Advanced English— How to improve your mark Mrs Jenny Bean B.Ed Senior English Teacher SCEGGS Darlinghurst Experienced HSC Marker Many students comment that Advanced English is their most difficult subject. This is not surprising; it requires students to engage with a number of complex texts and to be able to respond to these texts in a sophisticated fashion. English is the only subject which has four hours of examination and your best two units of English must be counted towards your ATAR. T here is no getting around the fact that it is dedication which helps students to attain strong results in Advanced English. Students who perform well in their examinations are those who know their material in detail and depth and who have practised writing examination responses in order to develop their ability to compose sustained and fluent responses under timed conditions. The purpose of these notes is to help you to try to be as strategic and effective as possible with the time you spend studying for English. While the hard work required by the subject may seem daunting, if you are willing to put in the effort you are quite likely to find that this subject could be the most rewarding one that you study this year! Brief overview of the examination Paper One – Area of Study (40% of your examination) Reading Task (15 marks)  You will be given three or four texts and asked to respond to questions worth between 1 and 6 marks.  The questions will require you to; explore belonging ideas, analyse how language and visual techniques are used in each text to convey meaning, synthesise between texts (for the final response) 1 Creative Task (15 marks)  You will be given one or more written or visual stimuli to respond to and be asked to compose a piece about belonging. Often the stimuli may be drawn from or link thematically to the reading task.  While most years the question has pointed students towards composing a creative narrative, you are often given the option of responding in a range of text types and it is possible that the section could specify a particular text type (such as letter, speech, journal entry etc) It is useful to go into the examination with several ideas for this section, however you must be flexible with your ideas and tailor them to the specific question and rubric that you are given. Critical Response (15 marks)  You will be asked to write an analytical response on your core text and related material. The last two years of examination have asked you to focus only on one related text, however you should have more than one related text prepared in case they ask for more and in order to allow you to select a text that best suits the question that you are given.  The question will often relate thematically to the reading task and draw on specific ideas from the be- longing rubric Paper Two – Modules (60% of your examination) Module A (20 marks): Comparative study of Texts and Contexts  This unit requires you to explore how context influences values in texts. You need to have a good knowledge of the relevant context for each of the two texts and be able to write about how specific contextual forces have shaped the values and ideas explored by the composer. This unit also requires you to synthesise (compare and contrast) between two texts of different contexts. You should consider how context, genre and form of each text may have contributed to the texts portraying similar or different values. Module B (20 marks): Critical Study of Text  This unit requires a critical exploration of your set text. Over the last few years, the questions for this module have been quite specific; you must know this text in detail as you could be asked to write on a specific theme, character or section of the text.  While incorporating critical perspectives and theorems can be useful for this module, it must not be done at the expense of showing your own detailed understanding of the text. The comments from the marking centre for the last few years have emphasised the importance of a student’s personal response to the text; this is preferred to a reliance on critical perspectives. 2 Module C (20 marks): Representation and Text  This module requires you to respond to the ideas in either the elective “History and Memory” or “Conflicting Perspectives” (you will be studying one of these depending on the texts your school has chosen)  You will need to write on your core text as well as at least one related text (you should have several prepared as the question may ask for more than one).  For both electives, the focus of this unit is on Representation; therefore for your core and related texts you need to consider how the medium of production, textual form, features and language have shaped the way that ideas are conveyed in each text. Relevant documentation for the advanced course can be found at; http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/english-std-adv.html Strategy One; Know your rubrics For the Area of Study and each of the Modules the board of studies has created a rubric. This document is to help guide your teachers as they explore each of the prescribed texts with you and it is essential that you are intimately familiar with these rubrics. They tell you what you may be required to show in the examination and the exam questions often use words from the rubric. You need to have carefully thought through each sentence in each rubric. If there is something that is unclear to you, ask your teacher about it, don’t just hope that it won’t come up in the examination! These rubrics are all available on the Board of Studies website as a part of the prescriptions list. As an example of what you should look for in each rubric. On the next page is an annotated copy of the Area of Study rubric. 3 AREA OF STUDY: Belonging In the extended response for the 2009 examination students were asked to consider how understanding nourishes belonging, or how a lack of understanding can inhibit it. This Area of Study requires students to explore the ways in which the concept of belonging is represented in and through texts. Perceptions and ideas of belonging, or of not belonging, vary. These perceptions are shaped within personal, cultural, historical and social contexts. A sense of belonging can emerge from the connections made with people, places, groups, communities and the larger world. Within this Area of Study, students may consider aspects of Representation is vital to the Area of Study; you need to be able to evaluate how language, visual and filmic techniques are used by composers to convey meaning in texts. belonging in terms of experiences and notions of identity, relationships, acceptance and understanding. Paragraph two and three give you the themes or ideas that you should consider in the texts that you study, in your creative