from the response itself! When you keep this in mind, it is much easier to write a personal response. Every text that you’ve studied in Advanced is written for a particular audience, to serve a particular purpose. Why should your response be any different?

1.7 Approaching texts for the first time

1.7.1

Approaching a poem

Chapter 1 – General tips for acing your essays

1. Read it. Then reread it. Reread it again. With poetry in particular, it is so easy to read your text, because generally poems prescribed in the HSC are fairly short. Many students are intimidated by poetry because they are unfamiliar with the language, style, and form. However, you have teachers to help you, along with peers, online resources, and your school library. Don’t let the words defeat you! Conquer them! Once you read your poem, write down any emotions the poem evokes, any thoughts it gives rise to. That initial vague feeling of what you read is an indication of what points you’d be strongest at talking about in an essay. Poems are often very dense in meaning and subject matter – your initial reading will give you some idea, but as you revisit the poem, you’re likely going to notice new ideas or ways of expressing them. 2. Go through line by line and expound on the literary techniques. This includes things like metaphors, allusions, imagery, etc. Highlight any unfamiliar words or references you don’t understand. Do some homework and make sure you fully comprehend the poem before you begin your analysis. You don’t want to be naïve in your response, especially with something like poetry, where it is easy to be fooled by the complexity. Ask questions of every single line if you can! 3. Research, and use scholarly sources if possible. You should look into the background of the poem and the poet, as well as what literary and social context they wrote in – this gives a sense of direction as to why the author writes what they do and the way they do it. Poetry can be intensely personal, so context is very important. When you have established a thorough understanding of the text’s linear structure, you should pick out themes and abstract them to the fullest extent. For instance, you could notice themes such as sacrifice, immortality, life, and death amongst others. Pick one and frame your thesis around it. For example, say a student chooses life and death; they could then write a thesis along the lines of: “The persona relies on the symbolism of life as a tangible patchwork of real human sacrifice in war, which ultimately constitutes the appreciation of the frail nature of mortality.” 4. Create a thesis that is sophisticated – this means pushing your idea one step beyond what you would normally stop at. You are creating an argument that has a large scope – it must be about the poem, and something larger than the poem itself, as with all your text types. When you make a comment on the nature of life and death in the poem, you are making a comment on the nature of life and death throughout humanity as a whole. The link is to bridge this gap and bring the scope of the universe into the scope of the text. 5. You can then construct 3 or 4 ideas that will make up the body of the essay as paragraphs. Picking larger ideas in poems to focus on in your introduction will be helpful in weaving together your argument throughout the response. In each paragraph, you can hone in on very specific ideas – often these can be prompted by scholarly opinions and contexts (see point 3). Each module, of course, is different in what is expected from your paragraphs. 6. When you have your ideas, you should pick 2 or 3 quotes per idea that will constitute the justification of your thesis. So when you have your topic sentence about the relationship between life and the frailty of it in the face of realist human interaction, and you have your quote to back it up, you have to say why this matters – this is all about linking back to the question they give you. The whole time you write you should be thinking about linking back to the question. Then, the end of the paragraph should link back to your topic sentence, which in turn links back to the thesis. Having 2 or 3 quotes is just a guide for beginning your notes – you could, in theory, analyse one quote in extreme detail for an entire paragraph. Alternatively, you could use 5 small quotes in the one paragraph and have a similar effect. Your structure should reflect your ideas.

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1.7 Approaching texts for the first time

1.7.2

Approaching a film

1.7.3

Approaching a still visual text

1. Visual texts can sometimes be underrated in their complexity. Before you can begin to analyse a visual text, such as a painting, a book cover, a website, an advertisement, a graphic novel, or a frame from a film, you should be familiar with and confident in the terms you should use that are specific to visual texts. Research a list of visual techniques and have these somewhere in your English book or amidst your notes. Familiarise yourself with the rule of thirds, salience, vectors, hue, compositions, orientation, and any other visual techniques that you haven’t come across before. You never know what you will need to analyse in the HSC reading task if you are presented with a visual text. 2. Once you are confident with visual techniques, you should begin to apply them to the visual text. Anything that stands out is bound to be a technique that you can analyse. After all, if it stands out, there’s a reason it does so – remember that everything in English is intentional. The author would not have gigantic curly font that takes up half the page, super bold colours, unorthodox drawings, or any other eye-catching elements if they did not want you to notice! Copyright © 2022 InStudent Publishing Pty. Ltd.

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Chapter 1 – General tips for acing your essays

1. You must watch your film. There’s no easy way around it. Sure, you might get away with reading summaries online, but it is near impossible to do this and hope to achieve a Band 6 response. You are going up against students who have watched the text at least twice. You should, as a bare minimum, view it at least once, and ideally, at least twice. Actively watching your film more than once will give you a more well-informed voice when it comes to writing your essay, and you will gain a more holistic understanding of your text, while being able to draw from your memory to add anything you see fit in the HSC exam. Someone who hasn’t viewed the text probably won’t be able to improvise in an exam situation because they won’t know enough specific details! Plus, there’s every chance you will be given a question that asks you to closely analyse a scene from your film. In this case, it is essential that you have watched it, because you will understand the context of the excerpt, and be able to respond and analyse it with full understanding of its relevance to the text. 2. Writing a section by section summary on first viewing can be a valuable next step. Summarise what you have watched in terms of plot, but be detailed. It is so easy to forget minor plot details that you will want to reference later on. This also becomes helpful when you begin your proper analysis after your first viewing – referring to your notes will help you locate certain scenes to go back to and analyse. As well as summaries, analyse each section you view. This means you should pick out some themes and quotes and think about their significance to the text as a whole. It’s a pain to have to scroll through 100 plus minutes of a film when you are trying to write an essay, and haven’t a clue where that specific quote or scene was. 3. You will need to watch your film for a second time. The first time you are merely making note of memorable events, scenes, or quotes, and summarising the plot. After your second screening, you actually begin to create a thesis and analysis of the text. It might be best to search the internet and any resources your teacher gives you for inspiration on the way different people have approached the text. This way, you’re going into the second viewing with a foundation of knowledge. 4. Next, onto character analysis. Make a list of important characters in your film and write an analysis on them. You may include their appearance and anything about them that is particularly symbolic: their dialogue, their point in the narrative, their relation to other characters, and even some quotes that you can use in your essays later on. Once again, it’s a pain to scroll through an entire film just to find small details that you could have so easily done beforehand to save you the trouble. 5. Create a list of themes or ideas that are prevalent in the film after your initial viewing, then add to this list after your second viewing. This is so you have an artillery of themes to choose from when you begin to write your essay, and don’t need to go back and find the specific scene or quote that would supplement your essay’s argument. 6. Finally, you should make a list of film-specific techniques and give a brief analysis that will be of later use to you. Take note of quotes and camera angles and shots, costume, lighting, staging, framing, and so on. Analysing these will provide the foundation for your thesis creation and justification, and will comprise the analysis in the body paragraphs of your essay.

1.7 Approaching texts for the first time

3. You must also notice what is omitted from a visual text if you want to provide a deep and holistic analysis in your response. This refers to the parts in a visual text that have been left out intentionally; so if there is a book cover with half a person’s face on it, it’s not a travesty of a mistake by the publishing company – it is an artistic choice that conveys meaning. It may represent the loss of individuality, a split personality, or the search for identity. What has been left out is just as important as what has been included. If anything, the omission of certain aspects often accentuates the aspects that are present. 4. Think about how the author wanted their visual text to be received. Consider what mood the text evokes, and why this is the case. Put yourself in the place of the author and imagine what you would present to an audience, given your purpose. In this sense, you’ll be going from small visual details to mid-level analyses of meaning, to the broadest level of authorial intent, and an awareness of the importance of each of these levels will serve you well in assessments.

1.7.4

Approaching a novel

Chapter 1 – General tips for acing your essays

1. In all likelihood, novels will be the text types you are most familiar with from your previous years of English study. The major obstacle students usually run into here is just getting through the sheer length of some of the longer texts on the HSC list. It can be a difficult journey to trawl through hundreds of pages of verbose descriptions and plot development, especially if it’s not a novel you enjoy and thus you have little investment in the characters. The temptation to just rely on plot summaries will be immense, but trust me when I say that it will ultimately not suffice if you’re looking to attain a decent-to-high mark. Read your novel, no matter how difficult it may seem. 2. That is not to say summative resources will not be of use to you. Far from it; using plot-based resources can be a great help for texts like these, especially if you have been absent-minded during your reading without realising. Very few students will catch every important detail they need on a first reading, and even fewer will be able to remember them all for later essays. Thus, reading and developing your own reference points to help you document and internalise what happens in the text is crucial. 3. Next, you must confront these textual details and determine how best to collate and categorise them. Will you write up chapter summaries with dot points outlining the major characters and events in each section of the text? Will you compile character profiles which chart the journey and growth of the text’s major players? Will you highlight, annotate, and colour-code the living daylights out of your book? Whichever you choose, ensure that your resources are geared towards giving you the best foundation for analysis. 4. Sooner or later, you will also have to consider how you intend to document quotes. This is true of all text types, but where poetry and plays have the advantage of being fairly short, novels are notoriously dense, and you don’t want to be returning to the book ad nauseum to flip through hundreds of pages to find that one quote you can’t quite remember. The easiest way to counteract this is to be developing a quote repository right from the start; doing this digitally is a good idea too, for reasons that will become clear. Start with a word doc, chronologically ordered, and make your way through the novel, typing up any quotes you believe to be important as you go. Try to note which characters are speaking, where relevant, just in case you forget the context later. This will be a work in progress though, so if your teacher points out a noteworthy quote, or you read a sample essay that isolates some language in the text you hadn’t picked up on the first time, add it to your collection and strengthen your understanding. 5. Once you have the summative details of the text under control, you can progress to the analytical side of things, and begin to consider themes, big picture ideas, and even thesis statements. You may find it useful to return to your quote repository and start to classify or re-order the quotes by themes instead of chronology, which will give you a good sense of which ideas in the text are particularly important. Only once these core understandings have been established can you hope to discuss things like authorial intent and overarching messages with clarity and confidence.

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1.7 Approaching texts for the first time

1.7.5

Approaching a play

1.7.6

Approaching a non-fiction text

1. Non-fiction texts can mostly be treated in a very similar way to novels or short stories. Many of the methods outlined previously would serve you well for this genre too, but this text type has the added challenge of being linked with real world historical and social concerns more directly than fictional texts. As such, you need to understand what your non-fiction text is based on before you attempt to understand its contents, and this is going to require some background reading and research. Perhaps you’re studying a collection of speeches by a particular historical figure – if so, who were they? What did they accomplish? What things did they value, and what significant events in their lives or their world may have shaped these values? Or, if you’re studying a non-fiction memoir set in a particular time period, what was happening in that society at that time? What happened immediately before and afterwards? And why is the author writing about this? All these questions and more can be addressed in this initial stage of background research. 2. When it comes to the text itself, then, you should be on the lookout for links between what you are reading, and real-world people and events. Some of the non-fiction texts on the HSC lists involve a deliberate blurring of the lines between fiction and reality, so your awareness of these discrepancies and can make for powerful analysis. 3. Because non-fiction texts are so weighted by the history and ideas they examine, you may find it helpful to keep a list of questions you have about any textual details. You may have minor questions about small details that can be easily resolved by your teacher (or Google!) but others may prove to be quite significant. Once you begin to question the importance of certain textual elements, or what role these elements play on the grander scale of the author’s views and values. Other than that, the construction of your essays will be very similar to the methods outlined previously.

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Chapter 1 – General tips for acing your essays

1. The aforementioned quote banks and character analyses will be equally relevant for plays. For your first reading however, it can be a tad confusing trying to bring all the dialogue and stage directions to life in your head. If you’re lucky, there may be a filmed production of your text available online somewhere (and some schools will go out of their way to show it to you, if you’re really, really lucky) which can be of enormous benefit. Of course, no production of a play can be considered a completely faithful adaptation, and you should actively question whether there are any departures from the source material, but at the very least, even the loosest adaptation will assist you in visualising the play’s characters, plot, and staging. Sometimes, the plays are available in film form as well. This is excellent for taking the characters and plot off the page and making them accessible to you. 2. Though it may not seem like a significant hurdle at first, plays do come with an array of unique vocabulary that you will need to get a handle on if you want to conduct effective analysis (which is doubly true for those studying Shakespeare). From the basic structural things like stage directions and soliloquies to the complex features like metonymy and pathos – comprehension is always the first step, and you won’t be on the lookout for these elements unless you know what they are. Perhaps your teacher will provide you with a list of the relevant features, but don’t wait for them to do the work for you; read up on dramatic devices and make a note of any that seem pertinent. 3. Now you can start to consider the plot and characterisation in your text. As always, our core question is ‘what happens, and why?’ The act and scene break downs should give you a nicely delineated structure to follow if in doubt. Think about the characters’ motivations – what drives them, and what are their goals? What are their vices and virtues? Then, progress to the bigger questions, like where do the audience’s sympathies lie? And perhaps the biggest question of all, what is the author trying to say through the text and through their choice of language?

General skills

Chapter 2

General skills 2.1

Improving reading speed and efficiency

Throughout the year, almost all of your skills will revolve around two core abilities – reading and writing – both of which are worth developing to give you the best chance of scoring highly in the exam. The first seems fairly straightforward; if you can read relatively quickly and don’t forget too much information, you’ll probably be fine in assessment scenarios. The strictest conditions you’ll have to deal with will be in the exam, but for the vast majority of students, even this won’t pose too much of a problem. However, there are some strategies you can put into practice that will minimise the amount of time you need to spend processing the material, which in turn can maximise the amount of time you have to plan and write your response. For starters, efficient reading skills will depend on the kind of material you are trying to understand. This section will primarily be dealing with how to handle exam-style material seeing as this will be the main issue in test conditions, but we will also explore how to read your set texts efficiently in preparation for assessment.

Chapter 2 – General skills

First and foremost, you can cut down on your reading time significantly by knowing and prioritising the important information. If you consider yourself to be a relatively slow or inefficient reader, you might also need to remind yourself that it’s okay to slow down for certain, denser sections of text. Ideally, you want to minimise regressive rereading so that you’re not constantly going over particular sentences to the detriment of your overall understanding, but if there are parts of the material that you don’t understand, don’t be too dismissive as there are still some options available to you. If your confusion is the result of an unfamiliar word or idiom, you will have a dictionary with which you should be able to discern some meaning, though obviously overusing this resource can be pretty time-consuming. If you were to actually analyse this language, then an understanding of the definition would be needed, but if all you’re looking to do is work out the content and the arguments, then you can infer the meaning from the context of a sentence. Imagine you were dealing with a sentence like ‘The government has disappointed us yet again by being so perfunctory and cruel.’ Assuming you don’t know what the word ‘perfunctory’ means, you might be slightly unsure what specific characteristics the author is criticising here, but you could infer from the general sense of that excerpt that ‘perfunctory’ is a bad thing which goes hand in hand with ‘cruel’ in this case. Thus, for a first reading, immediately leaping for the dictionary as soon as you see a word like ‘perfunctory’ isn’t wholly necessary, since you can still comprehend the intention behind the sentence even without knowing what each individual component means. Later, if you believe the word warrants analysis, then you can explore its definition and connotations more fully. It is a staple of speed reading skills that you learn to think in ‘chunks’ instead of isolated fragments. Reading one word at a time is not only unbelievably slow, but will also impede your understanding of the flow of ideas. Instead, you want to be reading four or five words at a time using your peripheral vision. Again, when it comes to close analysis, it is more advantageous to actually unpack individual words and phrases, but since we’re only concerned with that first hurdle of basic comprehension, you can afford to group words in a way that allows you to digest portions in relation to one another and not by breaking everything up into pieces that are too small to put back together. Very similar techniques can be applied to your set texts, though a key difference here is that you will never be made to read these within time constraints. Quite the opposite in fact – you’ll have the whole summer holidays and all the time in the world throughout the year to come to terms with all the details in your texts, and to revisit any sections which confuse you. If you find them especially difficult to get through, or if you are becoming frequently lost as you attempt to work out what’s happening, you may benefit from reading summative materials before reading the actual text. Some basic plot summaries or even background information about the text can make it much easier to pick up on things yourself, particularly if your text is linked to a key historical or socio-political period that you don’t know much about. 12

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2.2 Improving handwriting speed and efficiency

Even just having something as simple as a character map or a list of the major themes can give you the necessary direction to facilitate your reading of the text. These kinds of summative resources don’t just have to be revision materials; they can in fact aid your first and second readings if you need an outline of the most important aspects before exploring them yourself. Unfortunately for some, there are several texts studied in schools that contain a great deal of difficult language, either because of the time in which the text is set, like Jacobean England in the 17th century, or the culture and dialect being explored, like rural Ireland, or remote Australian Indigenous communities. Alternatively, you might just have a text that uses a lot of uncommon vocabulary and weird expressions, in which case you would require a dictionary in order to process much of the dialogue and description. This is where your annotations can become even more useful – instead of looking up a word you’re unsure about and then just continuing to read on now that you temporarily know what it means, write down the definition or a few synonyms on the page. You may want to do this in a separate viewing log or vocabulary list if you’re studying a film, or even if it’s a novel that just doesn’t have a lot of room in the margins. If you only read the definition once and then swiftly move on, you’re far less likely to recall what the word means when you revisit that passage or evidence later, and you’re even less likely to be able to implement this vocabulary in your own writing. But, if you take note of the word’s meaning and write down a few related words or concepts, it will become ingrained in your mind along with all your other vocabulary, and this will make it far easier to recall via association.

2.2

Improving handwriting speed and efficiency

The second core skill which will obviously be applicable for all of your English assessments is your physical writing ability. For obvious reasons, writing quickly is instrumental in showcasing your potential, and slow writers will often become frustrated with the time conditions if they are unable to communicate the full extent and depth of their knowledge in any given situation. Luckily there are various minor changes that can be made which will enable faster and more efficient writing. Aside from the obvious advice of using a fairly smooth pen that flows with your hand and doesn’t smudge or create broken lines, as well as ensuring you aren’t gripping your pen too tightly and giving yourself hand cramps, there are also other easy means of making the writing process as quick as possible. Much like your spelling ability, handwriting is not a major concern for the people marking your work, but can still have unfavourable consequences for your overall result if your pieces are too hard to read. Completely altering your handwriting style is not a very realistic goal over the course of a year unless you are prepared to invest significant time in practising, but it is possible to modify things slightly to allow for greater readability. It’s important to note that the assessors don’t care too much about neatness, and that you are absolutely allowed to cross out sections and edit your own work, but they do care about legibility. Your teachers might be prepared to reread parts of your essays over and over again until they can work out what you’ve written, but the examiners don’t usually afford you the same luxury. Generally, messy handwriting styles tend to be fairly inefficient too, so some modification can do wonders for the quantity of your writing as well as your speed. The easiest way to explain this is to instruct you to write ‘tall and skinny’ letters that maximise the up and down movement of your hand whilst minimising the left to right movement. Because you have a wider axis of movement in one direction, your hand is much less likely to ache after extended periods of writing, and your letter formation should be much more legible once you adjust to this style. A weirdly common trend is attaching a pair of batteries to the top of your pen while you practise writing, so when you write with a battery-free pen, it feels easier. However, this is ultimately untrue; all it does it give you hand cramps and make practising your writing unnecessarily hard.

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Chapter 2 – General skills

The other advantage you have for your set texts is that you can confer with teachers and peers if there are any parts that don’t make sense to you. It might just be a few words that don’t seem to fit the context, or there might be entire plot details like why a character makes a certain decision, or the reason for a character’s sudden change of heart; either way, your teacher will more than happily fill in any gaps in your knowledge, making you far better prepared to tackle the discussion and analysis of your texts for later on.

2.3 Improving grammar and flow

Writing efficiency, on the other hand, has less to do with the physical act of writing and more to do with your mental state while you write. If you often find yourself pausing to contemplate your choice of wording or the ideas you’re trying to convey, then your underlying issue is likely one of vocabulary and expression concerns, or perhaps even an insufficient grasp on the criteria of the task. Whereas, if you find your writing style is the main reason why your progress is slow, or that your brain is often too many steps ahead of you which leads to frequent stopping to retrace your mental steps, then you should adjust your approach to better suit your mode of thinking. Consider different planning methods that could simplify your thought process and expedite a quicker articulation of ideas, or perhaps remind yourself not only think about the current sentence you’re writing and to reassure yourself that you’ll be able to create another path of discussion if you end up forgetting one you’d thought of previously. An easy method of promoting more efficient writing is to cut down on any unnecessary details and just focus on building your sentences from the ground up. What this means is that instead of delving into every sentence using complex linking words and grandiose vocabulary before you know what the essence of that sentence would be, you instead think about the basic message you want to convey, and then gradually add details where needed. This may feel somewhat simplistic at first, but try to isolate the most abridged version of what you’re trying to say, no matter how reductive your wording is. Maybe you’re just trying to get across something like: S AMPLE :

’This evidence makes readers think that this character is bad.’

Chapter 2 – General skills

Of course, you’d never want to write a sentence like that in your essay, but you can use that core idea and build upon it. Adding details that explain what the evidence is, how it encourages a response from readers, and what kind of ‘bad’ we’re dealing with, we can then construct a sentence like: S AMPLE :

‘Thus the character’s rejection of his mother’s love engenders readers’ vexation and portrays him as an incredibly self-serving and compassionless individual.’ Now we have a much higher quality sentence, but we’re still basing this on that initial outline of what we’re trying to get across. Ultimately, although your handwriting is nowhere near the most central focus of your studies, it may be a contributing factor to the strengths or weaknesses of your approach. In all likelihood you won’t have to spend too much time addressing such concerns, but if this is an especially problematic area for you, try to work with your teacher to create a system that caters to your trouble spots and allows you to cement a more reliable process for assessment tasks and exams.

2.3

Improving grammar and flow

In all of the writing tasks you complete as part of the English curriculum, the assessors are almost always trying to gauge the quality of your writing and your general ability. If you’re looking to move from midrange marks to high-range ones, then focusing more on the content of your work and the strength of your contentions and analysis is of far greater importance, but for those seeking to maximise their results from high range to full marks, often little things like varying your sentence structures so as to best present the information can make all the difference. On the other hand, it is possible for little things like grammar and overall writing flow to be a significant factor in the marking scheme if it is impeding clarity, so if you find your teacher repeatedly remarking that they do not understand what you’re saying or that your sentences don’t make sense, then you may need to invest some time in breaking apart your syntax and trying to simplify your expression so that you can more easily communicate your points.

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2.3 Improving grammar and flow

A very common problem in students’ essays is an issue with sentence length; having points stretch out too long to the point where they lose their focus or grammaticality, or having ones that are far too short and make your writing seem stilted and disorderly can make things very hard to read for your assessors. Furthermore, having all of your sentences be a very similar length can also draw attention to deficiencies in your writing, so not only do you need to ensure that each one is an appropriate length for what you are trying to convey, you also have to think about the overall flow of your ideas and whether your expression is noticeably repetitious. Happily, varying sentence lengths is an incredibly simple process that largely comes down to two main strategies: coordinating and dividing sentences. The first of these methods is a way to prevent sentences from being too short and disjointed by using a coordinating or linking word that brings two sentences together. Seeing as your writing should be flowing from one point to the next anyway, hopefully the each sentence will have some kind of connection to the one immediately before and after it. If this is not the case, then there’s likely to be an issue with the development, or perhaps even relevance of your ideas, so try to go back to the task or to your plan and rebuild a more cohesive approach. In order to appropriately combine sentences though, you need to consider what the relationship is between them, as opposed to just sticking a word like ‘and’ or ‘also’ between them and assuming that will be sufficient. To take a fairly straightforward example, let’s say we wanted to connect the following two sentences: ‘She studied on Tuesday’ and ‘She passed the exam.’ This could be done through a basic conjunction like ‘and,’ but we could also include some additional information about the connection between these two statements by selecting a more descriptive linking word. For instance: S AMPLE :

You’ll notice that we’re beginning to add even more information about the circumstances as we try and expand the sentence. As a result, the overall message has become a lot more powerful, and much better written than something as basic as: ‘She studied on Tuesday and passed the exam.’ This is because longer sentences provide you with an opportunity to explore such ideas without needing to separate them, which is conducive to greater essay flow overall because almost every component of your piece will benefit from this explanation. Create a list of good linking words throughout the year that can expand your vocabulary to help you in this regard. Conversely, you have to be careful not to make each sentence too long lest your ideas get bogged down in unnecessary waffle or laborious expression. If your writing is rife with onerous phrases and lots of repetition, that might be a good signal to try and expand your vocabulary in order to write more efficiently, but if having excessively long sentences is just the product of you having too much to say, then you can opt to split them into two instead.

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She studied on Tuesday so that she could pass the exam. OR She studied on Tuesday, which was what enabled her to pass the exam. OR Her study on Tuesday earned her a pass on the exam. OR She studied on Tuesday in the hopes of passing the exam, and her efforts were rewarded. OR Having studied all day on Tuesday, she was elated to learn that her work had paid off and that she had passed the exam.

2.4 Improving vocabulary

2.4

Improving vocabulary

It is a well-known fact that vocabulary is like an amplifier for general writing ability; if you’ve got a good vocabulary, it will make your pieces even stronger than they already are, but if your vocabulary is somewhat deficient, it will draw attention to any weaknesses that may not otherwise have been visible. Therefore, it’s in your best interests to add to your vocabulary regardless of your skill level as it will be a contributing factor to your marks in one way or another. Improving spelling is also essential to clear writing; for instance, you don’t want to confuse ‘effect’ and ‘affect’ in your essay; if this is a pervasive issue, it will give markers the impression that you are naïve and careless in your writing. Many students erroneously believe that inserting sophisticated words into their writing occasionally is sufficient to attain marks in the area of vocabulary, but the assessors are more discerning than that. It is very obvious when someone is using a word that they do not fully understand, so attempting to implement words before having worked out how they fit into a sentence is a recipe for failure. You will also want to be careful not to focus on words which you believe to be objectively sophisticated, as the main factor in determining what good vocabulary looks like is the context in which it occurs. Going through a high scoring piece or a list of recommended words and picking out ones that sound impressive can be a valid starting point, but to throw these words into your own writing in places where they do not fit, or worse, where they distract from the lucidity of your point is a very bad idea. Instead, you want to build your vocabulary using the words that you know as your foundation.

Chapter 2 – General skills

Begin by going through your own work and locating any words that you find yourself overusing, or at least using often enough for it to be noticeable. Perhaps you’re especially lenient on verbs like ‘suggests’ and ‘highlights’ in your essays, or maybe you’re constantly using adjectives like ‘multifaceted’ and ‘ambiguous.’ Whatever the case may be, locating your own high frequency words will let you know which areas you need to expand, and should at least give you a point at which you can begin to list synonyms and alternate phrases. However, being aware of these words isn’t really enough if you want to boost your vocabulary in the most efficient way possible. Taking note of a few alternatives might help you avoid the problem once or twice, but it’s not a very efficacious or permanent solution. Likewise, referring to a thesaurus whenever you find yourself repeating a word is a good small-term fix, but ultimately, you won’t have access to such a resource in the exam, so you’re only really delaying the problem by becoming too dependent on having the necessary words provided for you. Thus, if you want to not only acquire new vocabulary, but also be able to implement it fluently and effortlessly, you will need to invest some time in collating words and grouping them in a way that forges associations in your mind.

2.4.1

Documenting and applying vocabulary

In order to collect vocabulary, you will want to be exposing yourself to new words as often as possible. Wider reading, particularly in the form of going through other students’ essays, can give you a significant advantage here, and can help you observe words in the context that they’re written in, as opposed to just using word lists or thesaurus entries. Having said that, these latter resources are still very valuable when you need to explore certain words. For instance, if you often use the verb ‘imply’ in your piece to describe a message that the author is conveying, developing a list of synonyms for ‘imply’ will open up some alternatives for you to use in your writing. Keeping this list in a place where you see it often, like the front of your English workbook, on the desktop of your computer, or on the wall next to your bed, can help you gradually absorb these words.

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2.5 Optimising quotes and sophistication

Even the way in which you document these words can have an effect on how easy they are to memorise. If it’s all in one alphabetical or completely disorganised list, then you’re unlikely to be learning much by just reading through them. Ideally, you’ll want to sort important words into similar categories like ‘verbs to describe what the author is doing throughout the text’ or ‘synonyms for the word ‘selfish’ for one of the characters in the text.’ That way, your brain gets used to thinking about these words in relation to others within that category, and you can more readily replace words if you’re in an assessment situation and need an alternate word for something that is on one of your lists. It is far more useful to explore words in relation to one another than it is to simply collect and copy them, so you should aim to include as many synonyms and antonyms for major words as you can if you wish to make your acquisition as efficient as possible. Nevertheless, passive absorption isn’t altogether effective, especially if you’re looking to accrue new words within a few weeks or months at most, and the documentation won’t have a positive impact unless you know how to make the most of it. Therefore, if you want to speed up your vocabulary development, you’ll have to start forcibly embedding it in your writing. As has been outlined in an earlier section about formative and summative writing, the majority of your essays are designed to be developmental exercises geared towards building your skills as opposed to testing yourself, so writing some practice pieces with lists of vocabulary open in front of you is the easiest way to make yourself understand how a word works in practice. The more familiar you become with how certain words fit into analytical or discussion-based sentences, the greater chance there is of you remembering the word next time or in test conditions when you don’t have the lists available.

2.5

Optimising quotes and sophistication

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Chapter 2 – General skills

You are given a short amount of time to do a lot of analysis in both Paper One and Paper Two. You want to be clear in your expression, by being succinct and original. It is very easy to fall into a trap of repeating: quote, technique, effect, quote, technique, effect. Of course you can take this structure and really make it work for you, but the chances are that you’ll need to break the pattern. We always want to study smarter and not harder, so we should be looking to get more from each piece of textual evidence than just one technique. Check the appendices at the back of this book for more information to familiarise yourself with different techniques and ensure you’re making the most out of your analysis opportunities.

