This resource was written by Zenna Diab for the ETA HSC STUDENT DAY.

Any collated material is referenced.

CONTENTS PAGES

Overview 3

Background Knowledge
• The Common Module Statement 4

NESA Samples
• Texts, Questions and Guidelines 5 - 17

Additional Sample Texts

• Texts, Questions and Guidelines 18 - 25

Practice Examinations
(all texts compiled and questions written by Z. Diab)
• Sample 1 26 – 40
• Sample 2 41 - 53

HSC Intensive Training Examinations

(all texts compiled and questions written by Z. Diab)
• HIT Paper 1 (Question & writing booklet, stimulus booklet, and answer sheet) 54 - 78
• HIT Paper 2 (Question & writing booklet, stimulus booklet) 79 – 91
• HIT Paper 3 (Question & writing booklet, stimulus booklet, and answer sheet) 92 - 106

Appendix
• Appendix 1 - Generic Command Terms Glossary 107 - 108
• Appendix 2 - English Stage 6 Syllabus Glossary 109 - 117
• Appendix 3 – Glossary - Features of Texts: Form, Style & Language 118 - 122
Techniques

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 OVERVIEW
PAPER 1, SECTION 1 READING TASK

This resource was prepared with the purpose of providing students with opportunities to develop the
background knowledge and skills, through practice responding to texts in a way that may be similar to
the HSC Written Examination, for the reading task in the HSC English Paper 1: Section 1, Written
examination.

The aim is to provide:

• Examples of texts representing human experiences, as outlined in the Common Module
Statement,
• Taster texts for the Paper 1: Section 1 Reading Task in the HSC Written Examination,
• Examples of the types of questions we anticipate students may be asked to answer,
• Opportunity to respond to a range of questions,
• Ongoing practice for the reading task.

The Sample NESA Papers, and the 2019 HSC (available on the NESA website), have been used to
guide the text choices provided herein and the practice questions. However, this does not mean that
the 2020 HSC examination and questions will be similar.

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 BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE
THE COMMON MODULE STATEMENT

1. What I am learning about (concept)

2. Representation (texts)
3. Reader Response
4. Composition

Texts and Human Experiences

In this common module students deepen their understanding of how texts represent individual and
collective human experiences. They examine how texts represent human qualities and emotions
associated with, or arising from, these experiences. Students appreciate, explore, interpret, analyse and
evaluate the ways language is used to shape these representations in a range of texts in a variety of
forms, modes and media.

Students explore how texts may give insight into the anomalies, paradoxes and inconsistencies in
human behaviour and motivations, inviting the responder to see the world differently, to challenge
assumptions, ignite new ideas or reflect personally. They may also consider the role of storytelling
throughout time to express and reflect particular lives and cultures. By responding to a range of texts
they further develop skills and confidence using various literary devices, language concepts, modes and
media to formulate a considered response to texts.

Students study one prescribed text and a range of short texts that provide rich opportunities to further
explore representations of human experiences illuminated in texts. They make increasingly informed
judgements about how aspects of these texts, for example context, purpose, structure, stylistic and
grammatical features, and form shape meaning. In addition, students select one related text and draw
from personal experience to make connections between themselves, the world of the text and their wider
world.

By responding and composing throughout the module students further develop a repertoire of skills in
comprehending, interpreting and analysing complex texts. They examine how different modes and
media use visual, verbal and/or digital language elements. They communicate ideas using figurative
language to express universal themes and evaluative language to make informed judgements about
texts. Students further develop skills in using metalanguage, correct grammar and syntax to analyse
language and express a personal perspective about a text.

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 NESA SAMPLES
Students are advised to be mindful of these notes from the NESA sample papers.

Questions will require candidates to demonstrate knowledge, understanding and skills developed
through studying the course.

The Year 11 course is assumed knowledge for the Year 12 course. There is no expectation that all of
the Year 12 content will be examined each year. The examination will test a representative sample of
the Year 12 content in any given year.

The sample questions provide examples of some questions that may be found in HSC written
examinations for English Advanced/Standard/Studies in Paper 1, Section 1.

Each question has been mapped to show how the sample question relates to syllabus outcomes and
content. These can be seen at the NESA site

Marking guidelines are provided. The marking guidelines indicate the criteria associated with each mark
or mark range, and provide sample answers for the short-answer questions (Section I).

In the examination, students will record their answers to Section I and Section II in separate writing
booklets.

The sample questions, annotations and marking guidelines provide teachers and students with guidance
as to the types of questions to expect and how they may be marked.

They are not intended to be prescriptive.

Each year the structure of the examination may differ in the number and type of questions to those
given in this set of sample questions.

These insights, and the following content from the English Advanced/Standard/Studies Sample Paper,
available on the NESA website, have been used to guide the text choices provided herein and the
practice questions.

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NESA SAMPLE TEXT 1 - IMAGES – FILM POSTERS

NESA SAMPLE QUESTION 1

Example A (4 marks) English Advanced only
Use Text 1 to answer this question.
Compare how each of the two posters creates a sense of shared human experience.

NESA SAMPLE MARKING GUIDELINES

Compares skillfully how each text creates a sense of shared human experience 4

Compares how each text creates a sense of shared human experience 3

Describes a sense of shared human experience that is created in the texts 2

Provides some relevant information about the text(s) and/or human experience 1

NESA GUIDELINES FOR ANSWERS

• The symbol of the film reel and the colour yellow represent light shining on the open mind,
suggesting the positive experience of sharing stories.
• The images of butterflies that represent freedom, supported by the text ‘let’s stop the stigma’,
suggest the importance of sharing stories about mental illness.
• The bright colour palette of the Sydney Film Festival poster conveys the positivity of shared
experiences told through film.

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NESA SAMPLE ANSWER
Both posters represent the idea that despite our diversity we are united in our capacity to share and
receive stories about our experiences through film. The Sydney Film Festival poster represents a
collective emotional experience through its composition of the multicoloured symmetric figures that fill
the frame and this is supported by the text, or tag-line, that reinforces a shared experience with the word
‘together’. The Miami Film Festival poster centers the silhouette of a single figure with symbols of film
reels revealing the interiority of the individual, suggesting the power of film to express private thoughts
that can be illuminating when shared through stories. While the Sydney Film Festival image represents
a collective experience and the Miami Film Festival represents the personal experience, both suggest
that telling stories through film is a positive human experience.

NESA SAMPLE TEXT 2 - POEM

Looking in the Album

Here the formal times are surrendered

to the camera’s indifferent gaze: weddings,
graduations, births and official portraits taken
every ten years to falsify appearances.
Even snapshots meant to gather afternoons
with casual ease are rigid. Smiles
are too buoyant. Tinny laughter echoes
from the staged scene on an artificial
beach. And yet we want to believe
this is how it was: The children’s hair
always bore the recent marks of combs;
that trousers, even at picnics, were always
creased and we travelled years with the light
but earnest intimacy of linked hands or arms
arranged over shoulders. This is the record
of our desired life: Pleasant, leisurely on vacations,
wryly comic before local landmarks, competent
auditors of commencement speakers, showing
in our poses that we believed what we were told.
But this history contains no evidence
of aimless nights when the wilderness of ourselves
sprang up to swallow the outposts of what
we thought we were. Nowhere can we see
tears provoked by anything but joy. There
are no pictures of our brittle, lost intentions.
We burned the negatives* that we felt did not give a true
account and with others made this abridgement of our lives.
VERN RUTSALA

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NESA SAMPLE TEXT 3 - FICTION EXTRACT

First came her stories like webs across the world. They crisscrossed the Atlantic on steamers and the
Rockies by train. They made their way down dirt tracks where the scrub met overhead. They flew from
Ben Lomond in the Tasmanian Highlands, which we could see from her verandah, to Welsh farmhouses
of dark stone. The air would shiver slightly each time she began.

Once upon a time, when pigs were swine and monkeys chewed tobacco, there was a little girl who lived
at the foot of the mountains in the center of the universe at the bottom of the world ...

The storyteller was my grandmother and the child was me. We came to her for stories ... Her stories
were vivid and shapely and we heard them again and again. In the night under the pine trees, her house
creaked and her stories invaded our dreams. Later I would catch something of their rhythms and word
play in ballads and sagas and know what a talented storyteller she was.

Then we took her for granted ...

She was born in 1894, a beloved only child in a family with a little money or the myth of money from her
great-great-grandfather, a clergyman, who had invested during the early nineteenth century, surely
somewhat dubiously, in Welsh coal mines. Family portraits survive and hang in a Tasmanian dining-
room.
I know I should check the facts. There is evidence to be weighed, archives to be searched, family
members still alive who knew her differently. There will be shipping lists and parish records, deeds and
wills lodged in three countries. The men I will find easily, labelled by their work and their bank balances,
the buying and selling of land, and of houses returned to at night. The women will have left less clear a
mark on the record but more of a mark on me, perhaps, and on all the children in between. There are
some family papers, recipes, photographs and a sampler in black cross-stitch done, my grandmother
told me, by a child, my great-great-great great-grandmother, during the Napoleonic wars when children
were forbidden to use coloured silks. Or so she said.

There were stories of unfeeling trustees and money withheld and unsuitable marriages when good-
looking rogues took advantage of well-to-do widows – one of whom was my great grandmother. She
seems to have married an American twenty years her junior after my great grandfather died. This young
man went into the city of London every morning at ten but never told his wife what he did there. Perhaps
she never asked. When it was discovered that he’d been through all her money, he returned to America,
never to be seen again. Or so the story goes ...
The historian at the back of my brain says I should discover what is true and what is false, make a
properly considered account before it’s too late. The rest of me, the part that was shaped by the sense
of myself at the center of the universe at the bottom of the world, still sees, as if through certain cloud
formations above paddocks pale with tussocks, the shapes and shadows of other places she made my
own.
I want to leave her and her stories be.
Hilary McPhee Adapted from Other People’s Words

NESA SAMPLE QUESTION 2

Example B (6 marks) English Standard and English Advanced
Use Text 2 and Text 3 to answer this question.
Compare how Text 2 and Text 3 explore the paradoxes in the human experience.

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NESA SAMPLE MARKING GUIDELINES

• Compares skillfully how the two texts explore the paradoxes in the human 6
experience using detailed, well-chosen supporting evidence

• Compares how the two texts explore the paradoxes in the human experience using 4–5
appropriate supporting evidence

• Describes how the texts explore the human experience with minimal supporting 2–3
evidence

• Provides some relevant information about the text(s) and/or human experience 1

NESA GUIDELINES FOR ANSWERS

• The accumulation of formal events such as ‘weddings, graduations, births and official portraits’
which figuratively ‘falsify appearances’ highlights the artifice of their existence.
• The failure to acknowledge the paradoxes of life results in a failure to appreciate the human
experience in a holistic way, especially the metaphorical ‘wilderness of ourselves’ that cannot easily
be reconciled or understood. As such, the persona symbolically ‘burned the negatives’ that did not
align with what they desired their experience to be, resulting in the figurative ‘abridgement of our
lives’, implying that the persona felt fragmented and the experience of their life had been lessened.
• Unlike the persona in the poem, the author of Text 3 recognises that it was her grandmother who
metaphorically ‘made a mark on me’ through her fantastical stories as established through the
intertextuality of the fact that she was ‘shaped by the sense of myself at the center of the universe
at the bottom of the world’, accentuating her embrace of the paradoxical nature of the human
experience as she ‘still sees, as if through certain cloud formations’.

NESA SAMPLE ANSWER

The human experience is multifaceted and can often be paradoxical. The response of individuals to
the paradoxes of life can be equally unpredictable, given the human desire to understand experiences.
Rutsala’s evocative poem, ‘Looking in the Album’, accentuates the challenges of confronting the
paradoxical nature of the human experience through the framing device of a photo album which
highlights the desire of people to curate their lives in a way that provides a desirable narrative. The
passive voice in which ‘the formal times are surrendered’ to the personified ‘indifferent gaze’ of the
camera highlights the persona’s recognition of the desire to control the representation of our
experiences.
In contrast to Rutsala’s poem, the extract from Other People’s Words establishes how the writer
embraces the paradoxical and unexplainable nature of life and the qualities of the people who
contribute to our lives. McPhee tells the story of her grandmother and the stories she related to them
that became an inextricable part of her understanding of the world, shown through the simile of ‘first
came her stories like webs across the world’. The pervasive nature of these stories is rendered by the
extended metaphor through which the stories ‘crisscrossed the Atlantic’ and ‘flew from Ben Lomond’.
However, the intertextuality of the beginning of one of the stories, using the ‘Once upon a time’
archetype, accentuates their unreliability. The metaphor of ‘there is evidence to be weighed’ echoes
the human desire to achieve clarity as established in the poem, and avoid ambiguity in the face of the
unreliability of oral stories, as exemplified through the repeated use of qualifiers such as ‘or so she
said’.

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NESA SAMPLE TEXT FOUR - BIOGRAPHY EXTRACT

In Hollywood, they have these celebrity tours where the general public are guided from mansion to
mansion. The point is to ogle. Look: this is where Oscar-winning actress X lives on summer vacation.
Over here: a bungalow where Emmy-nominated actor Y was shot dead in 1989 ...
Similarly, if I picked you up in a car and drove you around the Sunshine Coast, we could make a little
tour ourselves, tracing my father’s various business ventures from the mid-1970s to the present day.
There’s the restaurant in Caloundra where my parents first planted themselves as two dewy-eyed
newlyweds just arrived from Hong Kong. Over in Minyama, you’ll see a pink and blue Asian
supermarket, my father’s biggest gamble, where he found out the hard way that most people are still
content to cook Asian food from a jar, rather than use the raw ingredients.
Our road trip would be a strange coastal pilgrimage, through bustling Thai restaurants by the sea ... to
deserted takeaways near abandoned theme parks. All over the region, we’ll find randomly chosen plots
of land, marked in Dad’s mind for unspecified projects I can’t even begin to understand. Present me
with a map, though, and I could place coloured thumb-tacks on all the spots where my father has built,
opened, developed or invested in something. Link them up, and we’ve got ourselves a bit of a tangle.
All of Dad’s businesses can be traced back to 1975, a time when Australians saw China as the epitome
of exoticism. China: it was on the other side of the world. What they knew of the Chinese was limited
to a few scattered things like communism, and what seemed to be their national cuisine: deep-fried
slabs of hacked-up hog meat, slathered in artificial sauce and served with rice.
If you lived in Caloundra, you would have ordered this meal from my parents, two of the first Chinese
people to arrive in the area. In contrast to Hong Kong – a throbbing, stinking metropolis of concrete,
where people hung out their laundry thirty storeys up – Caloundra was a ghost town. Literally so:
everyone was white . . .
By the time Dad was running his new restaurant, Happy Dragon, his reputation had taken off. Situated
in a beachside hotel resort, it boasted a cocktail bar and framed art you plugged into the wall. When
switched on, the picture simulated a real, flowing waterfall, which blew our minds. In summer, we’d
drink pink lemonade and swim in the resort’s freezing kidney shaped pool, pretending we were famous
and devastatingly rich, which – to some extent – we were. By then, Dad was earning enough money
to send all five kids to a private school, and our pocket money became spontaneous and unplanned,
like some demented game-show. Here, have five dollars a week! Or how about twenty dollars to cover
the fortnight? Here’s fifty dollars today! Dizzy with success, Dad drafted plans to realise a lifelong
dream: an Asian supermarket, on top of which we’d live in mansion-like splendour ...
It wasn’t long before Dad closed the place down and was forced to sell . . . He couldn’t go back to
Chinese restaurants. In the years that had passed, they’d become a joke – dinky novelty eateries that
displayed Christmas lights in April and served food on mismatched melamine plates. Melamine. Even
the name suggested something tragic and poisonous, something that might kill you. The Chinese were
being pushed out to make way for other ethnicities. In any other context, this would be called ethnic
cleansing; in hospitality, it was just called business.
So, Dad became Thai, just like my uncles in Canada had turned Japanese. I’d never seen him work
so hard. Tammy and I worked at his Thai restaurant in the holidays, and the shifts were frantic. Dad
would work behind the counter, a multi-tentacled blur of efficiency. One moment, he’d be pulling out
the emptied guts of rice-cookers; the next, he’d be removing something from the fryer with one hand
and garnishing satay sticks with the other. Every night, I came home smelling as if I’d worked all day
in a rancid margarine factory. Even after soaking my shirt, it would stink of grease. I’d take extra-long
showers to work off the grime, and then I’d look into the mirror and notice bags under my eyes. With a
mixture of fascination and horror, I realised I was starting to look and smell just like Dad . . .

