Eunoia

Hey guys! New post! We’re very slowly heading out of oral presentation and statement of intention territory - finally.

As such it’s time to get going on study for the comparative essay. Like all styles of writing, this is challenging, and you’re allowed to be totally lost. English is quite hard to teach, especially in a classroom setting, so it’s no surprise so many VCE students find studying for English hard.

Personally as a science student, the lack of specific direction in English pulled the metaphorical rug out from under me every time. While I can appreciate this approach now, I also have an edge most English teachers do not: I understand English study from the point of view of someone who didn’t find it easy in school. 

As such, I’ve made it my mission as a tutor to make English accessible for all types of students. For those who enjoy formulae, I’m creating essay formulae. Below is my (ironically brief and loose) set of rules for how to study for a comparative essay.

1. Know the content of your books very well.      a. Learn about your characters.           i. Their literal actions           ii. Their motivations (what their actions tell us about them      b. Know all the events, characters involved, and order it all happens in      c. Learn what the symbols and motifs are, and what they represent

2. Think about the themes shown in each text.      a. Read as many essays and articles on the texts as you can. Learn about others’ interpretations in order to inform your own - but don’t copy straight out!      b. See what you can add to existing ideas      c. Think about the texts on your own - write as much as you can on a given theme, trying to explore it from all lenses and points of view

3. Make note of the themes that appear between the texts

4. Compare how each of these themes is dealt with

5. Consider each theme through the authorial intent

As usual, feel free to ask if you want more detail on each of these points. Each could totally take up an entire post on its own, so that’s something I might look into in the future. In the meantime, hope this was helpful! Good luck!

Hey all! With the current situation in Australia, I thought it was important to give people some of my best tips for preparing for firstly term 2, but also the coming weeks. This is particularly important as schools have now been shut down in Victoria.

In this post, I want to outline a five-point to do list for VCE English students to help them prepare over the holidays. Without further ado, here it is. Enjoy!

1. Read all your books if you have not done so yet. This is super important. In order to do well in English, you have to know these books inside out. While themes are very important, your essay will be looked on very poorly if you don’t get your basic facts correct. Thus, read your books, and learn the plot, events, and characters.

2. Start an essay bank. One of the best ways to get better at English is to read essays. The good news is it is still early in the year, so work is light. The bad news is, this will not last forever, especially when school starts back. Use your free time now to start collating a folder of essays on the books you are reading. Really, this can be any kind of material (e.g. study guides, theme summaries), though it’s best if you are able to access actual analytical pieces. Keep these all together. Even if you don’t read them immediately, you’ll definitely want them later on.

3. Get a quote bank going for each of your texts. If you don’t have one already, and you know you’re going to want one, now is the time to get started. Again, you won’t have this kind of time later in the year.

4. Write some argument analysis essays. For most people, this SAC is held early in term two. I wrote about 6 in my VCE during these holidays (one a day in the second week). The minimum for an average student should be about 4. Send all of them to year teacher. In the best case scenario, you get feedback on each one before you start the next. At the very least, do try and get them all back before holidays end, but give your teacher at least three days before sending a follow-up.

5. Pick an oral topic if possible. Again, this is a bit of a catch up point for people who have not done so yet. It’s good to be doing this now, before you have the stress of other schoolwork later.

Probably a bit anticlimactic that my 100th post is just a celebration of the achievement... XD

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