Part II

Common Module

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Introducing the Common Module

Chapter 1

Introducing the Common Module The new common module for Advanced and Standard English is called ‘Texts and Human Experiences’. Like the old Area of Study (called ‘Discovery’), it is a conceptual study. This means it is asking you to analyse how a text represents a certain idea, and in turn, how the audience may respond to this representation. Many students are daunted by this, as at first glance it appears to be the most radical change in the new syllabus. This assumption is not necessarily true. Not only are many of the prescribed texts the same, but the Common Module is subject to constant flux. Before ‘Texts and Human Experiences’ there was ‘Discovery.’ Before that, there was ‘Journeys,’ and before that was ‘Belonging.’ Therefore, you can find comfort in knowing that many students before you have successfully completed brand new modules. Even then – you have an advantage over them, this book! We will go through the syllabus, the new exam format, examples from the prescribed texts and exemplar essays. The texts that you can study in this module are:

1.1

Anthony Doerr – All the Light We Cannot See Amanda Lohrey – Vertigo George Orwell – Nineteen Eighty-Four Faval Parrett – Past the Shallows Rosemary Dobson – Selected Poems Kenneth Slessor – Selected Poems Jane Harrison – Rainbow’s End Arthur Miller – The Crucible William Shakespeare – The Merchant of Venice Tim Winton – The Boy Behind the Curtain Malala Yousafzai – I am Malala Stephen Daldry – Billy Elliot Ivan Mahoney – Go Back to Where You Came From Lucy Walker – Waste Land

The syllabus

The syllabus should be your bible throughout the HSC. Any questions that NESA could possibly ask you in your HSC exam are drawn from the syllabus. Therefore, you should aim to build your thesis around the syllabus, whilst also having textual examples that cover its specifications. We will break down the rubric accordingly.

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Chapter 1 – Introducing the Common Module

• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

1.1 The syllabus

In this section, we’ll go through each of the important pieces of the syllabus for the Common Module and explain how you should approach each part. S YLLABUS :

“...individual human experiences...” This refers to the particular lives, circumstances, and emotions of the characters in your texts. One way to make sure you cover this would be to make a character profile for the narrative’s main characters. You could then plot how and why they change through the course of your text. For each major departing point, you should include a textual reference. These quotes may indicate your characters’: • • • • • •

Attitudes Perspectives Beliefs about other people Beliefs about themselves Personalities Contexts (i.e. socio-economic background, nationality, age, gender, etc.)

When you write about each of these, you should talk about how this establishes this character as a representation of a particular facet of the human experience, followed by how this affects your own understanding. Chapter 1 – Introducing the Common Module

As this syllabus has a large focus on personal voice, you should chose to write about characters that you can relate to. This way, when you write about how the audience’s understanding of the human experience is affected by this character, you can write about your genuine response to the text. S YLLABUS :

“...collective human experiences...” This refers to experiences that are shared amongst a group of people. Remember that these groups may exist both within and outside of the text. When we refer to groups within the text, we mean to say that the characters themselves may undergo similar experiences together. On the other hand, groups outside of the text refer to who or what those characters may be representing. Therefore, it would be best practice to study your text’s context in order to understand and analyse what contextual qualities the composer is trying to portray. S YLLABUS :

“...human qualities and emotions arising from these experiences...” Here you are asked to examine the responses we have to experiences. Human qualities may refer to bigger picture concepts such as bravery, deceit, empathy, and heroism. Emotions, on the other hand, encapsulate simpler feelings such as despair, hope, and grief. Most importantly, search for how the composer teases certain emotions out of us. They may do so in order to draw attention to emblematic characters, to engage us empathetically, or to expose us to overlooked aspects of the human experience. S YLLABUS :

“...anomalies, paradoxes, and inconsistencies in human behaviour and motivations...” In a nutshell, this asks you to consider how the characters are represented as complex, contradictory, and convoluted. Humans are never simple, and thus, neither are well-written characters. To achieve this, you want to look for particular parts of the text where you learn more about your character. Think of parts where they undergo change, loss, growth, or make decisions and form relationships. You then want to analyse how this helps you to better understand what it means what it is to be human, and indeed – to be complicated!

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1.1 The syllabus

S YLLABUS :

“...role of storytelling throughout time to express and reflect particular lives and cultures...” This part recognises that the medium of text allows us to explore and better understand the experiences of different cultures and time periods. Again, therefore, it pays to know the context of each of your texts. Pinpoint specifically what demographic your author is trying to represent. This includes the socioeconomic status, gender, sexuality, nationality, culture, and literary period of the narrative’s characters. You should also look for facets of the human experience portrayed in this narrative that still speak to you today. When writing about these in your essay, you may refer to the enduring value of the text as a medium through which we may still learn about ourselves and others. You are also given room to speak about meta-narrative. There are two ways that we can use this term. The first way refers to when a narrative appears aware of its effect on the audience. Now, this seems very odd, but all it means is that the author recognises that their text is important, and that it can shape the way the audience sees the world. A famous example is Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where the characters on stage put on a play. This play within a play draws attention to Shakespeare’s own artifice – that is, his ability to construct truth and narrative through his text. Another term used to refer to this feature is ‘self-reflexivity.’

Students that include these types of concepts and analysis in their essays are typically very high achieving. So, if you can’t see them within your texts at first, make it something to work towards. They are also terms that appear throughout Module A and Module B. You may even want to try and incorporate them in your own creative writing for Module C. S YLLABUS :

“...how the text invites the responder to see the world differently...” Here, the syllabus is asking you to pay special attention to how the text affects the audience’s own perspective. In doing so, they are attempting to expose you to ideas that are perhaps outside of your own everyday experience. It’s your job as a student to analyse and evaluate exactly what is different about the world of the text, and how the composer has conveyed this through literary techniques. More importantly, try and pinpoint what is unique about the way this text engages its audience. Compare this with your related text to discuss the various literary worlds that may be created through texts. S YLLABUS :

“...how the text invites the responder to challenge assumptions...” When a text challenges assumptions, it is confronting stereotypes and misconceptions that the reader holds. These assumptions may range from misapprehensions about certain cultures and practices, to ignorance regarding the workings of government. Think back to the point about dominant/meta-narratives – when you consider your text’s context, does it contribute to, or challenge the dominant narrative of the time? Delving into this in your essay may help to add sophistication and complexity. Copyright © 2022 InStudent Publishing Pty. Ltd.

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Chapter 1 – Introducing the Common Module

The second use of the term meta-narrative is where a text contributes to a larger, dominant narrative. Dominant narratives are things that aren’t purposely written, but instead, are created through the culmination of lots of smaller narratives across time. One example is the Christian grand narrative, where each smaller story (whether it be in the Bible, or in real life) works towards proving that everything in the world is created by God, and enabled by the death of Jesus Christ. Nationalism also tends to produce grand narratives. The American Dream was a grand narrative that seemed to suggest that any man that worked hard could achieve his hopes and dreams. Novels like The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck both contributed to and critiqued this narrative. As you can see, however, grand narratives can be very exclusionary. The ‘man’ at the centre of the American dream necessarily overlooked any sense of equality – women, people of colour, the lower class, LGBTQI members of society were all missing within this narrative. Accordingly, authors have consistently written to challenge and overturn it in the modern period. In turn, they have changed the way that the human experience is represented and understood by their readers.

1.1 The syllabus

S YLLABUS :

“...how the text invites the reader to ignite new ideas...” Whilst this point may seem fairly obvious, it also can be interpreted as a mediation upon text itself. Remember, these texts have been deemed important for you as a student to read. Accordingly, reflect on what you have learned about yourself and the world around you because of this text. Unlike prescriptive units like Discovery, the breadth of ‘Texts and Human Experience’ allows you to draw upon a range of ideas presented to you through the text. What have you learned about the nature of relationships and family? What have you learned about the confines of social class and the injustice of prejudice? All of these focuses and more are linked by the fact that they are undeniable parts of the human experience. The duty of the text is to make you scrutinise and mediate upon these new ideas, in order to assist your understanding of your own life. Therefore, you must engage with the ideas presented in your texts. In doing so, not only will your essays be unique, but you will also be much more likely to enjoy your study of English. S YLLABUS :

“...how the text catalyses personal reflection...”

Chapter 1 – Introducing the Common Module

Personal reflection stems from the previous point. As this was also a very important part of the old Discovery Area of Study, I liked to dedicate my entire last paragraph to the introspection that the text encourages. If you study a contemporary text, you may find this dot point relatively straight forward. Ask yourself: how does this text make you reconsider important experiences in your own life? If your text is from a different time period, consider what universal themes it touches upon. How does interpreting them through a different context make you reconsider these themes? Once again, this is a place for your own voice and response to the text. S YLLABUS :

“...how context, purpose, structure, stylistic, grammatical features, and form shape meaning...” This is the stock standard kit for analysis. Like all of your studies in English throughout high school, you are expected to couple each quote with a technique. The best essays will use a range of techniques that span the length of their text. These include: • Stylistic techniques: these are the conventions of the genre or literary period that your author is writing in. Examples may include: – Poetry: the type of poem (e.g. blank verse, sonnet), metre (i.e. how many beats per line), rhyme scheme etc. – Film: film noir, documentary, biopic, etc. – Novel: memoir, historical fiction, gothic, Romantic, etc. Thus, you should look for techniques within your text that conform to these styles. They in turn will assist you as a writer in expressing a certain perspective on the human experience. • Grammatical features: this refers to how words are ordered and used in a sentence. Common examples of this are: – Modality: this describes the ‘force’ of the words being used. Modality exists on a spectrum from low modality to high modality. Low modal words are things that involve uncertainty and weak suggestion, like ‘you might want to do your homework now,’ whereas high modal words are definitive, absolute things like ‘you must do your homework now!’ Other low modal words include ‘could,’ ‘should,’ ‘possibly,’ ‘somewhat,’ and ‘slightly.’ High modal words include ‘absolutely,’ ‘completely,’ ‘have to,’ ‘ought to,’ and ‘unequivocally.’ – Pronouns: these are words that replace nouns, including ‘I,’ ‘me,’ ‘my,’ ‘he,’ ‘she,’ ‘it,’ etc. The use of ‘I’ is known as exclusive pronoun use, and may be used to distance readers from the author. By contrast, words like ‘us’ and ‘we’ are inclusive pronouns and may be used when trying to appeal to common or universal human experiences.

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1.2 Related texts

– Agentless passive sentences: this is where the author turns a typical sentence into a passive one, and then omits the ‘agent’ (i.e. the person doing the thing) in order to hide or distance them. For example: ‘I stole the chocolate’ is a regular, active sentence. ‘The chocolate was stolen by me’ is a passive sentence. ‘The chocolate was stolen’ is an agentless passive sentence, as the agent (i.e. me, the chocolate thief!) has been removed. • Form: this is the medium that your text is written in. Your text’s medium will facilitate its presentation of the human experience. For example, a novel allows for the intricacies of the concept to unfurl across a multitude of pages, whereas a short poem usually has to narrow in on one or two perspectives of the human experience. Moreover, certain forms have particular techniques available to them. A film will be able to use camera angles and non-diegetic sound to convey meaning to an audience, whereas a painting may rely on colour and positioning to convey its message. Make sure to include these form-specific techniques in your analysis to create a well-rounded piece.

1.2

Related texts

S YLLABUS :

Students select one related text (ORT) and draw from personal experience to make connections between themselves, the world of the text, and their wider world.

1.2.1

Advice for choosing a related text

The representation of the human experience in your text must be complex! Ideally, your ORT must meet all of the syllabus dot points listed for your prescribed text. Therefore, though you may adore a text that you have read in your spare time, it may not be detailed enough to analyse at a senior school level. This will automatically cross out a lot of young adult fiction and mainstream cinema. I was very wary of this point myself, and thus chose to use a text that I had previously studied in school. If you have thoroughly engaged with and enjoyed a text in previous English classes, then you may want to pick one of these as an ORT too. If not, make sure that your ORT can apply to all of the aforementioned dot points pertaining to the human experience to ensure that your text is complex. It is also a good idea to run it past your teacher before starting any major analysis of it. Do not choose a text just because you or someone else achieved high marks writing about it before! Whilst you may have been able to do well in the previous syllabus by simply borrowing a past/high achieving student’s ORT, it may not work so well for you in the new Common Module. Your personal engagement with the text must be represented in your essay. This means that your essay should attempt to present an original interpretation of your texts. Whilst this may seem very difficult at first glance, this unique response can be achieved through your choice of ORT. Such a text can contrast the perspectives provided in your prescribed. In turn, this will allow you to surpass the common arguments presented for your related text. However, if you chose a text that is used widely because it is regarded as a guaranteed way to a Band 6, it is unlikely to provide you with an original argument. Instead, your essay will read like the hundred other papers that your HSC marker has seen previously, and fail to represent your own ‘personal experience’. If you do indeed choose to pick an ORT this way, you must ensure that you actually read it, and interpret it in your own way. A well-renowned text does not necessarily ensure fantastic marks! While ‘famous’ literary texts they are known for presenting intriguing thoughts about the human experience, they won’t provide you with an automatically sophisticated response. Make sure that you can understand and articulate the intricacies of your text, and that you can relate it to your own perspective of the ‘wider world’. For this reason, it may be easier to choose a contemporary text, rather than a classic. Copyright © 2022 InStudent Publishing Pty. Ltd.

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Once again, this places significant emphasis on personal voice. The syllabus is asking you to choose a text that you can empathise with, and more importantly, one that has expanded your own understanding of the human experience. Importantly, you will no longer be expected to write using a related text in the exam room. You will instead be required to use one in an assessment task at school. In this section are some guidelines to choosing and using the most appropriate related text.

1.3 Using language

You don’t need more than one related text! One of the most frequently asked questions for previous syllabus was whether there was a chance that an exam would ask for more than one related text. You can now rest assured that your own exams should not ask for two related texts. Make sure that your chosen text is not a prescribed text! Using a prescribed text as a related text is heavily frowned upon by markers, and you may lose marks for doing so. So, once you choose your related text, go over the prescribed text list (available on NESA’s website) to ensure you aren’t accidently using one. You may, however, use a different text from a composer included on the list (i.e. you may use a text written by George Orwell, as long as it’s not 1984, or Politics of the English Language, as these are prescribed texts).

1.2.2

List of potential related texts

Chapter 1 – Introducing the Common Module

Essays • A Room of One’s Own – Virginia Woolf • The Responsibility of Intellectuals – Noam Chomsky • Moving Beyond Pain – bell hooks Poetry • Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman • Sister Poet – Oodgeroo Noonuccal • On First Reading Chapman’s Homer – John Keats • Easter 1916 / The Man and the Shadow – WB Yeats • In the Park – Gwen Harwood • jaded Olympic Moments – Samuel Wagon Watson

1.3 1.3.1

Books • Autumn – Ali Smith • The Man Who Loved His Children – Christina Stead • The Help – Tate Taylor • Second Half First – Drusilla Modjeska • Slaughterhouse-Five – Kurt Vonnegut • Remembering Babylon – David Malouf Films • Goodbye Lenin – Wolfgang Becker • Lady Bird – Greta Gerwig • Blade Runner – Ridley Scott • District 9 – Neill Blomkamp • Her – Spike Jonze • Hidden Figures – Theodore Melfi

Using language Figurative language

Figurative language is where a writer departs from the literal meaning of their words to illustrate a point. You are probably used to analysing figurative language in fiction and poetry, or using it in your own creative writing. However, the syllabus now is asking you to incorporate it into your own analytical essays. Whilst this may seem counter intuitive, it does give us a clearer idea of what a ‘skilful response,’ dictated by the Band 6 marking criteria, may look like.

1.3.2

Evaluative language

Evaluative language means making a judgement about the effectiveness of your text. Specifically, you should be looking at how well a text represents and communicates a perspective upon the human experience for its audience. It is easy to assume that because a text has been included on the HSC list, it is considered a highly effective representation. Whilst this is true, it pays to remember that no text is perfect. A high achieving English student will always be highly critical of their texts. This involves scrutinising the “paradoxes and complexities” outlined in the rubric previously. It also means highlighting the faults of the composer’s representation, and what is potentially missing in the text. A great way to incorporate criticism is by including it when talking about the text’s effect on its audience. Therefore, your essay must be a combination of these two. As it is an analytical response, it is expected that your language would be largely evaluative rather than figurative.

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In the exam

Chapter 2

In the exam 2.1

Section One

This is extremely similar to the previous Paper One, Section One. It is essentially four to five short answer questions based on unseen texts (that is, you read them for the first time upon sitting the HSC paper). In each question, you will be asked to briefly analyse, explain, and assess how a given aspect of the human experience is expressed in a given text. Sometimes, the question may specify a technique to include within your analysis. The main differences between the previous and current Section One tasks are: • You are now given 45 minutes to complete this section, rather than 40 minutes. • The questions will add up to 20 marks, rather than 15 marks. • There may be more questions with a heavier weighting. Previously, you could expect only one question worth five marks or more, but it’s possible that you may now be asked two of these bigger questions.

2.1.1

How to answer 3–4 mark questions

S AMPLE :

Question: Use Text One to answer this question: (Taken from the sample paper provided by NESA on their website) Compare how each of the two posters creates a sense of shared human experience. The medium of text allows us to share and better understand the human experience. This is initially conveyed in the Sydney Film Festival’s poster, whose clever use of vibrant colour and positioning advertises that whilst each individual is different, we may all gather to ‘share our stories’. This idea is further developed in the Miami Mental Health Film Festival’s poster. Here, the pun ‘reel minds’ captures how the medium of film allows us to better empathise with the experiences of others, and in turn, ‘start the conversation’ around the importance of mental health. Therefore, both of these film posters suggest that text is a vital instrument through which we may share and understand the human experience.

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Chapter 2 – In the exam

1. Concept: begin with a sentence about the concept provided by the question. Use the syllabus, what you have learned in class, and what you can understand of the unseen text to flesh the concept out. 2. Introduce text and quote: state that you are using the text specified by the question. Couple this with a quote or a visual technique that represents the concept stated in step 1. 3. Analyse: this is the regular form of analysis that you would employ in a normal essay. To reiterate, this means stating what this technique represents, and how this develops the audience’s understanding of the concept introduced in step 1. 4. Analyse again: introduce a second quote from your text and analyse it in the same way that you did for step 3. This should build upon the concept that you’ve introduced, rather than simply repeating it (i.e. don’t use two different examples to prove the same point). 5. Link back to the question: end your answer by restating what you set out to prove in step 1. This step may be skipped if you feel like your final point of analysis has already accomplished this, but otherwise, it’s good to have one last sentence functioning as a mini-conclusion.

2.1 Section One

2.1.2

How to answer 6–7 mark questions

You can approach these questions as though they are mini essays, so you can follow the process below for your answers: Introduction 1. Concept: this is likely to be provided by the question. However, it is important to look for where the question is asking you to expand on what they have provided. In the example below, the question is asking you to pinpoint exactly what the family experience is represented as. 2. Two pathways: make sure that you expand the concept and give yourself two key ideas to talk about. This is crucial as it will allow you to be concise, but still cover the text in sufficient depth. 3. Introduce the text: this should be done in the introduction to give the assessors a clear idea of what parts of the text you intend to focus on. Body paragraphs 1 and 2 1. Introduce a first pathway: explain what you will be discussing in this paragraph. Remember that your overall focus should be conceptual, and as such, you should not mention the text yet. 2. Analyse your first quote: this is where you start delving into the text. 3. Analyse your second quote: as in the previous section on 3–4 mark questions, this point of analysis should build upon the previous one, not just restate the same ideas. 4. Link: make a conceptual connection back to what you stated in step 1 to tie up your paragraph. Conclusion Chapter 2 – In the exam

1. Link: finish the mini-essay by linking everything back to the concept that you began with. This should be no more than a sentence long.

S AMPLE :

Question: Use Text Four to answer this question: (Taken from the sample paper provided by NESA on their website) Explain how different aspects of the writer’s family experience are represented in this extract. The experience of family can have a profound effect on how we understand ourselves and the world around us. This is effectively portrayed in the extract from Benjamin Law’s ‘The Family Law’. Our experience of family shapes how we perceive our own identity. In Text Four, this is portrayed through Law’s involvement with his family’s business, though which he starts “to look and smell just like Dad...”. The use of ellipses here suggests that this transformation has had a lingering effect on Law, in that he now considers being one of “Danny’s boys” to be a vital part of his identity. As such, the audience learns the vital importance of the father’s influence on his son, in that Law too now appreciates the importance of hard work despite the “bags under his eyes” that it brings. Therefore, it is clear that Law’s experience of his family has a profound influence on his sense of self. Moreover, one’s experience of family may also affect our understanding of the world around us. This is communicated in the motif of celebrity in Text Four. Initially, it is used to describe the “Oscar winning actress,” who conventionally symbolises ego, self-obsession, and excessive wealth. As the piece progresses, however, the reader develops an appreciation of Law’s own understanding of celebrity, as portrayed by his father. The “local institution” is famed because of the service provided to the community. Moreover, Law encourages us to look beyond the one dimensional “picture” of his father, and instead observe his dedication and hard work throughout his life. Accordingly, both the reader’s and Law’s understanding of what a true celebrity looks like is developed through the experience of family. Indeed, we are encouraged to look not the celebrity alone, as on the conventional tour of Hollywood, but to look at their contribution to the world around them in order to genuinely appreciate them. Conclusively, it is clear that the experience of family, and the portrayal of such through text allows us to better understand ourselves and the world around us.

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2.2 Section Two

2.2

Section Two

Section Two is an essay response. Whilst it may seem quite similar to the previous essay response expected in Paper One, it features some vital differences that you must be aware of to receive a high mark in this section.

S AMPLE :

Question breakdown: (Taken from the sample paper provided by NESA on their website)

Sample essay: The basis of the human experience is found within its challenges. Stephen Daldry’s Billy Elliot explores the importance of challenges to our understanding of the self and the wider world through the medium of film. Indeed, the mis-en-scene acts as a tapestry through which all elements of the film are sewn together, enabling the audience to also better understand the human experience. Through exploring its importance to the representation of class, gender, and individuality, we may see that challenges are pivotal to both Daldry’s film, and the audience’s conception of themselves and the wider world.

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Chapter 2 – In the exam

• You can now be asked specific questions on your prescribed text. Previously, everyone was given the same question to answer, regardless of what they had studied in class. That means: – If you are doing poetry, they can ask you to talk about a specific poem in your response. – They can ask you to talk about specific themes in your prescribed text. These themes, of course, will be linked in some way to the representation of the human experience in your text. – They can ask you to talk about the specific forms and techniques in your text. • You may also be given general questions that are used for all prescribed texts. – These use a statement as a stimulus, and reflect on the relationship between texts and the human experience. – As always, these demand a consideration of your own relationship to your prescribed text. What did you learn from it? What was challenging about the ideas it has presented to you? Is it a reflection of the world in which it was made, or does it actively seek to change it? – Remember to explore all parts of the question somewhere in your essay response. • You will not be asked to use a related text in your exam response. Instead, this must be assessed via in school assessment. • You are given 45 minutes to write a response. Whilst this could mean they expect a longer response, it is more likely to imply that they want you to rigorously engage with the question. This aligns with the types of questions that they are asking, which are much harder to write a pre-prepared response for. Take two to five minutes at the beginning of the exam to deconstruct what the question is asking you to do. Plan out the spots in your essay where you can answer the specific parts in the question. That may look something like this:

2.2 Section Two

Social class may be a determinant of our lives’ innate challenges. As the narrative arc of Billy Eliot suggests, however, it is these challenges that help us to attain a better understanding of ourselves and the wider world. The importance of class is first established in the opening pastiche, which includes a shot of Billy running through his street. The inclusion of the archetypal British suburban brick and hand-held camera grounds the text within British social realism, and thus, draws the audience into the conventional narrative arc of hardship and struggle against the bindings of class. Moreover, the juxtaposition between the harsh, brick buildings and the blue sky within the background of the shot symbolises and foreshadows Billy’s desire to transcend the bounds of the suburbs. Thus, Daldry’s audience is immediately aware of the challenges, such as relative poverty, presented to Billy because of his lower class status. This is heightened by the conflict between Mrs Wilkinson and Billy’s family. Daldry positions Billy in the middle of the kitchen, using a high-angle shot from the protagonist’s perspective to switch between the feuding Mrs Wilkinson and Tony. This clever creation of mis-en-scene symbolises the class conflict present in Thatcher’s England, which Daldry suggests overlooked the common interests of citizens. Indeed, Billy stands as this common interest, positioned between and fought over by the adult characters, yet not given a chance to speak. The crescendo of a ‘Town Called Malice’ creates an aural bridge between this scene and the following pastiche, which, too, centres the audience within the frustration of 1980s neoliberalism. Just as Billy kicks and screams between the suburban streets, the audience too is reminded that class conflict is another futile challenge grappled with as part of the human experience. Accordingly, Daldry exemplifies the challenges of class within his piece to explore both the individual and collective experiences.

Chapter 2 – In the exam

Gendered norms can dictate our personal identities, and in turn, present challenges to those that do not conform to them. This is a key focus in Daldry’s film, and as such, is introduced in its first few minutes. The masculine mis-en-scene of the boxing ring is intruded upon by the rolling, diegetic piano, only stopping as the camera moves to a shot of Billy’s disapproving father. Here, Daldry’s audience understands the gendered confines that Billy lives within, manifested in the gaze of his father. This piano, and Billy’s interest, however, returns in Mrs Wilkinson’s classes in subsequent scenes. However, where Daldry seems to suggest that Billy escape these challenges is when he recites his deceased mother’s letter. Here, he returns to the mis-en-scene of the boxing hall, with both punching bag and ring in shot. This visual motif assists the reader’s understanding of the importance of Billy’s mother, and the exact absence of a gaze, in helping him to surpass gendered expectations. Indeed, all his mother asks is for him to “always be himself.” In doing so, Daldry explores the paradoxical nuances of the challenge presented by gendered norms, both created and enforced by the gaze of others. Accordingly, Billy returns to the boxing hall on Christmas night. Non-diegetic, orchestral music fills the screen whilst Jacky, once again, watches his son in the boxing hall. Rather than being conquered by his gaze however, Daldry employs a wide shot to show Billy meet his father’s eye as he dances. From this scene, the narrative progresses into its resolution, whereby Billy is able to pursue his dancing career. As such, the audience understands the importance of overcoming the challenges presented to us by gender, as they not only allow us to better understand ourselves, but make up the crux of our individual narratives. Furthermore, the insistence of individuality as a facet of the human experience is commonly showcased by mainstream narratives. As David Alderson (2011) argues, Daldry’s Billy Eliot appears no different. Produced in the years of Tony Blair’s government, the idea that the individual is the only one that determines their success or failure (in this case, Billy), conforms to new Labour, centrist rhetoric. Indeed, the mis-en-scene surrounding the Miner’s Strikes paints the union movement unfavourably. Consistently, it is created with overwhelming diegetic sound, unnerving hand-held cameras and violence. What we can then say about the text then, is that Daldry self-reflexively mediates upon the challenges of media within a neoliberal discourse. Though the narrative touches upon the difficulties of Jackie amongst austerity, Michael’s sexuality, and Mrs Wilkinson’s position as a female, it can ultimately only have one protagonist – one success story. This is bolstered by the allusion to Swan Lake throughout the film, which epitomises the constraints of traditional narrative structures. Thus, when Jackie confesses that he has never travelled outside of their town as himself and Billy drive towards London, Daldry suggests that Billy’s own ability to overcome his challenges and succeed is an experience outside of the normal, human experi-

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2.2 Section Two

ence. Vicariously, therefore, Billy is a vessel through which a British audience may gain a hope (even if fictitious) that there is a chance for escape from their everyday mundanities. The purpose of the text, therefore, seems not so much to represent the truth of human experience, but instead, present a version of such that audiences can collectively aspire towards, and empathise with. Ultimately, it is clear that Daldry’s creation of mis-en-scene is pivotal to the representation of challenges conducive to the human experience. Through exploring the themes of class, gender, and individuality within these texts, we may glean a greater understanding of both our own, and collective, human experiences. Comments: This essay takes on the specifications of the question, whilst maintaining appropriate metalanguage and analysis. The essay is logical, and well-researched. This essay would be strengthened by a clear definition of mis-en-scene in the introduction. It would also benefit from further exploration of characters other than Billy, as well as analysis of how mis-en-scene works in conjunction with other techniques to express key ideas. In the sample exam provided by NESA, you are not asked to talk about a related text in your essay. However, the syllabus clearly states that you are required to study a related text during your course. Therefore, it is likely that you will be asked to talk about a related text in an in school assessment task. As this will still contribute to your overall rank, it is important to still analyse it thoroughly.

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Chapter 2 – In the exam

As it is in the syllabus though, it may still be assessable in the exam. Thus, it would be best to stay familiar with your text as the HSC exams approach. The whole point of a related text is to help expand your understanding of the human experience. Potentially, it will also give you further insight into your prescribed text, which may help you to distinguish your response from other essays in the exam room. Therefore, completely disregarding and forgetting your ORT means potentially forfeiting extra marks you could have easily picked up.

Part III

Modules

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Module A: Textual Conversations

Chapter 1

Module A: Textual Conversations The new Module A includes many of the same texts and ideas as the past syllabus. However, assuming that it is a replica of the previous syllabus is an easy trap to fall into, as the overall focus of the syllabus has shifted from being that of context, to the relationship between a pair of texts. The following guide will outline the new focus of Module A, and in turn, how texts must be re-examined under this lens. The texts prescribed for study in this module are: • • • • • • •

Rubric

The syllabus for Module A states that: in this module, students explore the ways in which the comparative study of texts can reveal resonances and dissonances between and within texts. Therefore, the focus of your study is the relationship between your texts, rather than their individual contexts. Each text prescribed in this unit of study is an original (sometimes referred to as a parent) text and an appropriation. An appropriation is a text that takes its inspiration from a parent text. It may remodel the themes presented by a parent text, revise the characters, switch genres and mediums – it may not even be recognisable as an appropriation of the original text! This is distinct from an adaptation, which generally uses the same plot line, characters, and language in a different from to the original text. In everyday use, you might call an adaptation a remake. Here are some famous examples to make the distinction between the two terms clearer.

Adaptations

Appropriations

Harry Potter book series – J K Rowling

Harry Potter film series

The Taming of the Shrew (1590) – William Shakespeare

10 Things I Hate About You (1999) – Gil Judger

The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) – Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid’s Tale (2017) television series

Emma (1815) – Jane Austen

Clueless (1995) – Amy Heckerling

The Great Gatsby (1925) – F Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby (2013) film

Pride and Prejudice (1813) – Jane Austen

Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001) – Sharon Maguire

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Chapter 1 – Module A: Textual Conversations

1.1

Richard III by Shakespeare and Looking for Richard by Al Pacino Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf and The Hours by Stephen Baldry The Stranger by Albert Camus and The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud John Donne’s poetry and W;t by Margaret Edson John Keats’ poetry and Bright Star by Jane Campion Sylvia Plath’s poetry and Ted Hughes’ poetry The Tempest by William Shakespeare and Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood

1.1 Rubric

S YLLABUS :

“[Students should study] the ways that a reimagining or reframing of an aspect of a text might mirror, align, or collide with the details of another text.” This part of the syllabus rubric is asking you to consider the differences and similarities between your two prescribed texts. Just like a normal conversation between two people, your texts aren’t always going to see eye-to-eye. The appropriating composer might disagree with the representation of certain ideas in the parent text. They therefore challenge these ideas through representing the exact opposite (this is called antithesis). This might look like giving a voice to an otherwise silent character, retelling the story from a different perspective, or explicitly questioning the original text. S YLLABUS :

“[Students should examine]” common or disparate issues, values, assumptions, or perspectives, and how these are depicted.”