10
Even now, whenever I’m on the Sunshine Coast, I’ll get stopped in shopping centres by perfect
strangers, men and women in their fifties and sixties, who ask me whether I’m one of Danny’s boys.
It’s not surprising: our physical resemblance is growing stronger. And when I say yes, they tell me that
Danny’s like a star around here, and pin me down with stories about the first time they met him in
Caloundra, or how they miss the Asian groceries he used to sell, or the meals he made them at Happy
Dragon. But what they love most of all is the Thai restaurant he’s got right now, which has become a
local institution.
But that’s only part of the picture, I want to say, and I almost offer to take them on a tour of all his
businesses: the ones that took off, and the ones that faded out. It’ll end with a stop at his latest project:
towering extensions to his old house, which he plans to rent out or sell. If you were to drive past it more
than once, you’d see the place expanding like a pop-up book in slow motion. You could watch it sprout
balconies and improvised-looking storeys from the original base, like a tree that’s begun to sprout new
and unlikely branches. It’s the home of a star, you’d think, or the place where a local celebrity must
live.
Benjamin Law - The Family Law

NESA SAMPLE QUESTION

Example C (7 marks) English Standard and English Advanced
Use Text 4 to answer this question.
Explain how different aspects of the writer’s family experience are represented in this extract.

NESA SAMPLE MARKING GUIDELINES

Explains skilfully how different aspects of family experience are represented in the 7
text, including well-chosen supporting evidence from the text

Explains effectively how different aspects of family experience are represented in 5 - 6

the text, including supporting evidence from the text

Explains how different aspects of family experience are represented in the text, 3 - 4
including some supporting evidence from the text

Demonstrates limited understanding of how family experience is represented in the 1 - 2

text

NESA GUIDELINES FOR ANSWERS

• Consideration of Law’s own experience as the child of Chinese immigrants and that of his father
as a businessman, both as Law experienced them at the time and as he is able to reflect on them
now.
• Analysis of: the metaphor/contrast of touring famous places in Hollywood and his father’s multiple
business ventures; the variety of imagery used to capture Law’s impression of Australians’
perspectives towards Asian cultures; descriptions that create a sense of Law’s growing admiration
for his father, etc.
• Balanced discussion of at least two aspects of experience in the text.

• A strong command of language that articulates ideas with clarity and precision.

NESA SAMPLE ANSWER

No sample provided - Write a joint answer.

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NESA SAMPLE TEXT 5 - FICTION EXTRACT

(The extract used in the examination is awaiting copyright. The note in the stimulus booklet says
“pages 3 - 10” from the text are used. These pages are reproduced here… The annotation in the
question booklet advises “the stimulus for this question is long and would be used for 2 to 3 questions)

Prologue
I wore a black suit and a white shirt, a black tie and black shoes, all polished and shiny: clothes that
normally would make me feel uncomfortable, as if I were in a stolen uniform, or pretending to be an
adult. Today they gave me comfort of a kind. I was wearing the right clothes for a hard day.
I had done my duty in the morning, spoken the words I was meant to speak, and I meant them as I
spoke them, and then, when the service was done, I got in my car and I drove, randomly, without a
plan, with an hour or so to kill before I met more people I had not seen for years and shook more hands
and drank too many cups of tea from the best china. I drove along winding Sussex country roads I only
half-remembered, until I found myself headed toward the town center, so I turned, randomly, down
another road, and took a left, and a right. It was only then that I realized where I was going, where I
had been going all along, and I grimaced at my own foolishness.
I had been driving toward a house that had not existed for decades.
I thought of turning around, then, as I drove down a wide street that had once been a flint lane beside
a barley field, of turning back and leaving the past undisturbed. But I was curious.
The old house, the one I had lived in for seven years, from when I was five until I was twelve, that
house had been knocked down and was lost for good. The new house, the one my parents had built
at the bottom of the garden, between the azalea bushes and the green circle in the grass we called
the fairy ring, that had been sold thirty years ago.
I slowed the car as I saw the new house. It would always be the new house in my head. I pulled up
into the driveway, observing the way they had built out on the mid-seventies architecture. I had
forgotten that the bricks of the house were chocolate-brown. The new people had made my mother's
tiny balcony into a two-story sunroom. I stared at the house, remembering less than I had expected
about my teenage years: no good times, no bad times. I'd lived in that place, for a while, as a teenager.
It didn't seem to be any part of who I was now.
I backed the car out of their driveway.
It was time, I knew, to drive to my sister's bustling, cheerful house, all tidied and stiff for the day. I would
talk to people whose existence I had forgotten years before and they would ask me about my marriage
(failed a decade ago, a relationship that had slowly frayed until eventually, as they always seem to, it
broke) and whether I was seeing anyone (I wasn't; I was not even sure that I could, not yet) and they
would ask about my children (all grown up, they have their own lives, they wish they could be here
today), work (doing fine, thank you, I would say, never knowing how to talk about what I do. If I could
talk about it, I would not have to do it. I make art, sometimes I make true art, and sometimes it fills the
empty places in my life. Some of them. Not all). We would talk about the departed; we would remember
the dead.
The little country lane of my childhood had become a black tarmac road that served as a buffer between
two sprawling housing estates. I drove further down it, away from the town, which was not the way I
should have been traveling, and it felt good.
The slick black road became narrower, windier, became the single-lane track I remembered from my
childhood, became packed earth and knobbly, bone-like flints.

12
Soon I was driving, slowly, bumpily, down a narrow lane with brambles and briar roses on each side,
wherever the edge was not a stand of hazels or a wild hedgerow. It felt like I had driven back in time.
That lane was how I remembered it, when nothing else was.
I drove past Caraway Farm. I remembered being] just- sixteen, and kissing red-cheeked, fair-haired
Callie Anders, who lived there, and whose family would soon move to the Shetlands, and I would never
kiss her or see her again. Then nothing but fields on either side of the road, for almost a mile: a tangle
of meadows. Slowly the lane became a track. It was reaching its end.
I remembered it before I turned the corner and saw it, in all its dilapidated red-brick glory: the
Hempstocks' farmhouse.
It took me by surprise, although that was where the lane had always ended. I could have gone no
further. I parked the car at the side of the farmyard. I had no plan. I wondered whether, after all these
years, there was anyone still living there, or, more precisely, if the Hempstocks were still living there.
It seemed unlikely, but then, from what little I remembered, they had been unlikely people.
The stench of cow muck struck me as I got out of the car, and I walked, gingerly, across the small yard
to the front door. I looked for a doorbell, in vain, and then I knocked. The door had not beer latched
properly, and it swung gently open as I rapped it with my knuckles.
I had been here, hadn't I, a long time ago? I was sure I had. Childhood memories are sometimes
covered and obscured beneath the things that come later, like childhood toys forgotten at the bottom
of a crammed adult closet, but they are never lost for good. I stood in the hallway and called, "Hello?
Is there anybody here?"
I heard nothing. I smelled bread-baking and wax furniture polish and old wood. My eyes were slow to
adjust to the darkness: I peered into it, was getting ready to turn and leave when an elderly woman
came out of the dim hallway holding a white duster. She wore her gray hair long.
I said, "Mrs. Hempstock?"
She tipped her head to one side, looked at me. "Yes. I do know you, young man," she said. I am not a
young man. Not any longer. "I know you, but things get messy when you get to my age. Who are you,
exactly?"
"I think I must have been about seven, maybe eight, the last time I was here." She smiled then. "You
were Lettie's friend? From the top of the lane?"
"You gave me milk. It was warm, from the cows." And then I realized how many years had gone by,
and I said, "No, you didn't do that, that must have been your mother who gave me the milk. I'm sorry."
As we age, we become our parents; live long enough and we see faces repeat in time. I remembered
Mrs. Hempstock, Lettie's mother, as a stout woman. This woman was stick-thin, and she looked
delicate. She looked like her mother, like the woman I had known as Old Mrs. Hempstock.
Sometimes when I look in the mirror I see my father's face, not my own, and I remember the way he
would smile at himself, in mirrors, before he went out. "Looking good," he'd say to his reflection,
approvingly. "Looking good."
"Are you here to see Lettie?" Mrs. Hempstock asked.
"Is she here?" The idea surprised me. She had gone somewhere, hadn't she? America?
The old woman shook her head. "I was just about to put the kettle on. Do you fancy a spot of tea?" I
hesitated. Then I said that, if she didn't mind, I'd like it if she could point me toward the duck pond first.
"Duck pond?"
I knew Lettie had had a funny name for it. I remembered that. "She called it the sea. Something like
that."

13
The old woman put the cloth down on the dresser. "Can't drink the water from the sea, can you? Too
salty. Like drinking life's blood. Do you remember the way? You can get to it around the side of the
house. Just follow the path."
If you'd asked me an hour before, I would have said no, I did not remember the way. I do not even
think I would have remembered Lettie Hempstock's name. But standing in that hallway, it was all
coming back to me. Memories were waiting at the edges of things, beckoning to me. Had you told me
that I was seven again, I might have half-believed you, for a moment.
"Thank you."
I walked into the farmyard. I went past the chicken coop, past the old barn and along the edge of the
field, remembering where I was, and what was coming next, and exulting in the knowledge. Hazels
lined the side of the meadow. I picked a handful of the green nuts, put them in my pocket.
The pond is next, I thought. / just have to go around this shed, and I'll see it.
I saw it and felt oddly proud of myself, as if that one act of memory had blown away some of the
cobwebs of the day.
The pond was smaller than I remembered. There was a little wooden shed on the far side, and, by the
path, an ancient, heavy, wood-and-metal bench. The peeling wooden slats had been painted green a
few years ago. I sat on the bench, and stared at the reflection of the sky in the water, at the scum of
duckweed at the edges, and the half-dozen lily pads. Every now and again, I tossed a hazelnut into
the middle of the pond, the pond that Lettie Hempstock had called . . .
It wasn't the sea, was it?
She would be older than I am now, Lettie Hempstock. She was only a handful of years older than I was
back then, for all her funny talk. She was eleven. I was . . . what was I? It was after the bac birthday
party. I knew that. So I would have been seven.
I wondered if we had ever fallen in the water. Had I pushed her into the duck pond, that strange girl
who lived in the farm at the very bottom of the lane? I remembered her being in the water. Perhaps
she had pushed me in too.
Where did she go? America? No, Australia. That was it. Somewhere a long way away.
And it wasn't the sea. It was the ocean.
Lettie Hempstock' s ocean.
I remembered that, and, remembering that, I remembered everything.
Chapter 1
Nobody came to my seventh birthday party.
There was a table laid with jellies and trifles, with a party hat beside each place, and a birthday cake
with seven candles on it in the center of the table. The cake had a book drawn on it, in icing. My mother,
who had organized the party, told me that the lady at the bakery said that they had never put a book
on a birthday cake before, and that mostly for boys it was footballs or spaceships. I was their first book.
When it became obvious that nobody was coming, my mother lit the seven candles on the cake, and I
blew them out. I ate a slice of the cake, as did my little sister and one of her friends (both of them
attending the party as observers, not participants) before they fled, giggling, to the garden.
Party games had been prepared by my mother but, because nobody was there, not even my sister,
none of the party games were played, and I unwrapped the newspaper around the pass-the-parcel gift
myself, revealing a blue plastic Batman figure. I was sad that nobody had come to my party, but happy
that I had a Batman figure, and there was a birthday present waiting to be read, a boxed set of the
Narnia books, which I took upstairs. I lay on the bed and lost myself in the stories.

14
I liked that. Books were safer than other people anyway.
My parents had also given me a Best of Gilbert and Sullivan LP, to add to the two that I already had. I
had loved Gilbert and Sullivan since I was three, when my father's youngest sister, my aunt, took me
to see Iolanthe, a play filled with lords and fairies. I found the existence and nature of the fairies easier
to understand than that of the lords. My aunt had died soon after, of pneumonia, in the hospital.
That evening my father arrived home from work and he brought a cardboard box with him. In the
cardboard box was a soft- haired black kitten of uncertain gender, whom I immediately named Fluffy,
and which I loved utterly and wholeheartedly.
Fluffy slept on my bed at night. I talked to it, sometimes, when my little sister was not around, half-
expecting it to answer in a human tongue. It never did. I did not mind. The kitten was affectionate and
interested and a good companion for someone whose seventh birthday party had consisted of a table
with iced biscuits and a blancmange and cake and fifteen empty folding chairs.
I do not remember ever asking any of the other children in my class at school why they had not come
to my party. I did not need to ask them. They were not my friends, after all. They were just the people
I went to school with.
I made friends slowly, when I made them.
I had books, and now I had my kitten. We would be like Dick Whittington and his cat, I knew, or, if Fluffy
proved particularly intelligent, we would be the miller's son and Puss-in-Boots. The kitten slept on my
pillow, and it even waited for me to come home from school, sitting on the driveway in front of my
house, by the fence, until, a month later, it was run over by the taxi that brought the opal miner to stay
at my house.
I was not there when it happened. I got home from school that day, and my kitten was not waiting to
meet me. In the kitchen was a tall, rangy man with tanned skin and a checked shirt. He was drinking
coffee at the kitchen table, I could smell it. In those days all coffee was instant coffee, a bitter dark
brown powder that came out of a jar.
"I'm afraid I had a little accident arriving here," he told me, cheerfully. "But not to worry." His accent
was clipped, unfamiliar: it was the first South African accent I had heard. He, too, had a cardboard box
on the table in front of him
"The black kitten, was he yours?" he asked.
"It's called Fluffy," I said.
"Yeah. Like I said. Accident coming here. Not to worry. Disposed of the corpse. Don't have to
trouble yourself. Dealt with the matter. Open the box."
"What?"
He pointed to the box. "Open it," he said.
The opal miner was a tall man. He wore jeans and checked shirts every time I saw him, except the
last. He had a thick chain of pale gold around his neck. That was gone the last time I saw him, too.
I did not want to open his box. I wanted to go off on my own. I wanted to cry for my kitten, but I could
not do that if anyone else was there and watching me. I wanted to mourn. I wanted to bury my friend
at the bottom of the garden, past the green-grass fairy ring, into the rhododendron bush cave, back
past the heap of grass cuttings, where nobody ever went but me.
The box moved.
"Bought it for you," said the man. "Always pay my debts."

