The 3 things you shouldn't forget when analysing language

Analysing the way someone uses language and then writing your own essay about it is kind of a strange thing. Not only do you have to work out what the author is saying and why, but you then need to turn your discussion into a cohesive, well structured essay. Simple right? Most people don't think so.
It is hard to know where to start.

Here are the three things l believe you should focus on in every language analysis essay. Include these 3 things in equal measure and you can't go wrong.

1. What is the author saying?  Identity the key messages in the piece of writing you are analysing. Each of these key messages might form the focus of your paragraphs ie: discuss one of the author's main messages per paragraph.

2. How are they saying it? What evidence and language is the author using to make their point? This becomes the bulk of your discussion in the body of your paragraphs. Here you are discussing the language devices they are using to make their point.

3. Why are they saying what they are saying in this way? This is one of the most important parts of your essay and it is the bit that most people forget. You need to discuss here what the author's intended effect is. Why have they chosen to say what they said in the way that they said it? Why have they chosen paricular words, phrases or evidence? What are they trying to find or imply? How are they trying to influence the reader?

Covering all 3 of the What How Why in your essay will ensure your language analysis essay is thorough and focuses on the right elements. There is no point writing a list of persuasive techniques the author uses because the important thing is to discuss how he/she uses them and why.

The Study Space's guide to oral presentations

As part of AOS 3 - Using Language to Persuade, you will most likely be asked to present a persuasive oral to your class and teachers. Whilst your oral presentation should be persuasive it is not the same as a persuasive essay.  If they are reading, your audience have an opportunity to go back and re-read if they need to.  When they are listening your audience do not have this opportunity so it is even more important that you present your arguments in a clear and logical way so that the audience can follow. 

The best way to do this is to have a clear structure and to take note of the points below.

Key elements of a persuasive oral:

Introduction

Introduce the issue you will be discussing.  What is it? How did it come about? Why are people arguing about it? 

Contention/Main Argument

Clearly define your opinion on the issue - what are you arguing? The contention should be introduced as part of your introduction, as should your supporting arguments.  This way you are signposting to your audience what you think and why you think it and what you are going to talk about so that they can follow what you are saying more easily. 

Supporting Arguments

Your oral presentation should have 2-3 supporting arguments.  To work out what your supporting arguments should be, ask yourself these questions: What do I think about this issue (what is my opinion) and why do I think it (what are the main reasons I think the way I do)?

You should clearly list your 2-3 supporting arguments and each of these should be discussed in detail in your presentation. 

Rebuttal

Your rebuttal is an opportunity to pre-empt what people might say to disagree with your opinion and then explain to your audience why they are wrong if they disagree with you.  For example, if you are arguing for  the death penalty then in your rebuttal you might pick the most common argument against the death penalty and explain to your audience why it is wrong.  For example: People think that the death penalty is not a deterrent, however...

Conclusion

Don't forget to conclude your presentation with something interesting that reinforces your opinion.  A great way to leave a lasting impact on your audience is to get them to feel personally involved in the issue.  You might finish your oral presentation by presenting to your audience what you think needs to be done about the issue and how they can all be involved in the solution. 

Some tips for an engaging presentation:

Use eye contact

This means no reading from your cue cards or from a PowerPoint. 

Only write the main points or a topic sentence on your cue cards and make the font big enough that you can glance at it and still read it.  If you put the whole presentation on there you might be tempted to read it.  You can write it out in full at home to try to remember it and practice, practice, practice - in front of the mirror or to your parents and/or siblings.  This is a good way to help you remember your presentation but also to check out how long it goes for to see if you need to cut it short or make it a bit longer. 

Make your points clear and repeat them often

Remember that your audience will benefit from repetition when they are listening.  If your points are not clear enough they will be confused and tune out. 

Don't over-use PowerPoint

You should never put more than a couple of words on a PowerPoint slide and it is better if you use them for visual prompts - relevant images or small embedded video snippets could be used to help engage your audience and prompt you as to your next point. 

Try to get the audience involved in the subject matter

The best way to do this is to ask your audience some relevant questions, get a show of hands, give them surprising statistics that will make them think or explain to them how they are involved in the issue and what they should do about it. 

You might like to take on a persona

Think about who you could pretend to be in your presentation.  For example, could you be a concerned parent?  Could you be a school principal?  If you take on the persona of a person who is personally involved with the issue somehow then it helps you to argue something that you might not even actually agree with and it might make your presentation stand out a bit from the crowd.  A persona can be interesting because it allows you to think a little bit differently.  Make sure you introduce your persona at the start of the presentation so people know who you are pretending to be.

Why practice essays are the key to English success.

The  best thing you can do is write, write, write!