Chapter 1 – Module A: Textual Conversations

Here, the syllabus specifies exactly what parts of the conversation to look for. Look for each of these things within your texts separately, and then draw potential links between them. Issues and values are synonymous to themes that you may identify within your text. Think about big picture ideas like power, love, and gender. On the other hand, assumptions refer to ideas underlying your text. These may not be explicitly referred to within the plot, yet nonetheless are pivotal to what the composer is trying to represent. For example, an assumption underlying Al Pacino’s Looking for Richard is that the audience is relatively unaware of the parent text. Indeed, Pacino sets out to explore and present the text to an audience claims is completely ignorant of Richard III. This assumption is pivotal, because just like the King in Shakespeare’s original play, Pacino plays on the naivety of his audience in order to achieve his desired representation. Perspectives refer to the particular stance that your composer takes on issues of their period. This can be easy to spot when you compare your two texts. Take a theme that is shared between them, and consider how your understanding of that theme was different after reading or viewing each text. Ask yourself why your composer desired their audience to react in this way. More specifically, ask yourself why appropriation’s composer represented this theme differently. A study of the texts’ respective contexts may also provide you with greater guidance. S YLLABUS :

“Students understand how composers are influenced by other texts, contexts, and values, and how this shapes meaning.” Once again, this recognises that texts are a product of the author’s own reading and experiences. Think back to when you wrote your creative piece for the Common Module. The inspiration for that piece may have come from your own experience, but the way in which you wrote it – whether it be the types of words, metaphors, and imagery you used, or the general features of the plot line and characters you created – are likely to be influenced from other books and movies you have seen. Indeed, your text then becomes an amalgamation of all those other texts that have gone before it. What the syllabus is asking you to do here is evaluate how the appropriation has been influenced by the parent text’s context and values. This too should be integrated into your analysis. Here is an example discussing Donne’s poetry and Edson’s W;t. S AMPLE :

Edson draws upon Donne’s original sonnets through the exclamation “It’s a metaphysical conceit, its wit!” Here, she oversimplifies the complex, contextual entanglement of humanism and Christianity that underlies Donne’s poetry. In doing so, she highlights the pitfalls of an unquestioning, secular belief apparent in her own time period. This syllabus dot point also asks you to consider the context of each text, and how this has influenced its production. Such a contextual study is also vital to understanding the purpose and audience of the text. 32

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1.1 Rubric

Here is an explanation of the different facets of context that you must consider: Explanation

Social

Social influences refer to how a text has been influenced by the immediate society it is written in. The best way to think about this section is to think of a diary entry. Though it is not written for a wider audience, it generally contains the writer’s views on events that are happening around them. Of course, the writer does not include every single event to have happened since the last entry. Instead, they interpret the meaning and consequences of events they consider important to themselves or society more broadly. In light of Module A, you should look for how these events are represented in your text. If your text is non-fiction, these may be as simple as actual references to events. Fiction could perhaps replicate an event through the eyes of a protagonist, in turn commenting on its implications for the individual and society more broadly. Smaller, but equally important influences can be seen in how characters interact with each other or the overarching power structures (eg. systems of government, patriarchy). The moment of critical action within a text can also highlight the main concerns of a time period, as it signifies a potential point of crisis.

Cultural

Cultural influences are a fantastic way to work in references to form and structural choices within Module A. The way a text is consumed and understood is directly linked to how people think within the time period, as well as the technology available at the time. As such, this is an explicit cultural influence over a text. Other cultural influences can be seen in common symbols, metaphors, characters, and narratives in texts of the same time period. Usually, these are at play specifically for the contextual audience, allowing them to feel as if the piece was made for and about them. There are many reasons that a text may appeal to a specific culture; some may seek to spark a nationalistic fervour, some to criticise specific institutions or traditions, and others to reinterpret and question norms within a society. Most importantly, they play to what the audience of that period are interested in. As all of the texts set for study are either from different time periods or different cultures, it is interesting to compare how these texts express specific ideas, as prescribed by their relative cultural setting.

Personal

This refers to the specific experiences of the composer. It adds a layer of nuance to previous facets of context, as it looks at the composer’s reactions to the world around them. It also integrates the familial, romantic and ideological spheres. This paradigm applies specifically to composers like John Keats, John Donne, Margaret Edson, Sylvia Plath, and Ted Hughes.

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Chapter 1 – Module A: Textual Conversations

Type of context

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1.1 Rubric

S YLLABUS :

“Students identify, interpret, analyse, and evaluate the textual features, conventions, contexts, values, and purpose of two prescribed texts.” This is the basic mode of analysis that is common throughout all modules. It also makes it clear that you do not need a related text for this module. Furthermore, you should talk about your texts equally throughout your essay. S YLLABUS :

“[Students should] consider how their understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of both texts has been enhanced by a comparative study.” The comparative study is unique to Module A. Though you are asked to discuss two texts on a conceptual basis in the Common Module, Module A is the only place where you must evaluate why we should compare texts. Basically, this dot point is saying that you are able to learn something greater through comparing your pair of texts, rather than reading them individually.

Chapter 1 – Module A: Textual Conversations

If you are stuck on this dot point, compare your understanding of the parent text before you watched the appropriation with your understanding afterwards. What ideas were clarified by the appropriation? How did it assist you in relating to the content of the parent text? What contextual features did it highlight in the parent text? In many instances, the whole point of an appropriation is to make the original text relevant to a contemporary audience. We can only fully appreciate this purpose if we have also studied the original text. Moreover, the contemporary ideas presented in an appropriation may encourage us to examine the original text in a different light. Shakespearean texts particularly may be re-examined under post-structural, postcolonial, meta-theatrical and feminist lenses because these frames are central to the appropriations made of them. Without the appropriation’s composer imposing these lenses on the parent text for us, we may not have garnered the same understanding or appreciation of the original work. Therefore, keep in mind that whilst the appropriation can expand on the material of the parent text, it can also add its own contemporary values and ideas.

S YLLABUS :

“[Students should discuss] how the personal, social, cultural, and historical contextual knowledge that they bring to the texts influences and shapes their perspectives.” This dot point asks you as a responder to consider your own context as an influence on the text. This can be applied in two different ways. Firstly, are you the appropriation’s contextual audience? For all of the texts, the appropriation is written with a relatively modern audience in mind. Therefore, the themes that the composer targets are likely to be relevant in your day to day life. What the syllabus is asking you to do is to bring your own knowledge of these events with you. It recognises that you, as a responder, are going to react to the composer’s representation of the world that you live in – simply because you have lived and breathed it yourself. Thus, this is another point of the syllabus where it is asking you to use your own opinion, your personal voice, to make an argument. How this differs in Module A is that you should also consider how this contemporary representation helps you to understand the original text as well.

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1.1 Rubric

Here are some examples from the prescribed texts: Contemporary response

How does this help us to understand the original text?

Bright Star – the femme fatale

In this text, we are given an insight into Fanny’s world (rather than Keats, who is the acclaimed poet). We, as an audience living within third wave feminism, demand this type of subjectivity to be awarded to female characters.

We therefore understand poems like La Belle Dame sans Merci and Bright Star! Would I were steadfast as thou art to be caught within the trappings of patriarchal perceptions of beauty and perfection, as were dominant at the time. We better appreciate Keats for trying to push these boundaries, as seen in Ode on a Grecian Urn.

W;t – atheism

The anxieties associated with the rise in atheism are epitomised in this text.

We may better understand the importance of religion in making sense of one’s life in Donne’s time period.

The Hours – marriage

As a contemporary society, we no longer accept the traditional definition of marriage. The text takes this a step further, and critiques the institution of marriage through a feminist lens.

We thus garner a greater appreciation of Mrs. Dalloway as a foundational feminist text, which introduced these ideas to audiences.

Secondly, how can we, at this moment, learn things by comparing these texts? Though we may say that texts written in the 90s and early 2000s apply to us as a contemporary audience, we must also acknowledge that a lot has happened since then that could influence how we think about the world. Therefore, think about how the ideas presented in your text are present in the world around you right at this minute. If you’re studying Richard III, how does Machiavellian politics play out today? If you are studying Plath and Hughes, how does our understanding of patriarchy and the representation of women in contemporary society shape our understanding of their poetry? Thus, this is a section of the syllabus where you are asked to engage personally with the texts. The more you are able to incorporate this voice into your essays, the better chance you will have at writing a persuasive and unique essay. S YLLABUS :

“[Students should] analyse the ways that various language concepts, for example motifs, allusions, and intertextuality, connect and distinguish texts, and how innovating with language concepts, form, and style can shape new meaning.” • Motifs: are dominant or recurring ideas in an artistic work. In an appropriation, a motif may be inspired by the parent text, be directly taken from the parent text, or stand independently from it as an expression of the composer’s own ideas. Moreover, the pair of texts may share the same physical motif that represents different meanings for their respective audiences. • Allusions: are indirect expressions designed to call something to mind without explicitly mentioning it. Whilst there are probably explicit references to your parent text within the appropriation it is paired with, the syllabus is asking you to look for more subtle references. For example, Al Pacino in Looking for Richard most obviously references Shakespeare when he quotes Richard III. The most interesting allusion, however, is when he begins and ends with Prospero’s famous “these our actors. . . ” speech from The Tempest. This capitalises on the infamous meta-theatrical aspect of Shakespeare’s last play. In doing so, Al Pacino highlights how even Shakespeare recognised the importance of appropriation in literature. To attain this level of insight, you must pay meticulous attention to your texts. Critical readings may come in handy here. Not only will they save you time in searching for ideas, but they will grant your analysis a deeper level of insight and sophistication. Copyright © 2022 InStudent Publishing Pty. Ltd.

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Chapter 1 – Module A: Textual Conversations

Appropriation/ representation

1.2 Essay structure

• Intertextuality: refers to the relationship between texts and how they might echo, borrow, or reference one another in order to sustain their own narratives. Intertextuality underlies the theoretical basis of appropriation, as explained at the beginning of this chapter. Whilst we are already aware of the relationship that a text has with its audience, intertextuality refers to the relationship that a text has with other texts. Indeed, it asks you not to think about a text as something autonomous, but instead, as a pastiche of both words that have been written before it, and the world it exists within. Aforementioned techniques such as allusions and motifs may be used to create reference to other texts. Other techniques that you may want to keep a look out for are dialogue, parody, and allegory. Connections can also be achieved through more subtle means, like drawing from ideology, narrative arcs, or characterisation. Intertextuality may have a various effects on the reception of a text. It may assist the text in resembling the audience’s world, create an appeal to universal themes, or to show the lasting worth and influence of literature. This last point is of particular importance to your study of appropriation.

Chapter 1 – Module A: Textual Conversations

We all have taken a part in an argument over whether the movie was better than the book. However, there are simply some parts of a book that a film cannot capture. You are asked to consider the very same thing throughout your Advanced course. In Module A specifically, you should look for what your respective texts can express specifically because of their forms. In turn, their forms may be further influenced by their contexts. Sylvia Plath’s broken, blank verse reflects the uncertainty of the emerging, postmodern period. Likewise, Pacino’s Looking for Richard adopts a hybrid, docu-drama form in order to sustain the interest of a contemporary American audience disillusioned with Shakespeare. S YLLABUS :

“Students develop the confidence, skills, and appreciation to express a considered personal perspective.” There is no escaping it – once again, the syllabus has asked you specifically to create a personal voice within your analysis. As with all modules, consider your own understanding of the text, challenge it through discussion with classmates and readings of other scholars, and incorporate it within your essays.

1.2

Essay structure

1.2.1

Thesis statements

As always, your thesis must address the crux of the question. According to the material released by NESA there are three types of questions that your thesis may be used to discuss: • General questions which apply to all texts: (e.g. ‘You have studied a pair of prescribed texts in Textual Conversations. How has the context of each text influenced your understanding of the intentional connections between them?’) These questions will always be based on the overall focus on the module, as they have to be able to apply to all prescribed texts. Therefore, your thesis for these types of questions should revolve around the worth of completing a comparative study. The above question suggests that a comparative study allows you to better understand the respective contexts of each text, and how they inform the conversation between them. • Stimulus questions which apply to all texts: (e.g. ‘“Never again will a single story be told as though it is the only one’” – John Berger. To what extent is this statement true in light of your exploration of Textual Conversations? In your response, make close reference to the pair of prescribed texts that you have studied in Module A.’) Stimulus questions commonly appeal to the focus of the module on a whole, or specific dot points. In the question provided, the stimulus seems to be referencing both the notion of intertextuality and the mode of appropriation. Once again therefore, your thesis should target how a comparative study allows us to better understand the worth of appropriation.

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1.3 Suggested critical readings

• Text-specific questions: – With stimulus: sometimes, a question may give you a stimulus taken directly from one of the prescribed texts. This is usually a clue/guide to what they are expecting you to talk about in your essay. Though a question may not ask you to integrate the stimulus into your essay, it is always best practice to do it anyway. This shows the marker that you have taken the question at hand on board, rather than reproducing a pre prepared essay. Try and integrate words from the stimulus (or a reference to it, if the stimulus is largely stage directions) into your introduction. – Without stimulus: (e.g. ‘Explain the centrality of the motif of performance in the textual conversation between Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed.’) Module A may also ask you a highly specific question like this. As you can see, however, they still hinge on the worth of a comparative study, and the intertextuality between your prescribed texts. All the question is doing is narrowing in on a feature of the conversation. Therefore, the theses you write before your exam should always be based on the notion of intertextuality. Indeed, they should make a judgement on what appropriation allows us to understand, and how a comparative study enables us to garner an appreciation for this postmodern concept.

1.2.2

Body paragraphs

Whatever focus you choose to write your paragraphs on, they absolutely must be able to incorporate the question. Understandably, this will be difficult for text-specific questions. Choosing broad intertextual connections to base your paragraphs on is the best way to avoid this problem. Having a variety of them which span the length of your text is also more likely to provide you with adaptability in the exam room.

1.3

Suggested critical readings

It is not absolutely necessary to cite critical readings in your response, and they are by no means the make or break in determining a Band 6 response. They can, however, help you understand the context of your text, how it was received by its audience, and highlight intertextuality. Remember that you must use these readings to inform your understanding, and then build upon them in your argument. Copying them will not earn you high marks. • Richard III & Looking for Richard: – Christie, W. (2015). ‘these our actors’: Histrionics in Shakespeare’s ‘King Richard III’ and Al Pacino’s ‘Looking for Richard’. Sydney Studies in English, 41, 1-16. – Greenblatt, L. (2015) Shakespeare Explains the 2016 Election. The New York Times Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/09/opinion/sunday/shakespeare-explains-the-2016election.html • Sylvia Plath & Ted Hughes: – Perloff, M. Ted Hughes – Birthday Letters. http://marjorieperloff.com/essays/hughes-birthday/ – Bayley, S. (2009). ‘Is it for this you widen your eye rings?’ Looking, Overlooking and Cold War Paranoia: the art of the voyeur in the poetry of Sylvia Plath and the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Women’s History Review, 18(4), 547-558. • Mrs Dalloway & The Hours: – Pidduck, J. (2013). The times of the hours: Queer melodrama and the dilemma of marriage. Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies, 28(1_82), 37-67. – Leavenworth, M. L. (2010). ‘A life as potent and dangerous as literature itself’: Intermediated moves from Mrs Dalloway to The Hours. Journal of Popular Culture, 43(3), 503.

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Chapter 1 – Module A: Textual Conversations

Seeing as your thesis is most likely going to be around the concept of intertextuality, your paragraphs should be based on points of the ‘conversation’ between your texts. These may be specific themes that they have in common, such as power, gender, family, and language. You may also draw inspiration from the dot points. For example, you could dedicate one or two paragraphs to a specific motif that the two texts share, or perhaps how they both draw upon their personal contextual sphere.

1.4 Exemplar response

Chapter 1 – Module A: Textual Conversations

• The Tempest & Hag Seed: – Atwood, M (2017) A Perfect Storm: Margaret Atwood on rewriting Shakespeare’s Tempest The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/24/margaret-atwoodrewriting-shakespeare-tempest-hagseed – Skura, M. A. (1989). Discourse and the individual: The case of colonialism in the tempest. Shakespeare Quarterly, 40(1), 42. • The Stranger & The Meursault Investigation: – Lalami, L. (2015). ‘The Meursault Investigation,’ by Kamel Daoud. The New York Times Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/books/review/the-meursault-investigation-bykamel-daoud.html • John Donne & Margaret Edson: – Keaveney, M. M. (2004). Death be not proud: an analysis of Margaret Edson’s Wit. Women and Language, 27(1), 40+. – Lamont, R. (1999). Coma versus Comma: John Donne’s Holy Sonnets in Edson’s WIT. The Massachusetts Review, 40(4), 569-575. • Keats & Bright Star: – Christie, W. (2000). A Recent History of Poetic Difficulty. ELH, 67(2), 539-564. – Benis, T. R. (2011). The Austen Effect: Remaking romantic history as a novel of manners. Wordsworth Circle, 42(3), 183.

1.4

Exemplar response

S AMPLE :

Question: In a comparative study of two texts, our understanding of textual conversations is enhanced by a consideration of each composer’s use of textual form. Evaluate this statement in light of the pair of prescribed texts you have studied in Module A. A composer’s use of textual form is integral to their effective persuasion of meaning and purpose. Accordingly, one’s understanding of intertextual conversations between texts is undoubtedly enhanced by observing their respective uses of form, manipulated in order to best communicate to their audience. Propagated through the Globe Theatre and mediated by the Tudor monarchy, Shakespeare’s King Richard III (KR3) manipulates and is contorted by notions of authority, agency and the role of language. We may glean a greater appreciation of the timeless nature of such values and their adoption across time through the lens of Al Pacino’s 1994 postmodern film Looking for Richard. Thus, it is clear that textual form is an integral ingredient within a text that ensures it is successfully received in its time, and that enables it to enter conversation with others. Authority within and over a text is a value that encompasses both the audience and composer. Its communication through the effective, yet conjunctive use of textual form in each text allows us to gauge a greater understanding of the respective composers underlying purpose and meaning. Shakespeare begins by instituting Richard as the dominant force of authority over both the text and audience, breaking the fourth wall and ensnaring the audience through brilliant soliloquy, “now is the winter of our discontent.” However, such a clever use of form must also be considered in light of the present tense, effectively making the text immediate to the contextual audience, despite its historical basis. Thus, Richard is masterfully introduced as the devious Machiavellian, as a reflection of burgeoning political theory within Shakespeare’s time. We may see the similarly integral use of form in communicating the central authority of Pacino’s play – being the director turn protagonist himself. The “docu-drama type thing” sees Pacino capitalise upon the medium readily consumed by modern audiences, in order to best present Shakespeare in his own light. Through he claims the text may be about ‘how we think and feel today’, his nonchalant transition between period and contemporary costume suggests his own ego’s cultivation throughout this text. In histrionic despair, he pleads “I don’t want to say action,” ensnaring the contemporary audience within the same dramatic irony Shakespeare divulged the original Richard in. When we compare the two representations, however, we may see consider the Bard’s King as a mere façade.

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1.4 Exemplar response

Whilst Pacino maintains authority throughout his text, the closing rhyming couplet of Shakespeare’s play implies a greater contextual authority. Through subtle, ingenious use of the feminine pronoun, “Peace may live again, that she may long live, God say Amen,” Shakespeare bows to the overarching authority of Elizabeth and seals his play and his audience’s reception with a final, pivotal endorsement of the Tudor myth. The play and Shakespeare’s meticulous control over such a form enhances this effect for both contextual responders and our own comparative study, as we observe the intertextual interpretations of authority amongst these texts.

Furthermore, Pacino’s post-modern text allows us to inspect the purpose of the Shakespearean text with greater depth, as Pacino reiterates the inextricable relationship between composer and text. He begins his piece with a canonical allusion to Shakespeare’s metatheatrical Tempest, “we are such stuff as dreams are made of.” Through such, Pacino reiterates his own role in shaping meaning within the text, perhaps as product of himself more than it is of his context. In adding this individual flair to the piece, he too meets the desires of his context, revealed through the Shakespearean fool via vox pop “when we speak with no feeling, we get nothing out of our society.” The histrionic despair so commonly employed by Pacino thus, as an expression of his own character attempting to make sense of the play, is of critical importance to the “docu-drama type thing.” When returning to the original text to find similar connections, we are left with a knowing, albeit allusive Shakespeare. The line “my tongue could never learn such sweet soothing word” becomes metatheatrical, applying not only to Richard, but the role of Shakespeare in fashioning a propaganda play so damning, it would tarnish the historical identity of its protagonist for ever more. Thus, capitalising upon the uneducated masses and lack of popular history, the metaphor “without character, fame lives long. Thus, like the formal vice, inequity, I moralise the two meanings with one word” effectively deepens our own understanding of Shakespeare’s power to exploit his form to please the Tudor monarchy. Therefore, through comparing the importance of form and language, we may glean a greater awareness of the composer within each text. Conclusively, it is clear that form plays an integral role in fashioning a text. Through comparing its effective manipulation in Richard III and Looking for Richard, we may better understand the textual conversation undertaken between the two. Comments: This is a strong response, as it sticks closely to the specifications of the question (i.e. form and enhancement) whilst covering various different sections of each text. It also develops an original argument, and touches on ideas such as self-reflexivity. This response could be approved through greater attention to sentence structure and length to avoid rambling. Nonetheless, the vocabulary and modality used is appropriate for the essay, and it uses textual evidence judiciously.

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Chapter 1 – Module A: Textual Conversations

Moreover, moral agency is commonly stripped from our conceptions of political agents, as we critique and condemn them as self-interested actors. Both Shakespeare and Pacino attempt to add colour to this one-dimensional summation, in order to remind us that there is innate humanity within even the most callous of leaders. Form in Shakespeare’s text first communicates the superficiality of such a view, as the typical five act structure of the play reflects the strict doctrine of rota fortunate. It is Richard, however, that contests such a form. Through insidiously interjecting a soliloquy in the traditional form of the piece, Richard serves as not only a didactic political agent, but as the exemplary of free will and purpose. Expertly crafted through his physical deformity and family crest, the so-called hell hound’s apparent rejection of the divine, “I intend to prosper and repent, so thrive I in my dangerous affairs of hostile arms,” spells out his hubris. Whilst here, Shakespeare appeals to an audience on the verge of enlightenment thinking, Pacino seeks to provide an empathetic link between the parent text and his audience. To achieve such, he effectively manipulates the form to implicitly paint Richard as the successful Machiavellian American audiences have too often voted for. Cleverly coupling a muted shot of Spacey above adoring crowds with that of Vanessa Redgrave’s expert opinion, “those in power have total contempt for everything they promise,” Pacino urges his audience to reconsider the nature of deceit and agency within their own political discourse. Thus, each text effectively explores agency in light of their own context, inherently enhanced by form.

Module B: Critical Study of Literature

Chapter 2

Module B: Critical Study of Literature Module B revolves around the critical study of texts. This means evaluating a text in the various spheres it has been received, and making a personal judgement on why it remains relevant. The texts that you can study in this module include:

Chapter 2 – Module B: Critical Study of Literature

• • • • • • • • • • • •

2.1

Emma by Jane Austen Great Expectations by Charles Dickens An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishuguro Selected Poems by T. S. Eliot Earth Hour by David Malouf A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal Speak, Memory by Vladmir Nabokov Good Night and Good Luck by George Clooney Unfolding Florence by Gillian Armstrong Henry IV, Part I by William Shakespeare

Rubric

S YLLABUS :

“In this module, students develop detailed analytical and critical knowledge, understanding and appreciation of a substantial literary text. Through increasingly informed and personal responses to the text in its entirety, students understand the distinctive qualities of the text, notions of textual integrity and significance.” Module B is the most demanding study that you will complete in Advanced English. It asks you to take into account text’s structure, contexts, reception across time, and your personal response. This breadth of analysis is known as the text’s ‘integrity.’ Textual integrity is the unity of a text, its coherent use of form, ideas, and language to produce an integrated whole in terms of meaning and value.” It is up to you as an Advanced student to make a judgement regarding how well your text achieves this unity. As suggested in the syllabus dot point, this involves considering what makes the text unique, what we can learn from it, and why we should hold it up as a valuable text. What separates the Standard and Advanced English Module B study is the inclusion of evaluation. This entails a higher level of engagement with the significance of your text. Whilst analysis asks you to deconstruct how a text works, evaluation asks you to comment on whether it works well, and how this construction may be interpreted by various different audiences. Therefore, your paragraphs and theses should always be working towards an argument about the text’s effective representation, and subsequent value. S YLLABUS :

“Students study one prescribed text.” This means you don’t have to study a related text! Whilst a knowledge of your composer’s other works (or oeuvre) may help you to better understand their ideas, you should not include this in your analysis. Note that “one prescribed text” can also refer to a collection of poems. If you are studying T.S. Eliot or David Malouf in this module, this means writing about 2–3 poems within your essay. They also may specify a poem that you must talk about in your essay. Thus, you must know all of your poems inside and out – just in case! 40

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2.1 Rubric

S YLLABUS :

“Close analysis of the text’s construction, content, and language” ... “Critically analyse, evaluate, and comment on the text’s specific language features and form.” This section of the syllabus pertains to a critical analysis in terms of structure. In the words of my English teacher, this is about how the text ‘sits on the page.’ A poem is different to a play, which is different to a film, which is different from a novel. You need to know why the author has chosen to write in the way they have, as this really does contribute to how you read a text. This can be overlooked easily, especially when other parts of the study can be so much more interesting. Why talk about some obscure manipulation of a sonnet when you can talk about the uproar that is the burgeoning Modernist period? Because they are one and the same! The structure of a text will more often than not reflect another part of the framework. Thus, it can be slotted in as a technique itself. For example: S AMPLE :

Winton manipulates the traditional structure of the novel to focus on the first person narrator, reflecting on the shifting landscape of contemporary Australia through the differing lenses of his characters.

• Form: how has a text been written? How is it different from texts you’ve read that have the same form? Was this form popular at the time the text was written? Is the form still accessible to people today? How does the plot progress? Where does the narrative begin? How does the narrative end, if at all? • Technique: what tense is the text written in? Does the tense change at all? Is it written in first, second, or third person? • Style: how does the author construct their own voice? If you were to impersonate this author, what would you say? (this might seem a strange way to think about it, but this will show you what is typical of this text!) Is their language typical of their time? Is this consistent across the composer’s work, or specific to this particular text? (remember: you do not have to read their entire collection – simply research what else they have written, and perhaps read some reviews!) • Symbols and metaphors: are they repeated throughout the text? Do they vary throughout the text? If they do, do they change completely or only slightly? Are they character-specific? What do they describe or explain of particular characters, or the plot more generally? Copyright © 2022 InStudent Publishing Pty. Ltd.

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Chapter 2 – Module B: Critical Study of Literature

Think of it as a blessing, you don’t have to remember another quote! Alternatively, you can talk about structure as a way of emboldening other parts of a text. For example, a metaphor could evolve throughout a text as a motif, meaning that whilst it is a specific quote, it is assisted by form. To better clarify, here as some questions you can ask yourself when analysing form within a text.

2.2 Reading and research

2.2

Reading and research

S YLLABUS :

“[Students should base] their judgements on detailed evidence drawn from their research and reading.” Here, the syllabus stipulates that study in Module B extends quite far beyond just reading your text. This includes research of the contextual period in which the author was writing, and critical readings of the text. What was the prevailing religion at the time? Was this amongst the people, or enforced by the governing body of the time? Was it a secular state? How much power did the Church or religious establishment hold? Did religious institutions interfere with the media? Did the people trust the Church? Was there conflict between different religious traditions at the time? Was one much more powerful than the other? Was religion intertwined with that particular country’s history? Did texts commonly challenge the authority of religion?

Political

What form of government existed in that nation at the time (e.g. democratic, monarchy)? How much control did this government exercise over a text? Was the government supportive of the arts? Did the Government support texts of this type? Was the government popular? Was the country approaching/involved in/recovering from war? Who was this war against, and how did their government differ from this text’s? Was the country its own nation state, or was it ruled by a foreign power? Was there freedom of speech? Was the government corrupt? Was it equitable? Was the government popular? Were extreme political positions popular at the time? Were there any peaceful or violent protests? Was the country economically thriving, or in a slump? Was propaganda employed? Was censorship common?

Societal

Was the society multicultural? Was there class conflict? Was there an equal distribution of wealth, or a large divide between the rich and the poor? What were literacy level like? Was there an equitable education system? Were women treated the same as men? Was there disparity between races? Was there a common goal (e.g. The American Dream)? Was there a cultural literacy/national cannon that your composer was contributing to? Who were prominent figures of this time? Why were they prominent (what did they stand for, how did they come to attention)?

Historical

What happened immediately before your text was written? How did people understand this in their current period? How was history accessed? Was it something only available to the upper classes/privileged? Was there such thing as popular history at the time? Were the people proud or ashamed of their history? Had it been effected by colonialism? What era was your text created in, and how might it have influenced your text (e.g. Romantic, modern, post-modern)? Was your text written in a traditional society that conformed to historical norms? Or did it actively challenge them?

Literary

What were famous texts at the time your author published their own work? What did they cite as their own influences? Were they bucking or conforming to trends? How was literature valued in this period? Were they using a popular form for their time period?

Chapter 2 – Module B: Critical Study of Literature

Religious

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2.2 Reading and research

Beyond this, you will also need to examine academic essays in order to score highly in Module B. This will perhaps be the first time you are exposed to academic pieces – on one hand, they can be very tiring to read, may complicate your understanding of the text, or may be used incorrectly in your essays. On the other, they can add a sophistication that rigour that you may not be able to cover in your normal classroom lessons. It is also important to keep a track of what you are reading, and the main arguments you read. During my own HSC and university English studies, I usually fill out the template provided below. I then print of the essay I’ve read, and attach this summary sheet to the front. This way, when you go to revise later during Year 12, you won’t have to re-read entire academic essays to try and find that one argument you thought was fascinating. It will also encourage academic honesty – that is vital to not only your HSC, but university-level study.

S AMPLE :

Title: ____________________________________________

Date: ________________

Author: __________________________________________ Chapter 2 – Module B: Critical Study of Literature

Summarise the main point of this essay in a sentence:

What are the four most important points in this essay? 1. 2. 3. 4. What are the key words in this essay?

What points do you disagree with in this essay?