response and in the Reading Task. Texts explore many aspects of belonging, including the potential of the individual to enrich or challenge a community or group. They may reflect the way attitudes to belonging are modified over time. Texts may also represent choices not to belong, or barriers which prevent belonging. Perceptions and ideas of belonging in texts can be constructed through a variety of language modes, forms, features and structures. In engaging with the text, a responder may experience and understand the possibilities presented by a sense of belonging to, or exclusion from the text and the world it represents. This engage- Paragraph four reminds you that this unit is about representation and that you need to be able to analyse the way that different types of texts are constructed. ment may be influenced by the different ways perspectives are given voice in or are absent from a text. In their responses and compositions students examine, question, and reflect and speculate on:  how the concept of belonging is conveyed through the representations of people, relationships, ideas, places, events, and societies that they encounter in the prescribed text and texts of their own choosing related to the Area of Study  assumptions underlying various representations of the concept of belonging  how the composer’s choice of language modes, forms, features and structures shapes and is shaped by a sense of belonging    their own experiences of belonging, in a variety of contexts the ways in which they perceive the world through texts the ways in which exploring the concept and significance of belonging may broaden and deepen their understanding of themselves and their world. 4 Strategy Two: Know your texts in depth The most effective responses in the examination show a detailed knowledge of each text that is written on. Students compose sustained responses which demonstrate a depth of knowledge, they are able to quote effectively from their text and they are able to manipulate their knowledge of the text to answer the specific question posed. To achieve this you should aim to;  Read or view each of your texts more than once over the year  Compose effective study notes  Practise writing responses on each text to a variety of different questions I can’t learn the whole play! Which quotes do I choose to learn? For longer texts such as a novel, play or film you may need to be selective in the quotations or scenes that you focus on in order to be able to demonstrate a detailed knowledge of those parts of the text. If you are choosing specific scenes or chapters to focus on, try to select parts of the text that you think might relate to a range of themes or ideas in your rubric. Remember that the most famous quotations (“To be or not to be”?) will be used by everyone else in the State as well, so try to show that your knowledge goes deeper than that. Make sure that you have chosen at least four or five parts of the text to focus on in order to ensure that you can respond to a range of questions. Of course, while you may have focused in detail on specific parts of the text, you still need to know and understand the rest of the text! Below are a sample of some notes taken for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, one of the texts on the prescriptions list in Module A. Back at JF Sebastian’s apartment for the final scene of the film Try to refer to specific filmic or language devices in your notes      Use bullet points, a table, different colours – whatever method you find most effective to summarise information. Notes are useful if they are specific and brief, they should prompt .      The dark setting and suspense all harks back to the film noir genre. Pris hides behind a veil; symbolising that she is to become a bride of death? There is irony in her pretending to be a toy. Pris’s death is violent and horrific. Her pain and emotions are shown through the strobe lighting, the diegetic screams, the convulsing body language It is essential to consider context for Module A. This is a film released in 1982. Why does it use elements of film noir? Before Roy begins to fight Deckard, he ironically asks the rhetorical question “aren’t you the good man?”. Similar to the questions that we ask about Victor Frankenstein - who is really the monster in Shelley’s novel? As Roy mourns Pris’s death he demonstrates his elemental wildness and humanity, stripping down and painting his face with blood and howling like a wolf at her grief and existential pain. This suggests that he knows what it is to feel real emotions/ to be human. It also shows him ritualising her death. Specific quotes are essential for all texts that include language As Deckard dangles off the building Roy rhetorically asks him “quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it? That is what it is to be a slave”. Arguably, Roy does not want to kill Deckard, but wants him to develop empathy (perhaps one of the most vital human emotions) from this experience. Throughout the battle, Roy realises that his “life” is ending. The nondiegetic sound of bells symbolises an end to life. The dove that Roy holds in the final scene symbolises peace and forgiveness – it is at this point of forgiveness and redemption that Roy is at his most human. In his final moments, Roy wants to share what he has “seen” with Deckard “I’ve seen things….” He wants his memories to be preserved and not to be “lost in time like tears” (simile). The poetry of these final lines of Roy’s also suggests his humanity. In death, Roy appreciates the value of life and saves Deckard’s. He transcends vengeance and accepts his “time to die”. High key lighting and Roy’s blond hair, again alludes to him as an angel (remember, he had described himself as a “fiery angel” earlier in the film) Module A requires you to compare between texts, so you should try to remember this when you make notes about each text 5 Strategy Three: Be prepared for what the examination will require you to do Each examination question will provide a rubric at the top of the paper. It is important that you look at this as well as at the question that you are given. The rubric tends to form the basis of what the markers will be looking for when they mark your response. Below is the 2010 Module B question for Hamlet. In your answer you will be assessed on how well you: To be evaluating the text, you need to be commenting on the effectiveness of the language devices within and format of the text  demonstrate an informed understanding of the ideas expressed in the text  evaluate the text’s language, content and construction  organise, develop and express ideas using language appropriate to audience, purpose and form The word informed is important here, you can only show an informed understanding if you can support your ideas with detailed textual references (and perhaps critical comments) This point reminds you that the markers are looking for responses that are fluent and well structured. Question 3 — Shakespearean Drama – William Shakespeare, Hamlet (20 marks) ‘Shakespeare’s Hamlet continues to engage audiences through its dramatic treatment of struggle and disillusionment.’ In the light of your critical study, does this statement resonate with your own interpretation of Hamlet? In your response, make detailed reference to the play. Notes on this specific Hamlet question  Struggle and disillusionment were key terms in this question; an effective response needed to craft and argument around these terms (not simply referring to the words in the introduction and conclusion of an essay!)  The question asks points you to consider the dramatic treatment of these themes. This encourages you to show an awareness that this is a play and to refer to dramatic features and techniques used by Shakespeare to engage and provoke his audience.  The question points to the fact that the markers are looking for a personal response when it asks how the statement resonates with “your own interpretation”. To achieve a personal response you need to rely own detailed knowledge of the play, rather than others critical perspectives in order to craft your argument. 6 Strategy Four: Practise writing responses There is no avoiding the fact that the best way to perfect almost any skill is to practise. This is the same for performing in an English examination. Students who achieve the best results in English have usually practised composing a range of written responses under timed conditions. Practising helps you to develop the speed and fluency of your writing, as well as helping you to ensure that you are familiar with your text. It is dangerous to think that you can rely on memorised essays in your examination as markers are directed to only reward student who engage with the specific question throughout their response (not just in the introduction and conclusion!) You will be better prepared if you have memorised a good number of quotes and examples from each of your texts and if you are practised and comfortable at responding to a range of different questions. Writing whole essays can sometimes be daunting and time consuming; remember that it is often just as useful to compose practise paragraphs as you work towards an essay. There is more than one way to effectively structure an essay and the structure that you use will probably be slightly different for each module in the examination. As a basic structure, an essay will have an introduction, body and conclusion. In the body of your essay, each paragraph should be framed around a clear thesis statement or topic sentence which responds to the question that you have been given. That thesis should then be supported by analysis of specific textual forms and features. Your analysis should; refer in detail to specific language forms and features, include specific quotations and respond specifically to key words in the question. Sample Paragraph for Module C Question: How are conflicting perspectives of a personality conveyed in one of the texts that you have studied? Ted Hughes’s poem “Sam” presents Sylvia as both a vulnerable and yet destructive personali- Thesis statement ty . The poem recounts a horse riding incident which occurred to Plath in 1955 and which she wrote about in her poem “Whiteness I remember ”. Hughes appropriates the incident and makes it an extended metaphor for their marriage in order to represent how Plath desperately clung to him when he left her for another woman. The poem begins by describing the incident as “all of a piece to you”, the suggestion in this line is that Plath saw danger and the proximity to death as a part of the drama of her life, perhaps fuel for her poetry. This perspective on the Brief overview of the text or development of the thesis statement destructive side to her personality is furthered when he describes how “you lost your reins, you lost your seat – “, after the horse Sam gallops away from Plath. The direct address and tone of accusation are effective tools used by Hughes to suggest that it was her fault that she cannot maintain a grip on the horse, and metaphorically their marriage. The most damming comment on Plath’s destructive streak can be found in the final stanza of the poem when Hughes describes how she “Flung yourself off and under my feet to trip me/ And tripped me and lay dead. Over in a flash”. These lines allude to Plath’s suicide and suggest that it may have been motivated by her desire to hurt or “trip” Hughes. The final pithy sentence “Over in a flash” suggests emphatically the suddenness with which Plath caused her own death. Despite these views of Plath as destructive, “Sam” also suggests that Hughes saw her as an individual who was vulnerable and needed protection. There is an affectionate tone in the second stanza when Hughes asks rhetorically “How did you cling on? Baby monkey/ Using your arms and legs for clinging steel”. The affectionate metaphor of “baby monkey” suggests the intimacy between Hughes and Plath as well as her childlike vulnerability. It is clear that Hughes is conflicted about his former wife; he is as protective of her as he is angry at some of her actions . Summary sentence 7 Advanced English HSC Checklist Part A – Knowing what is required of you  Have you closely studied and considered the Advanced English course outlines and prescriptions for the Area of Study and each of your modules?  Have you looked at the rubrics for past examinations and thought about what the examiners might be looking for?  Have you looked at the notes from the marking centre for the previous year’s papers to see what the markers were looking for? Part B – Knowing your material  Do you know each of your texts thoroughly? (your texts should be read more than once and they should be annotated – or you should take notes on them, you should know how your text relates to the relevant module or Area of Study and how it might compare to other texts in that Module or Area of Study)  Have you learnt a range of relevant quotations for each text (not simply the most obvious ones)?  Are you confident identifying and analysing how composers use language, visual or filmic devices to create meaning in their texts? Part C – Practising examination skills  Have you practiced writing responses under timed conditions to past HSC papers, past Catholic trials paper and papers that your friends from other schools may have access to?  Have you practiced responding to a variety of different questions and approaching texts from different angles?  Have you asked your teacher, or a tutor, to look over your written work and suggest how you could improve it? 8