Most VCE students want to do well in English.  After all,  it is the only subject that counts towards your Atar regardless of your marks.  What most students don't realise though is that English (and every English based subject) is not about learning content. Although you do need to demonstrate a detailed knowledge of and understanding of the texts you are studying, English is predominately about demonstrating a set of skills.  Skills like interpreting and understanding texts, writing coherently and intelligently and being creative when creating your own texts.  The only way you can demonstrate these skills,  in order to have them assessed, is to write and this is why most of your assessment during the year is in the form of writing, culminating in the three hour English exam. 

Regardless of which one of the tasks you are completing in Year 12 English you are being assessed on both your understanding and interpretation of what you have read and how you go about exploring these ideas in your own piece of writing.

So what does this mean for a year 12 student? It means that although knowledge and understanding are important, the most important thing is how you go about expressing that knowledge and
understanding in your own carefully crafted piece of writing. 

More importantly it means the only way you can truly improve your English grade is to write practice essays.  As many as possible, as often as possible, getting as much feedback as possible.

Here are four reasons practice essays are so important:

1. They help you work out where the gaps in your knowledge are when you still have time to do something about it.                                   

Particularly in the Reading and Responding (text response) your knowledge of the text is paramount. Many students only realise they don't have enough to talk about in their essay when they are trying to write under exam or assessment conditions.  If you practise your writing before sitting down to an assessment task then you have time to go back to the text and learn more about the characters and themes to fill in the gaps etc if you need to.

2. The more you practice any skill, the better you become.

Writing a good essay is not some mythical skill that some people possess and others don't.  Anyone can write a good essay, it just requires practise and a knowledge of what to include and how to structure it. I will be writing more on this in future posts. 

3. Practice essays allow you to get feedback and this feedback, when taken on board, can only make your grades get better and better.

Getting feedback on an assessment task that has already been graded is not really that helpful.  Let's be honest, how often do you read the feedback, look at the grade, be happy or sad and then forget all about it by the time the next essay comes around?  Writing practice essays means that you are practising the skills at a time when you can get feedback on them from the teacher who will grade your assessment tasks and ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING ABOUT that feedback in time to improve your grade.  This is a free service, provided by your teachers that you should be taking advantage of.

4. Practising a whole lot of different topics makes you better prepared for the exam?

There are not an infinite number of questions that an examiner could ask you about every text you will study, just like there are not an infinite number of prompts you could be given for Creating and Presenting.  This means the more you write practice essays, the more likely it is that you will have written a practice essay on the very essay topic or prompt that you receive in the exam. Therefore, you can actually be prepared for the exam without cramming in the last 6 weeks. If you write a practice essay every week (which requires just one hour's committment each week) then by the time the exam comes around, you will have written a practice essay for almost every possible essay topic you might be given in the exam.

Okay. 

So I've convinced you that you need to write practice essays but you might not know how to motivate yourself to actually do it.  The best way to get yourself started and to maintain your momentum is to get organised with a study timetable.  I've written more about how to make study timetables work for you here.  My previous post also contains a video and template to help you out.  

When you are planning out your study timetable you need to put aside at least one hour each week of uninterrupted time to write an essay.  Set aside two if you can. I find the weekends are the best time to do some more concentrated study blocks.  Get some practise topics from your teacher and force yourself to write.  Give each essay to your teacher for feedback.  If you don't feel like you are getting enough feedback,  or you feel that it is taking too long then check out our essay feedback service.  Each week, before you start the new essay, look at last week's feedback and try to incorporate it in to this week's essay.  The more you do this, the better your essays will become and the more confident you will feel going in to the exam.

Organising your time for a successful VCE

Often students find the leap between Year 11 and Year 12 to be a big one.  If you have completed a Year 12 subject in Year 11 you might have found that you spent a lot of your time focussing on your Year 12 subject and less time on your Year 11 ones.  You might have struggled with time management. Now you have 4 or 5 Year 12 subjects to complete, you might be asking yourself how will you ever get all the work and study done to stay on top of things.

The key to success in VCE is to stay organised and be consistent.  

A study timetable helps you manage your time in VCE

Stay organised with a study timetable.

Creating a study timetable that takes in to account your prior commitments such as sport and work, and even your favourite TV shows and time with friends means that you will be able to maintain a balanced lifestyle without your study suffering. Although it is not always popular with parents, if there are TV shows you always watch then put them in to your timetable - if you are going to watch them anyway then it is better that they are not interrupting a planned study time.  Put in some time for relaxing things you like to do such as chat online with friends or walking the dog.

To create a study timetable like the one above:

1. Plan out the time you have available for study each night and block out the hours that are already committed to something else.  
2. Spilt your study time in to 1 hour or 45 min blocks as this will give you a good amount of time to get stuck in to each subject.
3. Look at your school timetable for each day.  Try to choose the 3 or 4 subjects from that day you are most likely to have homework for and write these in to your blocks for the night.  Make sure you have a block dedicated to every subject at least 3-4 times per week, even if you do not usually get homework for this subject. By doing this you will find that there is always enough time in the day to get your work done. In fact, you will be quite a distance ahead the whole year long because you will be working consistently each night and rather than leaving everything until the last minute.
4. Grab a few hours on the weekend for study but allow yourself a sleep in or some nights off!