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2.3 Analysis

When you are reading academic essays, follow this quick guide to make sure you are making the best use of your time. DO

DO NOT

3 Collect individual words that you like and

7 Take sentences word for word and put them

understand from these essays. This can be a great way to expand your vocabulary.

into your essays. Teachers will pick up on this, and you could receive a 0 for that task!

3 Summarise the arguments in your own words.

7 Highlight every second line in the essay. Not everything is essential!

Chapter 2 – Module B: Critical Study of Literature

3 Write down the name of the author, and the title

7 Take three hours to read an essay.

and date of the work. When you quote them in an essay, include their last name and the year it was written – for example, “ATAR Notes is fantastic” (Tyrrell, 2018).

Sometimes, all you need to do is understand the crux of their thesis in order to reconsider your own understanding of a text.

3 Read arguments that you disagree with. When

7 Read essays just to find quotes. Integrating

you write your own essays, imagine you’re rebutting what other critics have said to add sophistication to your piece.

scholars just for the sake of marks, rather than meaningfully, will actually subtract from your essay rather than adding to it.

3Read academic essays consistently all throughout

7 Only read essays when cramming for

the year.

assessment tasks.

3Get academic essays from credible sources (e.g.

7Chuck a quote at the end of every paragraph.

The State Library, English Teacher’s Association, Questia, JStore).

This will disrupt the flow of your essay, and once again, do more harm than good.

3Use them to back up or challenge your own ideas

7Quote things from Wikipedia or SparkNotes.

within your essays.

These are not academic sources.

2.3

Analysis

S YLLABUS :

“In doing so, [students should] evaluate notions of context with regards to the text’s composition and reception.” Once you have completed your research, you then have to integrate your findings into analysis. With a solid grasp of the context of your piece, you should be able to better understand why your text is made the way it is. The best way to express this dot point through your analysis is to put yourself in the shoes of your composer’s audience. Ask yourself: having come from the context that the composer lives in, how are they likely to have responded to what is presented in the text? Basically, what you’re trying to do here is better understand the author’s desired effect on their audience. For example: • Form: is very closely linked to context. Usually, the chosen form will represent what was critically acclaimed, or popular at the time. S AMPLE :

The form of Emma by Jane Austen is known as a domestic novel. Conventionally, this means that it is a book about sentimentality, and a woman’s life at home. Jane Austen was a pioneer of this genre, which helped to authenticate the common experiences of women.

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2.3 Analysis

• Techniques: are manipulated by the author to achieve their purpose. Of course, this purpose is informed by their opinions on the main issues of their context. S AMPLE :

In Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, intricate characterisation and overarching narration intertwine to demonstrate how each individual life is a piece of society as a whole. This in itself, is painted as an innate good by Thomas, who does not pursue a definitive plot line. • Ideas: refer to the content and themes that the cover actually covers. They are inspired by real life events, and general trends in the context. Once again, the author includes these ideas in their text in order to influence their readers understanding of them. S AMPLE :

In Good Night and Good Luck by George Clooney, the focus on the media through the lens of the Cold War parallels Clooney’s own post-9/11 context. He draws upon the similarities in the zeitgeist of these two eras, expressing ideas about the need for integrity and authenticity in the media that are still relevant today.

S YLLABUS :

“Explore the ideas in the text.” As previously stated, ideas are heavily influenced by the context in which your text exists. Sometimes, it can be hard to narrow down what the most important ideas are in your text. It can also be difficult to differentiate between different but similar themes. What helps here is to think back to the focus of the rubric. Ask yourself, what do I learn about because of this text? These are likely to be big universal themes. You’re likely to have come across them in the human condition, or even in Module A. They need to be big and broad enough that you can adapt them to various questions, whilst also having a range of textual evidence. Here are some examples from the prescribed texts: • Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: class, hope, innocence, failliability • Earth Hour by David Malouf: history, memory, romanticism, modernity • Speak, Memory by Vladmir Nabokov: time, fiction vs. non-fiction, identity

S YLLABUS :

“[Students should] appreciate and express views about the aesthetic and imaginative aspects of the text by composing creative and critical texts of their own. They express complex ideas precisely and cohesively using appropriate register, structure and modality. They draft, appraise and refine their own texts, applying the conventions of syntax, spelling and grammar appropriately.” This point is asking you to refine your work. Now, this doesn’t mean sitting on the same essay for the entirety of Year 12. Instead, what you should be doing is constantly practising with new ideas, analysis, and ways of describing your text as you write for different questions. This way, you will learn how to adapt the structure, register, and modality of your essay to what the paper provides you with on exam day. For more advice on how to write adaptable essays, look to the essay section of this book! Note that the syllabus specifically includes register and modality – this means that you do not have to worship every aspect of your text. Not everything that your composer does is going to be effective, or clever. Indeed, the markers want you to be critical of what you are reading. Switch up your modality to highlight some of the flaws of the work, or how the audience may misinterpret the composers representation.

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Chapter 2 – Module B: Critical Study of Literature

Remember that when you are writing about the relationship between your text and its context, you also need to be forming an evaluation! Comment on how effectively the author creates a dialogue between themselves and their times, and in turn, on whether they successfully impart this message on to readers.

2.4 Essay structure

Make sure, however, that you are always speaking with an academic tone (or register). That is, your language has to be formal, and argumentative. This is different to simply using big words in complicated sentence structures. Always try and write in active clauses, and use strong verbs and nouns rather than an abundance of adjectives. As for structure, the critical study demands that you cover the entirety of your text, rather than just certain excerpts. Make sure you have quotes from the beginning, middle, and end of your prescribed work, and that they are used equally throughout your essay. If you are studying poetry, make sure you also talk about at least two poems equally, if not more. You could choose to spend a paragraph talking about each poem, or write integrated paragraphs on the themes shared between them. S YLLABUS :

“[Students should] further develop personal and intellectual connections with the text.”

Chapter 2 – Module B: Critical Study of Literature

There’s no escaping personal voice! Once again, you need to engage with your text, and argue what you really think about it within your essay. This could be the distinguishing factor between a Band 5 and a Band 6. A fantastic way to develop this personal voice within Module B is to try and justify why your text is still relevant today. In other words, try and justify why we continue to read and study this text. How does it relate to the world around you? What have you learnt about your own life because of it? I tried to do this towards the end of each of my paragraphs, to ensure that I had personal voice whilst also covering the relevant parts of the composer’s context.

2.4

Essay structure

2.4.1

Thesis statements

As always, your thesis must address the question. There are three types of questions that you can get: 1. A statement which you must either agree with or disagree with (this will be an excerpt from your text or a scholar writing about your text) 2. A specific theme, form, or technique to focus on within your essay 3. An overarching statement that can apply to various texts When looking at past exams, these can seem quite intimidating. However, they can all be drawn back to the concept of textual integrity. Basically, the question is giving you a part of the text – and it wants you to talk about whether that particular thing is important to your text’s integrity. For example: S AMPLE :

Question: “The primary concern of good non-fiction is the representation of truth.” To what extent does this statement relate to your own understanding of your prescribed text? What this question is really asking is: does the representation of truth in your text contribute to it’s textual integrity? You need to answer this question in the first two sentences of your introduction! This way, your marker is clear on your exact argument from the beginning of your piece. I like to begin with a concept in my first sentence, and then follow it with the text, as in the following example: S AMPLE :

It is only through narrative that we can hope to grasp at truth. Indeed, it is through seamlessly interweaving ideas, form, and language that Edmund de Waal reaches for an otherwise obscure truth within his memoir, The Hare With Amber Eyes. Let’s look at another text-specific example: S AMPLE :

Question: Falstaff has been labelled as one of ‘nature’s predators.’ Write an extended response in which you challenge or affirm this view regarding Falstaff in Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 1. This question is really asking: how does the representation of Falstaff as one of ‘nature’s predators’ contribute to the textual integrity of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1? 46

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2.4 Essay structure

Thus, your thesis may begin: S AMPLE :

Through the artful combination of language, form, and ideas, we may better glean the intricacies of our human condition. Thus, whilst Falstaff may be labelled as one of ‘nature’s predators,’ his vice allows us to better understand the duality that undergirds our moral lives. As you can see, centring your work around textual integrity allows you to be flexible with questions. It also puts the focus of the module at the crux of your essay, meaning that you are going to be more likely to show the intricacies of the concept as you move through your analysis. K EY P OINT :

Writing these quick, two sentence thesis statements can be a great way to study if you’re short of time. Not only does it get you used to deconstructing questions, but it gives you confidence in knowing that you can answer anything that is thrown at you.

2.4.2

Body paragraphs

In my own essays, I liked to use big universal themes, similar to the other modules. However, you can also focus on the use of specific techniques, such as motifs, settings, characters, and scenes (sometimes the questions will ask you to talk about these specifically). However, even if the question does focus on a specific element of the text, this doesn’t mean it has to take up the entirety of your essay. Remember: textual integrity is all about how the various components work together to create an integrated whole. As such, you should try and link the focus of the question to the content that you have already prepared. For example, if you were planning to talk about history in your first paragraph, and the question asked: S AMPLE :

Question: How does the first person narrator in Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World function as a narrative device? Evaluate your understanding of them with reference to your prescribed text. You would have to try and conceptually marry the first person narrator and history in the opening sentence of your paragraph, which may look something like this: S AMPLE :

Analysing a historical experience under a personal lens paradoxically deepens and distorts our understanding of the past. Such is clear in Ishiguro’s text where his adoption of the first person narrator both grants us insight into experiences of post war Japan whilst blurring the distinction between fiction and reality. You would then have to incorporate relevant quotes to back up such an argument. Whilst this may seem daunting, remember that you have a whole year to collect quotes and themes to talk about! The critical study is also your most intense module in English Advanced. It will be normal to spend more time on this section than others, particularly in terms of writing practice responses. Though the texts studied in this module have changed, the content of the syllabus itself is not too different. Therefore, feel free to go through past Module B papers to try and adapt those questions to your own texts. The key to this module is going to be your ability to adapt what you have prepared to the question on the day. You can only expect to do well at this if you have practised it in your own time!

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Chapter 2 – Module B: Critical Study of Literature

The body of your paragraphs should be made up of themes that both directly link to the question, and contribute to the textual integrity of your prescribed work. In writing your essay in this way, you are explicitly exploring the workings of such integrity. Think about it, the themes work as the ‘ideas’ component. When you analyse how these are represented in your paragraphs, you are highlighting how techniques and form work with these ideas to create your text.

2.5 Suggested critical readings

2.5

Suggested critical readings

• Emma by Jane Austen: – R. P. (2009). Fused voices: Narrated monologue in Jane Austen’s Emma. Nineteenth-Century Literature, 64(1), 1-15.

– Smith, P. (1997). Politics and Religion in Jane Austen’s "Emma". The Cambridge Quarterly, 26(3), 219-241. • Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: – Grass, S. (2012). COMMODITY AND IDENTITY IN "GREAT EXPECTATIONS". Victorian Literature and Culture, 40(2), 617-641.

– BBC’s In Our Time Podcast: Dickens. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00547hx • An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro: – Wright, T. (2014). No Homelike Place: The Lesson of History in Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World. Contemporary Literature 55(1), 58-88. University of Wisconsin Press.

– Karni, R. "Made in Translation: Language, “Japaneseness,” “Englishness,” and “Global Culture” in Ishiguro." Comparative Literature Studies, vol. 52 no. 2, 2015, pp. 318-348.

• Selected Poems by T. S. Eliot: – Howard, J. G. (2012). T. S. Eliot’s THE HOLLOW MEN. The Explicator, 70(1), 8-12. – Lehmann, J. (1953, November 9). T.S. Eliot Talks About Himself and the Drive to Create. The New York Times. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/04/20/reviews/eliot-lehmann.html

• Earth Hour by David Malouf: – Haskell, D. (2014). SILENCE AND POETIC INWARDNESS IN THE WRITINGS OF DAVID MALOUF. Journal of Chapter 2 – Module B: Critical Study of Literature

the Association for the Study of Australian Literature: JASAL, 14(2), 1-6.

– Borzi, Michelle. Earth hour [Book Review] [Online]. Southerly , vol. 74 no. 2, 2014: 80-95. • A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen: – Mazur, A. M. (2013). Victorian Women, the Home Theatre, and the Cultural Potency of A Doll’s House. Victorians Institute Journal, 4110-34.

– Rustin, S. (2013). Why A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen is more relevant than ever. The Guardian. Available from: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/aug/10/dolls-house-henrik-ibsen-relevant

• Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas: – BBC Radio Four, Great Lives: Dylan Thomas. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01f5mmf – Wrigley, A. (2014). Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood, ‘A play for voices’ on radio, stage and television. Critical Studies in Television, 9(3), 77-88.

• The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal: – HOLDEN, P. (2014). LITERARY BIOGRAPHY AS A CRITICAL FORM. Biography, 37 (4), 917-934. Available from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24570315

– Munsterberg, Marjorie. Review of The Hare with Amber Eyes [Book Review] [Online]. Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, vol. 10 no. 2, 2011.

• Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov: – Garcia, M. N. "Nabokov’s Index Puzzle: Life and Art Transcendent in Speak, Memory." Nabokov Studies, vol. 13 no. 1, 2014, pp. 167-191.

– Ponomareff, C. V. (2013). The Metaphor of Loss in Vladimir Nabokov’s Speak Memory . Queen’s Quarterly , 120(3), 402.

• Good Night, and Good Luck by George Clooney: – McNair, B. (2016 ). Under the Spotlight – the journalist as hero(ine). The Conversation. Available from https://theconversation.com/under-the-spotlight-the-journalist-as-hero-ine-53609

– Harper, Kate. Ghosts of the Past: Cold War Hysteria in ‘Good Night, and Good Luck’ [online]. Screen Education, No. 61, Autumn 2011: 149-154.

• Unfolding Florence by Gillian Armstrong: – Avenell, J. (2006, Design for life: Unfolding Florence. Metro: Media & Education Magazine, 69-72. – Schmidt, C., & Tay, J. (2009). Undressing Kellerman, Uncovering Broadhurst: The Modern Woman and "UnAustralia.". Fashion Theory: The Journal Of Dress, Body & Culture, 13(4), 481-498.

• Henry IV Part 1 by William Shakespeare: – Levenson, J. L. "Shakespeare’s Falstaff: ‘The cause that wit is in other men’." University of Toronto Quarterly, vol. 74 no. 2, 2005, pp. 722-728.

– Rand, T. (2005). ELIOT’S "THE LOVE SONG OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK" AND SHAKESPEARE’S PRINCE HAL: An unnoticed parallel. Yeats Eliot Review, 22(4), 19-21.

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2.6 Exemplar response

2.6

Exemplar response

S AMPLE :

Question: Evaluate the effectiveness of Eliot’s exploration of the relationship between individuals and their world within his poetry. In your response, discuss ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’ and TWO other poems set for study. Poetry offers readers insight into their own dynamic relationship with their world, presenting themes prevalent in their own lives in order to promote a sense of awareness of one’s place within society. This is evident with T.S. Eliot oeuvre whereby readers are confronted with the disparities of a world in figurative decay, as the characters experience internal conflict while they search for definitive answers to questions of authenticity and morality through an exploration of modernity, isolation, and meaning. The pervasiveness of these ideas is evident in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, and is further established through the related poems Journey of the Magi and Rhapsody of a Windy Night. By portraying the human experience as a series of tensions between the individual and society, the reader is asked to reflect upon their own experiences and relationship with their world.

Isolation can have devastating impacts on individuals’ relationships with their world, through inhibiting one’s ability to make meaningful connections with society. This is effectively explored within Prufrock and Rhapsody, which present to readers the impact of isolation upon an individual through their use of characterisation, symbolism, and juxtaposition. Likewise, Prufrock’s inability to make decisions due to fear of societal judgement leads to his inability to establish connections with others, thus demonstrating the debilitating impact of isolation upon an individual’s relationship with their world. His fear of intimacy stems from the fear of his own vulnerability – this is the paradoxical heart of Prufrock as he strives for isolation as a means of security, thus leading him to greater despair. His isolation is apparent through Eliot’s effective use of imagery within the poem, which creates an atmosphere of division between Prufrock and his world, further enhancing the readers understanding of the divisions of their own society. Prufrock describes himself as “a pair of ragged claws / Scuttling across the floors of silent seas,” watching “lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows.”

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The ubiquitous and oppressive role of modernity has a critical impact upon individuals’ relationships with society. This is effectively explored within Prufrock and Rhapsody – Eliot was greatly influenced by the socio-philosophical movement of Modernism, seeking the replacement of Romantic optimism for pessimistic cynicism as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution and WWI. Eliot saw society as paralysed and wounded, and thus portrayed characters like Prufrock with a similarly damaged psyche. Eliot utilises imagery to presents to readers an urban landscape of “half-deserted streets,” which serves to introduce Eliot’s perception of modernity as a mundane ‘wasteland’. The characterisation of the indecisive Prufrock further emphasises this perspective, presented through a melancholic stream of consciousness, effectively conveying Eliot’s discontent with modern society. Through Eliot’s use of enjambment, and lines such as “streets that follow like a tedious argument,” it is clear to readers that the infinitely repetitive and mundane nature of modern society enables Prufrock – and by extension society’s – restlessness to find meaning, a vain quest that ultimately lead to detachment. This is further explored within Rhapsody where Eliot expresses a similarly bleak outlook of what he perceives to be a decaying society. Here, the poet effectively explains to readers the impact of modernity upon their lives and relationships, as evident through the symbolic metaphor of “a broken spring in a factory yard,/ Rust that clings to the form that the strength has left.” The spring symbolises our world, with the rust of modernity promoting its decay. Thus, the reader is confronted with an austere assessment of society for them to further their understanding of their own seemingly unfulfilling role within it. Therefore, it is evident that through Prufrock and Rhapsody, Eliot effectively explores the mundane yet overwhelming impact of modernity upon individuals’ relationships with society.

2.6 Exemplar response

Thus, Eliot presents a lonely image that demonstrates the effectiveness of Prufrock in conveying the core theme of isolation, and its impact upon the relationship between individuals and society. This is further explored within Rhapsody whereby Eliot characterises the narrator as a detached and isolated individual as metaphor for present day humanity, thus imbuing the reader with a greater comprehension of their own detachment. Within Rhapsody, a sense of isolation is created through the recurring motif of time in order to convey to the reader the narrator’s state of mind while he explores the streets alone at night. Eliot’s use of personification, such as the lamp who “sputtered” and “muttered,” represents humanity’s breakdown in communication, whereby ironically the inanimate objects are the most alive of figures in the poem. Therefore, through Prufrock and Rhapsody Eliot effectively communicates his view that isolation can be a barrier that inhibits true connection between one’s self and one’s society.

Chapter 2 – Module B: Critical Study of Literature

The struggle to find meaning within a meaningless world is a key element within Prufrock., The poem features the search for meaning of a profoundly fallible human that by extension reflects the search for meaning of a profoundly fallible society. Throughout the stanzas, Eliot – through his authorial persona of Prufrock – ponders great philosophical questions pertaining to his role within his world, such as “Do I dare / Disturb the universe?” demonstrating his desperation to find a greater purpose for his existence that many readers would share. Elliot’s inclusion of rhetorical questions effectively develops the character of Prufrock as overly analytical, thus communicating to the audience that insecurity can lead to feelings of worthlessness. Prufrock feels a lack of purpose; however, he is too afraid to change his reality, as are many individuals. Through the presentation of Prufrock’s flaws, Eliot hopes to caution readers of succumbing to similar anxieties, encouraging them to instead secure a happier future for themselves. However, Eliot does not present meaning as something unattainable, as evident through many of the religious elements of his poetry, particularly in Magi, which reflects upon religion and features many biblical allusions of the birth of Christ. Despite the “long journey,” Eliot provides his readers with some finality to the search for meaning, which he perceives to be his religious epiphany and conversion to Christianity. In the final stanza, the narrator comments on “alien people clutching their gods,” demonstrating that after his conversion he is no longer “clutching” for a sense of meaning, but instead has found his true purpose through faith, and so too, according to Eliot, can the reader. Therefore, it is evident that through Prufrock and Magi, Eliot effectively explores the importance of meaning within individuals’ lives, in that it provides a sense of purpose and control against the banality and pressures of modern society. Therefore, through Prufrock, Magi, and Rhapsody, Eliot presents the key themes of modernity, isolation, and meaning in order to comment upon the state of modern society. Through Eliot’s exploration of the complexity, yet simultaneously the simplicity of the damaged human psyche, he presents to the reader a dynamic and yet stagnating relationship between the individual and their society. To this end, Eliot bestows upon his audience a new perspective of their own significance, inspiring them to avoid loneliness and mundanity and instead search for meaning and fulfilment in life. Comments: This response tackles the question directly, and adequately shifts between the three poems prescribed. Though it has not used the conventional formatting of an essay, the student has written in a style that works best for them, thus allowing their argument to be clear and concise. Accordingly, this decision to write in an unusual structure works to the benefit of the essay, rather than its detriment. The response, however, does lack textual evidence. More detailed, nuanced analysis of the techniques and form of each poem is needed to better appeal to the close study. Whilst this may subtract from the student’s personal voice, it is necessary in order to better fulfil the requirements of the rubric.

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Module C: The Craft of Writing

Chapter 3

Module C: The Craft of Writing 3.1

Rubric

Creative writing has long been overlooked in the study of HSC English. This was identified as a key issue when NESA began to remodel the syllabus, and as such, they have dedicated an entire module to students producing their own texts. Now, Module C requires you to consider all of your prescribed texts as inspiration for your own writing. It also provides with you with two well-crafted texts to study as a class. Your piece will not only be tested in the HSC exam, but it must also be assessed within school throughout the year. These notes will give a brief overview of what markers expect of your creative according to the rubric’s prescriptions, the various types of text types you can write, and what the exam will look like. S YLLABUS :

In accordance with the trend of the new syllabus, Module C is once again asking you to use your own personal expression and voice to creatively represent your ideas. These ideas should stem from your study in other modules. Think about ideas that interested you in the texts you studied, perhaps arguments that came up in your English class about them, or characters that you liked. Now is your chance to explore those even further. As the focus states, you will be expected to rewrite your creative piece for various audiences and purposes. This basically means that you will have to write your plot and characters in various different forms, for different questions, and for different stimuli. A great way ensure your creative is flexible is to know it inside and out. This is different to simply understanding a single character and storyline. Rather, you should be able to tell your story from various perspectives, start it at different points in the plot, and know the key ideas underlying the narrative well enough that you could also write an essay on them. This will mean that you are prepared for whatever questions you are asked to answer – whether that is in school assessments or HSC exams. S YLLABUS :

“Students appreciate, examine, and analyse at least two short prescribed texts as well as texts from their own wide reading, as models and stimulus for the development of their own complex ideas and written expression. Through the study of enduring, quality texts of the past as well as recognised contemporary works, students appreciate, analyse, and evaluate the versatility, power, and aesthetics of language. They evaluate how writers use language creatively and imaginatively for a range of purposes.” What this highlights is that you should not limit yourself to the texts provided for study in this module. Rather, look for other texts that you enjoy as well. As this module does not limit you to purely novels or short stories, this also means paying attention to the writing in your every day life. Read news articles, watch critically acclaimed movies, even read your classmates’ creatives. Paying attention to how these authors creative effective narratives will help you prepare your own piece. Whilst the aforementioned syllabus dot point sounds analytical, the point of evaluating your prescribed texts is to help you incorporate similar techniques in your own writing. So, when looking at each of these categories, first question whether your composer is achieving these things. Then, look for the techniques that they are using to represent them. Copyright © 2022 InStudent Publishing Pty. Ltd.

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Chapter 3 – Module C: The Craft of Writing

“In this module, students strengthen and extend their knowledge, skills, and confidence as accomplished writers. Students write for a range of audiences and purposes using language to convey ideas and emotions with power and precision.”

3.1 Rubric

Chapter 3 – Module C: The Craft of Writing 52

To express insights

Look for the opinions of your author within their text. Whilst this is pretty easy to do for non-fiction texts, you may want to apply the critical frameworks (e.g. feminist, Marxist, structuralist) to a narrative to better glean its underlying message. You can also compare it with your own view on the world, or contemporary current affairs, in order to better understand what it is suggesting.

To evoke emotion

How does your text engage with you? What does it make you feel? Answering these questions and pinpointing the techniques that make them possible helps you to understand the importance of making emotional contact with your audience. Empathy is usually the key to a successful narrative, as it asks us to consider another person’s perspective as if it were your own. If you are able to incorporate the techniques you pick up here into your own writing, then you are likely to produce a quality piece.

To describe the wonder of the natural world

Many texts have Romantic tendencies – that is, they saturate themselves in the majesty of the natural world. It often is held as something pure, divine, and wise. In painting the natural world in this way, many hope to foster the same sought of appreciation in their audience. Others may do so for the sheer beauty of representing the natural world. In many contemporary texts, it has been an important technique used to highlight the impact humans have had on the environment. The natural world can often be used as a form of representation (e.g. ‘pathetic fallacy,’ which is when the weather mirrors a character’s mood).

To shape a perspective

Even creative texts are tools for shaping an opinion within the audience. The nuance and motivation underlying this opinion is largely informed by the context of a text. For this reason, it is still worth doing some contextual research when studying your prescribed text. Once you are able to see such context within the narrative, narrow in on the type of techniques the author is using to create this allusion. Think about ideas from your own life that you would like to incorporate into your own creative, and perhaps, use your prescribed texts as a model on how to successfully do so.

To share an aesthetic vision

The phrase ‘aesthetic vision’ sounds ridiculously complicated for what it actually means. Most simply, someone’s aesthetic vision refers to what they want their text to look like. This could refer to how the words sit on the page, the genre that the text conforms to, or how it creates its textual integrity (refer back to Module B). Though you may be inspired by a text’s aesthetic vision when writing your own narrative, you shouldn’t completely copy someone else’s style. This is because your own turn of phrase, construction of narrative, and characterisation is what will make your story unique. Thus, in order to find it in other people’s work, think about what makes this text different? What makes it seem seamless? How is the narrative itself organised?

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3.2 Using literary devices

The next few parts of the syllabus recognise that there is a distinct process to writing a creative. We will go through them one by one. S YLLABUS :

“During the prewriting stage, students generate and explore various concepts through discussion and speculation.” That’s right – there is a lot to do before sitting down to write your creative! For my own HSC, I thought about my characters weeks before I wrote anything down. I also tried to discuss my main ideas with people in my class, with my Mum, and in my own journal. This is because it is vital to have a clear idea of your story before you sit down to write it. Though your first draft will probably still be a bumbling mess, it will nonetheless resemble a story that you are working towards. Too often, students sit down without thinking about ideas, and end up writing draft after draft that all end up in their junk folder. This ultimately wastes very valuable study time, where you could otherwise be laying the foundations of a great story. In saying this, thinking of something to write about can be the most difficult part of a creative! Here are some starting points that may help if you’re struggling:

3.2

Using literary devices

S YLLABUS :

“Throughout the stages of drafting and revising, students experiment with various figurative, rhetorical, and linguistic devices; for example, allusion, imagery, narrative voice, characterisation, and tone.” Though NESA has provided us with some pretty basic techniques to include in your creative writing, the main point of drafting and revising is creating focal points of your piece. Here are some aspects we believe are important to consider when revising your creative.

Tense Tense is a very powerful tool that you can use in your writing to increase intensity or create a sense of detachment, amongst other things. The three basic options you have are writing in past, present, or future tense (or a combination of two or more of these). The past tense can be reflective, recounting, or perhaps just the most natural tense to write in. It is the most common tense for short stories and most creative writing in general. If your creative piece is much like a recount, you’ll most likely fall into the past tense naturally, as in: “We stood together, linking arms. The car screeched to a stop in front of us. The frail man alighted from his vehicle and stared into my eyes.” The present tense creates a sense of immediacy, or urgency. If you’re writing with suspense or about action, consider the present tense, as in: “We stand here together, linking arms. The car screeches to a stop in front of us. The frail man alights from the vehicle and stares into my eyes.”

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Chapter 3 – Module C: The Craft of Writing

• What do you like to read? Why do you like it? Has there ever been an idea/character/plot that you thought could have been explored in greater depth, and if so, could you write about it? • Can you remember points in your life that made you think about the world differently? What were these events, and why were they important? • Sit down with your grandparents or an elderly friend and ask them about a memory they’ve held on to for a long time. Use this as inspiration for a creative. • Close your eyes and think of a house. Walk through the front door, and head to a room that you can picture the clearest. Why is that room significant to you? Tell the story of what happened there, or simply use it as the starting point of a narrative. • Remember your prescribed texts! Write from the perspective of a main character, or use a setting from your text to inspire a narrative.

3.2 Using literary devices

The future tense is difficult to use for short stories because we don’t usually use the future tense to sustain an entire conversation; we usually just jump into the future tense for aspirations and then contrast with our reality. And example of the future tense would be: “We will stand together with our arms linked. The man may intimidate us all he likes, but together, when we are unified, we will be stronger than they will ever be.” You can really manipulate the future tense to work in your favour if you are writing a creative speech. It is also important to point out that using a variety of tenses may work best for your creative. If you are flashing back or forward, the easiest way to do that is to establish the tense firmly. You don’t have to stay in the same tense the entire time, but only switch between tenses with purpose. Inconsistency in tense can confuse a reader, so consider carefully how you want to approach this.

Texture

Chapter 3 – Module C: The Craft of Writing

You ultimately want your creative writing to take your marker to a new place, a new world, and you want them to feel as though they understand it like they would their own kitchen. The most skilled writers can make places like Hogwarts seem like your literary home. As Year 12s, we aren’t all at that level... so the best option is to take a setting you know and describe it in every sense – taste, smell, touch, sound and sight. Choose a place special and known to you. Does your grandmother’s kitchen have those old school two-tone brown tiles? Did you grow up in another country, where the air felt different and the smell of tomatoes reminded you of Sundays? Does your bedroom have patterned fabric hanging from the walls and a bleached patch on the floor from when you spilled nail polish remover? Perhaps your scene is a sporting field – describe the grazed knees, the sliced oranges, and the mums and dads on the sideline nursing babies. The more unique yet well described the details are, the more tangible your setting is.

Time You should also consider whether your creative piece is focused on a small moment of ordinary time, or whether it is covering years in span? Are you flashing back between the past and the present? Some of the most wonderful short stories focus on the minutiae that is unique to ordinary life but is perpetually overlooked or underappreciated. Discovering that the thread of humanity could come from a story based on one single shift at a grocery store, observing customers. Every day occurrences can make for very interesting revelations about the human condition. You could write a creative piece that actually spans the entire life span of someone (maybe someone who lived to 13 years old, or someone who lived to 90 years old). Alternatively, you could create a story that compares the same stage of life of three different individuals in three different eras. Consider how much time you want to cover before embarking on your creative journey. If you’re yet to start a creative piece, map out a timeline, even if it only involves three small events. This will give you a string to cling to when you’re experiencing writer’s block/late-teen-mid-HSC-crisis!