15
I reached out, lifted the top flap of the box, wondering if this was a joke, if my kitten would be in there.
Instead a ginger face stared up at me truculently.
The opal miner took the cat out of the box.
He was a huge, ginger- striped tomcat, missing half an ear. He glared at me angrily. This cat had not
liked being put in a box. He was not used to boxes. I reached out to stroke his head, feeling unfaithful
to the memory of my kitten, but he pulled back so I could not touch him, and he hissed at me, then
stalked off to a far corner of the room, where he sat and looked and hated.
"There you go. Cat for a cat," said the opal miner, and he ruffled my hair with his leathery hand. Then
he went out into the hall, leaving me in the kitchen with the cat that was not my kitten.
The man put his head back through the door. "He's called Monster," he said.
It felt like a bad joke.
I propped open the kitchen door, so the cat could get out. Then I went up to the bedroom, and la> on
my bed, and cried for dead Fluffy. When my parents got home that evening, I do not think my kitten
was even mentioned.
Monster lived with us for a week or more. I put cat food in the bowl for him in the morning and again at
night as I had for my kitten. He would sit by the back door until I, or someone else, let him out. We saw
him in the garden, slipping from bush to bush, or in trees, or in the undergrowth. We could trace his
movements by the dead blue-tits and thrushes we would find in the garden, but we saw him rarely.
I missed Fluffy. I knew you could not simply replace something alive, but I dared not grumble to my
parents about it. They would have been baffled at my upset: after all, if my kitten had been killed, it had
also been replaced. The damage had been made up.

It all came back and even as it came back I knew it would not be for long: all the things I remembered,
sitting on the green bench beside the little pond that Lettie Hempstock had once convinced me was an
ocean.
N. Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

NESA SAMPLE QUESTION

Example D (7 marks) English Advanced only
Use text 5 to answer this question.
Explain how Text 5 explores the significance of remembering and memories in the individual human
experience.

NESA SAMPLE MARKING GUIDELINES

• Explains skilfully the significance of remembering and memories in the 7

individual human experience, including well-chosen supporting evidence from
the text
• Demonstrates a developed control of language

• Explains effectively the significance of remembering and memories in the 5-6

individual human experience, including supporting evidence from the text
• Demonstrates a sound control of language

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• Explains the significance of remembering and memories in the individual human 3-4
experience, including some supporting evidence from the text
• Demonstrates variable control of language

• Demonstrates limited understanding of the significance of remembering and/or 1-2

memory in the text

NESA GUIDELINES FOR ANSWERS

• Memories may be fragmented and unconnected until there is a catalyst that stimulates the act of
remembering. The series of phrases indicating the beginning of the journey into the past ‘so I
turned, randomly’ suggests that remembering is a process.
• Remembering can offer a new perspective on a life’s experiences or significant relationships. The
act of recollection can invite a personal reassessment of the present. The use of parentheses
reveals the protagonist’s inner thoughts about the people around him.
• Once memories are triggered, the process of remembering can be beyond personal control as
suggested by the personification, ‘Memories were waiting at the edges of things, beckoning to
me.’ This indicates that our past experiences are a part of our present and can become a reality
at unexpected times.
• The protagonist expresses a sense of wonderment in the final revelation of memory, expressed in
the concluding repetition of ‘remembering’ and the exaltation expressed in ‘I remembered
everything.’

NESA SAMPLE ANSWER

No sample answer provided. - another model… or possible additional questions - presenting this as
a strategy to engage with the reading task.

17
 ADDITIONAL SAMPLE TEXTS AND GUIDELINES
Ideally, you should complete short answer responses throughout the year, within the context of the other
modules as well as through the lens of the common module.

This ensures you are building reading comprehension skills, not just trying to predict the examination.

Following this, there are additional sample texts and marking guidelines, and answers.

Then there are also practice exams for you to consider.

Marking guidelines and suggested answers have not been developed.

Your task is to:

• develop the marking guidelines.
• brainstorm possible answers, using dot points.

Try to identify a wide range of possible answers.

Submit these for marking and/or discussion with the class.

Attempt the exam in 45 minutes.

18
TEXT: STREET ART

19
Source: Karen Yager, ETA FaceBook, (Mission District, San Francisco)

QUESTION
Explain how suffering is captured through the visual and language features of the text. (2 marks)

CRITERIA
• Explains clearly how suffering is represented in the text
• Refers to a relevant feature of language to describe this representation of this suffering
• Relates this language feature to a feature of language to add to the explanation of the
representation of suffering.
(last 2 criteria can be reversed)

GUIDELINES FOR ANSWERS

• Concept: Suffering is resisted; Suffering is oppressive; Suffering is debilitating
• Visual features: backdrop of words visual symbolism of the peoples’ voices, indicates an inner
strength – a new narrative being written; strong body language, facial expression of defiance
with strong eye contact, dark colours symbolise the people are wrapped in suffering.
• Language features: imperatives show a strong stance/defiance; highly emotive, emphasising
the suffering, the repetition indicates this suffering is ongoing and has impacted the people for
a long time.

SAMPLE ANSWER
Suffering is portrayed in Text 1 as a powerful motivation for humans to stand up for themselves with
the motivation of sustaining themselves in the face of oppression. This is clearly demonstrated in the
backdrop of the text, using caps-lock to make powerful and clear statements that frame the woman
and child who suffer. The language techniques in this backdrop, made up of a series of high modal
statements such as “enough is enough” and “stop killing our children” is a rally for action, showing the
woman is no longer willing to be the victim or live the narrative of suffering.

TEXT TWO – EXCERPT FROM A SPEECH

The Danger of a Single Story

I come from a conventional, middle-class Nigerian family. My father was a professor. My mother was an
administrator. And so we had, as was the norm, live-in domestic help, who would often come from
nearby rural villages. So, the year I turned eight, we got a new house boy. His name was Fide. The only
thing my mother told us about him was that his family was very poor. My mother sent yams and rice,
and our old clothes, to his family. And when I didn't finish my dinner, my mother would say, "Finish your
food! Don't you know? People like Fide's family have nothing." So I felt enormous pity for Fide's family.

Then one Saturday, we went to his village to visit, and his mother showed us a beautifully patterned
basket made of dyed raffia that his brother had made. I was startled. It had not occurred to me that
anybody in his family could actually make something. All I had heard about them was how poor they
were, so that it had become impossible for me to see them as anything else but poor. Their poverty was
my single story of them.

Years later, I thought about this when I left Nigeria to go to university in the United States. I was 19. My
American roommate was shocked by me. She asked where I had learned to speak English so well, and
was confused when I said that Nigeria happened to have English as its official language. She asked if

20
she could listen to what she called my "tribal music," and was consequently very disappointed when I
produced my tape of Mariah Carey.

She assumed that I did not know how to use a stove.

What struck me was this: She had felt sorry for me even before she saw me. Her default position toward
me, as an African, was a kind of patronizing, well-meaning pity. My roommate had a single story of
Africa: a single story of catastrophe. In this single story, there was no possibility of Africans being similar
to her in any way, no possibility of feelings more complex than pity, no possibility of a connection as
human equals.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Source: 2009 @ TEDGlobal

QUESTION
Compare the experience with Fide’s family in Africa to the experience with the American roommate,
focusing on the paradox arising from the speaker’s behaviour. (4 marks)
CRITERIA
• Establishes clearly the difference in the experience the speaker had with Fide’s family
compared to her experience with her American roommate.
• Quotes are embedded to show the contrasting behaviour leading to the speaker’s realisation.

GUIDED ANSWER
• Contrast in the Paradox in the experience: she is arrogant towards Fide’s family/her roommate
is arrogant towards her
• She is judgmental and presumptuous in her expectations of Fide’s family’s experiences and
doesn’t realise this until she is treated the same way by the roommate in America.
• This experience is a clear example of the speaker’s behaviour creating a paradoxical experience
EXCERPT FROM A SAMPLE ANSWER
Text Two begins with the speaker initially pitying Fide and his family. The dialogue in this first
experience, “Don’t you know? People like Fide’s family have nothing,” establishes how easily
stereotypes manipulated the speaker’s ability to understand someone from her native place but of a
different social standing.
As a result of this behaviour, the speaker’s experience with her American roommate creates a
paradoxical moment, wherein the speaker is now stereotyped. This role reversal is amplified in the
speaker’s blunt tone describing the roommate’s attitude, “She had felt sorry for me even before she saw
me,” with the roommate’s pity mirroring the unjustified pity the speaker had for Fide’s family.

TEXT THREE - POEM

Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

21
 The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".
Percy Shelley

TEXT FOUR - CARTOON

QUESTION
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
How does the visual representation of the idea in the above quote complement the poem to emphasise
the quality that destroyed the subject. (5 marks)
CRITERIA
• Skilfully explores the idea in the quote, relevant to the poem as a whole
• Explains the connection between the visual and the quote extracted from the poem
• Develops response with reference to features of form and language

SAMPLE ANSWER
The human quality of pride can easily corrupt and destroy individuals in positions of power. The poem
by Percy Shelley establishes this ambition in the inscription on the pedestal, “Look on my works, ye
mighty, and despair!”. Here, the arrogant tone and imperative reveals the pride which ultimately
corrupted Ozymandias. Furthermore, Shelley reveals this in the synecdoche/symbolism of the “hand

22
that mocked them and the heart that fed”. The hostile connotations of the words “mocked” and “fed”
reflect a corrupt ruler who disregards their civilians. The accompanying visual to Text 3 illuminates how
this pride results in an individual’s destruction. The salience of the broken face contradicts the boastful
nature of the poem. Additionally, the two “vast and trunkless legs of stone… [which are surrounded by]
lone and level sands [stretching] far away” in the background reinforces how this pride to establish a
legacy had failed.

Ultimately, audiences recognise how pride corrupts individuals with arrogance, only to be confronted
with their lack of power. …
Student task: CONTINUE...

TEXT FIVE: PROSE EXCERPT

The Garden Party

"What's the matter? What's happened?"

“There's been a horrible accident," said Cook. "A man killed."
"A man killed! Where? How? When?"
But Godber's man wasn't going to have his story snatched from under his very nose.
"Know those little cottages just below here, miss?" Know them? Of course, she knew them. "Well,
there's a young chap living there, name of Scott, a carter. His horse shied at a traction-engine, corner
of Hawke Street this morning, and he was thrown out on the back of his head. Killed."
"Dead!" Laura stared at Godber's man.
“Dead when they picked him up," said Godber's man with relish. "They were taking the body home as I
come up here." And he said to the cook, "He's left a wife and five little ones."
"Jose, come here." Laura caught hold of her sister's sleeve and dragged her through the kitchen to the
other side of the green baize door. There she paused and leaned against it. "Jose!" she said, horrified,
"however are we going to stop everything?"
"Stop everything, Laura!" cried Jose in astonishment. "What do you mean?"
“Stop the garden-party, of course." Why did Jose pretend?
But Jose was still more amazed. "Stop the garden-party? My dear Laura, don't be so absurd. Of course
we can't do anything of the kind. Nobody expects us to. Don't be so extravagant."
But we can't possibly have a garden-party with a man dead just outside the front gate."
That really was extravagant, for the little cottages were in a lane to themselves at the very bottom of a
steep rise that led up to the house. A broad road ran between. True, they were far too near. They were
the greatest possible eyesore and they had no right to be in that neighbourhood at all. They were little
mean dwellings painted a chocolate brown. In the garden patches there was nothing but cabbage stalks,
sick hens and tomato cans. The very smoke coming out of their chimneys was poverty-stricken. Little
rags and shreds of smoke, so unlike the great silvery plumes that uncurled from the Sheridans'
chimneys. Washerwomen lived in the lane and sweeps and a cobbler, and a man whose house-front
was studded all over with minute bird-cages. Children swarmed. When the Sheridans were little they
were forbidden to set foot there because of the revolting language and of what they might catch. But
since they were grown up, Laura and Laurie on their prowls sometimes walked through. It was disgusting
and sordid. They came out with a shudder. But still one must go everywhere; one must see everything.
So through they went.

"And just think of what the band would sound like to that poor woman," said Laura.

23
"Oh, Laura!" Jose began to be seriously annoyed. "If you're going to stop a band playing every time
someone has an accident, you'll lead a very strenuous life. I'm every bit as sorry about it as you. I feel
just as sympathetic." Her eyes hardened. She looked at her sister just as she used to when they were
little and fighting together. "You won't bring a drunken workman back to life by being sentimental," she
said softly.

"Drunk! Who said he was drunk?" Laura turned furiously on Jose. She said, just as they had used to
say on those occasions, "I'm going straight up to tell mother."
"Do, dear," cooed Jose.
"Mother, can I come into your room?" Laura turned the big glass door-knob.
"Of course, child. Why, what's the matter? What's given you such a colour?" And Mrs. Sheridan turned
round from her dressing-table. She was trying on a new hat.
"Mother, a man's been killed," began Laura.
"Not in the garden?" interrupted her mother.
"No, no!"
"Oh, what a fright you gave me!" Mrs. Sheridan sighed with relief, and took off the big hat and held it on
her knees.
"But listen, mother," said Laura. Breathless, half-choking, she told the dreadful story. "Of course, we
can't have our party, can we?" she pleaded. "The band and everybody arriving. They'd hear us, mother;
they're nearly neighbours!"

To Laura's astonishment her mother behaved just like Jose; it was harder to bear because she seemed
amused. She refused to take Laura seriously.

by Katherine Mansfield

QUESTION
Analyse how the author uses distinctive features of narrative to reveal the inconsistency in the values
of particular people. (7 marks)
Write 2 more questions. One question to the value of 4 marks and one question to the value of 6 marks.

SAMPLE ANSWER
Katherine Mansfield explores how the value of empathy can be distorted within a social setting, leading
to an inconsistency in human behaviour. This is achieved through her distinctive use of grammar, such
as the excessive questions, “What’s the matter? What happened? … Where? How? When?” which
appear in her orientation. Immediately, readers are exposed to a tone of concern from those gathered
at the garden party at the man who had been killed in a horrible accident.
However, this concern is later revealed to be curiosity as Mansfield uses storytelling to shock readers
with this inconsistency. While the expected response is to cancel the garden party in a show of respect
for the deceased individual, Mansfield instead uses an exclamation mark, “Stop everything, Laura!” cried
Jose in astonishment” to dismiss this possibility. Ultimately, Laura’s horrified response is contrasted with
the collective’s nonchalant behaviour, “Oh, what a fright you gave me!” to reveal how empathy appears
as an inconsistent human value.

MARKING CRITERIA
Use the sample answer to establish the marking criteria.

24
TEXTS 1 AND 2 AND 3

In the samples package, there is no final question asking students to compare or assess the texts in
relation to one another. Nonetheless, it is worthwhile to attempt this type of question.

QUESTION
Evaluate how the perspectives of characters are developed in Text Five and either Text Two or Text
Three to position responders in self reflection, which enables an appreciation of the anomaly in
behaviours.
8 marks
SAMPLE ANSWER
Text One and Text Four effectively represent the theme of how fear is often connected to individuals
feeling a sense of isolation from the collective. Both texts have provoked me to recognise how emotions
remain a significant part of the human experience.

Text One uses body language to convey an immediate fear in both personas of the collective. The
protective stance of the mother combined with the child’s sad facial expression reveals an intense fear.
This fear is revealed to us as readers to be a fear of the collective as shown in the repetition of “stop
killing our children.” My initial response to this oppression revealed in the background was shock.
However, upon reflection, I have developed a greater understanding of how individuals behave when
they are isolated and in fear for their family. The mother’s averted gaze and the pair’s positioning as the
solitary salient figures establish a sense of isolation. This behaviour is ultimately natural and
understandable, as well as a reminder that this paternal love is part of what makes us human.

Text Four reveals these same ideas, however it does so in a much more cautionary manner. Katherine
Mansfield establishes the immediate sense of fear in her use of excessive questions in the story’s
opening, “What’s the matter? What’s happened?... Where? How? When?”. However, the real fear
emerges in the conflict between Laura, the individual, and her other family members who represent the
collective. Laura’s fear later focuses on her family’s emotional detachment from the deceased individual.
She, representing us as the reader, confronts her family’s nonchalant attitude as evident in the emotive
language, “Laura turned furiously on Jose.” However, she eventually is left with the realisation that her
emotional response is an anomaly in this broken world. Mansfield leaves Laura isolated in the final short
sentence, “She refused to take Laura seriously” – a much more frightening outcome in comparison to
Text One.