Here is a video I have created that talks you through creating your own study timetable in more detail.
You can also click here for a basic template that you can manipulate.

Being consistent means working on each subject each day, even when you have no "homework."

Leaving things until the last minute does not work in VCE because the work piles up quickly. Being consistent throughout the year means working each night on each of your subjects, even when there is no set homework due the next day.  Here's how it works. On your study timetable you should set aside a time each night for each subject (or a different 3 or 4 subjects each night depending on the time you have available). When you start a block for a subject, for example, English, you first complete any homework or immediate work due within the week.  Once you have finished this work it doesn't mean you can have a break or move on to the next subject.  Instead, you move on to the ongoing study part of the subject.  By that I mean the preparation for the next assessment task or SAC and organisation and creation of your notes for ongoing exam revision.  For English this might involve reading and making notes on your texts or writing practice essays. If you are spending 2-3 hours per week on each subject, and working on exam revision and preparation such as writing practice essays or completing exam questions then by the time you get to the end of the year you will be in a substantially better place than if you had left it all until the last minute! 

Each one hour block on your study timetable should look like this:

Homework (might take only 15 mins or the whole hour depending on what it is)

Ongoing study (an essay plan or some work on a SAC)

Exam revision (practice exam tasks, practice essays, notes)

My advice is the same for every subject.  If you create a balanced study timetable where you are dedicating time to study but also having a life then you will be more motivated to do your study because you are not missing out on all the fun things in life! If each hour in your timetable is utilised to the fullest then you will always be working ahead, consolidating and practising the skills you are learning. Never underestimate the power of a good study timetable!

Preparing for Year 12 English

Just finished Year 11?  Don’t just sit around freaking out about next year.  There are heaps of things you can do now to get organised and give yourself the best chance of VCE English success!

Here’s my to-do list to prepare for 2015 English:

Organise your notes (even though you haven’t started them yet!)

Think about how you will organise your notes because if you are following my advice you will be starting them before you even start classes! A clearly organised notebook that actually contains good notes can be the biggest asset a VCE English student can have.  

I recommend:
A folder with the following tabs labelled OR/ a notebook for each of these instead

• AOS 1 Text 1 ( actually write the name of the text etc Year of Wonders)
• AOS 1 Text 2
• Context (AOS 2)
• ULTP (Using Language to Persuade)

You could even split these categories up further:

• AOS 1 Text 1 ( actually write the name of the text etc Year of Wonders)
• Theme 1
• Theme 2 etc
• Character 1
• Character 2 etc
• Motifs
• Language and Literary devices
• Practice essays
• AOS 1 Text 2
• As above
• Context (AOS 2)
• Ideas about the context
• Ideas from the text
• Writing ideas
• Sample prompts
• Practice writing tasks
• ULTP
• Glossary of Language techniques (Metalanguage Glossary)
• Sample articles
• Practise analysis questions

Organising your notes before you start the year will really help you stay focussed on what is important and to ensure that you are making notes on all of the right things.  If you don’t do this you might find that you have focussed a little too narrowly on one or two themes or characters. 

Read all of next year’s texts (twice!)

I can’t stress enough how important it is to read the texts before the start of the year. This is especially important if you don’t like reading because if you wait until classes have started you will just keep putting it off as other things get in the way!
The first time you read the texts you are reading for understanding.  Take notes on your first impressions of the characters and on what you think the themes are.  The second time you read the text you already know what is happening so this is when you make all your notes on themes and characters.  This second read may happen during the year as you study the text in class. 

Read what others say about your texts.

It can be a great help to google your texts and read a bit about themes, characters and what other people think about your text.  This doesn’t mean you are always going to agree with what they write but it can help to know what you are looking for when you are reading.   You may do this before you even start reading your text, but you should definitely do it between the first and second time you read.  This way your second reading is more focussed and you know the notes you should be taking and the quotes to look out for. You should have a section in your notes for each theme and each character and as you come across interesting quotes as you read, you should note them down. 

Start collecting everything you can that relates to your context.  

A context is a  broad theme, idea or issue and as you will have to create your own piece of writing on your context it is never too early to look for inspiration and ideas.
Look in

• newspaper articles
• song lyrics
• poetry
• experiences and memories

Read the newspaper and start looking at issues in the media and how they are portrayed.  

Most schools get you to do a persuasive oral presentation arguing your beliefs about a current issue in the media. You can start thinking about this early and cutting out or saving articles of interest now. 

Doing these simple things between now and the end of January will mean you will start the year feeling much more organised and will help you focus on what is important in your VCE English studies.