Show; don’t tell The best writers don’t give every little detail wrapped up and packaged, ready to go. As a writer, you need to have respect for your reader in that you believe in their ability to read between the lines at points, or their ability to read a description and visualise it appropriately. Consider the following example: “I was 14 at the time. I was young, vulnerable, and naive. At 14, you have such little life experience, so I didn’t know how to react.” This is boring because the reader is being fed every detail that they could have synthesised from being told the age alone. To add to the point of the age, you could add an adjective that gives connotations to everything that was written in the sentence, such as “tender age of 14.” However, sometimes giving less information can intrigue the reader more. There is a fine line between withholding too much and giving the reader the appropriate rope for them to pull. The best way to work out if you’re sitting comfortably on the line is to send your creative writing to someone, and have them tell you if there was a gap in the information. How many facts can you convey without telling the reader directly? Your markers are smart people, they can do the work on their end, you just have to feed them the essentials.

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3.2 Using literary devices

Here are some examples of the difference between showing and telling. Telling

Showing

The beach was windy and the weather was hot.

Hot sand bit my ankles as I stood on the shore.

He was disciplined and emotionless.

The discipline of his emotions was reflected in his bleak grey uniform, perfectly ironed, mirroring an expressionless face.

Internal vs. external Building on the ‘show; don’t tell’ rule, another good tip for achieving strong, descriptive writing in creative pieces is to make the internal external, and make the external internal.

Notice how the second sentence conveys the character’s emotional state without having to say “she was sad”? This is what your creative writing should aim to do! The same works in reverse too: instead of saying: “the house was brand new and had never been lived in,” you could write: “he was overcome by a foreign sense of unease as soon as he walked through the doorway. He was suddenly mortified at the thought of his unkempt appearance sullying this place, like he was an amateurish painter ruining a crisp, expensive canvas just by touching it with a grubby brush.” Here, we’ve expressed the cleanness and newness of the environment by characterising the protagonist’s reaction to it, thus making the external into something internal. This takes a lot of time and practice, but it’s definitely a worthwhile way of spicing up your creative.

Humour You don’t have to be funny in real life to pull this one off. Using humour could be exactly what your story needs to become memorable. People enjoy laughter because it’s an identifiable human reaction, and people certainly enjoy little incidents of life that make you think “haha, I do that too.” So, when my nana told me the other day that sometimes she walks to the fridge and just stares into it for a few minutes before realising that she isn’t hungry and is just bored, I laugh. I do that too, and it’s a reasonably non-amusing way to deal with boredom. This isn’t the kind of laughter where you’re clenching your PC muscles wondering if you’ll make it to the bathroom in time, but the kind of “ha” moment where you share a weird aspect of humanity. If you’re not exactly the class clown, then my advice is to go for “tongue in cheek” humour more than anything overt. Humour can give the plot a space to breathe, or a place for a reader to slide on in. Humour can also be useful in making a character seem light-hearted, or a lack of a sense of humour could be used to make a character seem disagreeable or unsympathetic.

Characterisation Creating a character from scratch seems like a pretty daunting task – luckily you probably won’t be doing that. When we think of scenarios, people, and places, we always take little snippets of what is familiar to create these. When I’m thinking of a mean high school teacher for a character, I take the crusty haircut of my Year 3 teacher, paired with the deep voice of the customer that always comes in five minutes before we close at my work, and then the mannerisms of The Trunchbull from Roald Dahl’s Matilda. Without even having to squeeze my creative juices for their nutrients, I’ve got the framework for a really interesting character.

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What this means is that if you are trying to convey a thought or emotion (i.e. something internal), then you should describe it in terms of the environment or something sensory that can be seen or heard (i.e. something external). For example, rather than saying “she felt sad and she wanted to go home,” consider what this internal stuff would look like externally: “she hunched her shoulders and tried to make herself as small as possible. She locked her eyes on an exit sign, seductively visible and yet depressingly out of reach, as though it was taunting her from afar.”

3.3 Varying sentence structure

For starters, think about the importance of names and their connotations. The name ‘Crystal Skye Amethyst’ rings very differently to ‘Agnes Mogdorf.’ In George Orwell’s 1984, the protagonist is named Winston Smith. The exalted leader of England in the war time is largely attributed as the inspiration for the protagonist’s first name. The surname, Smith, is the most common surname in the English language. When the two are together, Winston Smith is perceived as Orwell intended: as a very ordinary person who makes extraordinary efforts in unusual circumstances. Composers have also used names in a foreshadowing way, like in Star Wars: ‘Darth’ is a variant of dark, and ‘Vader’ is ‘father’ in Dutch. So, the big “Luke, I am your Father” revelation probably wasn’t so shocking to the audiences in the Netherlands. So, what should you think about when naming your own characters? Firstly, make sure the era and location is correct. If we look at the World War Two period in Australia, we’re more likely to have a character called Mildred than a character called Miley. In the same way, a character called Alessandro is more likely to be Italian than African. Googling the top names of different decades and different countries is a great place to start. Then, have a look at some of the root meanings. If you have a faithful friend in your story, it’s better to call him Caleb (root meaning: faithful or faithful dog) rather than calling him Loyal. The beauty of this is that if a reader doesn’t pick up on it: then Caleb is just fine. If they do pick up on it: bonus points for clever thinking for you!

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When it comes to describing this character, I visualise them before I write. Usually, I imagine them walking. I think this movement is important because describing the way someone physically looks isn’t what is going to engage a reader the same way that talking about their limp or non-blinking eyes will. There are millions of people in the world with brown hair, there are millions of people with rough skin, and millions of people with big, watery eyes. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give the reader these details, because they may be exactly what your reader needs to visualise your character. But mannerisms are what will truly engage a reader. Does she twist the loose threads on the edge of her cardigan? Does he crack his knuckles one by one? Is her pinky nail always painted a different colour to the others? Does he have an upwards inflection in his tone? Do they wear big hand-made brooches like your Visual Arts teacher does? A character doesn’t have to have too many exceptional qualities, especially if your intention is to plant a very ordinary person in very extraordinary circumstances. You just need to give enough familiarity to a reader for them to connect, and then enough uniqueness for them to be interesting.

3.3

Varying sentence structure

It is very exhausting for a responder to read complex and compound sentences one after the other, each full of verbose and unnecessary adjectives. It is such a blessed relief when you reach a simple sentence that you just want to sit and mellow in the beauty of its simplicity. Of course, this is a technique that you can use to your advantage. You won’t need the enormous unnecessary sentences though, I promise. “Jesus wept.” This is the shortest verse in the Bible (found in John 11:35) and is probably one of the most potent examples of the power of simplicity. The sentence only involves a proper noun and a past-tense verb. It stands alone to be very powerful. It also stands as a formidable force among other sentences. Sentence variation is extremely important in engaging a reader through flow. Of course, writing completely in simple sentences is tedious for you and the reader. Variation is the key. This is most crucial in your introduction because there is opportunity to lose your marker before you have even shown what you’re made of! Reading your work out loud is one of the most effective ways to realise which sentences aren’t flowing. If you are running out of breath before you finish a sentence – you need to cut back.

3.4 • • • • • • • 56

Checklist Have I kept a consistent tense? If I have varied the tense, have I done so with purpose, and in a way that is easy to follow? Is the plot engaging? Have I established my character(s) effectively? Are my sentences varied and flowing? Is the spelling and grammar accurate? Am I comfortable enough to adapt this creative to different stimuli? Copyright © 2022 InStudent Publishing Pty. Ltd.

3.5 Adapting to purpose, audience, and context

3.5

Adapting to purpose, audience, and context

Remember, the HSC is not your magnum opus. You will only be able to produce 1,300 words maximum in the exam room, and you are writing to meet a marking guideline. Whilst the new syllabus does not require you to adhere to a conceptual study, you still must keep in mind that you are writing to answer a particular question, show your control over language, and present a summation of what you’ve learned about creative writing throughout high school. The first thing that you must consider is your audience. Your HSC markers are not going to spend hours trawling through your creative. As such, you must be able to express your key ideas within the requirements of the task – whether that be an assignment or the exam. This means that tackling massive philosophical arguments or huge mythological quests within your creative is going to be extremely difficult, and probably should be avoided. Secondly, the more of your own context that you can incorporate into your piece, the better. This is because the key to an original piece that is still able to connect with its audience in its inclusion of a context shared between reader and writer. If you write about issues important to the current time period, your marker is more likely going to be able to empathise with and understand your piece.

3.6

Poetry

One of the toughest genres that you will potentially have to write in for the HSC is poetry, which is often considered extremely difficult to write in general, let alone under time constraints. However, there are certain preparation strategies and planning exercises that can aid you in the construction of an effective exploration. It’s not often that students will take this on for their creative writing – but if you do, these tips may help. Considering poetic restrictions The first thing you should consider when attempting to write poems is the kind of formula you intend to use. A poem cannot simply be a series of sentences broken up and written in a column down the page – or rather, it can be, but you are unlikely to receive a high score if that’s all you do – so you should make some effort to sustain a kind of pattern or structure throughout your piece. This may seem like it places an unneeded burden on you for an already difficult task, but your choice of style and form can actually give you a helpful boundary in which to construct your writing. Total freedom can be rather confronting and often results in very directionless pieces, whereas a little limitation in terms of the rhyme scheme or the metre can be useful in demarcating your focus and composition. Of course, the quality of what you’re communicating will take precedence over the fancy ways you express yourself, but try not to separate the two in your mind. To console yourself with the fact that your ideas were good even if the form you used was only passable, or that your ideas may have been fairly mid-range but your style should cover it up is to ignore the point of creative writing in this context. What you say and how you say it are closely connected, and you should not think of them as two entirely unrelated components of the task for you to unpack. Thus, instead of viewing the form of poetry as a hindrance or a detractor from what you are trying to get across, you can harness your choice of sub-genre and structure to your advantage, using both major and minor facets of the style in order to explore your ideas. The first step to reaching this level of proficiency with poetic writing is to understand the requirements of the form, and which of the many variants will best suit your intentions. Only after you have established this understanding can you then begin to put your skills into practice and respond to the task in full. Verse and meter The construction of verse and the style or metre you choose will form the backbone of your piece as a whole, so it’s important to put some thought into how you are going to build your poem to make it as strong as possible for your actual content. There is a wide array of potential forms that you may choose to practise, and simply googling ‘types of poems’ will reveal a veritable list of complex forms. However, here we shall focus on just a few of the most common options. Copyright © 2022 InStudent Publishing Pty. Ltd.

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3.6.1

Genre options

3.6 Genre options

The first and seemingly easiest type is ‘free verse’ which does not adhere to any strict metre and instead resembles the flow of natural speech. On the one hand, this is a great default option that allows you to focus almost solely on your content without getting tangled up in how many syllables you’re writing per line, or whether or not you’ve got the stress patterns right. But on the other hand, because free verse is so open-ended and unconstrained, the lack of form can actually draw attention to any weaknesses in your writing. That is not to say that other forms will allow you to mask your struggles, but they are more likely to help you combat them, whereas free verse offers very little by way of opportunity to impress your assessors with your writing ability unless your word choices and flow are consistently strong. For many students, this unconfined mode of poetry suits both their thinking and their writing, and free verse can be an incredibly effective form when used appropriately, but it is worth researching examples of free verse poetry to observe how there is still a rhythm and an expressiveness that has been composed, and hasn’t just been a by-product of writing a whole paragraph and breaking it up into lines and stanzas.

Chapter 3 – Module C: The Craft of Writing

If you wanted to attempt a different form though, you would need to show an awareness for things like syllable patterning and emphasis. Having a form based around the number of syllables or ‘beats’ per line can be a fairly accessible way to give your piece a more restrictive framework, and there are countless examples of the many different kinds of poems you can write based on your cadence. You can also get creative with your use of stress, which will mainly come through your choice of words but can also be an added feature of your writing. Most words come laden with a natural stress pattern that helps us to distinguish important information when spoken. Compare the following two sentences: He didn’t hand in his homework – he’s such a rebel! I felt the sudden urge to rebel against my parents. In the first instance, the word ‘rebel’ has more emphasis placed on the first syllable, so it sounds like you are saying ‘REBel.’ By contrast, in the second sentence, the stress has shifted to the second syllable, giving us ‘reBEL’ since it is a verb in this case, and not a noun. The reason for the stress change is unimportant, so long as you are able to read sentences like these and pick up on which words or syllables would be emphasised or stressed, and which would be unstressed. The speaker’s voice One thing that will be necessary regardless of your choice in style, though, is the voice of your speaker or speakers. Although it’s not a requirement to construct a series of characters if you are writing a poem, your piece will still need to showcase an awareness of writerly voice and register. If you do find it easier to construct characters or adopt the voice of a specific person, then you will need to ensure your poem can adequately capture that voice in a believable way. For instance, a poem that is spoken from the perspective of a young teenager coming to terms with a hardship he is facing should choose words and techniques to suit that mindset. Likewise, if you were writing a very affectionate and optimistic piece from someone who was looking ahead to their future, the style of writing should be quite distinct from another poem that was attacking societal values in a very political or polemic way. This is where an understanding of different tones and how to construct them can be a valuable skillset. Being able to distinguish between the kinds of moods or atmospheres that poems can create will help you choose and develop ones that suit your subject matter, so you should have the ability to differentiate, say, a poem that is extolling the beauty of the natural world from one that is written by someone aggressively attacking a friend and blaming them for some kind of predicament. Anyone with basic reading comprehension skills could tell that they were different, but what is it that makes them different beyond the topics they are discussing? What kind of language has been used? What kind of rhythm, flow, or atmosphere is the author establishing? Why might a certain style have been chosen, and how is this contributing to the overall meaning? And what kind of ‘voice’ is the speaker using? Do they sound like a scorned lover lamenting on their past indiscretions, or do they sound like a conscience-stricken soldier who has had to confront the depths of human depravity in a warzone? These kinds of questions may seem like they have very straightforward answers, but contemplating how best you can mimic or adopt a believable voice for your poems can lead to noticeably more sophisticated writing, particularly if you can overtly demonstrate an awareness of how and why your chosen voice suits the ideas you are presenting. 58

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3.6 Genre options

Linearity and stanzas At last, we can start to think about the overall construction and composition of your piece. The collection of stanzas (which are essentially the ‘paragraphs’ of poetry) and the order of your ideas are also an important part of this writing task, so some planning may be necessary if you are attempting this under time constraints. However, you don’t necessarily have to present your material in a strictly chronological manner. Instead, you might find it helpful to deliberately alter the order and create a more non-linear piece. This would enable you to jump back and forth between different time periods or perspectives, or to do what’s known as interpolation whereby you interrupt the flow of one part of the story and cut to a different one. For instance, you might be exploring the life of someone who believes they are alone or unloved, but then interpolate your piece with snippets of other people’s perspectives that explore what a treasured and important effect your protagonist had on their lives. Sometimes a linear story can be sufficient in expressing your ideas, and changing the order just for the sake of doing so may come across as somewhat foolish or distracting, but you should feel free to experiment with different ways of combining elements of your writing by altering the order of stanzas or forcing yourself to begin in the middle of the plot and then work your way back through memories and flashbacks. Even something as simple as commencing your piece from a different time or perspective can help add to the overall impression the assessors get of your writing ability, so don’t neglect the bigger picture when writing pieces in this genre.

Another very important technique in your construction of poetry is the role of repetition, which is a vital and incredibly easy way to express meaning. Repetition simply involves repeating a word, phrase, sound, symbol, or idea, though when and how you repeat such things is where this gets a bit more challenging. Basic repetition will just occur once or twice throughout the piece, and thus will take on a fairly smallscale level of importance. You might have your speaker make the same remark twice, but about different things, which might imply a similarity between those ideas, or a failure on your speaker’s part to be able to distinguish them. This kind of repetition is still valuable, but this is easy enough to accomplish without much forethought, so if you really want to showcase your skills, you should endeavour to incorporate a more complex kind of repetition. For instance, you might have a line or series of lines that recur throughout your piece, but allow you to change the context each time. Alternatively, you could have a component of your poem that repeats, but undergoes slight variations that facilitate different ideas. You could also try your hand at bookending whereby you begin and end your piece, or perhaps even each stanza, the same way. Thus, the bulk of your piece, or of each stanza, is like a collection of books with a device at either end that holds them together and functions as a kind of mirror between the opening and closing. Another similar technique is to introduce some reincorporation in your poem, which functions in much the same way as bookending, only it can occur anywhere in your writing as opposed to just the start and end of a section. This might be a collection of words or repeated phrases, but it can also occur in more subtle forms, like using the same colour to characterise related imagery, or even using a recurrent structural feature such as an internal rhyme or a kind of personification. Essentially, anything that you repeat over the course of your poem can be meaningful, and is likely to enhance the cohesiveness of your piece as a whole, so pay attention to your use of repetition.

3.6.2

Letters

By way of an alternative genre of writing, you may also wish to familiarise yourself with letter writing as a mode of expressing your ideas. This can be an ideal option for those who don’t consider themselves adequately creative enough to write a fully-fledged poem or short story, and beyond the general structure, there aren’t many complicated techniques or genre conventions to worry about. Having said that, you still want to stand out from the crowd if you are opting for a letter form, and it’s important to know what separates the mid-range kinds of pieces from the higher-range ones.

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The importance of repetition

3.6 Genre options

Formatting a letter Your primary concern with this method of writing should be your structure and formatting, which encompasses both the simple stuff like ensuring you have ‘Dear ____,’ at the beginning, as well as more complex issues like the order of your information and the topics you discuss throughout the letter. You may even choose to have your piece be comprised of a series of letters back and forth between different characters, or a collection of letters all addressed to the same person. Even the letter-writing genre can come in many different forms, but even if you opt for a piece with multiple perspectives, the same rules apply. Thus, in this section, we will be exploring the characteristics of effective letter writing, and how best to format your piece so as to maximise clarity and sophistication. Structure of information For starters, the order in which you present information or reveal details in your letter or letters can be surprisingly impactful on your overall ideas. If you think of things from an assessor’s perspective, you obviously want to avoid flooding them with a tsunami of material too soon and leave little for you to explore later. If, for instance, your letter spends its first paragraph performing an ‘exposition dump’ of the whole plot and essence of your focus, then the rest of the piece is going to seem incredibly unbalanced. Likewise, you shouldn’t withhold too much from your reader to the point where they’re halfway through the letter and they still aren’t sure who’s writing it and why. Chapter 3 – Module C: The Craft of Writing

As a brief aside, this kind of confusion or ‘reader displacement’ can actually be an intriguing way to add interest to your piece and shift an assessor’s expectation. For example, you could have a piece that maintains a very parental and authoritarian tone, and make your reader think that it is being written by a disappointed father to his son, when in fact, you reveal in the final moments of your piece that it was in fact the son writing to his father, and the son is the one who has had to take responsibility for the family unit by acting like the adult in that situation. Similar twists and subversions can be achieved by having a character write a letter to someone who is revealed to have passed away, or by having a character end their letter in a very ominous way by hinting at something which is inferred to be untrue (as in, having a character in a letter set in 1912 ponder when they will finally get to see their long-lost relative who is returning to New York aboard the infamously ‘unsinkable’ ship, The Titanic.) Just because a letter captures a snapshot of time, that does not mean you should restrict your plot or your characters to existing in a single moment; thinking about what they’ve experienced and what their futures hold can give a lot of dimension to your writing style. Hence, the aim of an effective and balanced letter should be to present the necessary information when it is needed, taking care not to overwhelm your assessor or risk them not understanding what you are talking about. Much like the other genres that have been explored in this guide, you may want to stray from the strictly linear plots and vary your piece by incorporating reflections of the past or contemplations of the future, but you have to ensure your reader doesn’t get lost along the way. So long as your piece seems controlled and well-paced, it should be fairly accessible for the person marking your work, so showing an awareness of flow and information structure can be an immense help if you often struggle with clarity or precision in writing tasks. Opening and closing with impact Having discussed the general structure and overall formatting of your letter, you can now begin to brainstorm ways of opening and closing your piece, as these two components are valuable opportunities to make a good first and last impression on your assessor. Once the formalities like the date or address have been given, how should you begin? Well, that is going to depend on who is writing the letter, and what their purpose is for doing so. A very professional piece concerning serious or official issues will obviously maintain a strict sense of decorum by using language like ‘to whom it may concern,’ whereas a passionate appeal for a loved one to change their mind about something will obviously employ a much more personal tone and vocabulary. In your opening, you should aim to communicate your character’s reason for writing the letter, and perhaps try to establish their frame of mind too. More detail can be added later, of course, but the sooner you can set the foundations of understanding for your assessor, the sooner they can piece together the details of your work.

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3.6 Genre options

Therefore, if you open the piece with a series of memorised niceties about the weather or a very generalised topic, it will be very difficult to transition into the more complex ideas later, so you want the tone and the focus of your introduction to be connected to your overall intention. This will enable you to have a very holistic piece, and the cohesion will have a positive impact on its believability, which will be addressed in more detail later. Suffice it to say that these openings will set the mood for the duration of your piece, and whilst it is possible to alter this through use of plot twists and surprise revelations of unexpected details, the general content should still flow on from your original opening. Your conclusion, therefore, is equally important because it is your last chance to tie up any loose threads, and then end with impact by leaving your assessor with a meaningful phrase or highly emotional sentiment that conveys the power of your writing. Again, you will have to include the requisite details like ‘Lots of love, from ____’ or ‘Respectfully yours, ____’ in the final lines, but the way you conclude your letter in the sentences leading up to this point is very important. Think about the kind of impression your character would want to leave on the person reading the letter. Is this an emotional plea? Is it designed to inform and instruct? Or is it designed to elicit outrage and bring about a change? Implementing lots of rhetorical techniques and poignant language is a good idea here, and it’s okay if your ending takes a while to get right. In fact, it’s often advantageous to plan your conclusion ahead of time so that you can end on a high note. Voice and believability

11/04/2018 Dear Lindsay, I’ve been thinking a lot about the nature of humanity lately, and I think it can have both positive and negative consequences... ...then you won’t be achieving any kind of believability at all. No one writes a letter like this in the real world, and we’re not getting the sense that Lindsay or the letter writer are real people, but instead are just constructs being used by a Year 12 HSC English student to write a creative piece. Therefore, a balance must be struck between writing a piece that is clearly exploring the ideas in the stimulus material, and one which maintains a consistently believable voice from the character writing the piece. This kind of challenge isn’t unique to letter writing, but this is the form where neglecting to strike this balance creates the clumsiest results. Obviously you can’t tip the balance and compose a piece that is an incredibly entertaining and well-written letter, but has nothing to do with the nature of the task, but you also need to ensure that you aren’t just using your characters as mouthpieces and soundboards with no depth or purpose. Luckily, this problem can easily be circumvented with appropriate planning; even doing something as simple as writing down the reason for one character writing to another can be sufficient to reinstate the balance to an otherwise clunky and unrealistic piece. Moreover, try to remind yourself of this purpose often so as to prevent entire sections of your piece from becoming less believable. If your letter fluctuates from being from the perspective of the character to a messy attempt to discuss the core ideas without context, then the believability you’re achieving in those small sections isn’t going to seem quite so effective. Voice is something which needs to be established over the course of a whole body or writing; it’s not the kind of thing you can fake by simply slotting in a few sentences here and there. Consistency is key, so if necessary, draw up a brief overview of the ideas you want to convey, which can be used as a reference point throughout your piece.

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Aside from the construction and arrangement of details within your letter, you should also give some consideration to your character’s voice, and to the believability of your piece. What this means is that you cannot score well with a ‘letter’ that is essentially functioning as an essay with ‘Dear ____,’ and ‘From ____’ at the start and end of it. For example, if your task is to write a letter that discusses the human experience, and you begin as such:

3.6 Genre options

3.6.3

Plays

Another potential text type is a play script, which can be somewhat challenging if you are unfamiliar with the conventions and strategies associated with writing in this genre. It can help to think of a play as being very similar to a short story, in that there is a similar emphasis on plot and character development, but the mode of expressing information in this form is quite different. Where a short story has the advantage of narration at its disposal, plays are written almost exclusively with dialogue, so you cannot step outside the characters and comment on their state of mind or their motivations; you must instead attempt to show these things through their words and actions. That said, there are ways to implement subtler and more descriptive elements in your play by using stage directions to highlight visual or auditory details, which will be explained later, but the majority of communication in this genre comes down to the characters you create. Conventions of theatre

Chapter 3 – Module C: The Craft of Writing

In general, plays tend to be fairly formulaic in their construction with the actual writing largely consisting of the character’s names on the left side of the page, and their dialogue or the stage directions indicating their gestures and movements matching up on the right. If you have many characters who are conversing rapidly, then you may have to change characters every line or two, but you may also choose to have moments where a single character speaks at length, during which other characters may or may not be present. If they are, it can be helpful to throw in a few stage directions for them in order to hint at how they are responding to what the others are doing, but if no one else is present, then the speech takes the form of a soliloquy where the character is able to reflect on their thoughts and communicate their musings to the audience. This can be a very easy way of overtly expressing the internal worlds and intentions of your characters, but should not be overused, as playwriting must still conform to the notion of showing the audience what is important rather than telling them that it is so. Scenes and transitions Typically, plays will be divided up into a number of acts or scenes, but since you aren’t required to write a needlessly long piece, you may instead find it simpler to write a single scene, or even just a few short ones instead. Whatever you choose, it is essential that you think about the transitions that will be occurring over the course of your piece. Is there a moment where one character enters or leaves the performance space? If so, how do they enter or leave? Where are they coming from? How do they behave? Furthermore, if you are moving from one scene to another, how might the environment change? What will the characters be doing at the end of one scene and the beginning of the next? What kinds of details might signify a transition? Do all the characters suddenly become still? Do the lights dim? Does the music or background noise change? You may only choose to focus on a few of these kinds of details, but they can still be significant factors in your assessor’s evaluation of your piece. Stage directions In order to communicate this information then, you will need to make use of stage directions – a convention unique to plays as a genre. These tend to be written as italicised additions to the script, but you can set them apart with brackets or a different alignment (ie. having the stage directions begin in the centre instead of on the left hand side of the page) in written pieces. These directions are a bridge between a playwright and the actors, and will give them some indication of things like tonal inflection, bodily movement, or their character’s values in general. Some directions can just be simple, single words (especially adverbs) inserted alongside characters’ dialogue like so: MARGARET: [sadly] But I don’t want to do my homework tonight! JONATHAN: [angrily] I don’t care! Go to your room! AMY: Jonathan! You shouldn’t be so cruel! [quietly] She’s had a bad day. This enables you do give some dimension to your characters, and allows you to communicate emotions that might otherwise be missed based on the words in isolation.

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3.6 Genre options

However, these directions can also be more complex, and you may have entire paragraphs that are explaining what is occurring on stage: JONATHAN enters through the front door, slamming it loudly as he does so. He shakes off his coat, looking frustrated, and throws it at the coat rack. He misses, but does not reach to pick it up from the floor. His shoulders slump and he flexes his hands as though trying not to form fists of anger, then stomps over to the dining room table. There is a plate of leftover dinner awaiting him, and he regards it with distaste. He sits down and leans back in his chair with his hands covering his eyes in an attempt to calm himself. He grits his teeth, then speaks suddenly after a few seconds of silence. JONATHAN: [loudly] Amy! Get in here and pick up my coat!

Considering the audience The final aspect of writing plays is the role of the audience, and the importance of visual and auditory details. What distinguishes a play from a short story is not just the amount of dialogue, but also the fact that a play is designed to be performed, and as such, cannot simply consist of two characters standing on stage talking at each other without reason or context. Your piece should still have some kind of plot, even if it is mostly introspective, and you should still show some awareness of the audience in your writing. For instance, how will you characterise the actors’ physical presence? What kind of clothing do they wear, and how do their voices sound? Again, much of this will be communicated through stage directions, but this is still necessary in order to create believable and complex characters. In terms of the production in general, where will your piece be set? What kind of notable set pieces, backdrops, or furniture might be used on stage? Are there any sound effects, like music or weather noises? The primary concern of your piece might be the exploration of your main characters, but that doesn’t mean you should neglect things like atmosphere and circumstance. Then, when you are able to combine these elements of form and style, you will be in a position to write an effective play or collection of scenes that will enable you to not only respond to the stimulus material, but also to unpack a variety of nuanced ideas through the conventions of the genre.

3.6.4

Short stories

The next text type that we’ll explore here is the short story, which can be a very good choice for those who don’t want to bother too much with genre conventions or background context. Short stories can take many forms, however. You may have an omniscient third person narrator who simply tells the story as it unfolds, or you may adopt the voice of a particular figure and explore things from their point of view (hereafter referred to as a POV narrative.) Or, in terms of structure, you may have a totally linear plot with a clearly demarcated beginning, middle, and end, or you might have a piece rife with temporal disjunction that jumps around between time periods, locations, or perspectives. This is probably the most liberal of the text types since the way you write a short story is far less regulated than the rules surrounding letters or speeches, so what follows is an overview of the fundamentals of story writing which will hopefully aid you in whatever kind of short story narrative you want to create.

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In this sense, stage directions can be essential for establishing the mood of a scene, particularly at the beginning of your piece, but are also useful ways of communicating characteristics and ideas that aren’t otherwise obvious through dialogue alone. Try not to depend on the stage directions to the point where you’re no longer conveying anything of value in the actual dialogue, but don’t be afraid to employ them if you feel some details warrant inclusion.