While there remains a connection between the mother and child in Text One, Laura is left alone and
confused. The desperate tone in her dialogue, “Of course, we can’t have our party, can we?” reveals
her inability to understand the behaviour of those at the garden party. Both we, and Laura, are positioned
to view this human experience with concern and fear. Hence, after reading both texts, I have learnt that
fear is a powerful emotion – it leads individuals to challenge the behaviour of the collective. It also
appeals for us to hold on to our relationships, as this is a powerful part of what makes us human.

Student Task: Allocate a mark to this answer and suggest room for improvement

25
 PRACTICE EXAMINATIONS
These examinations were developed as practice responses in preparation for the 2019 HSC.They are
believed suitable for the English Advanced or English Standard course. The examination has been
constructed with every intention of adhering to the guidelines provided by NESA. Nonetheless, students
must remember, this does not necessarily reflect the structure or format of the examination.
The format of Section 1, it is suggested in the current advice from NESA in the assessment samples
produced, will not be uniform from one year to another. Hence, it is important that each practice paper
has a different approach. This can be achieved in a number of ways.

- Number of texts
- Mark allocations for texts – no small mark allocations.
- Comparative question
· which texts?
· how many texts?
· Where will this question be placed?
· Etc.

Practicing a range of samples is ideal because this will eliminate the surprise factor in the examination.
We are not trying to predict the examination – we just want to be prepared for all shapes and models.

26
HSC ENGLISH ADVANCED / STANDARD

PRACTICE EXAMINATION 1

QUESTION & WRITING BOOKLET

10 minutes reading time

45 minutes working time

Section 1 – 20 marks

Allow 45 minutes for this section

Write using a black pen

27
Section 1

20 marks

Attempt Questions 1 - 5
Allow 45 minutes for this section

In your answer you will be assessed on how well you:

• Demonstrate understanding of human experiences in texts
• Analyse, explain and assess the ways human experiences are represented in texts

28
Question 1: Text 1 – Cartoon

What is your understanding of the ‘it’ referred to in the cartoon?

(2 marks)

Question 2: Text 1 – Cartoon

Trace how the cartoonist leads responders through his representation of human experiences to
demonstrate how people can find contentment.

(3 marks)

29
Question 3: Text 2 – Website Screenshot

Explain how the emotional experience is represented through irony.

(3 marks)

30
Question 4: Text 3 – Poem

BUT KEEP IN MIND AND DON’T FORGET, THAT I’M A PERSON TOO.

Analyse how the composer employs shifts in tone to showcase the impact of inconsistency in behaviour.

(5 marks)

31
Question 5: Text 4 – Short Story

How is the atmosphere of the narrative adapted as the various stages of the experience unfold?
(7 marks)

32
33
 HSC ENGLISH ADVANCED / STANDARD

PRACTICE EXAMINATION 1

STIMULUS BOOKLET

Read the texts printed in this booklet alongside the questions in the question booklet.

Write your answer in the space provided in the Question Booklet.

34
Section 1
20 marks
Question 1
Allow 45 minutes for this section

In your answer you will be assessed on how well you:

• Demonstrate understanding of human experiences in texts
• Analyse, explain and assess the ways human experiences are represented in texts

Read the following texts to answer questions 1 -5 from the Question Booklet.

35
Text 1: Cartoon

How to get through it”, Michael Leunig

36
Text 2: Website

37
Text 3: Poem

I’m A Person Too

Here I lie in bed again, Awaiting my next meal.

A worker barges in my room, As if it’s no big deal.

Whatever happened to courtesy? Just a little knock.

Do you think I’m just a vegetable, Laying here like a rock?

What ever happened to manners? I haven’t got a clue.

BUT KEEP IN MIND AND DON’T FORGET, THAT I’M A PERSON TOO.

I know I can not talk, or even joke around.

But I’m well aware of everything, and also every sound.

If you have another worker help, change me during rounds.

Please don’t talk about me, as if I’m not around.

Treat me with respect, the same I’d give to you.

KEEP IN MIND AND DON’T FORGET, THAT I’M A PERSON TOO.

My bones are stiff and achy, I hear you say I’m contracted.
My belly hurts, I haven’t pooped, I hope I’m not impacted.

I’m sorry I may drool, and at times I even stare.

It’s not easy being old, aging isn’t fair.

These are the cards God dealt me, there’s nothing I can do.

JUST KEEP IN MIND AND DON’T FORGET THAT I’M A PERSON TOO.

I used to be a lively one, just like your pretty self.

I travelled, married, and worked long hours until I lost my health.

I press my lift to see a face, Or just for company.

For someone just to look inside, and realise that I’m ME.

You walked past my light, what am I to do?

PLEASE REMEMBER I’M A PERSON TOO.

I’m sorry that I messed the bed, I feel like such a baby.
I’m so embarrassed, and ashamed, that I’m doing this at eighty.

I’m sorry I couldn’t hold it, I didn’t know what to do.

38
KEEP IN MIND AND DON’T FORGET, THAT I’M A PERSON TOO.

I wish that I was able, to communicate in some way.

So finally I’d get the chance, to say what I want to say.

I hear you talk with other patients, so please don’t walk away.
If everyone showed a little compassion, I wouldn’t feel this way.

My name is Helen, and I’m all alone.

Cancer took my husband, he had it in his bones.

We had one child, our precious son.

Until his life was taken by a gun.

So here I am, no family left, as loneliness weighs heavy on my chest.

I may be sad, I may be blue.

PLEASE REMEMBER I’M A PERSON TOO.

Next time my light is on, come and see if I’m OK.

I’m a retired nurse of thirty years, and would love to hear about your day.

Dawn Mazzola

39
Text 4: Short Story

Make Your Own Luck

As the liner passed into Sydney heads, a young woman on the second-class deck held her newborn to
her chest and closed her eyes. The sea breeze whipped at her coat and the baby’s blanket, and out of
habit, she touched the inside of her wedding ring round with her thumb. She inhaled, the sea air, the salt,
a hint of the ship’s fumes. For widow Jennifer Panagopoulos wanted to remember this moment. She was
home. Things would be better.
In Brighton, the sea had smelled different, briny and brisk. It had looked different too, silver-grey like the
wet slate roofs of the houses on the seafront. They’d met, both foreigners there, and had such a
wondrous, happy time, with a new life ahead. Then after what had happened, she’d not wanted to stay.
Still, she awaited their baby boy there, not risking the voyage. Those months were the blackest of times;
she grew large and awkward, fearful for the future, grieving for the father her baby would never know.

The ship’s foghorn sounded and she jumped, the baby startled too. But her little one didn’t cry. John
was ‘a good baby,’ they’d said in Brighton, in hushed tones, glad at least of that. It was as if they thought
her life’s bad luck had been parcelled out in one portion, done and over with, at age 21, ever after
shaped by it. Jennifer’d decided then: she would not be one of those people.

As she went down the gangway to the quay, she took a deep breath, and composed her features for the
engulfing family, so joyous and sad at the same time. Poor Jenny. They were cautious, and it was so
hard to absorb their silent pity.

Perhaps she really turned her luck then, for her baby grew and thrived. He laughed and climbed and
yelled and filled her life with noise and joy and work. And people were kind, respectful of a widow. They
were poor but just as he was a good baby, so he was a good son. Oh, he was a handful, but they
managed, with help from her cautious family. But it was mostly just the two of them, accepting of their lot,
and of their blessings. She worked as a filing clerk, and its order appealed to her: all things away neatly
out of sight, in their rightful place. Their life was like that too; respectable, orderly, quiet. Sometimes you
make your own luck; she’d say to her son.

John would startle her occasionally, though. He’d smile or laugh and suddenly, she’d see his father, right
there, in front of her and it would take her breath away.
‘What’s that, Mum?’ he’d ask. ‘You being a bit of a sook?’

And she’d smile, and so would he.

Joy Rhoades

Examination compiled by Brendon Ly and Zenna Diab

40
HSC ENGLISH ADVANCED / STANDARD

PRACTICE EXAMINATION 2

QUESTION & WRITING BOOKLET

10 minutes reading time

45 minutes working time

Section 1 – 20 marks

Allow 45 minutes for this section

Write using a black pen

41
Section 1

20 marks

Attempt Question 1
Allow 45 minutes for this section

In your answer you will be assessed on how well you:

• Demonstrate understanding of human experiences in texts
• Analyse, explain and assess the ways human experiences are represented in texts

42
Question 1: Text 1 – Painting
Describe how the layout of the painting guides us through the human experiences represented.

(4 marks)

43
Question 2: Text 2 – Nonfiction extract
Explore how the article uses ‘art as a portal’ to engage responders in human experiences that people
would otherwise prefer to ignore.

(6 marks)

44
Question 3: Text 3 – Poem
The beauty on Earth is widespread

Learn to respect it,

And it’ll embrace you instead.

Evaluate if the poet leads readers to this message in an effective way.

(4 marks)

45
Texts One and Two and Three
Compare how the composers of at least two of these texts represent ideas about embracing
experiences.

In your response refer to features of form, style and language.

(6 marks)

46
47
 HSC ENGLISH

PRACTICE EXAMINATION 2

STIMULUS BOOKLET

Read the texts printed in this booklet alongside the questions in the question booklet.

Write your answer in the space provided in the Question Booklet.

48
Section 1
20 marks
Questions 1 - 5
Allow 45 minutes for this section

In your answer you will be assessed on how well you:

• Demonstrate understanding of human experiences in texts
• Analyse, explain and assess the ways human experiences are represented in texts

Read the following texts to answer questions 1 - 5 from the Question Booklet.

49
Text 1: Painting

50
Text 2: Extract from an Online Feature Article

Can Art Put Us in Touch with Our Feelings About Climate Change?
What does climate change look like in Australia? Are we already seeing our landscapes shift before our
eyes without even realising it? Perhaps thought-provoking art can help us come to terms with our changing
world, by finding new ways to engage, inform and hopefully inspire action. For hasn’t art always been the
bridge between the head and the heart? With that aim, the ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2017 festival,
organised by CLIMATE, features 30 specially curated exhibitions running from April 19 to May 14 in
galleries across Melbourne and regional Victoria, following on from their previous award-winning festival
in 2015.

Changing landscapes
One of the festival’s exhibitions is Land, Rain and Sun, featuring more than 100 landscapes dating from
the 19th century to today, curated by gallery owner Charles Nodrum and captioned by us to offer a climate
scientist’s perspective on the works. We also collaborated with CLIMARTE directors Guy Abrahams and
Bronwyn Johnson to bring the idea to life.

The exhibition, … is designed to help start a conversation about what climate change might look like in
Australia. Curating an exhibition of artworks as seen through the eyes of a climate scientist poses a
challenge: how can we help make the invisible visible, and the unimaginable real?
As we sifted through scores of artistic treasures, there were a few works that confronted us in unexpected
ways. The first was Cross Country Skiers, painted in 1939 by renowned South Australian artist John S.
Loxton. It depicts the Victorian High Country heavily blanketed in snow, as two skiers make their way
through the beautiful wintery landscape.

John S. Loxton, Cross Country Skiers, Victorian High Country, c. 1935

Watercolour on paper - Charles Nodrum Gallery, Author provided

When we saw this image, we realised that in decades to come this work might be considered a historical
record, serving as a terrible reminder of a landscape that vanished before our eyes.

James Gleeson’s surreal apocalyptic painting Delenda est Carthago is a provocative work that got us
thinking about a future marred by unmitigated climate change. The title refers to Rome’s annihilation of
Carthage in 149 BC. According to the ancient historian Polybius, the conquering Roman general, Scipio
Aemilianus, famously wept as he likened the event to the mythical destruction of Troy and to the eventual
end he could foresee for Rome.

51
 James
Gleeson,
Delenda
est
Carthago,
1983
Oil on
linen
Charles
Nodrum
Gallery,
Author
provided

As climate scientists, we are disturbingly aware of the threats to society not only here in Australia, but all
over the world. Unmitigated human-induced climate change could potentially see the planet warm by more
than 4℃ by the end of the century. On a more optimistic note, Imants Tillers’ work New Litany highlights
the importance of communities taking a stand for environmental protection. Over our history Australians
have fought against logging of native forests, nuclear power, whaling, and for the restoration of dammed
river systems like the Snowy.

Imants Tillers, New Litany, 1999

- Synthetic polymer paint and gouche on canvas
Charles Nodrum Gallery, Author provided

Public concern in Australia about climate change reached a peak in 2006, largely in response to Al Gore’s
film An Inconvenient Truth and Tim Flannery’s book The Weather Makers. Yet the decade since then has
brought political turmoil, and national greenhouse emissions continue to rise. The recent March for Science
is a reminder that the stakes are now higher than ever before, and that many people really do care about
the future. The science is telling us that our climate is changing, often faster than we imagined. The range
of CSIRO’s latest climate change projections reminds us that the future is still in our hands. We can avoid
the worst aspects of climate change by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, but we need to act
now.Art has always been a powerful portal to understanding how we feel about our world. Let’s hope it
helps safeguard our climatic future.
By Joelle Gergis and Penny Whetton
As published in The Conversation

52
Text 3: Poem

The Third Planet

When you see the green mountains,

And feel the lush valleys,
Know that they’re all yours.
Cherish them; the more you will,
The more you’ll be thankful,
For the time you spent between them.

As you look over the blue waters of the ocean,

Remember to smile.
Look out for the fish swimming.
Embrace this beauty,
See it all,
For all it is ours and ours only.

When you look upon the shining stars,

Be eager to know how they were made.
Learn about space and time.
Treasure the grace of the burning orbs,
And then create a connection,
For they resemble your love.

As you peer on to the grassy plains,

Look out for the mighty lion.
It has a better eye than you do
And a roar mightier than you’ve ever heard.
If your eyes ever get a chance,
Glance toward the sky,
For it shows what we’ve got.

This is not all;

The beauty on Earth is widespread.
Learn to respect it,
And it’ll embrace you instead.
Naqiya H. Shehabi

Examination compiled by Brendon Ly and Zenna Diab

53
 H.I.T. EXAM PAPERS

HSC INTENSIVE TRAINING - EXAM 1

QUESTION & WRITING BOOKLET

(The following exam was written for the 2019 HAHS Trial HSC exams)

PAPER 1: COMMON MODULE

TEXTS AND HUMAN EXPERIENCES

General • Reading time – 10 minutes

Instructions • Working time – 1 hour and 30 minutes

• Write using black pen

• A Stimulus Booklet is provided with this Question and Writing Booklet

• Write your Student Number at the top of this page and on all other
pages with a box like the above one.

54
SECTION I

20 marks
Attempt Questions 1 - 5
Allow about 45 minutes for this section

Read the texts in the Stimulus Booklet carefully and answer the correlating questions in this
booklet, in the spaces provided.
These spaces provide guidance for the expected length of responses.

Your answer will be assessed on how well you:

• demonstrate understanding of human experiences in texts
• analyse, explain and assess the ways human experiences are represented in texts

55
Question 1

Use Text 1 (pages 4 - 5 of the stimulus booklet) to answer this question.

Explain how the poet uses features of language to come to the notion, “we are
more alike / my friends / than we are unalike.”

3 marks

56
Question 2

Use Text 2 (page 6 of the stimulus booklet) to answer this question.

Compare what two reviews say about how the author uses language to shape
the representation of the experience of loss.

4 marks

57
Question 3

Use Text 3 (pages 7 - 10 of the stimulus booklet) to answer this question.

Critically analyse how this graphic novel represents the power of books to invite responders to
see the world differently.

