Missed out on the ATAR Notes English Unit 2 Lecture?

Throughout the June/July school holidays, ATAR Notes held many free VCE lectures at RMIT’s City Campus in the heart of the CBD. Offering many lectures on several of the most popular VCE subjects, they involve a high-achieving ex-student providing tips and guidance for the next unit of the subject. They held more lectures related to the subjects I do only for units three and four rather than one and two. Therefore, I only attended the year eleven English lecture as it was the only one applicable to me.

ATAR Notes offer accessible support and guidance for all VCE students. Other than providing us with the opportunity to attend free lectures during the school holidays, they also have an online forum and a YouTube channel. Furthermore, they also offer paid tutoring with TuteSmart. Their aim is to provide current students with as many resources as possible to achieve success, all done by ex-students who received an outstanding ATAR score.

The lecture I attended was presented by Callum, who is currently studying Law at Monash University. He received an ATAR of 99.45 and achieved a study score of over 40 in all six of his subjects. While this achievement is absolutely mind-blowing to hear, he is simply a great lecturer. He explains things clearly, never making things confusing. He’s honest about what you need to know and seems knowledgeable about what he’s talking about. He even makes school-related topics not seem like too much of a drag to listen to during the school holidays! To put it simply, he just is the right guy for the job.

Soon, the lecture slides will be uploaded onto the ATAR Notes website. Thus, if you would like to know everything which Callum went over, I would suggest downloading and having a look at that. However, I will provide a rundown and brief summary of the lecture.

Area of Study: Comparing Texts

Criteria which you should follow:

•       Make it relevant: Select appropriate evidence which is linked to the prompt.
•       Quality of ideas: Have a balance between similarities and differences.
•       Quality of writing: Have key terms and  text specific words.

How to achieve the criteria:

•  Make it relevant: Address the core of the prompt
•  Quality of ideas: Go back and forth between similarities and differences, address both similarities and differences (rather than just similarities or just differences). However, recognising differences tends to give you more points.
• Quality of writing: Clarity in your writing is more important than sophistication. Simply, just write how you would normally word things.

What do I compare?

-          Similarities in structural features (how the author presented their idea)

-          Similarities in ideas or message

-          Differences in structural features

-          Differences in ideas or messages

•   From an idea of a similarity, there is always an idea for a difference (and vice versa).
•  Analyse devices, themes, views and values (what the author is saying).
•  Do not summarise (the examiner or teacher has already read the text!).
•   Don’t compare unrelated themes, ideas or other elements. Rather, ask questions like “what does text B say about an issue raised by text A?”.

What to know prior to comparing texts:

•  Know key themes, quotes, characters, plots and issues.
• Why the author wrote it.
•  Develop your interpretation.

Structural features to consider:

• Characterisation: How many characters are there, what is the POV, do we have sympathy for a character, what are the characters' motivation and do they contribute to the overall idea?
• Structure
• Symbolism
• Metaphors
• Genre
• Differences in presentation (camera angles vs sentences)
• Differences in genre (and how that creates meaning)

Themes to consider:

Similarities and differences in the same theme.

o   And the similarities and differences in how they are presented.

Authorial views and values to consider:

-          What is each text trying to say? What is the message or purpose of the text?

How do I write the essay?

•          Have smooth transitions – Explain how the two ideas are related, don’t just rely on text connectives. 
•      Per paragraph, you don’t need to focus on each text equally. However, throughout the whole essay you should focus on text A and text B equally.

There are two ways to structure a body paragraph:

Switch Method             State comparison in topic sentence             Explain text A           Comparison             Explain text B             Comparison	Rainbow Method            Topic Sentence             Explain difference             Explain similarity             Explain difference             Explain similarity.
This method is easy and has a focus on depth of analysis. While it is less messy, VCAA doesn't favour this method. Therefore, it may not be ideal for the Year 12 exam.	This method offers less depth of analysis and is more difficult to plan. However, it allows for more comparison.

How to study for a comparative essay:

•           Read or watch the texts (not SparkNotes!)
•           Use Google Scholar (after reading the texts)
•           Use visuals (like Venn diagrams)
•           Compile ideas together into one place
•           Make quote bank (include short analysis)
•           Write down similarities and differences
•           Write practise essays.

Area of Study: Analysing Arguments

Criteria which you should follow:

• Comprehension of texts (what is the author doing)
• Quality of analysis (what a specific example does)
• Expression and vocabulary (metalanguage and intent verbs)

How to understand the contention

• What is the issue?
• Does the author think it’s good or bad?
• In what way is it good or bad?
• Why is it good or bad?

Quality of ideas

• Don’t evaluate, rank or summarise.
• Find out why a persuasive technique is used.

Persuasive Techniques to find:

• Connotations (don’t just say positive or negative)
• Structure
• Tonal shift
• Use of specific words
• Recurring ideas
• Personification
• Listing
•  Jargon
• Appeals
• Imagery
• Juxtapositions
• Modal verbs
• Call to action
• Rebuttal
• Idiom
• Colloquial language
• Sarcasm
• Attacks
• Anecdotes
• Evidence or statistics
• Inclusive/exclusive language
• Rhetorical questions.

Tip: Ask “how does this differ from how we normally speak?”

How to structure body paragraph

• What is the author doing? (techniques, quotes)
• How does the author want the audience to feel or think?
• Why does the author do this?

Finding Arguments

Look for topics related to people, a problem and things

Writing a conclusion

• Explain overall stance, solutions and major techniques.
• Explain impact of arguments

Area of Study: Persuasive Oral

Choosing an issue

• Issue of interest to you. 
• Australian issue
• An issue which is debates upon
• Ensure to research about it
• Develop your own contention.

Forming a contention

• Answer a prompt
• Make it not obvious by providing a solution to this issue.

Elements of delivery

-          Body language

-          Gestures

-          Eye contact

-          Use space

-          Keep cue cards away from body

-          Silence

-          Vary tone

-          Project your voice

-          Speak slowly

-          Breathe!

Random tips

• To be a more concise writer, try to summarise less.
•  Improving your vocab is important and can be done through reading or spending some time with a thesaurus.
• Your idea isn’t too far-fetched if you have evidence to back it up. 
• Always plan before you write.
• Ask yourself, “am I summarising?”

Did you go to any other ATAR Notes lectures? Let me know if you found them helpful!