3.6 Genre options

Plot direction First of all, no story would be complete without a plot, so you will have to compose some kind of outline or at least have a general mental roadmap of the direction your story will take before you begin writing. And as the old saying goes, the journey is more important than the destination, so try not to just fixate on where you want to end your piece – even though the ending is vitally important, but more on that later – and instead try to develop a few reference points in the form of major events or realisations. It is possible, particularly if you are partial to the POV narratives, for your piece to seem like it isn’t very plot-driven, and that’s absolutely fine. The more reflective your writing style is, the less dependent you will be on tangible occurrences and complications. Rather, you will instead be focussing on a character’s internal meditations, which might be based on their own lives and experiences, or perhaps touching on bigger, more global or even philosophical questions and concerns. Irrespective of your preferences, the strategies explored here can be of use for any kind or combination of methods, and experimenting with different ones may help you to unlock even better ways of approaching the task. The Three Act Structure

Chapter 3 – Module C: The Craft of Writing

Those of you familiar with studies of literary and film plots may be familiar with the idea of a three act structure, which postulates that stories consist of three key parts: the orientation, the complication, and the resolution. The orientation is primarily devoted to exposition – who is part of this story, and what important things do we need to know about them? As has already been reiterated, you don’t want to overwhelm your reader with excessive amounts of details, so remember to withhold any information that doesn’t seem particularly pertinent. In fact, if you are adding descriptions of things like age, hair colour, or location that don’t seem especially relevant, you could even just cut them out of your piece entirely and focus on the kinds of exploration that will directly contribute to your mark. The orientation should also introduce a catalyst or question which will be explored over the course of the story. This is then carried into the second major component: the complication. Here, you will be pacing the plot in a way that creates a sense of rising action in order to characterise some kind of problem or obstacle that must be overcome. Finally, in the resolution, the plot is resolved – happily or otherwise – and you conclude by providing an answer to the question raised at the story’s beginning. Obviously this structure provides a fairly carefully delineated series of events which may suit your writing style, but you may also find it somewhat frustrating to stick with. The three act structure is a core principle behind many stories, long and short, but treating it like an inflexible guideline isn’t really the best way to approach the task. So instead of viewing this structure as the kind of form your piece should take, you can look at these key elements of a story and treat them as independent ingredients for you to vary and combine. The reason why this mode of storytelling is so well-known, though, is because it separates the information into an order which makes the most sense from a reader’s perspective. You cannot have a complication or a problem before first introducing who is involved and why something is problematic, just as you cannot resolve a problem before you’ve actually explained what it is. However, there are other varieties of plot outlines, like the five act structure which separates things into a prologue, a conflict, a climax, falling action, and then finally a denouement. Other authors and theorists have created different versions of this, and there are many other interpretations which may be worth researching if you feel you need a theoretical understanding of storylines before attempting to compose one yourself. Non-linear storylines Beyond these formalities, though, lies a world of possibility. Although a conventional story will begin with an introduction of who, what, when, where, and why, you’re writing at a higher level and therefore have the freedom to transpose or alter these core components of storytelling to suit your own purpose. Earlier in the section on forms of poetic verse, we talked about how your choice of structure and style can actually be used to express meaning and enhance the content of your writing, and the same can be said of short stories. If your protagonist is in a state of doubt or indecision, then perhaps your plot your transition between the past, present, and future in order to reflect this. Or, if you have a character who is haunted by something that happened in their childhood, then interspersing your narrative with flashbacks or memories can help augment the message you are trying to convey. 64

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3.6 Genre options

You may still wish to create a plot outline or even a storyboard of your narrative’s direction, especially if you intend to fragment it by transitioning back and forth. Alternatively, you might just swap the order of some information by beginning your piece in the middle of the complication. This technique (known as ‘in medias res’ if you wish to look up examples of this done well) allows you to quickly capture your reader’s attention before then backtracking to explain the details that are generally provided in the orientation. You shouldn’t feel as though you have to do something creative with the order of your plot if you don’t want to, and even if you are absolutely sure that you want to shake up the narrative style, it’s important that you do so for a good reason as opposed to one that inhibits clarity and the development of ideas. Nevertheless, because you have the opportunity to change the storyline in whichever way and to whatever extent you choose, you should at least consider modifying your narrative as a practice exercise to see whether or not it suits your style and ability. Hooks, bookends, and reincorporation Additionally, if you are looking for way to spice up your writing and make your stories more engaging, you could consider a form of creative beginnings or repetition to help make your piece stand out. For instance, you might begin with what’s known as a ‘hook,’ or a kind of intriguing starting point for your story designed to capture your reader’s attention. Consider the following opening sentences, and which would make you want to read further into each story:

Having read the first sentence, we aren’t really compelled to read on in order to discover the answer to a question like ‘why does Bill struggle with maths,’ or ‘how will he overcome this problem?’ But in the second example, instant interest is created in our desire to learn why this mysterious character had made such a simple error he knew to be wrong. Furthermore, the first opening is a fairly basic sentence, and so would make for a relatively poor opening in terms of demonstrating writing ability. Contrarily, the second sentence has already communicated to us a sense of Bill’s confusion or frustration, and hints at the regularity with which he must confront this weakness. To this end, a hook or creative opening can provide the necessary springboard for later development, and can even help to overcome that feeling of writer’s block when you don’t know where to begin. Another good strategy to combat this is to use the ‘in medias res’ technique of just jumping straight into the story and then explaining the necessary details afterwards. This can also make your writing more interesting, and allows you to capitalise on the reader’s momentary confusion as they’re thrown into an unfamiliar plot, and by the time they work out what’s going on, you’ve already caught their attention; they’ll have a series of questions to which they are seeking answers, and your story will know how to provide them in due course. A common addition to the idea of hooks and interesting openings is the notion of bookending, which was touched upon briefly in the earlier section on linearity in poems. For short stories, bookends – which involve some kind of similarity or repetition in the beginning and ending – is an extremely useful method of tying your piece together and providing the kind of cohesion and forethought that the assessors like to see. Much like with poetry, this bookend could take the form of a certain word or phrase, as well as subtler things like imagery and symbolism. Perhaps a character could start and end the story in the same location, or by posing the same question in a different context. You could even have this take the form of an action or gesture, like having them turn lights on or off, or changing their pace from walking to running and back again. Almost any facet of your writing can be turned into a bookend, so it’s important you pick one that is suitably meaningful for you to draw attention to.

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1. Bill had been struggling with maths at school ever since he was young. 2. He knew 4+8 didn’t equal 16... but he had written it yet again.

3.6 Genre options

In the event you do find bookending to be particularly useful or interesting, but you want to do it more often or at multiple points throughout your story, then you might benefit from giving reincorporation a try. This is virtually the same as bookending, but isn’t quite so restrictive in terms of when it takes place. For instance, you might bring up a metaphor halfway through your piece and then revisit that in your final lines, or you could even have recurrent reincorporation where the same phrases or ideas are brought up constantly throughout the piece. This can be used to create many different effects; the reincorporation of something scary or threatening might make us think of it as something that has to be confronted because of how it dominates the story, whilst the reincorporation of a symbol of comfort and hope can help give even the bleakest story a more optimistic edge. Your priority here should be to make the story interesting in a way that is meaningful, and in a way that lets you display your writing ability in the best possible light.

3.6.5

Speeches

It is also possible for you to write a speech as part of your creative response. This is also a fairly accessible text type, but like all others, it requires familiarity with the style and an awareness of the most important elements in order to create the most efficacious piece you can. With speeches, the content is fairly selfevidence once the context and purpose have been established, so this section will mainly focus on these key components. Ultimately, the quality of your writing will still contribute to the mark, but this genre involves a much greater focus on the reasons for your speaker’s address as opposed to the internal order and composition of it. Chapter 3 – Module C: The Craft of Writing

Structuring a speech Structurally, the form of your speech will depend on its context and audience, and much like letter writing, the kinds of language you would use to address a group of politicians would be much different to that of a student speaking in front of a school assembly. As such, you need to tailor your openings and closings (again, much like the way we did in the section on letter writing) to suit the situation, though there will be more of an emphasis placed on the quality of your rhetoric here, in contrast to letter writing’s priorities of maintaining a character’s voice. That said, the voice with which you express the ideas in your speech is still important, and you may need to spend some time planning this persona and scenario before you then begin to articulate your points. This kind of consideration might seem like a distraction at first, but once you have this solid base on which to build your piece, it will be much quicker and easier to write what you need, since you will have already unpacked the most necessary details. The importance of context Perhaps the best starting point, then, is to ask yourself ‘why would this person be writing this speech?’ Or, more accurately, ‘why would this person be saying these things, and to whom would they be saying them?’ In order to answer this, you will evidently need to have a viable character or persona to give the speech. However, unlike short stories or plays where character development and characterisation are highly important features, the ‘character’ of your speech doesn’t need to be quite so detailed. In fact, it would be sufficient to just have a brief description of their occupation or status, and have that be all your reader knows. For instance, if your piece was talking about the concerns of young activists volunteering in warzones, your speaker might just be a member of an activist group who is addressing a volunteer’s conference. Contrarily, you might adopt the persona of an emergency room nurse who specialises in dealing with drug-related incidents and injuries, and is speaking at a local town meeting about why more needs to be done to combat illegal and dangerous drug use. These people don’t need extensive backstories, or even names; their position is more than adequate for the purpose of your piece. You may make further use of these characters by way of personal anecdotes or having sections written in the first person to draw attention to them, but ultimately, your speech should be concerned with big ideas more so than the individual(s) invested in them.

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Once you have constructed this framework for your voice, you should then think about the broader context of your speech. Who are the audience members, and what are they inclined to believe? Does the speaker want them to change their minds about something, or are they going a step further and trying to expedite some action? If so, what does the speaker want to happen, and how will their language reflect this? It is these questions which will form the overall intention of your speaker, and will therefore allow you to write from the perspective of a far more believable persona than you otherwise might have. It’s okay if you don’t have a fully explored pathway from a problem to a solution, particularly if your speech is dealing with an innately complicated or controversial issue, but showing an awareness of this context and incorporating it into your writing is a vital part of good speech writing. Contentions and purposes

As such, the purpose of your piece is something that should be extremely overt. Your assessor should be in no doubt as to what your speaker thinks and wants, especially since speeches tend to be more persuasive in nature, compared to the other styles we have been exploring thus far. You’ll also have ample opportunity to express this idea throughout your piece as well, since all of your speaker’s sub-arguments and talking points should be geared towards the same unifying intention. On the other hand, you don’t want to have a piece that’s solely focused on purpose at the expense of your contention, as you’ll end up forfeiting the marks pertaining to the relevance and appropriateness of your piece. It follows then that your contention is something that should be made evident too, but this should be done in a very different way to your inclusion of purpose. Your contention, by contrast, is something that should be shown throughout your speech through your ideas and arguments. You cannot have your speaker state your contention word-forword, no matter how tempting that may be. Instead, you need to have your speaker adopt a purpose which demonstrates your contention. From there, your speech simply work to maintain this synergy, and present it in a way that is clear and concise for your assessor. Here is an exemplar for a speech. This could take inspiration from Spotty-Handed Villainesses by Margaret Atwood, or the comparative study of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes in Module A: S AMPLE :

It could have been in the moment I realised that I’d be having a child and that there was a weighty significance regarding their gender that the state of this existence occurred to me. How bizarre, that it was only when I toyed with the idea of having a boy or a girl, and no longer just a baby, that my child no longer seemed to be just an ideal addition to my life? I’d like to assume that every child is born with malleable possibilities; so that grazed knees, moments of joy, toothless grins and messy tears can shape intricate facets of each little human. It is not so. I will tell you a hitherto untold story, ladies. My pregnant neighbour came tearing into my house in the stark loneliness of midday two years ago. She squealed through the kitchen and then gathered her spindly limbs into her arms in a small bundle as she cradled herself on my settee. “I’m going to give birth to a shark. Lois, I’m giving birth to a shark! He’ll circle around in the pond before deciding which fish he wants and he’ll pull her into the suburbs and watch her dehydrate. D’you see Lo? D’you see?” Then, of course, I did not see. As far as I knew, she was hopelessly neurotic! So I poured her some tea. After we sipped from mugs like timid goldfish for a polite half hour, my neighbour left. After that, she blushed a strawberry-marmelade red whenever we caught a brief look at each other as we tended to our own front gardens.

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The other important dynamic in speech writing is similar to the aforementioned balance between the believability of your characters and context, and the clarity of the ideas you are expressing, but this concern is more specific to speech writing as a genre. If you want to fulfil the criteria for this dynamic, then it is critical you do not conflate your contention with your purpose. Your contention is what you, as a Year 12 HSC student, are attempting to communicate in response to the task, whereas your purpose is what your speaker wants to say in relation to the circumstances you create. Therefore, whilst you obviously need to ensure you have a strong contention that links your piece to the stimulus material and allows you to impart the breadth and depth of your understanding, you should think of this as a separate concern from your speaker’s focus.

3.6 Genre options

Now, of course, I do see. I was that fish, and my shark was a fervent patriot. He tipped off the authorities about suspected communists, he passionately defended the atomic bombing of Japan, and told me that “maternity is the patriotism of women.” A dream? I’m sure you’ve only whispered it to your own self in complete solitude that you know as well as I do. . . it is a nightmare. Did it happen to you too? Were you the anaemic little fish that my neighbour feared her son would devour? Were you heroically whisked to the suburbs to build a masterful house with a Chevrolet Corvette in the driveway? I was only a few short months into my pregnancy when I began experiencing doubts similar to my neighbour’s. Was I giving birth to a silenced artist, who would squeeze next to me in this cage as we stare at the canvas in sight, but tantalisingly out of reach? Or would I give birth to a possibly not so adroit painter, who will clutch a royal palette in one hand and guard an array of the superior quality canvases in the other? I’m certain that you all could trust me when I say that I tried painting the cage. I tried decorating it Mamie pink. I pinned up the recipes to my husband’s favourite meals. I filled it with the smell of fresh brownies. No escape from my discomfort revealed itself.

Chapter 3 – Module C: The Craft of Writing

My neighbour’s provocative ideas now fuelled my own queries and I could not find answers until I stepped outside. To clarify, I do not mean outside onto the prim lawn with a white-washed mail box. I mean outside my marriage, the suburbs, and the usual way of thinking. I can tell you that now I am breathing fresh air. It was, at first, invasive and confronting to my thoughts. This oxygen suffocates the Electra complex in you. It is intense and at first challenging, to breathe with such clarity. But I tell you, I was getting buried alive in the suburbs, in my house, with a modern living area and a portable barbecue and a handsome husband and the promise of a pleasant child. I now understand that asking “Is this all?” is not a shameful problem secretly rooted within the crevices of my mind. Our society would shame us for our failure comply with the suburban ideal. Now I call on you to join me in shaming a society that tightens such a suffocating noose around its women. Allow me to tell you, that our problem has a taboo name. I dare not say it in an environment as public as this, for the pitiful fear of having noses turned to the sky and watching those of you that acquiesce to your husbands pack up your pretty little purses and walk on. Betty Friedan’s ‘The Feminine Mystique’ – a great read ladies – is the collective backbone of evidence for our plights. The death of the icon of femininity, Marilyn Monroe, sent ripples of reactions through the nation last year. The death of an also outwardly sparkling female, the late Sylvia Plath, revealed the crackling rage that burned within her. What a cursed tragedy – that two of our feminine icons elected death over life in this society. I was done with dating the duster and flirting with the cleaning cupboard. I was going to give birth to a child. A child with very specific anatomy that would dictate splendour, gallant decorum, and choices, or a keyless cage, an apron, and “hopefully” a wedding band in the future. I suppose, in a way, I’m here to try to galvanise you, ladies. I want you to see the fresh air through the damp soil being heaved on top of you! I want you to see that it is tangible, enlightening, and I can assure you, there is more to your day than loitering in a spotless house! This is much more than an ephemeral thrill. Unfortunately, it is not unusual for women like ourselves to lay on a chaise lounge in a sterile office and be told by a male psychiatrist that we are suffering a transient stage of dissatisfaction with the life that women of other lands dream of. “The brief unhappiness will flee soon.” If I may be so audacious, for this unhappiness to flee, you have to enhance yourselves ideologically and environmentally. Just as our little gendered children are products of their environment, we are too the hybrids of society. Experiencing environments of differing liberties, values, and incendiary ideas will not drown you in a bottomless tank. Rather, it will free you into an ocean where you can swim freely.

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The taboo nature of women’s issues – menstruation, sexual frigidity, depression post-childbirth and menopausal crises – are persisting problems in our America. Passivity and subjugation to the ardent patriarchs that women have been bound to by a wedding band for years is no longer a fit societal structure for our America! I’m calling for the funeral of the Traditional Housewife! It will go down in history something like this... We painfully remember the familiar figure to billions of people in every outpost of the world. She will be buried alongside Submission and Silence. The Traditional Housewife will be regretfully recalled as a muted human, a spineless submitter and a skilled prisoner. Brutally, there is not a lot else to say for her tedious life. Fortunately, the Traditional Housewife bequeathed a generous gift to her successors! Burning strength, confident sexuality and insightful education are consigned to her heirs. The growing body of evidence screams for us to realise that women everywhere are silently cursing their place. No longer, can we pretend that our ears are deaf, when there is a desperate roar for so much more! Now ladies, let’s all meet for tea tomorrow morning and dutifully chew over the outrageous price of bananas and the utter dullness of the weather lately. I’d love to hear how you are all nurturing your herbs in this heat.

Essays

In past creative sections, students that did not feel writing in a conventionally creative fashion were encouraged to write a feature article. However, the new module specifies that students must incorporate what they have learned from their prescribed texts in their writing. As there are no feature articles provided, writing in such a format may see you fall short of the module’s requirements. Fortunately, writing an essay is an alternative allowed by this new syllabus – you may still incorporate the style and techniques exemplified by the prescribed text, whilst avoiding writing a narrative. As demonstrated by the anecdotal style of the prescribed texts, essays are a brilliant form to use if you would like to critically reflect on your own experiences. Whilst these same experiences could easily inform a narrative too, an essay may be a better option if you are not confident in translating that experience into metaphor, symbolism, and other conventional tropes. Essays allow you to explicitly integrate and interrogate philosophical, historical, or scientific ideas that you’ve come across in other subjects. The main aim of this text type is to explore an idea with your audience. In some senses, an essay written down in the exam room is very similar to a speech. This is because they are both essentially discussions with an audience. Where an essay departs from a speech, however, is in its use of language. Essays commonly still employ complex vocabulary, may adopt a hybrid form, and do not have to directly engage with their audience as frequently as a speech. Therefore, if you are tossing up between the two text types, think about the sort content that you want to talk about. Complicated ideas and large anecdotal references are probably more suited to an essay format, where you need not worry about losing your audience.

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3.6.6

3.6 Genre options

Structuring an introduction Writing an essay in Module C is different to writing an essay in other modules. Though there is still a general thesis and arguments, the proof and analysis used in the essay is entirely different. Here is how you set our an essay, if you wished to write in this format: Hook

The first line of your essay needs to draw your audience into your topic. This can be achieved through rhetorical question, imagery, hyperbole, or through a personal anecdote. It can be quite hard to write these before you’ve figured out the content of your essay. Therefore, it can be a good idea to write the majority of your piece before you decide on a hook. Your hook can be anywhere from a sentence to a paragraph long.

Introduce the topic

Clearly introduce your topic so as not to confuse your marker. This doesn’t mean giving your whole speech away. Instead, give an overview to the issue at hand. This might include explaining why you’ve chosen this topic to talk about or giving a brief run down of the context informing it.

Chapter 3 – Module C: The Craft of Writing

Outline your arguments Lead into your essay

Explain how you’re going to explore your argument. Have a sentence or two moving into the first paragraph, in order to create flow.

Body paragraphs In an analytical essay, there is a distinct separation between each paragraph. In a creative essay, paragraphs should flow together. Though you ideally want to have one idea in each paragraph, each paragraph should flow into the next. This will make the development of your argument appear effortless, and also, ensure that there are logical links between the ideas that you are discussing. Think about your idea as a crescendo, or as a snowball gathering speed and size as it rolls down the hill:

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3.6 Genre options

3.6.7

Hybrids

Of course, you can also use a mix of forms within your creative piece, as in the following example. This exemplar was written by Emily in her own HSC, and from the new prescribed texts, can find parallels in the comparative study of Keats and Bright Star, Gwen Hardwood’s Father and Child, and Orwell’s Politics of the English Language. S AMPLE :

29th September, 1811 Oh Journal, Such a melancholy has greeted me today! I scowl at the sun piercing through my thin words, stitching together some pathetic memory of the previous nightfall. And most of all, I detest that I cannot write of it sincerely! All I can think of are phrases that describe it as being like this, or like that, which does not grant dusk – what a detestable word – any of its divinity or grandeur. What did those great men say when they first thought their thoughts? What did they grasp to translate this knowledge to ink, so that we may use them for our own experiences?

’You needn’t read the lines and scribbles. Follow mine,’ he encouraged, positioning his fingers across the ivory keys. A sheer yellow crept through the curtains, not yet weak enough for the want of candlelight. Obeying, she placed hers on his own as her feet swung from the squeaking, oaken stool. Steadily, he shifted the weight of one finger down upon the key, cleaning the tone as if it were captive to the dust cloaking the heirloom. Hers, falling slightly in reply. A faint note. Tilting her focus from their hands, she beams up into his eyes. They greet her own, quietly. Thankfully. 3rd October, 1811 Dearest Journal, I have presided to wait by these windowpanes, if only to long to be outside them. Writing now, in the perishing hours of the afternoon, I rest my head upon its flaking, painted frames and anticipate the fading hue to pre-empt the play once again. I never thought to rise before Father in the morn, but now I am compelled to wake in darkness. From my quilts, I can observe the frames of dawn as she slowly rises. Then in the evening, if I clamber to atop the piano, I can view the curtain call. Never before have I had I truly looked when preoccupied by the riddles of keys to please the will of Father. I resent my imagination, bound by only my common experience. What must it feel like? Perhaps it is sharp, as the colours erupting from the horizon. Would it smell of all the wildflowers now closing asleep? Or, silence. Stillness. No different to the house that surrounds me here. Though light struggles through the glass pane, I cannot know it’s entire reality. How I long for beyond it! I have begged, pleaded of father to accompany me outside. We needn’t be out long, if he is so worried about developing a chill, and if only once would be enough. He replies with a new piece to practice, always. What I always thought was their song is false, as their notes are as hollow as my words. There is a greater refrain, Journal. Caught in the shafts of light briefly beheld before twilight. But to hear the fragile melody as it catches, teetering on a major chord as so to sweetly descend into the shadows of the outer room and the hushed passions of their conversation. “Truth has always been found to promote the best interests of mankind” – William, he writes of the very reason needed to liberate your doubts. No matter if Shelley truly has been expelled from the school? How many times previous have

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Dear journal, I fear that I may be the only witness! For I, provoked only to its discovery by the chance disruption of a fading sun beam upon my waning book, have been blind to its subtle, transforming beauty. I trace my earlier accounts only to scorn my prior feeble descriptions of simple character or ideas of narrative – for they were lies, all lies. I have learned from Rousseau through the mouth of my Father and now I am chained by his words. Is it better to give of myself to a mystery, than to perplex it in my clumsy sentences?

3.6 Genre options

they cast off genius to protect their creeds and status?’. Her sweet song sweeps around the their frigid silence, as if to quell the anxious blasphemy, to remain cordial, complicit. The older man presses his fingers to his temples, and turns from his friends desperate glare. Lurching undertones cajole with the feeble, hollow harping of her slender fingers as he places a hand on her shoulder before reaching for his coat. ‘She is very talented Otto. You would be best to find solace in her music, than these fleeting passions that torment so many of you young men.’ He kisses the top of her head, and bids farewell to his muted counterpart. Rolling over the motions of practices past, no thought, nor sound, nor feeling may enter her periphery as she soothes the brine. A breath out. A stanza repeated. Departing, eyes wilfully clenched, he intertwines and strides with her elegy. Dearest Wife, Here she must remain, if I am to contain but a shadow of you. No fire spits in the hearth and I am welcomed by the scruff of my own heels as of late. I am reminded of those first following days, yet am not even distracted the shrill demand of the cradle, trapping my overleaping conscience in the basic needs of our babe. Instead, we are solitary. She sprawls atop the piano to reach the small pane, unwavering from her station to meet the coming evening. Not I. Chapter 3 – Module C: The Craft of Writing

I recall within the decorum of arching buttresses and frivolous, flouting melodies, the flattery of a girl. Perhaps her age. Teasing a suitor’s smile, peering up as if her were the same window pane that so fascinates her now. And as he bends to whisper some fancy in her ear, the intricate silk, so carefully pinned and pressed to make a mockery of her budding form, disappeared. A stark, crimson stain bruised her freckled cheek and she gazes into her hopeful escape, hidden within an evening coat. I assumed that look lost until that frigid evening, where again I leant my coat to safety. She fixates, her eyes clinging to the night as if to stop her fragile body slumping to the ground. You are still here, my love. And I remember you too, exploring late hours at the table I now occupy. Though I must not grant her the same escape. I cannot give my girl, yet again, and I refuse to cling to parchment in order to retain her voice as I must for you. Is it not better to be in mad pursuit, than to be sated and killed in the pinnacle of ecstasy? To mourn, only the memory, of the brief escape beyond the windowpane? If reason deems us temporary, and if I place my signature alongside the unnamed atheist, then I cannot give her to the light beyond glass. Yours only, Otto 5th of October, 1811 Journal, Some shiver must have resided in me, as a found his coat draped over my shoulders and was heaved from the crisp night sky by that of stark smoke and candlelight. Though he did not so much greet me before leaving the room, my vigil had ceased. Sliding my arms through the silken lining, the weight of his watch hung from the pocket and slid from my perch. Wishing to inspect the intricate piece as I did when much younger, I discovered instead rough parchment clinging to the walls of the pocket. It was small. And when I opened it, the wrinkles of years passed sectioned the scrawling into rough squares. I endeavoured to read: Each wisp of grass, each rolling rise absolved, knell to a greater darkness. Envelop entirely my skin, paint me in, see me as bare branches cloaked by night. Roots, they collude dark conspiracies. Veins,

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3.7 School assessment

they drink stars as humus. And some, ethereal enigma is locked close know, in the heart of the earth. I reach up for them, though they will not reach back. Never had I read something of my own language, yet not of my cursive. Never have words harmonised with my own experience, as they did here. I kept Father’s coat for the remainder of the night, so that I could transfer the words to the pages of this here, dear journal. What of the testaments of great scholars? Of pages bound in books, rather than scrawling that evokes the mystery of nightfall, the captures the freedom that I have been seeking? I returned the coat separately to the parchment and Father’s gaze stood stricken at its appearance. He did not move as I returned to our sanctuary, journal. Though, surely he has read the verse before, belonging to his pocket? It doesn’t matter. The house is silent, still. And I am alive in the promise of experience.

3.7

School assessment

The new Assessment and Reporting Criteria specifies that you must have at least one in school assessment task for the Craft of Writing, worth at least 25%. Such a task needs to:

Therefore, you will never be asked to write an assessable essay on the texts you study for Module C. Instead, the report criteria that you will be working towards will most probably be asking you to incorporate the strengths of the texts you’ve studied into your piece. They also may ask you to use it as inspiration, to use a main character, to write in the specific style of the text, or to focus on key ideas that you’ve covered. Module C can also be assessed at any time of the year. This is because the unit asks you to take into consideration all texts that you’ve studied during the HSC. For this reason, the Sample Assessment provided by NESA appears to cover both the common module (Texts and Human Experiences), as well as the Craft of Writing. It asks you to write your own imaginative text on key themes of the prescribed text, and then present a speech that analyses how you’ve represented such themes. This tells you three important things: 1. You have to be aware of the particular type of assessment that you have coming up. At the beginning of the year, your teacher should give you brief outline of the time and type of assessments you’ll be given. Pinpoint exactly which ones will require you to undertake creative writing, and make a note of what modules they are supposed to be covering. When you begin studying this module, keep a journal of ideas and features of the text that you could use in a creative context. Take note of what you think is working well in the text, and points that you find intriguing. Doing so will give you adequate time to prepare for the upcoming task. Remember, writing imaginatively requires a lot more time than a normal essay. You should be constantly building upon, challenging, and reconsidering your ideas to come up with an insightful, original piece. 2. You must pay as much attention to your creative piece as a normal essay. Under the previous syllabus, creative writing was rarely assessed in school, and wasn’t worth as much. Now, the way you perform in your creative can make or break your ranking – 25% is a big deal! Needless to say, a good piece is not written the night before it is due. Instead, it needs to be a gradual process. This is where something like a journal that you keep throughout the year could come in handy. Drawing up a countdown to when your assessment task is due can also give you plenty of time to refine your piece over time. 3. Practise, practise, practise! Much like the essays that you hand in to your teacher throughout the year, you should be handing in regular drafts of your creative piece to your teacher. Even if you don’t have a task due soon, having a creative written, revised, and ready to go will save you a heap of time when the due date does eventually roll around. It also gives you the time to experiment with different forms and perspectives before you hand in something that will affect your ranking. This way, you can find what works best for you and your characters.

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• Demonstrate knowledge, understanding and skills in creative writing for a range of purposes, audiences and contexts. • Be written in forms other than an analytical or critical response to literature.

3.8 In the exam

3.8

In the exam

To achieve a Band 6 in the exam, the syllabus states that students must “compose imaginatively, interpretively, critically, and reflectively with sustained precision, flair, originality, and sophistication for a variety of audiences, purposes, and contexts in order to explore and communicate ideas, information, and values.” The underlined words above are the ones that are exclusive to the Band 6 criteria. Accordingly, this means the markers are looking for a response that: • Interprets the question originally without sacrificing complexity, characterisation, and insight • Sustains a personal voice and interpretation for the entirety of the piece • Reads fluently and effortlessly, making use of language techniques to explore the intricacies of the provided question This means that you have to practise adapting your piece to different stimuli and questions. Doing so may be pretty hard considering there aren’t many practice exams available yet, but to make up for this, there is no reason why you can’t create your own. Take a quote from the internet that relates to one of your prescribed texts. Then, adapt your creative around it as if it were a stimulus for a question. Write your creative as if one of the protagonists from your prescribed texts was a main character in your own piece. Use a setting from your prescribed text as the setting of your own piece. Doing so will help you discover the inflexibilities of your piece, and remedy them accordingly. Chapter 3 – Module C: The Craft of Writing

However, the new exam format also means that you have to be able to explain how you’ve interpreted the question as well. This is because the Module C question may be split into two parts. Whilst Part A is a regular creative question, Part B asks you to reflect on and explain the way that you’ve crafted your text to answer the question. This is why it is critically important to practise adapting your piece. In doing so, you are familiarising yourself with the techniques you like to use, the ways in which your text can bend, and the shifting influences on your piece. Part A 1. Pinpoint exactly what the stimulus is asking you to do. If it asks you to use it as the first line of your creative piece, as a piece of dialogue within your piece, as an overarching message of your story, or whatever the case may be, you have to do what it says! Identify this first so you can adapt your piece accordingly. 2. Identify the key ideas in the stimulus. If they have given you a quote or an extract, analyse it and find the important ideas it is hinting at. Another way to do this is to first think of ideas that are evident in your creative piece, and then try to find them within the stimulus (though don’t try to force connections where they don’t belong!) If the stimulus specifies a key idea that you must address, think about whether it is already present in your piece. Alternatively, think about where you could make it fit. Write down the particular moments or sections where you want to embed this idea. 3. Look at Part B. This second section will ask you to talk about how you’ve adapted your creative to answer the question. Thus, you should be conscious of this while you are responding to Part A. Make a note of what exactly (e.g. stylistic feature, literary device, character, setting, etc.) it wants you to talk about, and consider this before you start writing for Part A. 4. Write! Keep an eye on the clock, particularly if you are answering a question that has two parts. If it doesn’t, you probably don’t want to spend more than 25 minutes writing your creative. Part B 1. Underline everything in the question that you must address. According to the sample exams, these questions can be quite loaded. Make sure you are aware of everything you must cover in order to maximise your mark. 2. Think back to the ‘mini essay’ in Paper One’s short answer. As this is allocated a similar amount of marks, it is also best to structure your answer to Part B in a similar way. You can find these instructions and a sample structure on page 26. Make sure you allocate specific parts of the question to each one of your short paragraphs.