5 marks

58
Question 4

Use Text 4 (pages 11 - 13 of the stimulus booklet) to answer this

question.

Explain the opening line of the prologue in relation to your understanding of

individual human experiences.

2 marks

59
Question 5

Use Text 4 ( pages 11 to 13 of the stimulus booklet) to answer this

question.

Evaluate how the writer showcases inconsistencies in the behaviour and motivations of
people who share an experience.

6 marks

60
61
 HSC INTENSIVE TRAINING - EXAM 1

STIMULUS BOOKLET

Read the following texts alongside the correlating questions.

Answer Questions 1 – 5 in the Section 1 Question and Writing Booklet.

62
TEXT 1: POEM

Family
I note the obvious differences
in the human family.
Some of us are serious,
some thrive on comedy.

Some declare their lives are lived

as true profundity,
and others claim they really live
the real reality.

The variety of our skin tones

can confuse, bemuse, delight,
brown and pink and beige and purple,
tan and blue and white.

I've sailed upon the seven seas

and stopped in every land,
I've seen the wonders of the world
not yet one common man.

I know ten thousand women

called Jane and Mary Jane,
but I've not seen any two
who really were the same.

Mirror twins are different

although their features jibe,
and lovers think quite different thoughts
while lying side by side.

63
We love and lose in China,
we weep on England's moors,
and laugh and moan in Guinea,
and thrive on Spanish shores.

We seek success in Finland,

are born and die in Maine.
In minor ways we differ,
in major we're the same.

I note the obvious differences

between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,

than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,

than we are unalike.

By Maya Angelou

(Poem downloaded from the website ‘All poetry’ https://allpoetry.com/Human-Family)

64
TEXT TWO: BOOK REVIEWS

Andrew McMillan, Guardian Books of the Year

‘Unlike anything I’ve read before; part memoir, part novel, part experimental sound-poem, the
book is a physical, living thing that shifts between humour and sadness with a deft beat of its
wing.’

Philip Marsden, Spectator Books of the Year

‘One of the most surprising books this year, full of vitality and freshness… Part prose and part
verse, the drama of a father and sons coping with loss and an outsize corvid* in the house is
comic, moving and ultimately uplifting.’

Sarah Crown, Guardian

‘Heartrending, blackly funny, deeply resonant, a perfect summation of what it means to lose
someone but still to love the world – and if it reminds publishers that the best books aren’t
always the ones that can be pigeonholed or precis-ed** or neatly packaged, so much the
better.’

Kirsty Gunn, Guardian

‘Shows us another way of thinking about the novel and its capabilities, taking us through a dark
and emotionally fraught subject, one airy page after another, as though transported by wings.’

Thomas Morris, Irish Times

‘I loved Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing with Feathers … Part prose, part poetry, the book is a
lyrical exploration of grief and healing; exquisite passages of brilliance and beauty abound
throughout.’

‘Pick of the Week’, Sydney Morning Herald

‘Extraordinary … This book is partly poetry, partly drama, partly fable, and partly essay on grief.
It reads like a play with three voices: the bereaved father, the sons speaking with one voice, and
Crow, the alarming visitor who helps them work through their loss. With its verbal inventiveness,
vivid imagery and profound but never swamping emotion, this is as wild and gripping and
original book as Wuthering Heights.’

(Extracted from the first 3 pages of the Faber & Faber edition of the novel ‘Grief is the Thing
with Feathers’ by Max Porter)

* Corvids are a type of bird that belong to what is commonly known as the crow family (ravens,
crows, magpies, jays, etc.). Corvids are said to be extremely smart birds.
** Precis-ed - a concise summary of a book, article, or other text.

65
TEXT THREE: GRAPHIC NOVEL

A Child of Books

66
67
68
By Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston

(Pages 1 - 2, 5 - 6, 9 - 12 and 23 – 30 scanned from the Candlewick Press edition of this text.)

69
TEXT FOUR: PROSE EXCERPT

Prologue from The Jane Austen Book Club

Each of us has a private Austen.

Jocelyn’s Austen wrote wonderful novels about love and courtship, but never married. The book
club was Jocelyn’s idea, and she handpicked the members. She had more ideas in one morning
than the rest of us had in a week, and more energy, too. It was essential to reintroduce Austen
into your life regularly, Jocelyn said, let her look around. We suspected a hidden agenda, but
who would put Jane Austen to an evil purpose?

Bernadette’s Austen was a comic genius. Her characters, her dialogue remained genuinely
funny, not like Shakespeare’s jokes, which amused you only because they were Shakespeare’s
and you owed him that.

Bernadette was our oldest member, just rounding the bend of sixty-seven. She’d recently
announced that she was, officially, letting herself go. “I just don’t look in the mirror anymore,”
she’d told us. “I wish I’d thought of it years ago. . . .

“Like a vampire,” she added, and when she put it that way, we wondered how it was that
vampires always managed to look so dapper. It seemed that more of them should look like
Bernadette.

Prudie had once seen Bernadette in the supermarket in her bedroom slippers, her hair sticking
up from her forehead as if she hadn’t even combed it. She was buying frozen edamame and
capers and other items that couldn’t have been immediately needed.

Bernadette’s favorite book was Pride and Prejudice; she’d told Jocelyn that it was probably
everyone’s favorite. She recommended starting with it. But Sylvia’s husband of thirty-two years
had just asked for a divorce, and Jocelyn would not subject her, the news so recent and tender,
to the dishy Mr. Darcy. “We’ll start with Emma,” Jocelyn had answered. “Because no one has
ever read it and wished to be married.”

Jocelyn met Sylvia when they were both eleven years old; they were in their early fifties now.
Sylvia’s Austen was a daughter, a sister, an aunt. Sylvia’s Austen wrote her books in a busy
sitting room, read them aloud to her family, yet remained an acute and nonpartisan observer of

70
people. Sylvia’s Austen could love and be loved, but it didn’t cloud her vision, blunt her
judgment.

It was possible that Sylvia was the whole reason for the book club, that Jocelyn wished only to
keep her occupied during a difficult time. That would be like Jocelyn. Sylvia was her oldest and
closest friend.

Wasn’t it Kipling who said, “Nothing like Jane when you’re in a tight spot”? Or something very
like that?

I think we should be all women,” Bernadette suggested next. “The dynamic changes with men.
They pontificate rather than communicate. They talk more than their share.”

Jocelyn opened her mouth.

“No one can get a word in,” Bernadette warned her. “Women are too tentative to interrupt, no
matter how long someone has gone on.”

Jocelyn cleared her throat.

“Besides, men don’t do book clubs,” Bernadette said. “They see reading as a solitary pleasure.
When they read at all.”

Jocelyn closed her mouth.

Yet the very next person she asked was Grigg, whom we none of us knew. Grigg was a neat,
dark-haired man in his early forties. The first thing you noticed about him was his eyelashes,
which were very long and thick. We imagined a lifetime of aunts regretting the waste of those
lashes in the face of a boy.

We’d known Jocelyn long enough to wonder whom Grigg was intended for. Grigg was too
young for some of us, too old for the rest. His inclusion in the club was mystifying.

Those of us who’d known Jocelyn longer had survived multiple setups. While they were still in
high school, she’d introduced Sylvia to the boy who would become her husband, and she’d
been maid of honor at the wedding three years after they graduated. This early success had
given her a taste for blood; she’d never recovered. Sylvia and Daniel. Daniel and Sylvia. Thirty-
plus years of satisfaction, though it was, of course, harder to take pleasure in that just now.

Jocelyn had never been married herself, so she had ample time for all sorts of hobbies.

She’d spent fully six months producing suitable young men for Sylvia’s daughter, Allegra, when
Allegra turned nineteen. Now Allegra was thirty, and the fifth person asked to join our book club.

71
Allegra’s Austen wrote about the impact of financial need on the intimate lives of women. If
she’d worked in a bookstore, Allegra would have shelved Austen in the horror section.

Allegra got short, expensive haircuts and wore cheap, sexy shoes, but neither of those facts
would have made any of us think twice if she hadn’t also, on occasions too numerous to count,
referred to herself as a lesbian. Jocelyn’s inability to see what had never been hidden eventually
became offensive, and Sylvia took her aside and asked why she was having so much trouble
getting it. Jocelyn was mortified.

She switched to suitable young women. Jocelyn ran a kennel and bred Rhodesian Ridgebacks.
The dog world was, as it happily turned out, awash in suitable young women.

Prudie was the youngest of us at twenty-eight. Her favorite novel was Persuasion, the last
completed and the most somber. Prudie’s was the Austen whose books changed every time
you read them, so that one year they were all romances and the next you suddenly noticed
Austen’s cool, ironic prose. Prudie’s was the Austen who died, possibly of Hodgkin’s disease,
when she was only forty-one years old.

Prudie would have liked it if we’d occasionally acknowledged the fact that she’d won her
invitation as a genuine Austen devotee, unlike Allegra, who was really there only because of her
mother. Not that Allegra wouldn’t have some valuable insights; Prudie was eager to hear them.
Always good to know what the lesbians were thinking about love and marriage.

Prudie had a dramatic face, deep-set eyes, white, white skin, and shadowed cheeks. A tiny
mouth and lips that almost disappeared when she smiled, like the Cheshire cat, only opposite.
She taught French at the high school and was the only one of us currently married, unless you
counted Sylvia, who soon wouldn’t be. Or maybe Grigg—we didn’t know about Grigg—but why
would Jocelyn have invited him if he was married?

None of us knew who Grigg’s Austen was.

The six of us—Jocelyn, Bernadette, Sylvia, Allegra, Prudie, and Grigg—made up the full roster
of the Central Valley/River City all-Jane-Austen-all-the-time book club. Our first meeting was at
Jocelyn’s house.

By Karen Joy Fowler

(Excerpt from pages 1 – 5 of the J.P. Putnam’s Son Book edition of this novel)

72
 H.I.T. EXAM 1 - MARKING CRITERIA AND SUGGESTED ANSWERS

TEXT 1: POEM

QUESTION 1 / Explain how the poet uses features of language to lead up to the notion, “we are more
alike / my friends / than we are unalike.” 3 marks

MARKING CRITERIA

• Explains effectively how the notion “we are more alike / my friends / than we are 3 marks
unalike.” Is built up
• Refers to features of language (2-3) that show how this ‘build up’ is achieved

• Explains the notion “we are more alike / my friends / than we are unalike.” 2 marks
• Refers to features of language (1- 2) but may not relate this to how the idea is ‘built up’

• Describes the text and the quote 1 mark

• Does not refer to techniques relevant to the way ideas are built up

SUGGESTED ANSWERS (Could include but are not limited to):

ü Overarching notion: everyone is individual and unique, but as a whole we share common
experiences and behaviours that draw us together/that there is a common human experience that
connects everyone despite superficial differences/we all experience the same elements/events in life
despite the ways that we appear to live our lives differently to others
ü Contrast allows the composer to list our differences, but she uses these to show how in the end that
we are “more alike than unalike” as these are common human experiences eg some of us are
serious/some thrive on comedy or love and lose in China/laugh and moan in Guinea
ü Listing of our minor differences such as skin tone are also used to show the variety that human
beings display but that these are insignificant as compared to the commonality of all humans eg the
variety of our skin tones … brown and pink and beige
ü Hyperbole/exaggeration purple…blue in amongst typical skin tones allows the composer to
demonstrate how ridiculous it is to separate people based on an external appearance when ultimately
it is a superficial “skin-deep” element; she is being mocking of those who do segregate this way and
playing with language to show the limitation of such a way of thinking
ü Emotive language when talking of differences – confuse, bemuse, delight – we are meant to read a
positive reaction here, that as we work through our uncertainty about others, we come to enjoy their
uniqueness as it adds depth to our response to the world
ü Accumulation of ideas as the poet continually refers to differences amongst all people to highlight
the fact that none of us are uniform with others and that this should be embraced as a natural part of
life eg I’ve seen the wonders of the world/not yet one common man and I’ve not seen any two/who
really were the same and weep on England’s moors/thrive on Spanish shores
ü Repetition of the refrain We are more alike/than we are unalike on which the poet ends; it is her
culminating point and the one she leads us to via all her other points and this is what she has led
built up to in the poem

SAMPLE ANSWER
Angelou initially presents to us the differences between our individual experiences, through the
contrast in each stanza. Whilst “some of us are serious, some thrive on comedy”, highlights a
difference in the individual experiences we go through, Angelou inverts that representation to instead
present to us a collective experience. She depicts the “human family”, invoking connotations of
belonging and love, thereby highlighting her final notion that we are more alike than unalike. She uses

73
a collective pronoun, “we”, “us”, to further reinforce throughout her poem that the experiences she
represents are that of a collective.
OR
The consonance used in the line “We love and lose in China…” is used to create a rhythmically
dramatic effect which places emphasis on the experiences we share in “loving” and “losing”. This idea
is further accentuated in the anaphora of lines “We love…we weep…” as the collective pronoun
creates a collective experience for readers. The antithesis of “born” and “die” in the line “…are born
and die in Maine” places emphasis on two major stages of our lives that we share as humans. By
using these features, Angelou is able to build up to the relatable notion “we are more/alike/my
friends/than we are unalike.”

TEXT 2: REVIEWS

QUESTION 2 / Compare what two of the reviews say about how Max Potter uses language to shape
the representation of the experience of loss. 4 marks

MARKING CRITERIA

• Compares skillfully what two reviewers say about Potter’s use of language to shape the 4 marks
representation of the experience of loss
• Writes about both reviews in a balanced way
• Focuses on what the reviewers say about how Potter crafts meaning

• Compares effectively what two reviewers say about the representation of the experience 3 marks
of loss
• Writes about both reviews, with perhaps more attention or detail to one review
• Mostly focuses on what the reviewers say about how Potter crafts meaning

• Explains what the reviewers say about the experience of loss in Potter’s text 2 marks
• Writes about one review or both reviews briefly
• May write about the techniques used by the reviewers

• Provides some relevant information about the experience of loss in Potter’s text 1 mark
• May write about techniques used by reviewers

SUGGESTED ANSWERS
ü Comparison of two reviews and how they reveal the way in which Max Potter represents the
experience of loss detailing his use of varying textual forms
ü Comparison of two reviews and how they reveal the way in which Max Potter represents the
experience of loss detailing his control of tone and voice in the novel
ü Comparison of two reviews and how they reveal the way in which Max Potter represents the
experience of loss, and this can be seen on both the level of the individual and the collective in the
novel
ü Comparison of two reviews and how they reveal the way in which Max Potter represents the
experience of loss, and the way in which the author uses storytelling as a vehicle to represent this
complex human emotion
ü Comparison of two reviews and how they reveal the way in which Max Potter represents the
experience of loss, and the way in which the author’s varied use of style, tone, and, voice, operate
as an anomalous representation of an universal human experience

74
SAMPLE ANSWER
Both Andrew McMillan from the Guardian and Thomas Morris from the Irish times comment on the
complex structure of Potter’s novel, indicating that the author has used varying styles such as elements
from memoirs, novels and poetry. Whilst they are reviewing this novel, the fact that both these
composers have commented on the hybridity of the text’s construction suggest that Potter is able to
present the universal human experience of loss in a way that is memorable, by challenging readers’
perceptions of the complexity of loss as a human experience. McMillan’s focus on the poetic aspect of
Potter’s work, referring to Potter’s work as a “sound-poem”, highlights the sensory experience Potter
incites in his representation of loss. Whilst both McMillan and Morris focus on the infused poetic lyricism
of Potter’s work, the latter’s commentary differs in that it highlights the way in which the novel not only
represents the universality of the human experience of loss, but also the fact that “grief” followed by
“healing” is represented in the novel. The fact that this has resonated with Morris highlights the way in
which Potter has used storytelling as a vehicle to represent the human experience of loss, but further,
the sense of hope which the novel inspires as healing is drawn out as the next stage following the
intense human emotions associated with loss.

