VCE® Exam English is always a point of debate for students, parents and teachers alike. Everyone seems to have their own opinion on why context writing or text response are necessary. In spite of this, for students in particular, the language analysis section is always viewed as the most irritating and unnecessary. The purpose of this blog is to explain the rationale behind this type of question and also to look at a few techniques that can be used to help you tick the marker’s boxes during the exam. This is by no means a compressive set of notes for language analysis but more of an overview of the why of it all.
Language analysis in VCE® Exam English is probably the most transferable skill that you will gain in your secondary education. No matter what field you are in, you will always have reading to do and assess, be it in the form of papers, reports, news or studies. All of these written works will be either trying to convince you of a point of view or describe some information crucial to your learning outcomes. As such, it is vitally important that you can not only break down what is said overtly, but also understand the subtext of the piece. You need to be aware of the intention of the author and their intended effect on you. In fact, you can see the effects of language analysis quite readily when you begin to question advertisements and marketing flyers more critically! This can really help you not to get conned!
Language analysis is based on taking a "bird’s eye" view of the article and not being swayed by the intentions or tone of the author. The essence is to look at texts objectively so that you can separate the persuasive elements from actual facts. In VCE® Exam, your main focus is generally to explore how the author is trying to be persuasive or emotive. Once you have discerned these nuances, you should also be able to understand what the author’s aim is in trying to manipulate you. Believe me, this will make you a cynic for long after year 12 finishes!
Now let’s get into some simple tips to language analysis. My golden rule of language analysis is somehow similar to the 3 step process I use in blog writing:
- Find the technique
This is the most obvious step that everyone doing VCE® Exam English is likely familiar with. Simply identify the techniques used by the author to encase his arguments and label them appropriately. You will no doubt have studied what the most common techniques are and what how to recognise them. Make sure you know your list of technique well and practice identifying them in context!
- What does it make the reader (you) feel?
This second step may be a bit less obvious to some of you. Once you have identified the techniques the author used, you need to find out why the author chose to do so. What was his desired outcome? The easiest way to find this out is to ask yourself what your first reaction to reading that piece of extract was. How did in make you feel? Then try to explain how these emotions were coaxed out of you by the writer’s prose. When trying to achieve this step it is really hard to not sound repetitive but do your best to use statements like "….positions the reader to feel….", "by using …the reader is likely to think of.." etc.
- What does it make the reader do?
This final step is really an extrapolation of step 2 and is what will catapult your essay to that A+ grade. Once you know how the technique makes you feel, it’s important to think "well what's the point of making me feel that way?". In other words what is the bigger agenda here? What are you (as the reader) more likely to do? The author’s aim may simply be to make you experience various emotions in such a way that the piece gives you enjoyment, but it could also be to support the author’s contention for political, ideological or economical reasons. Be aware of this and make sure to comment on this third step as often as possible!
Happy Studying!