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Part IV

Study Tips

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How to study for English

Chapter 1

How to study for English 1.1

How I studied for English Advanced (Emily)

English was something that I studied for steadily throughout the year, but I would not say it was my main focus. I found that other subjects required more attention in terms of keeping on top of study notes and extra research, as they had a greater amount of content. However, this did not mean that I skipped reading texts. Seriously, if you want to do well in Advanced, you cannot get away with not reading your texts. Read them before you study them in class, and return to key sections as necessary throughout the year. Apart from that, here are other things I did with my study time. Readings

Chapter 1 – How to study for English

These are not so important for Texts and Human Experiences, but are quite important for your modules. These are papers written by academics on specific texts. They are fantastic for extra insight that you may not have time to cover in class, as well as detail on context. If you would like to adopt a specific lens in your essays (e.g. feminist, post-colonialist, etc.) these can be great for informing such an interpretation. I began extra readings once we had passed the introductory lessons in class, and had started to look at specific excerpts with our teacher. Going through the paper, I would handwrite key points, phrases, and words. Brilliant, succinct excerpts I would keep to use as potential quotes, making sure to note the author of the paper. I would also record words that I thought I could use in my own work. They weren’t read all at the same time either, but spread over the term. I found a quote I could use in my Module B essay three days before the exam! The point of this is not to overload yourself. These papers are usually quite lengthy and verbose, so it can be tiresome reading. Moreover, they are rarely written for HSC study. Thus, you have to search for exactly what benefits you within the work. Be picky! You don’t want to waste your time, and you don’t want to be sidetracked. Therefore, only move on from the paper once you understand it, but at the same time, only take what you need. You may also like to write an essay once you have finished a reading if you particularly like the perspective it offers. This will help you to remember this argument, without needing to make extensive notes. Study Guides Yes, I used them. Yes, I stole some of their quotes. Yes, I was worried that I would be using the same stock standard quotes as everyone else. To quash this fear, I made sure that I interpreted the quote differently to what the book provided. So, what was the point of even using them? I made the stupid mistake of not making notes as I read the text, meaning that I was short on quotes. This was not such a problem for poetry, but for my novel, I struggled to remember which scenes I found interesting. Not having time to re-read the text, I utilised various study guides. Tables After making the mistake above, I approached Module C (where I was studying another novel) differently. Not having covered the text comprehensively in class, I also studied it on my own. To do so, I deconstructed the syllabus and placed it in a table. These themes were further separated into themes. In these sections, I would place a quote, technique, and a short analysis in terms of the dot point. Each were colour coded. In doing this, I was assured that I had textual evidence for whatever the question threw at me. Though this did not give me a great appreciation of the text (as I knew it only in terms of the syllabus), it did keep me on path. Stretched for time left in the term, this worked well for me. As I used the same related text for the Common Module, I added my deeper understanding of this text to the table and eventually my essays. Before trials, and then again before my HSC, I reworked my English notes in this manner. This boosted my confidence, knowing that I was across all parts of the syllabus and therefore, could answer anything thrown at me. Making these notes in detail also helped me to remember my quotes – I found that afterwards, I could recall any of them as needed within my essays. 76

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1.1 How I studied for English Advanced (Emily)

Podcasts I listened to them whilst I was at work, walking to and from school and if I was too exhausted to write anything else. Podcasts were a highly convenient source of background reading for me. Through the BBC’s In our time podcast, I was able to listen to academics from the best universities in the UK evaluate the significance of Yeats, speak on the place of Shakespeare in modern day life, and argue the definition of ‘Romantic’. In many cases, a podcast was easier to follow then an academic paper, as those featured on the shows had to speak from the top of their heads. This cut most of the verbosity. I could also listen to a greater amount of podcasts in the time it would take to read one paper. As such, it was a useful way to cram contextual reading in between English lessons, and also helped me with contextual revision leading up to the exam. Without a doubt, it assisted the development of my personal voice. Listening to experts argue their point significantly increased my vocabulary, and gave me greater confidence in my own thesis when writing essays. Thinking about how a sentence would sound if it were spoken aloud tidied my essays, whilst assisting the flow from one point to the next. Practice Essays

Another benefit to practice essays is learning how much you need to write in order to fulfil the expected word limit. For myself, I knew that I needed around 10 exam pages to reach or just exceed the 1000 word expectation. I managed to source some old exam booklets from the school, and wrote all of my essays in this format until the HSC. I only thought of this because of the panic I experienced in my Trial, not having written on pages in that style before. Thus, in the exam room, I had no idea whether I had written too little or too much more a specific question. This was especially important in sections where I thought I had said all I wanted to say – yet there was ten minutes left in the exam. Practising on these papers meant that in my HSC, I knew that I had written enough. In cases where I had not used the full 40 minutes for a particular module, I also knew that it was okay to move on to the next section if I had written at least 10 pages. This proved to be a massive reassurance and time saver in the exam. In saying this, I do not mean that you must stick to the study routine I did. I knew that Advanced English was both one of my best scaling subjects and a strong point of mine. Your talent maybe in the Business Studies exam you have a few days following Paper 2, or perhaps you need to focus on Extension 2 Mathematics because strategically, it will boost your marks. This is where you must bring your own perspective and goals into play. Remember that English will be counted in your mark, and does have the potential power to bring your overall ATAR down if you bomb out. But, only spend the time that you know you need to spend. If you’re reading this at the beginning of Year 12, you may not know how and what you need to do to study. By the end of this year, you will know how you learn inside and out. So, do not take my example as a set in stone, how-to-master English guide. Write what and as you need. As long as there is effort and perseverance, especially in those final few weeks of the HSC, you will be fine. The amount of essays I wrote per day was an exercise in self confidence, if anything. I needed to know that I could answer anything! Copyright © 2022 InStudent Publishing Pty. Ltd.

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Chapter 1 – How to study for English

How many should you do? I will answer honestly: I wrote on every past question I could find. These included independent trials, CSDA trials, trials written by schools themselves, and all past HSC questions. Once again, however, these were spread throughout the year. Up until around a month before trials, I had answered all HSC Past Papers for both Paper One and Two, as well as a few mock papers my teacher had provided for the Common Module. I then started doing at least one paper of each a week. After trials is when I really focused on English. I scoured all contacts, every HSC forum, and compiled a few pages of questions I could answer – specifically for the modules. There were a few extra papers for the Common Module that I sourced, but I decided that writing for the modules would benefit me more. At this time, I was writing at least two English Papers per day (be they 2 × modules or 1 × Common Module and 1 × module) within or in less than the allocated time for the paper. Never spend more than 40 minutes on an essay in this stage of your study. You do not have time, nor should you be in the habit of writing more than a thousand words to make your argument. This will undoubtedly help you on the day of your exam, as you will (almost) instinctively know if you’ve spent too much time on an essay. Think about it – losing a mark or two for a shorter essay is better than losing 10 on one that finishes half way through its first body paragraph. Get into the routine of 40 minute essays. As one of the most demanding exams you’ll sit, the English paper needs to be practised within a time frame.

1.2 Examples of study resources I created (Elyse)

1.2

Examples of study resources I created (Elyse)

Mnemonics Mnemonics are the funny little trick where you used (often ridiculous) sentences to remember bigger ideas. Mnemonics can be very useful if you are going in to your exam with planned essays! Although they may not be memorised fully, you may have a plan for exactly how your texts fit together and the mnemonics will make sure you can jot them down as soon as you’re in the exam so you don’t forget anything. If you know that in your first body paragraph, you want to talk about a metaphor, an allusion, personification, and tense, you might come up with: Michaela ate Peter’s tea. When you get into the exam and the writing time begins, you can read out your little statement and then jot down “M.E.P.T.” and then you’ve set out your first body paragraph. Of course, the more hilarious you make the mnemonic the more likely you’ll remember it. So make the mnemonic about your friend and their crush – seriously it’s great for memorising. You could string together an entire essay plan like this if you wanted, by tying together each technique for your entire essay in sequence. The benefit of using a technique like mnemonics is that you can jot down prompts extremely quickly and use them as a reference for any point when you are lost in an essay. Using planned essays is only going to work in your favour if you are willing to adapt, so use the mnemonics as a guide, and use your judicious discretion in an exam about what to keep, what to change, and what to delete. Chapter 1 – How to study for English

1.3

Memorising Essays (Elyse)

To memorise or not to memorise? HSC Markers, tutoring institutions, your peers, your teachers – they all have an opinion on memorising English essays. The argument against memorising English essays is that your response may seem detached from the question asked in an exam. Fear not! It is definitely not impossible to get really high marks with a memorised essay. In fact, I credit my mark of Band 6 in Advanced English and E4 in Extension 1 English to my prepared essays. Memorising English essays isn’t easy, but I found it to be very worth it! What are the benefits of memorising English essays? When you enter an exam room, you are expected to write something that is quite lengthy, quite analytical, with sophisticated language, with plenty of evidence, quite quickly. Preparing an essay – whether this is fully memorised or just partially – ensures that you are meeting the required length, writing quickly, using sophisticated language, being analytical and giving plenty of evidence. You can prepare all of these things! Except, the pace of writing. Hopefully adrenaline is your friend in an exam. All that’s left for you to do? Think clearly and make a thorough effort to incorporate the essay question seamlessly. My experience of memorising English essays First of all, I want to tell you the level of memorising and planning I did for two different essays so you can see how it really isn’t as simple as memorising an essay then throwing it on an exam paper. Each module requires something different of you, so I prepared each essay differently. It is also worth noting that what you’re about to read is my level of preparation for the FINAL exams. The entire HSC year was spent preparing, changing, adding to, editing, re-reading, re-writing, occasionally screaming at and often ferociously scribbling all over my essays. The entire HSC year is an opportunity to continually improve your work. It wasn’t until days before my HSC exams that I felt like I had essays that were both strong and versatile enough to confidently take into my exams with me. • Common Module: – Introduction: completely memorised. This includes the thesis statements, the way I would introduce the texts and the sentence I would use to complete the introduction and tie it all together. My first two thesis sentences were broad enough that I could integrate the essay question easily. Else, I could give the essay question its own sentence. The essay question is all I had to embed here. This is the easy part.

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1.3 Memorising Essays (Elyse)

1.3.1

Methods for memorisation

1. Re-writing. Writing again: I do this when I can’t spell a word properly (for so long, plagiarism was this ridiculous word that I could spell) and when I need to remember something word for word. I must have written out a total of 40+ quotes to be memorised during the HSC at least the length of a page each. I would continually write out every single word of the quote so that I would memorise it. By the end, I wouldn’t even have to check the sentence above, I would be writing the quote straight from my mind. That is the sweet sign of success.This technique can be used for the less specific as well. I used it for thesis statements and quotes extensively. However, there were times when I wanted to write out my essay in a timed situation at home to make sure that I could write it out in the designated time the exam gives. Even though practising in exam conditions at home is my most loathed study technique (it was just so boring...), the truth is that it helps to memorise things. It is truly testing your memory, but in a pressured environment. Sometimes, in both these practice exams and in real exams, the words don’t come to you. You forget. They disappear in the black hole of your mind. Whatever words do come to mine, grab them, and run with them. You can’t let yourself fall into the trap of being completely reliant on memorising. You have to be confident in giving your essay the flexibility to deal with a brain malfunction. 2. Mnemonics: here’s an example: I need to remember the following: Metaphor, symbolism, onomatopoeia, bildungsroman, pathetic fallacy. But, that’s awkward and boring to remember. So instead I take the first letters from each: M, S, O, B, P. Then I make a silly little sentence: Mary slipped over banana peels. This is far more entertaining to remember than the technique’s names themselves. When you know the first letter, you will be sure to recall the technique you are supposed to write about! There are a bunch of mnemonic generators online too! I used mnemonics for nearly all of my prepared body paragraph

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Chapter 1 – How to study for English

– Body Paragraphs: completely memorised. I had the introduction to each paragraph planned. I knew all textual references off by heart and their accompanying analysis and technique(s). The only part that I had to change was consciously incorporating the essay question. My evidence and original thesis statements were broad enough that this wasn’t difficult to do. However, I was so confident in knowing my texts that I could whip out extra textual referencing that supported the essay question very easily. – Conclusion: prepared but not memorised. The conclusion should never be underestimated. It needs to be strong and it needs to tie everything you’ve said together really well. This is why I was comfortable writing it on the spot and not from memory: everything I needed to say in it had already been said above in the essay. All I had to do now was make sure that I had coherently linked everything and I was leaving the marker with a taste of just how much I know about human experience! • Module A: – Introduction: prepared but not memorised. I had a “sentence bank” built up from the various assessment I had done on Module A throughout the year. This meant that I knew a couple of good, universal phrases, sentence and words that I could easily whip out and apply at any moment. I knew how I wanted to open, I wanted to talk about the inaccessibility of Shakespeare to a modern audience (I studied King Richard III and Looking for Richard). From then, it was going to be totally directed by the essay question. – Body paragraphs: prepared but not memorised. I had quite a few pieces of evidence that were direct scene-to-scene comparisons between Shakespeare’s work and Pacino’s. I made sure that as many of these textual references as possible were universal. This is the key to picking quotes. They should be able to be used to apply to many different arguments. I used mnemonics here (discussed further on). – Conclusion: pretty much off-the-cuff. As I mentioned in the AOS conclusion, this part is so much a summary of everything above. If you remember everything to discuss above then you will not have a problem when it comes to the conclusion. Keep it strong, keep it sweet, don’t over think it. Don’t undermine it either.

1.3 Memorising Essays (Elyse)

Chapter 1 – How to study for English

3. Speaking out loud: when I had no choice but to commit something to memory and I didn’t have a lot of time, I’d recite it old-school style. I’d stand in front of my mirror with the work I have to remember. Then I’d talk. Out loud. Over and over again. I’d be sure to walk around as much as possible to trick my body into thinking I was doing something stimulating and to keep the blood flowing. I’d say things in funny voices and then in silly accents. When it came to memorising my creative writing (a speech) I took on the persona of my oppressed narrator and I’d do the damsel-in-distress thing as I read my work over and over.You get to a stage where just reading it no longer is helping. This is when you need to read the sentence and say it out loud, and then cover it, and read it out loud from memory. Slowly build up a sentence at a time. If I had a week before my exam, I would make sure I memorised at least a paragraph each night so that by the day before, I had every little bit memorised and tested! 4. Organic memorising: as I mentioned above, I didn’t have my essays completely memorised for all stages of the year. By the HSC exams, I was ready! Part of this was because of all of the above techniques and part of it was just organic. By submitting my work to a teacher, receiving feedback, toying with it, putting it away and getting it out again and just being present and interacting with my work, it became memorised. Perhaps it wasn’t memorised in the word-for-word sense through organic interaction alone. However, it was definitely leaving an important print in my mind that subconsciously lingered until I whipped it out in an exam. 5. Recording myself saying it – then playing it: now, you can choose to make this really creepy and play it overnight so that you fall asleep to the tender sound of your own voice. Some people swear by this. For me, it was a little invasive. My sleep during the HSC was paradisaical and was never ever going to be compromised for any reason. I recorded myself on my phone and played it as I was driving to school. Rather than listening to chatter on the radio, I would listen to my recording and try to speak along with it wherever possible. If you catch the bus or train, you could also listen then! You could listen in the shower, while you make lunch or as you clean the dishes. Easy! 6. Making the essay forever present: I used this not just for entire essays, but also for random facts that I needed to know for different subjects (dates for history, legislation for legal, etc.) I put my work in a plastic sleeve and stuck it to the outside of the shower door. This way, I could get all kinds of clean while reading my essay out loud. I stuck things that I needed to memorise at the end of the bath tub, on the back of the toilet door, on the wall that I face when I eat breakfast. It sounds crazy and it sounds intense. But, I truly believe that it is so effective to have whatever you are trying to memorise ever-present. These are the kinds of things that you subliminally take note of even when you aren’t actively studying. Studying without actually studying? Always a win! A last note on memorising... Memorising an essay cannot take the place of understanding a text and a module in its macro and micro form. Memorising quotes, thesis statements, ideas, arguments, and everything in between, is something that began to happen organically for me after spending so much time editing my work. It wasn’t until I realised just how much I had committed to memory without trying that I decided I should take it all the way. Not once did I believe I wasn’t going to have to adjust my essay. Memorising doesn’t mean you aren’t flexible in an exam, if you’ve done this correctly. The way to do it correctly? Learn all about the module, the ideas, the texts, in every way. Then, make the decision to memorise. Memorising isn’t a quick fix at last minute, because there will be nothing to help you when you get a difficult to adapt-to essay question and you know nothing except those few ideas you focused on in your memorising sessions! Jamon, an ATAR Notes lecturer, believes that memorising isn’t at all the best idea. He’s provided us with some reasons why... • Memorising is restrictive: this is the first and most obvious reason for not memorising essays. It is massively restrictive to your ability to respond to the question at hand. I’ll give a great example. My prescribed text(s) for Module B in my HSC was a set of 7 speeches, each different in their purpose, context, theme, etc. I developed a liking for three. All of my assessments up to that point had been based on my favourites, because I could choose. My HSC was on what was probably my least favourite speech of the bunch. I wasn’t alone either. When my cohort turned the page to find William Deane’s name staring back at us, I heard 25 Advanced students mutter the same swear word under 80

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1.3 Memorising Essays (Elyse)

Does that mean you shouldn’t both with memorisation at all? Not so fast! Prepared responses are still excellent study tools. I used submitted assignments as sort of comparative tools. I would compare them against my impromptu responses to help me gauge my progress. At the end of the day, any essay you have written is awesome practice and an excellent study tool. The more essays you write, the better!

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their breath. The point being, of course, that if I had memorised an essay for this module, I would have been absolutely screwed. When they ask about a text you haven’t focused on, or a theme you may not have explored in depth, you can throw all your memorising out the window. Sure, it sucks either way. When you do get a tough question though, it is definitely better to have spent your time learning your content holistically, rather than investing effort memorising your essays word for word, or even quote for quote. I liken it to the comparison between a Swiss army knife and a can opener. Both are great. A can opener does ONE job, but does it very well. A Swiss army knife does lots of jobs, and it can still open a can decently enough. When you don’t know what you’ll be doing, it is better to be prepared for all contingencies reasonably well, rather than one contingency amazingly. It’s not worth the gamble. That said, if you know the question, of course you can memorise a piece! You wouldn’t use a Swiss army knife if someone told you you’d need to open a can. If you have an assessment task that you know the question for, go for it. You may also choose to still use quotes, that’s fine too. I did a bit of both whenever I knew the question, I knew my quotes, but I did end up memorising some paragraphs by the end of practising. • Memorising takes longer: let’s think about it this way. For Paper 2, you need to write three essays. That is, roughly, 2500-3000 words for most students. How long do you think it takes to memorise 3000 words? Even if you are just remembering the order of your ideas and thesis statements, it adds up very fast. Compare that to a student who memorises about 20 quotes or textual references to use in each essay. These are probably about 10 words each. So, 200 per essay, 600 in total. That is so much easier! That student then spends the extra time practising their responses, understanding their texts and the themes they are presenting to the audience. Same thing goes for more ‘content-heavy’ subjects, like Legal Studies. It is far quicker to memorise a list of laws and cases, as it is to memorise exactly where they go in an essay and exactly how you will use them in an argument. Memorising is a much larger investment of time than just developing a content bank, and in busy times, this is a huge disadvantage. • Memorised essays may not perform as well as you think: the big argument for memorising essays, is of course: ‘I will score better if I present something that I’ve worked on over time, rather than something I slap together in an hour.’ In general, this is probably true. I totally get it. The thing is, memorised essays come with little traps. Lots of little things that can be picked up by the marker that cost you marks. 1. Not answering the question: when you memorise an essay, you want it to work for the question. You seriously don’t want to write it from scratch. Thus, you will stretch it as far as you can to make it work for what is in front of you. This can mean that you don’t answer the question. You might not address the themes in the same way as dictated, or focus on an incorrect aspect of the concept. Essentially, an essay prepared to answer one question can’t answer every question. 2. Not accounting for time constraints: when you practice writing that essay at home, you are relaxed. There is no stress. Your hand isn’t tired from other sections. In the exam, it is a whole other story. If you do want to go down the path of memorising, be generous with how long you give yourself to write it. It is very hard to write a 1400-word essay in 40 minutes, probably near impossible. If you use a prepared response and don’t finish it, that’s not a good thing. 3. Inconsistencies in style: a popular middle ground on this issue is memorising thesis statements, isolated topic sentences, contextual linking sentences, little things like that to help you along. This isn’t such a bad idea, but be warned. If you write with sophistication akin to Shakespeare in your thesis, and then drop to the level of Homer Simpson in your body paragraphs, that will stand out like a sore thumb. Isolated periods where your style deviates from the norm detract from the sophistication, and will interrupt the flow of the marker. Trust me, you do not want to interrupt the flow of the marker. Bad things happen when stop to pick through your work.

1.4 Making study resources

So should you memorise? The answer is totally up to you! If you do choose to go down the impromptu route, you should instead focus on learning your quotes, developing a bank of content to use in essays. Then, practise practise practise!

1.4

Making study resources

Depending on the module, and the text type you have, your study ‘notes’ will be structured differently. I have two examples here of different ways that I made study notes. On the next page, I have an example of an essay plan that was plotted into a graph. I had three pages per main idea/paragraph and each was colour coordinated because it helped me recall the notes in an exam. The structure was simple: I had the thesis statement for that paragraph at the top. I then had three columns: example, techniques, and explanation. Below, is an example of the study notes I made to help me analyse my texts. I studied W B Yeats for Module B, so I included important context, scholarly reception, and any other important details to the poem in the tables on the following pages. An individual’s experience of and receptivity to a new landscape is shaped by their perspective and attitude toward their original landscape and how significant it was to them. Evidence from Prescribed Text (Brooklyn) Chapter 1 – How to study for English 82

Example

Techniques

Explanation

About Enniscorthy: “it was all solid and part of her... nothing here was a part of her.”

Repetition of “part of her” and the juxtaposition of the fulfilment.

The repetition of “part of her” and the contrast between the different levels of fulfilment between her remembered landscape and Brooklyn, is a testimony to her attitude towards the original landscape but also a representation of the profound impact of the relationship between Eilis and Enniscorthy.

“An ache in her chest was trying to force tears down her cheek.”

Personification

Homesickness is described as... This is a personified representation of the heartache experienced because of her perspective to her remembered landscape.

“It was as though she had been locked away.”

Irony

Eilis experienced the irony of feeling... in the landscape imaged as one of freedom. This is because of her original landscape of conservatism and familiarity.

“This new feeling that was like despondency.”

Third person limited omniscient narrator

The extract further reveals the pathos as... The third person omniscient limited narrator benefits the reader’s understanding of Eilis’ new experience as offered by her new landscape and conditioned by her attitude to Enniscorthy.

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1.4 Making study resources

Evidence from Other Related Text (Distant Lands) “She felt herself growing fatter every day.”

Third person limited omniscient narrator

Third person limited omniscient narrator benefits the reader’s understanding of Eilis new experience as offered by her new landscape and conditioned by her attitude to Enniscorthy.

“To show that she couldn’t have cared less, the girl smiled at him and shrugged.”

Visual Imagery

It is only the introduction of a “Nescafe” man that gives Fat Maz an experience of a new landscape and an altered perspective. To invite the man into her landscape, visual imagery is utilised to describe...

“This was happiness, not everything else.”

Negation Sibilance (mellifluous) Hard consonance in the second part.

Fat Maz’s experience of her new landscape was received well, as Winton explains of the new perspective... The first clause utilises sibilance and the second clause observes hard consonant sounds. The phonaesthetics represent the perspective towards the new landscape, as well as the attitude towards the “everything else” of the original landscape.”

Example of analysing poetry

Context: • • • • •

During WW1 – time of questioning Rejection from Iseult Gonne Ireland in turmoil and rebellion Yeats aged 51 Caught between the romantic and modern literary movements

Quotes: • “Appeared during a significant movement in the poet’s life and stands therein as a crucial turning point in his relation to the poetic task.” – Andrew Gates • “Yet, although his melancholy looms throughout the poem, Yeats succeeds in establishing, by the very structure of the poem, a response to it, transcending his individual despair through the creation of the poetic object itself.” – Andrew Gates Structure: • Metrical irregularity • Iambic pentameter and tetrameter mirroring the speaker’s thoughts as being uncertain and unsustained • Modernism: changing ballad ABCB to add a rhyming couplet • Disturbed rhythmic flow First Stanza: idyllic imagery is reminiscent of Yeats’ earlier poetry and self. Quote

Technique

Effect/Explanation

“water” ×2

Motif

For the ever-moving yet never changing; brings and gives life

“Still sky”

Sibilance

Stressed the beauty of the unchangeable

“Nine and fifty swans”

Archaic number inversion

Odd number (swans mate for life)

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1.4.1

1.4 Making study resources

Second Stanza: Quote

Technique

Effect/Explanation

“Autumn”

Capitalised

To emphasise the alarming decay he is alert to

“All suddenly mount/ And scatter wheeling in great broken rings./ Upon their clamorous wings.”

Imagery Cacophony

Of vitality and movement

Third Stanza:

Chapter 1 – How to study for English

Quote

Technique

Effect/Explanation

“I have looked upon those brilliant creates/ And now my heart is sore.”

Synecdoche

Implying that his heart represents him and his whole body

“Twilight”

Connotation

Twilight years

“Bell beat of their wings above my head.”

Alliterative connotations

Alarming

From Stanza Three: “And now my heart is sore.” From Stanza Four: “Their hearts have not grown old.”

Juxtaposition

Yeats’ heart and the swan’s heart have been juxtaposed to explore the tension of immutability

Fourth Stanza: Quote

Technique

Effect/Explanation

They paddle in the cold, Companionable streams

Juxtaposition of alliterated words

The coldness that he views himself with, with the companionable qualities of youth and swans

Fifth Stanza: • Ends with a rhyming couplet and a rhetorical question • Andrew Gates: “He concludes the poem with a question, thus emphasising the perpetual uncertainty of the future, against which his eternalising image nevertheless prevails.”

1.4.2

Example of analysing Shakespeare

The Bard’s context is crucially important to understanding why his plays were celebrated in their own day, and so cannot be avoided. Terms like the Great Chain of Being, Tudor England, and Rota Fortunae may have been thrown around from the first time you studied Shakespeare in high school. Lucky for many of us, you will only need to build upon your contextual knowledge of Shakespeare, rather than starting from scratch. Remember, you don’t need to explain context in an essay, so you don’t need to know Elizabethan England inside and out. Rather, think of context as another key for understanding the sometimes baffling Shakespearean language. When reading the text or watching the play for the first time, characters, feuds, and families can seem strangely placed or fashioned.

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1.4 Making study resources

For example, the sheer evil of Richard in Richard III was intriguing, but extreme nonetheless. He doesn’t sway from his selfish motives, and does not appear to uphold the virtue of an Elizabethan leader at all. This made much more sense after reading up on the War of the Roses, as it was then I understood that the text was a piece of propaganda, rather than a history play. I can safely say that without doing some reading on Shakespeare’s context, you will miss key points in your text. Here are some pointers to you guide your research: • Personal: what was the socio-economic status of Shakespeare’s family? What was his education like? Where did he live? Why did he start writing? Did he marry and have children? Was he close to his family? Did he have to support this family himself? In what part of Shakespeare’s oeuvre is the text found? Was there anything of immediate importance happening at this time in Shakespeare’s life? • Historical: what is the historical narrative of the characters in the play? Is this different to what is depicted in the play? What sources did Shakespeare use to write his play? Is the character a York or a Tudor? How may have this influenced the text? • Political: what constitutes the ‘Tudor View’? What was written in opposition to the monarchy? What war was being fought at the time, and who was considered the enemy? What was the state of Britain at the moment? • Social: was the general population interested in the monarchy? Was there a strong sense of class? What were literacy rates like? What type of people attended Shakespeare’s plays?

• Shakespeare was born approximately on April 23rd in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, a provincial market town. His plays began to be staged in 1592. • The ‘King’s Men’ was a theatre company that Shakespeare was a part of. The company was created for the purpose of propaganda by Elizabeth, who recognised the power of entertainment to garner support for her reign. It is through this company that Shakespeare would gain sponsorship for his later plays from both Elizabeth and James. Because of this, he would become a very wealthy and influential man. • The Great Chain of Being is part of the religious and philosophical paradigm of Shakespeare’s time. The Great Chain of Being orders the importance and worth of each individual within the Tudor society, as well as plants, animals and objects. It justified the divine right to rule held by the monarchy, which meant that the reigning King or Queen was sactified by God. Whilst Shakespeare’s texts do challenge these ideas in the infancy of the humanist tradition, they mainly prevail to the overarching order. Such should be researched further in light of your text. • Rota Fortunae is another part of the philosophical paradigm. It outlined the idea of fate as beyond the individual’s control, and dictated by a literal Wheel of Fortune. Once again, many of Shakespeare’s text explore alternatives to this world view and thus, appeal to his audience’s sense of curiosity. • The Reign of Elizabeth I: under Elizabeth, there was an increasing divide between the Church and the state, referred to as secularism. Shakespeare’s plays were used to explore this, or in some instances, to quash progressive ideas. She was also highly interested in the theatre and mysticism. She was also unable to produce an heir, and so prohibited any pieces of writing about claimants to the throne prevent breeding faction.

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There is some general information that will be the same for any Shakespearean study. To cover the basics, these are provided below. Be aware however, that the module you are studying Shakespeare in will dictate the depth of research you will need to undertake. If you are studying Hamlet, for example, this will generally mean that your contextual knowledge will have to be extensive. The Tempest, on the other hand, will have less of a contextual basis, as it is part of a conceptual study. Remember to always keep the module focus in mind when researching context.