TEXT 3: GRAPHIC NOVEL

QUESTION 3 / Critically analyse how this graphic novel represents the power of books to invite
responders to see the world differently. 5 marks

MARKING CRITERIA

• Analyses skillfully how the notion that books have the power to invite us to see the world 5 marks
differently is represented
• Identifies the features within the pages of the graphic novel that position the reader
• Writes with precision, using language to critically analyse

• Analyses how the notion that books have the power to invite us to see the world 4 marks
differently is represented
• Identifies the features within the pages of the graphic novel that position the reader
• Writes clearly, using language effectively to analyse

• explains how books invite us to see the world differently 3 marks

• Identifies some features within the pages of the graphic

• describes how books invite us to see the world differently 2 marks

• Identifies some features within the pages of the graphic
• Writes a limited response

• Identifies some features of the graphic novel 1 mark

• Writes a limited response

SUGGESTED ANSWERS
ü Made a connection between the stimulus ‘see the world differently’ and module.
ü Unpacked what the term ‘see the world differently’ meant.
ü Spoke from outside the text.
ü Framed analysis using terms like ‘positions us’ and ‘instrumental in showing’
ü Examples were relevant and specific in how it aided in achieving said purpose.
ü Explanation was clear. Avoid sentences like, ‘the contrasting colour contrasts in the image’
ü Don’t make claims relating to the question, unless you can back them up.

75
ü Be specific. Don’t keep repeating ‘bright colours’, eventually you should reveal that it was red. This
is important particularly to responses that stated the colour choice informed the feelings of the
responder.

SAMPLE ANSWER
The notion that books have the power to invite responders to see the world differently is at the heart of
the graphic novel A Child of Books which uses the analogy of journeying across the world to crystalise
the impact of books and how they lure us to see the world differently. In the excerpts provided the
salience and contrast in images combine to showcase how this ‘child of books’ is able to appreciate her
world better due to her imagination, which allows her to explore the world through the portal of
imagination, ignited by books. What’s most significant here is that the waves and later mountain or
landscapes are constructed from phrases that are based on allusions and intertextuality to the books
that have invited the girl to “travel over mountains of make believe”. This metaphor provides a tender
example of how the various books alluded to have the power to allow the girl and her male companion
to reach new heights as they traverse the world. Most significantly, consequent to the reading journey
they’ve embarked upon, the pair of travelers write their own narrative, made evident in the vivid images
on the vibrant double spread that is captioned “For this is our world… we’ve made from stories.” The
globe on which the pair stand symbolises that books have allowed them to conquer a tremendous range
of experiences, complemented by the various images, all of which allude to numerous narratives. These
narratives (fairytales, black beauty, Alice in Wonderland & Moby Dick, to name a few) have evidently
invited the readers into their worlds and subsequently shaped their human experiences. Culminating in
their return to their “home of invention”, which is represented with a double spread that contrasts a black
and white town to a row of colourful books, the graphic novel ends on the evocative, didactic message
that “anyone at all can come / for imagination is free”, when it is catalyzed by the books that depict the
narratives that feed our imagination.

TEXT 4: PROSE FICTION EXCERPT

QUESTION 4 / Explain the opening line of the prologue in relation to your understanding of individual
human experiences. 2 marks

MARKING CRITERIA

• Provides a clear explanation about the individual experience within the broader 2 marks
collective

• provides an explanation that attempts to explain the line with little relevance to the 1 mark
module

SUGGESTED ANSWERS
ü Private Austen is a metaphor relevant to the individual experience
ü Austen metaphor is a reference to the collective experience
ü The individual experience can be secluded, detached
ü All individual experiences are common to others
ü People have their own unique experiences or interpretations of events

SAMPLE ANSWER
Sample 1:

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The individual experience is represented as ‘a private Austen’ which suggests that each individual will
have moments of seclusion or detachment from others. This is a common experience to all of ‘us’ but
will also be individual because we make of it what we want.
Sample 2:
“Each of us has a private Austen” exemplifies the idea that individual experiences are unique but
occur within a collective. The collective ‘Austen’ experience becomes a private one, wherein each
individual responds to an experience and thus makes it their own.

TEXT 4: PROSE FICTION EXCERPT

QUESTION 5 / Evaluate how the writer showcases the inconsistencies in the behaviour and
motivations of different people within the same experience.6 marks

MARKING CRITERIA

• Evaluates skillfully the way the text is constructed to showcase the inconsistencies in the 6
behaviour and motivations of different people within the same experience. marks
• Refers to at least 4 – 6 features of text that emphasise or highlight the point
• Has control of language, using language precisely to make a judgement

• Evaluates the way the text is constructed to represent the inconsistencies in the behaviour 5
and motivations of different people within the same experience. marks
• Refers to at least 4 – 6 features of text that convey the point
• Has control of language, using language to make a judgement

• Explains the way the text is constructed to represent the inconsistencies in the behaviour 4 - 3
and motivations of different people within the same experience. marks
• Refers to some features of text that convey the point
• Has control of language

• Identifies or describes the ideas in the text 2-1

• Refers to some features of text that convey the point marks
• Has some control of language

SUGGESTED ANSWERS
ü Inconsistencies in the behavior and motivations of characters whose values and actions clash – this
is shown through the inclusive omniscient narration employed to introduce each member of the Jane
Austen Book club in what is the prologue to the novel.
ü Each member of the book club is united in their ‘love’ for Austen narratives, yet each has their own
personal favourite.
ü Prime example of inconsistency in both behavior and motivation is most clearly represented through
the characterisation of Jocelyn, the book-club’s founder. “Jocelyn’s Austen wrote wonderful novels
about love and courtship, but never married.”…
ü Irony and humour evoked through ‘aside’ comments by the narrator who seems to cast a critical eye
over all characters but most significantly Jocelyn: “It was essential to reintroduce Austen into your
life regularly, Jocelyn said, let her look around. We suspected a hidden agenda, but who would put
Jane Austen to an evil purpose?”
ü Series of paradoxical observations also accentuate the various inconsistencies in each person:
“Bernadette’s favorite book was Pride and Prejudice; she’d told Jocelyn that it was probably
everyone’s favorite. She recommended starting with it. But Sylvia’s husband of thirty-two years had
just asked for a divorce, and Jocelyn would not subject her, the news so recent and tender, to the

77
 dishy Mr. Darcy. “We’ll start with Emma,” Jocelyn had answered. “Because no one has ever read it
and wished to be married.”
ü Dialogue emphasizes the inconsistent motivation when compared to the behavior of the speakers.
“Besides, men don’t do book clubs,” Bernadette said. “They see reading as a solitary pleasure. When
they read at all.”
ü Stereotypes are created through vivid description “Allegra got short, expensive haircuts and wore
cheap, sexy shoes, but neither of those facts would have made any of us think twice if she hadn’t
also, on occasions too numerous to count, referred to herself as a lesbian.” evoking humour and a
blunt didactic message during a context that would have been in debate about sexuality (“Jocelyn’s
inability to see what had never been hidden eventually became offensive, and Sylvia took her aside
and asked why she was having so much trouble getting it. Jocelyn was mortified.’)

SAMPLE ANSWER
Firstly, the nature of the collective experience represented in this excerpt is that of the book club, which
unites six very different people who (mostly) happen to share a love of Jane Austen novels. Despite this
commonality between them, the prologue to this novel seems to amplify, through contrast and
characterisation, the differences between each individual. These differences are largely due to the
inconsistencies in the behavior and motivation of the different members.

Employing Characterisation as a key feature of form, Fowler immediately establishes the paradox
arising from collective experiences, declaring that every individual has a private Austen, whereby this
metaphor implicates us as being driven by personal motivations. The omniscient narrator describes the
motive of each person within the book club, whilst also detailing the quirky behavior or mindset of these
members, serving to showcase the inconsistencies within and amongst the members. A prime example
of such is the book clubs founder, Jocelyn, whose characterisation is the source of wry humour and
brazen commentary on Fowler’s part. The irony threaded throughout emphasizes that the multiple
setups instigated by Jocelyn (“she’d introduced Sylvia to the boy who would become her husband, and
she’d been maid of honor at the wedding three years after they graduated.”) are inconsistent with her
own attitude or inclination towards marriage, which is detailed in the blunt, single line paragraph,
(“Jocelyn had never been married herself, so she had ample time for all sorts of hobbies.”), offered
immediately after the anecdote about Jocelyn setting up Sylvia’s relationship. Here Fowler suggests
that Jocelyn’s behavior is inconsistent with her motivation… and readers may be left wondering why she
was so keen to read Jane Austen books, which are all about marriage and social etiquette.
Griggs inclusion in the Austen book club is another way Fowler represents inconsistencies. While the
persona narrating doesn’t provide insight to Grigg’s motivation, the perspective used provides us with
enough detail to suggest that Grigg’s inclusion is anomalous. He doesn’t seem to have an Austen
favourite (“None of us knew who Grigg’s Austen was.”) nor does he seem to have a purpose in the club
(“Grigg was too young for some of us, too old for the rest. His inclusion in the club was mystifying.”)
Evidently, Grigg’s is a hook for readers, allowing Fowler to introduce the idea that the members have
variable agendas when joining the book club, which is the premise of the plot beyond this prologue.

Perhaps most significant, in showing the inconsistencies in our behavior and motivations when joining
a collective, is the characterisation of Prudie who is initially introduced in contrast to Allegra. For
example, Prudie had “won her invitation as a genuine Austen devotee, unlike Allegra, who was really
there only because of her mother.”, yet “Prudie’s was the Austen whose books changed every time you
read them, so that one year they were all romances and the next you suddenly noticed Austen’s cool,
ironic prose.” In this character, Fowler’s representation of eclectic individual experiences as a part of
the collective resonates most clearly whilst simultaneously reinforcing that the individual experience and
motivation is constantly transferrable.

78
 HSC INTENSIVE TRAINING - EXAM 2

QUESTION & WRITING BOOKLET

PAPER 1: COMMON MODULE

TEXTS AND HUMAN EXPERIENCES

General • Reading time – 10 minutes

Instructions • Working time – 1 hour and 30 minutes

• Write using black pen

• A Stimulus Booklet is provided with this Question and Writing Booklet

• Write your Student Number at the top of this page and on all other
pages with a box like the above one.

79
SECTION I

20 marks
Attempt Questions 1 - 4
Allow about 45 minutes for this section

Read the texts in the Stimulus Booklet carefully and answer the correlating questions in this
booklet, in the spaces provided.
These spaces provide guidance for the expected length of responses.

Your answer will be assessed on how well you:

• demonstrate understanding of human experiences in texts
• analyse, explain and assess the ways human experiences are represented in texts

80
Question 1

Use Text 1 and 2 (pages 3 and 4 & 5 of the stimulus booklet) to answer this question.

Compare how each text encourages people to explore representations of human

experiences.

4 marks

81
Question 2

Use Text 2 (page 4 & 5 of the stimulus booklet) to answer this question.

Outline the main arguments which convey the role of storytelling in human experiences.

3 marks

82
Question 3

Use Text 3 (page 6 of the stimulus booklet) to answer this question.

Analyse how the poet uses imagery to convey the idea that experiences can be monotonous.

6 marks

83
84
Question 4

Use Text 4 (page 7 of the stimulus booklet) to answer this question.

Evaluate how the significance of memory is represented.

7 marks

85
86
 HSC INTENSIVE TRAINING - EXAM 2

STIMULUS BOOKLET

Read the following texts alongside the correlating questions.

Answer Questions 1 – 4 in the Section 1 Question and Writing Booklet.

87
TEXT 1: WEBSITE

88
TEXT 2: NON FICTION ARTICLE
The role of narrative in museum exhibitions

Just been reading a review of several museums in an article by Amanda Lohrey called The Absent Heart
in The Monthly, June 2010. Got me inspired to re-visit the work I did on narrative in my doctoral thesis,
and here's some thoughts. In her article Lohrey laments the state of exhibition design in some of our major
museums, noting that they fail to tell a story. She notes that often significant objects are presented as
"design pieces" without any context or story. Lohrey concludes by stating: 'The question remains of how
to put an end to trophyism. Until their displays of social history are more imaginatively conceived, our major
museums will remain lacklustre models of fragmentation and perfunctory exposition. There is a
metaphorical heart missing from this frame, a manifest passion, and flair, for the telling of our history'
(2010, p.51). What better way to reclaim this territory than through the power of narrative?

The potential of narrative approaches to learning have been explored more recently by museums. It is
recognised that humans are natural storytellers—since ancient times humans have been using stories that
represent an event or series of events as ways to learn (Abbott, 2002). Bruner (1986) suggested that
humans employed two modes of thought—paradigmatic (or logico- scientific) and narrative. He described
imaginative narrative as leading to '... good stories, gripping drama, believable (though not necessarily
“true”) historical accounts. It deals in human or human-like intention and action and the vicissitudes and
consequences that mark their course. It strives to put its timeless miracles into the particulars of
experience, and to locate the experience in time and place' (Bruner, 1986, p.13).

Museums are ideal places where stories can be told that encourage visitors to make their own meanings.
Bedford (2001) noted that 'Stories are the most fundamental way we learn. They have a beginning, a
middle, and an end. They teach without preaching, encouraging both personal reflection and public
discussion. Stories inspire wonder and awe; they allow a listener to imagine another time and place, to
find the universal in the particular, and to feel empathy for others. They preserve individual and collective
memory and speak to both the adult and the child' (p.33).

Ideas about narratives have been developed and applied to museums by a range of writers and
researchers. Allen (2004b) researched the use of narrative tools as ways for visitors to make meanings
about science. Allen defined narrative in a museum context as taking the personal perspective; involving
a series of events; containing emotional content and authentic in origin,

with someone telling the story. Allen (2004a) also drew attention to the problem that the museum sector
still does not clearly understand how the power of narrative could be used to enhance visitor learning,
specifically about scientific principles. McLean (2003) described the ways visitor experiences could be
constructed in different types of learning environments, using the analogy of “the campfire, the cave and
the well”.

Bedford (2001; 2004) and Rounds (2002) considered that narrative was a powerful way that cultural and
social history museums, in particular, engaged visitors, with Bedford even proposing that storytelling was
the “real work” of museums. Bedford argued that stories aided humans in defining their values and beliefs
and allowed the listener to project their own thoughts, feelings and memories onto the story and ‘... make
connections between museum artifacts and images and visitors’ lives and memories’ (Bedford, 2001,
p.30). Roberts (1997) used the framework of narrative to explain the shifts in museum education theory
over time, and suggested a narrative approach to educational practices as a way to enhance the ways
visitors engaged with museums.

In research we did with visitors to the Indigenous Australians exhibition, we found that the stories coupled
with the use of Indigenous voice was an important way visitors learned about these issues and they
appreciated this approach. In the death: the last taboo exhibition (2003) visitors were profoundly moved
by the last section which contained a series of showcases containing personal stories surrounding the
death of loved ones. Again, visitors could relate to the content and objects through the power of the human
story.

By Lynda Kelly (downloaded From https://australianmuseum.net.au ›)

89
TEXT 3: POEM

Tableau In January

January, noon. The idle length of a street ...

There is more light than world, and what few outlines
Persist forget their meaning in the heat.

The metal sea’s too bright to walk upon.

Thoughts pass, and figment shops, and random glimmers
From crystals in the concrete, and oiled swimmers.
The sky does not exist when it’s outshone.

On the dazed white sand, umbrellas stiffly lean

To pose and impose their shade upon the shifting
Languor of bodies and glare, and all the sifting
Motes of dim music mingles with the scene
Fade into summer, January, drifting ...

