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Can I Study for English? Creating Notes Section 1 - Reading Section 2 - Writing Section 3 - Viewing

This section is quite simple, but many students make simple mistakes. Below are the two questions asked in the 2007 English WACE exam.



Note that the first question does not demand that students draw from wider viewing while the second question does. The Viewing section especially requires students to read the question to ensure that they are, in fact, answering it. The writers of the exam capitalise and bold the words stating which texts to refer to. Still, these questions are simple connection questions:



These questions were based on the following images :

Your topic sentences should refer to the connections being established in the questions. From there, answering the question becomes simple. Well, it will be simple if you have studied the concepts you need to understand in order to address the question.

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=Where students go wrong= Students go wrong in the Viewing section when they merely recount the plot. More students get half-way by providing a strong understanding of the impact of context. Only the strong students are able to synthesise their contextual understandings with evidence that is firmly based in the way the film or image is constructed.

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=Ways of reading visual texts=

The table below present a very brief overview of different ways of interpreting visual texts. There are others, so this is present merely as a starting point. In most essays, more than one of these readings is usually presented.

How does this text reinforce or challenge these assumptions? || How does this film poster, for example, succeed as a film poster (i.e. in terms of purpose and audience)? || How does this text reinforce or challenge these assumptions? || What values does this film encourage? Are these values held by me or any other group? || How are these ideas explored? What conclusions does the text arrive at? || Dominant ideologies are those that are accepted by the majority of people in the group. Resistant ideologies are those that are offered as a counterpoint to the dominant ideologies and are usually shared by those groups that are marginalised in the society. What ideological beliefs are presented in this text? Are they dominant or resistant? How are these ideologies present through the construction of the film? || Back to the top
 * ** Gender ** || What assumptions do we conventionally make about men and women based on gender?
 * ** Genre ** || How are the various elements of this text constructed?
 * ** Representations of social groups ** || What assumptions do we usually make about the social groups represented?
 * ** Values ** || Values are those things that we consider important (e.g. family, material possessions, romantic love, companionship).
 * ** Ideas ** || What ideas are explored in this text?
 * ** Ideology ** || Ideologies are values and beliefs that a shared by a large group of people.

=Exam Tips=


 * ** Do **  || ** Don’t **   ||
 * ** Read the question carefully ** || ** Answer the question you wish you were asked ** ||
 * ** Address all parts of the question ** || ** Address only part of the question ** ||
 * ** Address the way multiple meanings are possible from the text(s) ** || ** Write about the text as if the action and the characters are real-life events and people ** ||
 * ** Address they way preferred meanings are created through the use of visual language ** || ** Forget that the text has a producer and an audience ** ||
 * ** Consider how resistant readings are possible in terms of the question ** || ** Forget that visual texts encourage certain responses from the audience ** ||
 * ** Address the film as a construction for an audience ** || ** Retell the plot ** ||
 * ** Consider how resistant readings are possible in terms of the question ** || ** Write a film review ** ||