1.4 Making study resources

• The Machiavelli is a common character in Shakespeare’s work as an antithesis to the Elizabethan monarch. The character can be used to highlight the flaws in any type of leader opposing the divinely inspired, or to join the progressive ideas of the Renaissance. However, Shakespeare was not the first to come up with this idea, and instead, only reinterpreted the idea according to his context. The Machiavellian was first coined by political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli (hence the name) in his political treatise The Prince (1532). It argued that the best politician is not necessarily the best person. A politician should work on behalf of their people, by any means necessary. This may mean that they deceive, cheat and manipulate – but are still considered a successful politician if they achieve the will of their people. We may understand this well in the context of our own political landscape (whether or not such politicians achieve the will of the people is a different story). This makes the Machiavellian character a fantastic point to demonstrate how Shakespeare still applies to us today. Through the text, we may see the faults and benefits of a conniving leader and in turn, better understand what we are voting for in the next federal election. So, when studying Shakespeare through the political lens, remember this term and how it can be interpreted as even a comment on our own times. You may even find it insightful beyond the Advanced English course. Here are some quotes from Niccolo Machiavelli that might help you in your own writing:

Chapter 1 – How to study for English

• “Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.” • “Love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.” • “I’m not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it.” • “Appear as you may wish to be.” It’s important that you know the context of the piece before reading – otherwise, it’s like trying to do a puzzle without the photo on the box that tells you what it’s supposed to look like, if you don’t know the context. When you understand Shakespeare’s intentions, you’ll be able to notice judicious decisions regarding the language, which is essential to your analysis. The plot is likely to make more sense if you also have an understanding of the historical context – particularly if you’re studying the Shakespearean histories. When you’re reading, make notes consistently. The note could simply be a sticky-note that says “Richard’s monologue” so that when it comes down to writing out your essay and study plans, you can easily locate sections of the text. Of course, more detailed notes are also going to be very useful to you, (eg. identifying key quotes or techniques). If you’re reading the No Fear Shakespeare book (where the Shakespearean English and plain English are side by side) then use the plain English to get your head around the plot, but analyse the language used in Shakespearean English. The problem with reading No Fear Shakespeare is that you can rely too heavily on the plain English and not develop an appreciation for the Shakespearean language, which is what you are required to analyse. The translations are usually pretty true to the original text, which is a benefit to the student. Online there are several Shakespearean dictionaries/glossaries that define, but also give examples of, words that we don’t commonly see outside of the pages written by the Bard. It’s often not enough to just guess what words mean – because you could be guessing the exact opposite. It’s important to know that abhor does not mean love, otherwise you’ve really confused the plot! Getting your hands on a live or filmed theatrical performance of the text could also be really helpful. If you’re not used to reading plays, it can be difficult to visualise how everything comes to life in characters. For the visual learners amongst us, it can be very useful to see the characters interact on stage, or on the TV, to understand the relationships between them. Clearly, there is the possibility that aspects of the text would be adjusted for your viewing, so this is not a way of avoiding reading the text. That has to happen!

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Part V

Exam Tips

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Paper One

Chapter 1

Paper One 1.1

Pre-reading time

In your first exam, you may experience a bizarre combination of anxiety, anticipation, and (maybe) excitement. But it’s important to keep calm and focus on one thing at a time. In Paper One, I wouldn’t worry about reading the unseens, but rather, reading the creative and essay questions/stimulus. Once you’ve named every expletive you have in your vocabulary (in your head, don’t risk being kicked out), collect yourself. Most likely, the stimulus does not suit your creative perfectly. The essay question has nothing to do with your ORT. Breathe. Do not look at everyone else around you. This is your paper, and your HSC mark. You don’t have time to freak out.

Chapter 1 – Paper One

Think about every detail of your creative. Where is there a section that the stimulus could be squeezed in? Is there potential for a motif? When thinking through the essay question, do not neglect the variety of ways your quotes can be interpreted. The syllabus is flexible enough to allow you to analyse any of your quotes to suit a question, regardless of what you had planned. The most important part in this scenario is that you accept that you are going to have to adapt what you’ve prepared. If you’ve completed practice papers previously, there may be some relief in knowing that you’ve done it before sitting at your desk at home – and it still turned out okay! As soon as you start doubting yourself, you start to lose marks. As soon as you start arguing something prepared that is not based on the question, you lose marks. Breathe, and have confidence in that you’ve studied hard up until this point. On the other hand, cockiness is not your friend either. If you do not read your paper properly, you may miss a small phrase or reference – which could equate to you completely missing one aspect of the question. You can’t plead for more marks with an examiner you’ll never meet. So, remember to take time to read and read again. Consider each part of the question, and if you really are confident, how you could interpret it in a highly creative way. I have always been told that the first idea that comes to your mind is also the one that comes to everyone else. So, if you’re confident, re-evaluate your initial approach. It may help your work jump off the page and stand out from the crowd!

1.2

Reading time

Especially considering the length of the unseen texts in recent years, I would spend the reading time going through Section One. However, I could not simply read the texts one after the other. You should continually flick between the questions and the texts. Identify what the question is asking you to look for within the unseen texts, and look for exclusively that. Very rarely will you understand what the hell these excerpts are on about. When you get home, this confusion will translate into memes to help console you in these Paper One woes. But right now, you do not have time to try and figure out everything in these texts. Look for what the question asks, find a technique, and move on. I advise that you read each of your texts and their matching questions at least once in the five minutes. If there isn’t a blessed visual, don’t worry if you don’t get through them all. Though keeping calm is the hardest part of the English exam, it is also the most important.

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1.3 Exam order

1.3

Exam order

I would always approach Paper One in the order it was written. This is as I found the short answers would both warm up my hand, and reacquaint me with the key Common Module terms before writing my creative and essay. It also was a way of easing into the exam, whilst reminding myself to stick to the question, rather than something I had prepared. On the other hand, it can also be beneficial to write the section which you’re most nervous about first. Afterwards, you can answer the remaining questions with a clear head, potentially saving yourself from losing marks in your best sections. If you take this approach, you definitely have to keep your eye on the clock. It is very easy to get carried away explaining yourself in something you’re not confident about. Make sure you do not exceed 40 minutes for any section. Going overtime may mean that one poor section of your paper draws every other part down. Avoid this at all costs.

1.4

Timing

When I completed my English Paper, I walked in with a set plan for each section. I would do the Paper in order, yet allocate different times to the sections. Through doing practice papers, I figured I could do Section 1 in 20 minutes, Section 2 in 30, and thus leaving an hour and ten to go to town on my essay. The lack of visual and the ridiculously figurative texts meant I spent closer to 30 minutes on my short answers. I won’t lie, this did freak me out in the exam room. It also made me think I’d done terribly after the exam, since I had deviated from the structure I had been practising before. This is a lesson learned in adapting your plan to the exam on the day. I needed those extra few minutes to properly answer the short answers. If I didn’t, it could have lost me one mark – one mark that may have been the difference between first and second in the state for Advanced English. So let me say it once more: don’t be afraid to adapt your plan on the day of the exam! Having practised the English Paper enough, and nailing what needs to be in a short answer to earn full marks, you should be able to cut some time from the 40 minutes. Ten minutes could be an extra paragraph in your essay that really brings home your argument, or perhaps a clever way to integrate the stimulus in your creative. Here is another benefit of practice papers – you can figure out the time you need for specific sections.

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Chapter 1 – Paper One

One way to do so is to leave your worst section to last. A lot of my classmates that were not confident in their creative chose to do this. My teacher, who was an experienced HSC marker, also always advised such an approach. The reasoning behind this is drawn from the maximum mark your creative could receive. Let’s face it – not all of us are going in there with golden 15/15 creatives. Say the most you’ve ever earned for your narrative is an 11. You’re much better at Sections 1 and 3, where you commonly earn a 13. It’s better to secure (or even exceed) those marks in Sections 1 and 3, than taking 50 minutes to write the 11 mark piece and thus, sacrificing more marks in your better sections. Conversely, you could probably earn 11 marks in 30 minutes if you left your creative to last. The same works for the essay, if you are so inclined. What I would absolutely advise against is leaving the short answers last. That 6-8 marker at the end is much easier to earn than 6-8 marks in an essay or creative. Equally, they could be the difference between earning a Band 5 or 6. Accordingly, you don’t want to be losing marks in the short answers where they are so easily achieved.

Paper Two

Chapter 2

Paper Two 2.1

Pre-reading and reading time

Though the supervisors are just as slow and you’re probably just as nervous, you should approach Paper Two a little differently. Like Paper One, spend the pre-reading time finding your questions and reading them carefully. I folded the pages in the exam for quick reference. However, in reading time, spend most of your time figuring out the question you are having the most trouble with. You need to get rid of those nerves as quickly as possible. Ways you may combat the question you weren’t ready for could be planning an essay in your head, or identifying which quotes fit the focus of the question. After this, I would then spend time on whichever question you are going to answer first. Start planning how you are going to phrase your thesis – even write the first sentence in your head. Doing so will allow you start the paper as soon as the supervisor allows you to start.

2.2

Order of the paper and timing

Chapter 2 – Paper Two

I didn’t have a plan for Paper Two like the previous day. This was as I found the modules to be less predictable, and I didn’t want to feel as if I was locked into a plan if there was a curveball question. However, there was one rule I stuck to and would absolutely advise all HSC students to follow. DO NOT take more than forty minutes to write an essay. Module C has the lowest average mark in the paper for a reason. The detail and length expected of each one of these essays is equal, as they are all worth 20 marks. In the end, your paper will be split between three different marking centres, and the marker will not forgive you for two pages in Module C, despite writing twelve in Module B. Therefore, you have to keep your eye on the clock in this paper. So what do you do if you’ve taken up 35 minutes for Module A, but you’re only halfway through your second paragraph? Your best bet is to finish up that idea quickly, and write a much smaller third paragraph then you were planning to. If you’ve left your best quotes until last, use one of thee for each text and pull out your best analysis. Stick to nothing but the question. Write a conclusion around two or three sentences long. Move on to your next essay, perhaps only losing five minutes. Though you have sacrificed two or three marks, it has saved you from losing five or more marks in the remaining modules – that could be otherwise rushed, vague or perhaps unfinished. One brilliant essay does not make up for two bouts of word vomit, so plan ahead!

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Part VI

Appendices

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List of Techniques

Chapter 1

List of Techniques You are given a short amount of time to do a lot of analysis in both Paper One and Paper Two. You want to be clear in your expression by being succinct and original. It is very easy to fall into a trap of repeating: quote, technique, effect, quote, technique, effect. Of course you can take this structure and really make it work for you, but the chances are that you’ll need to break the pattern. We always want to study smarter and not harder, so we should be looking to get more from each piece of textual evidence than just one technique.

Chapter 1 – List of Techniques 92

Technique

Definition

Example

Adjective

A describing word

‘These are some great English notes!’

Adverb

These change or add information to a verb or verbs. Many adverbs end in ‘ly’

‘The essay was written hastily.’

Allegory

A narrative that stands for another story that is not being explicitly told. Everything is symbolic of something else. It is usually told to teach or explain ideas, but may also be used as satire

Animal Farm by George Orwell, or The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Alliteration

Repetition of a consonant at the beginning of words

Penny plays pinball

Allusion

Where your text references another text (NOTE: Don’t confuse this with appropriation!)

Dead Poets Society: there is a portrait of Walt Whitman that hangs above the teacher’s desk

Ambient sound

This is sound that is present, or available, in the context of the scene being filmed. Also referred to as diegetic sound

The sound of birds singing, of footsteps, of an actors voice

Anadiplosis

Repeating the last word of a sentence at the beginning of the next one

That would be a terrible thing to do. To do that would be unforgivable

Analogy

A comparison between two smaller descriptions or incidents, that seeks to explain a point

“Life is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get.”

Anaphora

The repetition of a clause at the beginning of successive sentences

I will finish this assessment. I will rank first in course. I will smash the HSC. And I will go to university!

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List of Techniques

Reversing the normal order of words

She looked at the sky, dark and menacing (which would normally be: she looked at the dark and menacing sky)

Anecdote

A short tale narrating an interesting or amusing biographical incident

Whilst writing this, I’m sitting on a train on my way to the city. I live at the end of the T1 Western line, so if I fall asleep on the way home, it’s no big deal.

Anthropomorphism

The representation of animals or objects with human characteristics

The entire Madagascar or Toy Story series

Anti-climax

An abrupt decline from the building narrative

Following my last exam, I walked to my part time job. It was as if the HSC had never happened

Antithesis

The opposite or contrasting idea

Trump is the antithesis to Obama War is the antithesis of peace

Appropriation

Where a text is taken from its original context and reinterpreted. The script does not have to be the same, and characters may be added, but the basic idea behind the text remains the same

10 Things I Hate About You is an appropriation of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew The Lion King is an appropriation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Archival footage

Use of direct cinema or other documentary footage or photographs from the past in order to review previous events

They do this on the news when a celebrity has died, and often play footage of their most famous work

Assonance

Repeating a vowel sound within a word

How now, brown cow

Asyndeton

Omission of conjunction between words, phrases or clauses

I am writing, reading, reviewing, editing

Bias

Favouring one side of an argument, not remaining neutral

I am biased when evaluating the work of Yeats, because of his tendency to lean towards fascism and sexism

Bird’s eye view

A shot in which the camera photographs a scene from directly overhead

Caesura

A pause within a line of verse

“As a child, they could not keep me from the wells” Seamus Heaney, Personal Helicon

Circumlocution

Where the composer talks around the point

The point is something that I’ve been working on for a long time. Its an important point, and when I first discovered it...

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Chapter 1 – List of Techniques

Anastrophe

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List of Techniques

Chapter 1 – List of Techniques 94

Cliché

A phrase or expression which was once novel, but has been used so often that it lacks real meaning

I was head-over-heels in love!

Close-up shot

A detailed view of a person or object

Colloquial language

Words and phrases that are used in everyday conversation

‘Sup?’

Commentary

An expression of opinion or explanation about an event or situation

Think of the cricket, football or soccer. Apply that same effect of a voice over to text

Connotations

The feelings, emotions, subtitles suggested by a word or phrase, as opposed to the word itself.

‘How are you?’ she asked. ‘I’m okay, I guess,’ he answered. (Obviously, her companion was far from simply ‘okay’.)

Denotation

The dictionary definition of the word

The word war denotes a conflict between two or more groups (but it connotes suffering, struggle, and difficulty)

Denouement

The resolution of a plot in a literary work

The two ride off into a sunset to their happily ever after.

Diegetic sound

Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film. Non-diegetic sound is the term used to refer to the opposite.

Footsteps, the sound of people chatting in the background

Dramatic irony

A situation where readers or viewers (and possibly some of the characters) have knowledge that is hidden from a character

In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo returns and drinks poison under the illusion that Juliet is dead. We, the audience, know that she is only asleep.

Ellipsis

Three dots (full stops) placed together to indicate words have been left out, often used to create tension or leave a statement partly unspoken

I don’t know... are these ellipses?

Emotive language

Language specifically chosen to evoke an emotional response from the responder. It is usually highly modal

‘Oh darling, how could I possibly adore anything other than you! My heart sings at the very mention of your name!’

Enjambment

The continuation of a sentence or clause over a line break

If this were a poem the sentence would appear to end on this word, but really it continues on this line

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List of Techniques

Usually an extreme long or long shot offered at the beginning of a scene or sequence providing the viewer with the context of the subsequent closer shots

Ethos

Proof deriving from the character of the speaker themselves. The tone of the speech should establish the speaker’s virtue and moral worth

We empathise with Harry Potter because he is a genuinely courageous, passionate, and loyal person. However, we may relate to him more so than other ‘heroes’, as he relies on his friends for help as much as we do.

Euphemism

An expression to avoid directly saying something distasteful, unpleasant, or confronting

‘I am going to the bathroom’ rather than ‘I really need to pee.’

Eye-level shot

The placement of the camera corresponding to the height of the observer

Flashediting/cutting

Editing sequences so that the duration of the shots are very brief

Foil

A character who contrasts and parallels the main character in a play or story

High-angle shot

A shot taken from above, angled down on the subject. A low angled shot is the opposite.

Homonym

Words spelt the same way with a different meaning.

‘The referee was fair’ ‘We are going to the fair’

Homophone

One or two or more words, that are pronounced the same but differ in meaning.

‘To pick a flower’ ‘To bake with flour’

Hyperbole

The deliberate use of exaggeration for effect.

I am the most exhausted I have ever been in my entire life

Idiom

An expression or way of speaking that refers to something other than its literal meaning

I am as sick as a dog

Imagery

Words that paint a picture in the responders mind

Cloaked in sweat, the fan standing in the corner provided little relief to a select few in front of the television. Coupled with soothing commentary and the smell of passionfruit on pavs, it finally felt like Christmas.

Chapter 1 – List of Techniques

Establishing shot

e.g. Draco Malfoy is a foil to Harry Potter as he exhibits traits that the other lacks

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Indirect interview

The subject is seen talking on camera, but the interviewer is not heard asking questions.

e.g. infomercials on television

Irony

A contrast or discrepancy between what is said and what is meant, or, what happens and what is expected to happen.

A vegetarian with no choice but to work at McDonalds.

Jargon

Technical language or words associated with a particular topic

Political jargon includes terms like: left wing, right wing, conservative, progressive, etc.

Juxtaposition

When two things are placed side by side in order to draw attention to their similarities or differences

Comparing the music of Drake with that of Beethoven

Lighting

Used to create an atmosphere, mode or tone (can be described as high or low key)

Logos

Demonstration of the speaker’s position by logical argument

Long shot

Typically shows the entire object or human in relation to their surroundings

Metaphor

A type of image where something is said to be something else

The HSC is a marathon, not a sprint.

Metre

In poetry it refers to beat or rhythm. The regularity comes about by rearranging strong (stressed) or weak (unstressed) syllables in repeating patterns

Iambic pentameter: a line containing five iambs. One iamb consists of one stressed syllable following one unstressed syllable.

Mise-en-scene

How a film/stage scene is physically constructed

Montage

A series of short shots that are edited into a sequence to condense space, time and information.

In Disney movies, this is usually accompanied by a show tune, and it consists of the characters travelling to their destination

Motif

A recurring subject or theme in a text

(e.g. in Harry Potter ) The strength of love and community over all forms of selfish evil

Noun

A person, place or thing

e.g. The exam

Onomatopoeia

Where the sound of the word itself imitates the sound being described

The pitter-patter of rain on a tin roof

Oxymoron

A paradox reduced to two words

We are alone, together.

Waleed Aly’s segments on The Project often seek to explain why things are the case, rather than simply criticising them

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List of Techniques

The emotions induced in the audience. It usually plays upon the audience’s sympathies or gut feelings

Donald Trump won largely on illogical pathos

Paradox

A seemingly contradictory statement that contains a truth or opinion

If I say that ‘I always lie,’ am I telling the truth?

Parody

An imitation or mimicking of a text, especially using exaggeration to create humour

‘Beat it’ by Michael Jackson and ‘Eat it’ by Weird Al Yankovic

Personification

Giving human qualities/characters to non-human objects

Most children’s shows do this in giving eyes and mouths to regular objects

Polysyndeton

The use of a conjunction between each word, phrase or clause.

I wrote and wrote and slept and wrote until my English exam.

Pronouns

Often used to address the audience (can be inclusive: ‘we’ or exclusive: ‘you’)

We need to do something about the state of this country. It’s your responsibility too.

Pun

A play on words

Why did the pig go to the beach? To do some sun baking.

Quaestio: a string of questions in rapid succession for sake of emotional emphasis

But why would you do such a thing? Was it for your sake our for ours? Did you think? About the consequences?

Rhetorical

Why should you answer this question?

Rogatio : a rhetorical question and answer

Why should you answer this question? Because you’d lose marks if you didn’t!

Interrogatio: employing a question as a way of confirming or reinforcing the argument one has just made

Because you wouldn’t want another four years of this Government, would you? Vote 1 *this party*.

Different types of questions

Reading path

The movement of a responders gaze around a visual text

Rhyme

The repetition of a sound at the end of lines. Rhyme schemes are identified in ABCD patterns.

Salience

The prominence given to particular elements within the composition of an image.

Satire

When something is made fun of in order to be critical.

Chapter 1 – List of Techniques

Pathos

The cat sat on the mat.

The Chaser’s War on Everything, and similar programs.

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Sibilance

The presence of strongly emphasised s, sh, ch, z, and j sounds within a text

The sun is shining, smiling down on the sea this Saturday.

Simile

Comparison between two objects using phrases such as like and as

This is like a bad dream.

Soliloquy

A speech performed by a character that is alone on stage. They may address the audience directly.

“Now is the winter of our discontent” – The first scene of Shakespeare’s Richard III

Symbolism

Symbolism occurs when something in the text stands for something abstract

The Crown stands for the monarchy.

Tone

The overall mood or attitude of a text

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series has a very humorous tone.

Tracking shot

A shot taken from a moving vehicle

Vector lines

These create a viewing path through a text

Verb

Doing words

Writing, studying, excelling, etc.

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Vocabulary List

Chapter 2

Vocabulary List Effect on responder Illuminate

Clarify

Portray

Highlight

Alter

Enrich

Engender

Glean

Garner

Adhere

Applicable

Pertinent

Conceive

Envisage

Evoke

Central concerns

Distinctive features

Significant issues

Conventions

Aspiration

Invites reflection

Made evident

Sustain interest

Greatest impact

Generate

Contentious

Disputed

Provocative

Galvinise

Correspondingly

Relative to

Encourages

Promotes

Engages

Achieves

Illustrates

Implies

Depict

Infer

Chapter 2 – Vocabulary List

Enhance

Points of comparison Also

Likewise

Equally

Synonymously

Analogously

Akin

Just as

So too

Similarly

Furthermore

Moreover

In the same sense

Points of difference Conflictingly

In contrast

Contrastingly

Contrarily

Unlike

Nonetheless

A point of disparity

Conversely

Counter to

Contradictory to

Opposed to

Inversely

Alternatively

However

Although

On the other hand

Despite this

Contending

Dissimilar

Juxtaposed

Incongruously

Yet

Whereas

Meanwhile

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Vocabulary List

Other words for ‘shows’

Chapter 2 – Vocabulary List

Expresses

Depicts

Indicates

Presents

Displays

Reflects

Means

Represents

Reveals

Suggests

Conveys

Symbolises

Describes

Demonstrates

Explores

Exhibits

Asserts

Elicits

Elucidates

Exemplifies

Conveys

Denotes

Depicts

Implies

Exposes

Portrays

Crystallises

Challenges

Creates

Draws attention to

Constructs

Hints at

Reiterates

Transcends

Permeates

Pervades

Suggests

Highlights

Focuses

Reinforces

Strengthens

Supports

Exemplifies

Transforms

Embodies

Constitutes

Illustrates

Enkindles

Conjures

Repudiates

Construes

Amplifies

Accordingly

Consequently

Furthermore

Moreover

Additionally

Whereas

Not only

However

In spite of this

In other respects

Nevertheless

Rather

In addition

For that reason

Thus

As a result

Hence

Therefore

So

Because

Shaped by

Led to

Resulted in

Contributed to

Culminated in

Derived from

For that reason

Constituting

Provokes our understanding of

Challenges our belief that

Resonates with

Prompts us to empathise with

Makes us explicitly aware of

Invites a sense of sympathy for

Foreshadows

Engages the viewer with

Evokes a sense of pathos

Positions the reader to

Illustrates a mood of

Creates a heightened personal response to

Achieves its purpose of

Affects our understanding

Assures us that

Captivates our interest in

Compels us to see that

Urges us to believe

Motivates us to

Highlights the necessity of

Engenders an appreciation of

Sways our opinion of

Generates apprehension towards

Creates anticipation of

Cause and effect

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Frequently Asked Questions

Chapter 3

Frequently Asked Questions How do I refer to the responder? This question was asked in my own English class every time a marked essay was handed back. With papers assaulted with red pen, many of us thought the mistakes we were being pulled up on were just plain silly, and for good reason too. In one paper, the marker seemed ridiculously angry that a student had referred to the responder as ‘we’, whilst another was infuriated by the term ‘the reader’. You can’t win. In my own writing, I liked to adjust what I used according to what I was analysing. So, if the analysis I was forming was relatively simple, I would say a contextual responder may understand, or maybe an audience of the composer’s own time. Conversely, if I was talking about a universal theme, then I would use collective terms. This way, the marker can see that you understand that a text is valued because it applies to differing audiences across times. It also shows a ‘personal judgement’, because it implied that this is how you individually responded to the text.

Do I need to include the year the text was published when referencing it for the first time? Yes you should, but don’t stress if you have a mind blank in the exam and forget the publishing year. It generally doesn’t matter. After all, it is more important to have a knowledge of the context of the text itself, rather than the singular year it was written in. Can I shorten my quotes? Let me just say, I feel for all of you Extension students that are studying Wollstonecraft’s Vindication and her quotes that are five lines long. These are an absolute pain to remember, but sometimes, it is worth it. When choosing to shorten a quote or not, you should take into consideration the technique that accompanies it. Of course, this is the part of the quote that you will need to keep. In some cases, you can quote a single word if that is the most powerful and important part of the quote. In others, such as extended metaphors, you may have to memorise those long and tedious extracts. Poetry is generally much easier to quote single sentences. Here and in the case of novels, it may be best to reference where exactly this word is coming from. Within a whole novel, the place and importance of a single word may be a bit baffling for a marker. That’s why it’s best to give some context to where this shortened quote is in the text, followed by a detailed analysis. Can I get a Band 6 in Module B if I don’t quote scholars? Yes. But it won’t be a 20/20. As explained in the section dedicated to Module B, scholars are recommended as a way to strengthen your own understanding, and to show your markers that you’ve considered various perspectives on the text you are studying. I must make it clear, however, that including scholars does not guarantee you a Band 6 either. They need to be referenced with purpose, either enhancing, challenging, or scrutinising your own argument. They are not, to quote the syllabus, an end of themselves. This means that they can’t simply be describing the town that the composer grew up in, or a facet of their love life. Rather, it should be describing how an audience understood or appreciated a text, or a clever way of describing the form, or perhaps a description of textual integrity. I used to judge whether a scholar was worth quoting or not by thinking how I would express the same idea. If there wasn’t a way to say it better, or if the idea was intriguing and original, it would be worth quoting the scholar.

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If your teacher is insistent on using a particular term or phrase, I would advise to stick to it. In the end, they are the ones that are marking your in school assessments, and you don’t want to lose marks for something like this. In the end, it’s what works for you and the audience you are writing for (a.k.a. your teacher and their red pen).

Frequently Asked Questions

Without quoting scholars, you can still undoubtedly build a strong argument. However, your paper will be compared to those who have included scholars. When it comes to deciding the difference between a 19 and a 20, a paper that shows a deeper knowledge of the text will be awarded the higher mark. My guess is what constitutes a ‘deeper knowledge’ is an expression of the various perspectives and receptions of a text, most easily shown through quoting scholars. How clearly must you incorporate a stimulus for creative writing? Markers accept both explicit and implicit references to the stimulus. For example, many of the pictures from the 2016 HSC were of a singular person amongst a scene. Some were just very plain, lonely looking landscapes. In this case, you could chose to actually model your creative on one of these settings, take a feature of the setting (e.g. stars that appear in the stimulus may appear in your own writing) or include a theme represented in the stimulus in your narrative (eg. alienation). In terms of flexibility, pictures are the most lenient form of stimulus. Markers are forgiving in this section, so as long as they see some part of the stimulus present in your writing, it will be fine.

Chapter 3 – Frequently Asked Questions

On the other hand, stimuli can also be ridiculously specific. I’ve seen this more so in trial papers than actual HSC exams. I think this may be because teachers want to make sure your creative is ready for anything the actual paper throws at it. Nonetheless, stimuli that are phrases, or particular scenarios, must be included in your creative. If it says you have to include it as the first line in your creative, there is no way around this. However, this does not mean you have to abandon your prepared piece. Again, keep cool, and think about certain parts of your piece that you can modify to incorporate the stimulus coherently. Much like the second related text, if you chose to ignore the stimulus, this will not pay off. The provided stimulus will always be a part of the marking guidelines, so you must include it. Is there a particular order in which you must analyse a quote? No. But there are definitely things you must include. These things are slightly different according to which module you are writing for, and so for a more extensive guide, you should check out the specific chapters. But as a rough guide, your analysis should include three basic things; quote, technique, effect, judgement. If you did this, you would earn 3 marks in your short answers. Quoting a text refers to either a direct textual reference or a structural feature. S AMPLE :

“If we wish to know the force of human genius, we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to know the insignificance of human learning, we should read his commentators.” (On the Ignorance of the Learned, William Hazlitt, 1822). The technique is the name given to what is working to convey meaning within this. No, they don’t have to be four syllables long with at least one silent letter. More often than not, the parts of text working the hardest are subtle – such as gendered pronouns, tense, and perspective (e.g. first/second/third person). So, don’t go out of your way to remember some ridiculous technique at the sake of properly understanding why it’s working. You remember things because you understand them – not because they’re long and fancy. You would work them into a piece of analysis like the following: S AMPLE :

“If we wish to know the force of human genius, we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to know the insignificance of human learning, we should read his commentators” sees Hazlitt effectively employ anaphora coupled with the inclusive pronoun.” Once you have figured out the technique within your quote, you must briefly explain what meaning it conveys. Try not to surpass a sentence in explaining this. Though separate sentences may provide clarity within your response, you can couple your explanation with how it works on the audience. This surpasses explanation and becomes analysis. The added kick with Advanced is that you must judge how well a particular quote achieves this meaning, and more importantly, adds to your thesis.

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Frequently Asked Questions

S AMPLE :

“If we wish to know the force of human genius, we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to know the insignificance of human learning, we should read his commentators” sees Hazlitt effectively employ anaphora coupled with the inclusive pronoun to boldly challenge his audience to reconsider the notion of true genius. Don’t be afraid to challenge your thesis either. In having a contrasting analysis, you can show your marker that you’ve considered all parts of the question. It must not be forgotten, however, that your essay is really only a one sided debate – so don’t go about proving your thesis wrong. Though required at greater levels in specific modules, context is another part of analysis that you may like to include within your textual reference. It is very hard to mention context without explaining its relevance to the quote – yet you must avoid such in order to prevent rambling within your response. It goes without saying that analysis including context will be longer than your average quote. However, such does not have to be a part of every textual reference in your essay. Use it where necessary. Also, check the specified chapters to ensure you are including enough contextual reference for specific modules. A quote including context may look like this:

“If we wish to know the force of human genius, we should read Shakespeare. If we wish to know the insignificance of human learning, we should read his commentators” sees Hazlitt effectively employ anaphora coupled with the inclusive pronoun to boldly challenge his audience to reconsider the notion of true genius. Appealing to a unified literary canon amongst an increasingly class conscious audience, Hazlitt engenders the revolutionary spirit of the 17th century with his own Romantic flair to indeed prove that originality is the crux of modern day wisdom. Anything else I should know? That’s about all from us, but should you need help with English, feel free to drop by atarnotes.com. We wish you the best of luck for English in the HSC – it’s a demanding course but help is never far away!

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S AMPLE :