Things drift apart, significances fade.

The returning street, once blue, is taut with azure
Tension between persistence and erasure.
In the cool of doorways, shirts drink lemonade.

January noon. The unreal, idle street.

There is more light than world. The poet, smiling,
Takes his soft lines and bends them till they meet.

By Les Murray (From Collected Poems)

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TEXT 4: PROSE EXCERPT
Dirt Music

Georgie wasn't a morning person but as a shiftworker she'd seen more than her share of dawns. Like all
those Saudi mornings when she'd arrive back at the infidels' compound to loiter outside after her
colleagues went to bed. In stockinged feet she would stand on the precious mat of lawn and sniff the
Jeddah air in the hope of catching a whiff of pure sea breeze coming across the high perimeter wall.
Sentimental attachment to geography irritated her, Australians were riddled with it and West Australians
were worst of all, but there was no point in denying that the old predawn ritual was anything more than
bog-standard homesickness, that what she was sniffing for was the highball mix you imbibed every night
of your riverside Perth childhood, the strange briny effervescence of the sea tide stirring in the Swan River,
into its coves, across the estuarine flats. But in Jeddah all she ever got for her trouble was the fumy miasma
of the corniche, the exhaust of Cadillacs and half a million aircon units blasting Freon at the Red Sea.

And now here she was, years later, soaking in clean, fresh Indian Ocean air with a miserable, prophylactic
determination. Sailor, diver and angler though she was, Georgie knew that these days the glories of the
outdoors were wasted on her.

There was no use in going to bed now. Jim would be up in less than an hour and she'd never get to sleep
before then unless she took a pill. What was the point in lying down in time for him to sit up and take his
first steeling sigh of the day? Jim Buckridge needed no alarm, somehow he was wired to be early. He was
your first out and last in sort of fisherman; he set the mark that others in the fleet aspired to. Inherited, so
everybody said. By the time he was out of the lagoon and through the passage in the reef with the bird-
swirling island on his starboard beam, the whole bay would be burbling with diesels and the others would
be looking for the dying phosphor of his wake.

At seven the boys would clump in, fuddled and ready for breakfast, though somehow in the next hour they
would become less and less ready for school. She'd make their lunches -- apple sandwiches for Josh and
five rounds of Vegemite for Brad. Then finally they'd crash out the back door and Georgie might switch on
the VHF and listen to the fleet while she went through the business of keeping order in a big house. And
then and then and then.

By Tim Winton (excerpt downloaded from https://mostlyfiction.com/excerpts/dirtmusic.htm)

91
 HSC INTENSIVE TRAINING - EXAM 3

QUESTION & WRITING BOOKLET

General • Reading time – 10 minutes

Instructions • Working time – 1 hour and 30 minutes

• Write using black pen

• A Stimulus Booklet is provided with this Question and Writing Booklet

• Write your Name at the top of this page

92
SECTION I

20 marks
Attempt Questions 1 - 4
Allow about 45 minutes for this section

Read the texts in the Stimulus Booklet carefully and answer the correlating questions in this
booklet, in the spaces provided.
These spaces provide guidance for the expected length of responses.

Your answer will be assessed on how well you:

• demonstrate understanding of human experiences in texts
• analyse, explain and assess the ways human experiences are represented in texts

93
Question 1

Use Text 1 to answer this question.

Explain how language and visual features are used to create interest in this book.

4 marks

94
Question 2

Use Text 2 to answer this question.

How does Text 2 deepen your understanding of the emotions arising from experiences?

4 marks

95
Question 3

Use Text 3 to answer this question.

Explain how the poet conveys the hesitation people experience when they move on to new

experiences.

5 marks

96
97
Question 4

Use Text 4 to answer this question.

The notations provided at the beginning of this play transcript emphasise the individual
experiences of characters in the play as well as conveying that these experiences are part of
a collective. Analyse how this is achieved.

7 marks

98
99
 HSC INTENSIVE TRAINING - EXAM 3

STIMULUS BOOKLET

Read the following texts alongside the correlating questions.

Answer Questions 1 – 4 in the Section 1 Question and Writing Booklet.

100
TEXT ONE: BOOK COVER

On the back cover:

Alexievich’s distinctive documentary style, combining extended individual monologues with a collage of
voices, records the stories of ordinary women and men who are rarely given the opportunity to speak,
whose experiences are often lost in the official histories of the nation. A magnificent tapestry of the sorrows
and triumphs of the human spirit woven by a master, Second-hand Time tells the stories that together
make up the true history of a nation.
“Through the voices of those who confided in her, Alexievich tells us about human nature, about our
dreams, our choices, about good and evil—in a word, about ourselves.”
(The Nation review)
(Image from Amazon.com)

101
TEXT TWO: SPEECH EXCERPT

Ladies and gentlemen,

I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work – a life’s work in the agony
and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the
materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in
trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the
purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by
using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women
already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will
some day stand here where I am standing.

Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can
even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. Because of this, the young man or woman
writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can
make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.

He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and,
teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old
verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and
doomed – love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he
labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything
of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve
on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.

Until he relearns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of
man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply
because he will endure: that when the last dingdong of doom has clanged and faded from the last
worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be
one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking.

I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal,
not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a
spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write
about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of
the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have
been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one
of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.

(William Faulkner, Banquet Speech,

delivered at the Nobel Banquet at the City Hall in Stockholm, December 10, 1950
- excerpt downloaded from
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1949/faulkner/speech/)

102
TEXT THREE: POEM

Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends

And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black

And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,

And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

(by Shel Silverstein, downloaded from www.shelsilverstein.com)

103
TEXT FOUR: DRAMA SCRIPT NOTATIONS

CHARACTERS

JIMMY: He’s a mischievous boy. A shamed older boy. A sullen, angry adult with just one ray of hope –
finding his family. Finally, a tormented man who gives up the fight.

RUBY: A very young child who feels abandoned. A used and abused young woman. A crazy beyond
reach.

SHIRLEY: A stolen child who becomes a mother whose children are, in turn, stolen. A nurturer, the ‘earth
mother’. She never gives up searching for her kids, and always looks to the future.

SANDY: Always on the run. Never belonging anywhere. A traveller, a thinker, a storyteller. A man in search
of something who finally finds it – a sense of place.

ANNE: Too young to understand why she was being taken from her family, Anne just saw that she was
better off materially. As a teenager she had no desire to find out more about her real family. Later, when
she did meet them, she was bewildered. Although still ambivalent about her real family, there is some
attraction to ‘going back’, which is largely unresolved.

SETTING
Five old iron institutional beds alternate across the stage. The beds are the base of the five main
characters, representing their homes at various stages of their lives. At times they become: a children’s
home; a prison cell; a mental institution; and a girl’s bedroom. The covers on the beds are old, drab,
chenille bedspreads, except for Anne’s, which is much prettier; most of her story taking place in her white
adoptive parents’ home. The only other variation in the beds is Jimmy’s; his bed is turned around so the
bedhead faces the audience. At times the bars on the bed remind us of the bars of a prison cell, where he
spends a lot of time.

Each of the beds also has a pillow which is used for props in various scenes. The only other props are a
drab, green, metal filing drab green, metal filing cabinet, on the far side of stage right; and Holland blinds,
painted a drab green, handing from the ceiling, which indicate the shape of the room, a triangle, with the
corner being centre stage to the rear.

The main link between the five characters is that they were all ‘stolen’ and placed in a children’s home,
although not necessarily at the same time. However, in many scenes they do interact as though they were
all in there together.

The ‘night’ scenes are in the children’s home. The sounds for these scenes echo the sound of a faraway
playground, children’s laughing and ominous ringing sounds.

The play follows no obvious chronological order. The characters move back and forward in time,
sometimes being their young child in the children’s home, and other times adults. However, the play does
begin with the characters as children and end with the resolution of their characters – where they are at
the present moment in time, the end result of all that has gone before.

(Jane Harrison, Stolen)

104
 HSC INTENSIVE TRAINING - EXAM 3

SAMPLE ANSWERS

QUESTION 1
Language and visual features are used to create interest in this book about harrowing human experiences.

The powerful emotive language in the review that serves as a tear out quote on the front cover states “it’s not
a really a history of events . It’s a history of emotions. This evocative idea stimulates thinking and then on the
back cover the rich metaphor “a collage of voices”, we are told, will provide a tapestry of the sorrows and
triumphs of the human spirit”. This evokes interest by alluding to the broad range of perspectives readers will
access about the complex experience of “the stories that together make up a nation.

While simple and largely black and white (fitting for the subject matter of this innovative book), the cover image
is highly effective. Featuring a dandelion, which is a visual reminder of youth and joy, the cover suggests their
will be moments of sorrow (when the dandelion disperses) bit also pure beauty and this adds to the appeal of
the text, inviting us into this “spellbinding book”, which is another tear out quote printed in red for visual impact.

QUESTION 2
The emotions arising from human experiences, as outlined in this speech, are momentary and reactive. Hence
people must be aware of this notion in order to manage them and to maximise their experiences.

Using a broad array of emotive diction throughout the speech, Faulkner talks of man teaching “himself that
the basest of all things is to be afraid”. Having this awareness, Faulkner goes on will allow people to
subsequently engage more holistically in other emotions. For example, the cumulation and polysyndeton in
“love and honour and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice” are presented as “universal truths” that we
must accept as being part of the human experience.

Interestingly, the moment which is captured in this speech, acknowledgment of Faulkner’s greatness in the
Nobel Prize awards, seems to have conjure in Faulkner an almost surreal response to his own personal
experience. Written in the third person – whilst obviously reflecting on his own principles about the “duty” of
writers, Faulkner’s emotions seem to be somewhat suppressed – or he is in the immediate moment of the
experience finding a way to convey his feelings about this award which, he asserts at the onset in a rather
objective statement, was not made to me as a man, but to my work… a life’s work in the agony and sweat of
the human spirit”, hence reflecting his immediate reaction to a new experience.

QUESTION 3
When people must move on to new experience, they will experience a sense of hesitation because they are
leaving a familiar and safe space/ existence and entering the unknown.

This notion is explored by the poet through the metaphor of a “sidewalk” that “ends” representing the end of
the familiar and a “street” that “begins” representing the unfamiliar. These contrasting features of a regular
suburban landscape emphasise that experiences ending and thus new experiences beginning are natural and
parallel to one another.
The hesitation attached to this is mostly developed in the second and third stanza, wherein the poet’s
evocative visceral imagery and strong imperative suggest people need encouragement to “leave this place

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where the smoke blows back” because the streets are dark and they wind and bend, making it hard for people
to envisage what lies ahead, thus inducing a natural reaction of hesitation birthed by trepidation.

This trepidation is then extended into the third stanza, wherein the poet heralds our need to be able to
foresee what new experience entail through the metaphor of “the chalk-white arrows”, which accentuates
that we yearn direction of any sort and in our hesitation even directions sketched in chalk are acceptable. In
classic didactic form, the poet declares that “we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow, using both the
repetition of walk and the connotation in diction for measured and slow, to emphasise the hesitation in which
we proceed towards “the place where the sidewalk ends.”

QUESTION 4
When we coexist within an institution, inevitably the individual experience is intertwined within a collective
experience, as is showcased in the stage notations provided by Harrison for the play Stolen.

Of greatest significance in this play, it would appear from the notations provided, is that responders
acknowledge the harrowing experiences of the five individuals represented. The character list which leads the
notations not only showcases the individual story of each stolen child but also provides poignant, emotive
descriptions of each character: Jimmy is ‘shamed’, ruby feels ‘abandoned’, Shirley is a ‘nurturer’, Sandy
belongs nowhere and Anne is eventually bewildered. Evidently, Each child has a markedly different experience
and outcome as a result of being children from the stolen generation. Amplified through symbolism and a raw
metaphor, Jimmy’s story stands out in particular as being an individual one. His individual experience is ,
highlighted because Harrison has his bed face a different direction to the others and in turn it serves as a
prison – which is where ‘a mischievous boy/shamed older boy/ and tormented man will spend much of his
time. Another example of such – and in complete contrast to Jimmy – is the bed of Anne, which has much
prettier bedspreads because her story is laced with the undertones of denial of heritage due to being
adopted by white people. Harrison’s sympathetic tone when describing the girl who was “too young
to understand” again showcases the individual experience of those who were adopted. Nonetheless,
her identity is inextricably linked to those of the other characters because she is undeniably an
indigenous Australian and this immediately joins her to them.
The nature of the collective experience as a cold and miserable one is immediately evoked in Harrison’s
description of the “five old iron institutional beds” which are essentially within a children’s home, which is the
context of the collective experience represented. Focusing on this aspect, the collective experience is
common to the children - Harrison explains in a blunt, didactic paragraph – because “they were all ‘stolen’
and placed in a children’s home, although not necessarily at the same time”. Despite this note – which is laden
with ambiguity, Harrison goes on to state that the children (during the play) “interact as though they were all
in there together”. This paradox is an integral feature utilised by Harrison to lead readers towards an
awareness that a collective experience does not necessarily have to be experienced at the same time but
more so evoke the same emotions and produce the same qualities in individuals who have been a part of this
collective.

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 APPENDIX
APPENDIX 1: A GLOSSARY OF KEY WORDS FROM NESA

This glossary contains key words that appear frequently in NSW Education Standards Authority
syllabuses, performance descriptions and examinations. The purpose behind the glossary is to
help students prepare better for the HSC by showing them that certain keywords are used
similarly in examination questions across the different subjects they are studying.
In classrooms, teachers of different subjects could use the glossary to help students to better
understand what the examination questions in their subject require. Students should recognise
the consistent approach of teachers of different subjects and get cues about how to approach
examination questions. For example, students would be better placed to respond to 'explain'
questions if, in the context of different subjects, they developed an understanding that 'explain'
could require them to relate cause and effect; make the relationships between things evident;
provide why and/or how.
It is also important that the key words should not be interpreted in an overly prescriptive way.
Teachers must ensure that they do not use them in ways that conflict with their particular
meaning within subjects. To do this would be counterproductive. A term like 'evaluate', for
example, requires a different kind of response in Mathematics from that required in History and
this needs to be respected. When using key words to construct questions, tasks and marking
schemes, it is helpful to ask what the use of the term in a particular question requires students
to do. Keywords are best discussed with students in the context of questions and tasks they
are working on, rather than in isolation. It is important to note that examination questions for
the HSC will continue to use self-explanatory terms such as 'how', or 'why' or 'to what extent'.
While key words have a purpose, they will not set limits on legitimate subject-based questions
in examination papers.

Term Definition(s)

Account Account for: state reasons for, report on

Give an account of: narrate a series of events or transactions

Analyse Identify components and the relationship between them; draw out and relate
implications

Apply Use, utilise, employ in a particular situation

Appreciate Make a judgement about the value of

Assess Make a judgement of value, quality, outcomes, results or size

Calculate Ascertain/determine from given facts, figures or information

Clarify Make clear or plain

Classify Arrange or include in classes/categories

Compare Show how things are similar or different

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Construct Make; build; put together items or arguments

Contrast Show how things are different or opposite

Critically Add a degree or level of accuracy depth, knowledge and understanding, logic,
(analyse/evaluate) questioning, reflection and quality to (analyse/evaluate)

Deduce Draw conclusions

Define State meaning and identify essential qualities

Demonstrate Show by example

Describe Provide characteristics and features

Discuss Identify issues and provide points for and/or against

Distinguish Recognise or note/indicate as being distinct or different from; to note differences

between

Evaluate Make a judgement based on criteria; determine the value of

Examine Inquire into

Explain Relate cause and effect; make the relationships between things evident; provide why
and/or how

Extract Choose relevant and/or appropriate details

Extrapolate Infer from what is known

Identify Recognise and name

Interpret Draw meaning from

Investigate Plan, inquire into and draw conclusions about

Justify Support an argument or conclusion

Outline Sketch in general terms; indicate the main features of

Predict Suggest what may happen based on available information

Propose Put forward (for example a point of view, idea, argument, suggestion) for
consideration or action

Recall Present remembered ideas, facts or experiences

Recommend Provide reasons in favour

Recount Retell a series of events

Summarise Express, concisely, the relevant details

Synthesise Putting together various elements to make a whole

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APPENDIX 2: STAGE 6 NESA ENGLISH SYLLABUS GLOSSARY
Glossary term Definition

adverbial An adverbial phrase or clause contributes additional information to the main clause.
Generally, these will answer the questions:
● how, for example 'They walked to town very quickly.'
● when, for example 'She had dinner after everyone had left.'
● where, for example 'I spoke with him outside the house.'
● why, for example 'Tom felt tired because he had run a marathon.'
An adverbial can also contribute evaluative interpersonal meaning to a clause, for
example 'Frankly, I don't care'. Adverbs, adverb groups, prepositional phrases, nouns
and noun groups can function as adverbials.

allegory A story in prose fiction, poetry, drama or visual language that has more than one level
of meaning. The characters, events and situations can represent other characters,
events and situations. For example, the witch trials in The Crucible are an allegory of
the US HUAC hearings in the 1950s. Allegories often represent moral or political
situations.

alliteration The recurrence, in close succession, of the same consonant sounds usually at the
beginning of words. In 'ripe, red raspberry', the repetition of the 'r' sound creates a
rich aural effect, suggesting the lusciousness of the fruit.

allusion A deliberate and implicit reference to a person or event, or a work of art which draws
on knowledge and experiences shared by the composer and responder.

analogy A comparison demonstrating the similarities between two things, people or situations.
It is a device to clarify an idea through a connection. Analogies are often used in
persuading, explaining or arguing a point.

antonym A word or word group with a meaning opposite to that of another word or word group,
for example hot (cold), go away (come back).

apposition When one noun group immediately follows another with the same reference, they are
said to be in apposition, for example 'our neighbour, Mr Grasso ...', 'Canberra, the
capital of Australia ...'.

appropriation Taking an object or text from one context and using it in another context. The process
can allow new insights into the original text or object and emphasise contextual
differences. Appropriation also gives extra insight into the newly created or used text
or object. Texts can be appropriated for a range of purposes, including satirical
criticism, consideration of existing ideas in a new context and exploration of cultural
assumptions. The mass media frequently appropriate words, images and icons from
other cultural contexts. Films and novels are often appropriations of earlier texts.

bias In argument or discussion, to favour one side or viewpoint by ignoring or excluding

conflicting information; a prejudice against something.

body language A form of non-verbal communication which consists of body movements and
postures, gestures, facial expressions, and eye and mouth movements, for example
crossed arms or leaning away from or towards another person.

breadcrumb trail A method for providing ways to navigate through a website. The breadcrumb trail
shows where users are, how they got there, and how to move back to the places they

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 have been. An example of a breadcrumb trail is: Home > Products > Purchase >
Checkout.

clause A clause is a complete message or thought expressed in words. The essential

component of a clause is a finite verb or verb group, for example 'She played in the
sandpit', 'Duc was running home'.
● A main clause (also known as a principal or independent clause) is a clause that
can stand alone as a complete sentence, though it may be joined with other
clauses, for example 'The child came first'.
● A subordinate clause (also known as a dependent clause) is a group of words
that cannot stand alone or make complete sense on its own. It needs to be
combined with a main clause to form a complete sentence. Subordinate clauses
will usually be adjectival or adverbial clauses.
● An adjectival clause is a clause that provides information which defines the
qualities or characteristics of the person or thing named. It usually begins with a
relative pronoun and is sometimes called a relative clause, for example 'The child
who had the red top came first'.
● An adverbial clause is a clause that modifies the verb in the main clause, for
example 'The child came first because he was the fastest runner'.
● An embedded clause occurs within the structure of another clause, often as a
qualifier to a noun group, for example 'The man who came to dinner is my brother'.

collocation Words that commonly occur in close association with one another (for example,
‘blonde’ goes with ‘hair’, ‘butter’ is ‘rancid’ not ‘rotten’, ‘salt and pepper’ not ‘pepper
and salt’).

colloquial Informal expression of language, characteristic of speech and often used in informal
writing. The register of everyday speech.

colon (:) A punctuation convention used to separate a general statement from one or more
statements that provide additional information, explanation or illustration. The
statements that follow the colon do not have to be complete sentences. They will
generally form a list and may be set out in dot points.

command (or A sentence that gives direction or seeks an active response, for example 'Leave now!',
imperative) 'Go!' Commands always end with an exclamation mark.

connotation The nuances or shades of meaning attached to words, beyond that of their literal or
dictionary meanings. Connotations may be positive, negative or neutral.

context The range of personal, social, historical, cultural and workplace conditions in which a
text is responded to and composed.

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ellipsis Ellipsis is the omission of words where:
● words repeat what has gone before and these terms are simply understood, for
example 'The project will be innovative. To be involved (in the project) will be
exciting.'
● a word like one is substituted for a noun or noun group, as in 'There are lots of
apples in the bowl. Can I have one?' (of them)
● a cohesive resource binds text together and is commonly used in dialogue for
speed of response, for example (Do you) 'Want a drink?'/'Thanks' (I would like a
drink)
● three dots (also known as points of ellipsis) are used to indicate such things as
surprise or suspense in a narrative text or that there is more to come in an on-
screen menu
● the points of ellipsis take the place of sections of text when quoting from a
source.

emotive language Language that creates an emotional response.

etymology The origins of, and changes to, words in relation to meaning, for example words
derived from earlier or other languages, place names, words derived from people's
names, coinages (for example googling). (See word origin.)

evaluative Positive or negative language that judges the worth of something. It includes
language language to express feelings and opinions, to make judgements about aspects of
people such as their behaviour, and to assess the quality of objects such as literary
works. It includes evaluative words. The language used by a speaker or writer to give
a text a particular perspective (for example judgmental, emotional, critical) in order to
influence how the audience will respond to the content of the text.

figurative Words or phrases used in a way that differs from the expected or everyday usage.
language Figurative language creates comparisons by linking the senses and the concrete to
abstract ideas. Words or phrases are used in a non-literal way for particular effect, for
example simile, metaphor, personification. Figurative language may also use
elements of other senses, as in hearing with onomatopoeia, or in combination as in
synaesthesia.

framing The way in which elements in a still or moving image are arranged to create a specific
interpretation of the whole. Strong framing creates a sense of enclosure around
elements while weak framing creates a sense of openness.

gaze The directed look of either a viewer or figure in an image, including demand and offer.

hybrid texts Composite texts resulting from mixing elements from different sources or genres (for
example infotainment). Email is an example of a hybrid text, combining the immediacy
of talk and the expectation of a reply with the permanence of print.

hyperlink An area of a web page or email (either text or an image) that the user can click on in
order to go to another item or source of information.

icon An image or likeness that carries meaning beyond its literal interpretation. The cross
is an icon that represents Christianity, the Sydney Opera House is an icon that
represents Sydney or Australia. The meaning of 'icon' has also broadened to refer to
an image or likeness that is admired and valued because of the qualities inherent in
what it represents. For example, leading figures in popular culture enjoy iconic status
when they are seen as representing admired qualities such as intelligence, creativity,
leadership, courage, talent, physical strength, grace or endurance.

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iconography The visual images and symbols associated with a particular person, place, event,
situation or concept.

idiom An expression peculiar to a language, that cannot be taken literally, for example 'I've
got a frog in my throat'.

idiomatic Words or ways of speaking which are peculiar to a language or area. The users of
expressions the text understand it to mean something other than its literal translation. Idiomatic
expressions give a distinctive flavour to speech or writing, for example 'on thin ice',
'fed up to the back teeth'. They can be over-used, to the point of cliché.

imagery The use of figurative language or illustrations to represent objects, actions or ideas.

intertextuality The associations or connections between one text and other texts. Intertextual
references can be more or less explicit and self-conscious. They can take the form of
direct quotation, parody, allusion or structural borrowing (see appropriation).

irony A clash between what the words say and what they mean. Irony has three forms:
● rhetorical irony – saying something contrary to what is meant, for example 'I had
a great time' (I was bored)
● dramatic irony – stating or doing something unaware of its contrast with the real
situation, for example where the reader or watcher knows disaster is about to
befall a character who says 'I've never been happier'
● situational irony where events are opposite to expectations.

juxtaposition The placement of two or more ideas, characters, actions, settings, phrases or words
side-by-side for a particular purpose, for example to highlight contrast or for rhetorical
effect.

language features The features of language that support meaning, for example sentence structure,
vocabulary, illustrations, diagrams, graphics, punctuation, figurative language.
Choices in language features and text structures together define a type of text and
shape its meaning (see structures of texts). These choices vary according to the
purpose of a text, its subject matter, audience and mode or media of production.

language forms The symbolic patterns and conventions that shape meaning in texts. These vary
and features according to the particular mode or media of production and can include written,
spoken, non-verbal or visual communication of meaning (see textual form).

layout The spatial arrangement of print and graphics on a page or screen, including size of
font, positioning of illustrations, inclusion of captions, labels, headings, bullet points,
borders and text boxes.

metalanguage Language (which can include technical terms, concepts, ideas or codes) used to
describe and discuss a language. The language of grammar and the language of
literary criticism are two examples of metalanguage.

metaphor A resemblance between one thing and another is declared by suggesting that one
thing is another, for example 'My fingers are ice'. Metaphors are common in spoken
and written language and visual metaphors are common in still images and moving
images.

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metonymy The use of the name of one thing or attribute of something to represent something
larger or related, for example using the word 'crown' to represent a monarch of a
country; referring to a place for an event as in 'Chernobyl' when referring to changed
attitudes to nuclear power, or a time for an event as in '9/11' when referring to changed
global relations.

modality Aspects of language that suggest a particular perspective on events, a speaker or

writer's assessment of possibility, probability, obligation, frequency and conditionality.
Modality forms a continuum from high modality (for example obliged to, always, must)
to low modality (for example might, could, perhaps, rarely). Modality is expressed
linguistically in choices for modal verbs (for example can, may, must, should), modal
adverbs (for example possibly, probably, certainly, perhaps), modal nouns (for
example possibility, probability, certainty) and modal adjectives (for example likely,
possible, certain).

multimodal Comprising more than one mode. A multimodal text uses a combination of two or
more communication modes, for example print, image and spoken text as in film or
computer presentations.

narrative A story of events or experiences, real or imagined. Narrative includes the story (what
is narrated) and the discourse (how and why it is narrated).
This includes the relationship between language, context and values represented
through narrative. Narratology is a field of study that investigates the internal
mechanisms of narrative.

neologism The creation of a new word or expression. Words which were neologisms quickly
become mainstream, for example robot, email.

nominalisation A process for forming nouns from verbs (for example reaction from react or departure
from depart) or adjectives (for example length from long, eagerness from eager). Also
a process for forming noun phrases from clauses (for example 'their destruction of the
city' from 'they destroyed the city'). Nominalisation is often a feature of texts that
contain abstract ideas and concepts.

onomatopoeia The formation of a name or word by imitating the sound associated with the object
designated.

parentheses ( ) Punctuation markers used to enclose an explanatory word, phrase or sentence, an

aside or a commentary, for example 'She was referring to her friend (Shirley) again'.

parody A work intended to ridicule or mock through imitating the ideas, tone, vocabulary and
stylistic features of another work.

personification Attributing human characteristics to abstractions such as love, things (for example
The trees sighed and moaned in the wind) or animals (for example The hen said to
the fox...).

perspective A way of regarding situations, facts and texts.

poetic devices Particular patterns and techniques of language used in poems to create particular
effects based in the use of sound, the creation of images and other sensory inputs.
Examples of these devices include metaphor, simile, metonymy, rhyme, rhythm,
onomatopoeia, alliteration and assonance. Note that poetic devices may also be used
in prose writing and drama scripts to obtain such effects.

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poetic forms Fixed forms within poetry that must comply with certain requirements, for example
ballad, sonnet, elegy, ode, dramatic monologue. The form will often be determined by
the tone and subject matter. Note that some poets may deliberately subvert the fixed
form (see subvert).

point of view ● The particular perspective brought by a composer, responder or character within
a text to the text or to matters within the text.
● Narrative point of view refers to the ways a narrator may be related to the story.
The narrator, for example, might take the role of first or third person, omniscient
or restricted in knowledge of events, reliable or unreliable in interpretation of what
happens.

positioning The composing technique of causing the responder to adopt a particular point of view
and interpret a text in a particular way. Composers position responders by selectively
using detail or argument, by carefully shaping focus and emphasis and by choosing
language that promotes a particular interpretation and reaction.

pun A figure of speech where there is a play on words. Puns are usually humorous and
rely on more than one meaning of a word to emphasise the point, which may be
serious.

purpose The purpose of a text, in very broad terms, is to entertain, to inform or to persuade
different audiences in different contexts. Composers use a number of ways to achieve
these purposes: persuading through emotive language, analysis or factual recount;
entertaining through description, imaginative writing or humour, and so on.

question A sentence that seeks information. The word group normally tagged onto a clause in
order to signal that a reply or response is required is known as a question tag, for
example 'You are going tomorrow, aren't you?', 'Move over, can't you?'

quoted Speech in a text that quotes what someone has said, giving the exact words. It is
speech/direct represented in text by being contained within quotation marks (see reported speech).
speech

rhetorical devices Strategies used by writers and speakers to achieve particular effects, for example to
stimulate the audience's imagination or thought processes, to draw attention to a
particular idea, or simply to display wit and ingenuity in composition. Examples of
rhetorical devices are irony, paradox, rhetorical question, contrast and appropriation.

salience A strategy of emphasis, highlighting what is important in a text. In images, salience is

created through strategies like placement of an item in the foreground, size, and
contrast in tone or colour. In writing, salience can occur through placing what is
important at the beginning or at the end of a sentence or paragraph or through devices
for example underlining or italics.

satire The use of one or more of exaggeration, humour, parody, irony, sarcasm or ridicule
to expose, denounce and deride folly or vice in human nature and institutions. The
emphatic feature of these language devices draws attention to what is being criticised.

saturation The depth of field or purity in colour or light.

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sentence A unit of written language consisting of one or more clauses that are grammatically
linked. A written sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop,
question mark or exclamation mark. A sentence contains a finite verb. There are
different types of sentences:
● simple sentence – is a single main clause and expresses a complete thought. It
has a subject and a finite verb and may also have an object, for example 'Mary is
beautiful.', 'The ground shook.', 'Take a seat.'
● compound sentence – contains two or more clauses that are coordinated or
linked in such a way as to give each clause equal status. In the following example
and is the coordinating conjunction: 'We went to the movies and bought an ice
cream.'
● complex sentence – contains a main (or independent) clause and one or more
subordinate (or dependent) clauses. The subordinate clause is joined to the main
clause through subordinating conjunctions like when, while and before, as in the
following examples: 'We all went outside when the sun came out.', 'Because I am
reading a long book, my time is limited.'

simile A figure of speech that compares two usually dissimilar things. The comparison starts
with like, as or as if.

spoonerism A slip of the tongue where the initial sounds of a pair of words are transposed.
Generally used for humour, for example 'a blushing crow'.

statement A sentence that provides information, for example 'I am leaving now', as contrasted
with a question.

stereotype A circumstance where a person or thing is judged to be the same as all others of its
type. Stereotypes are usually formulaic and oversimplified. In literature, a stereotype
is a character representing generalised racial or social traits, with no individualisation.

storyboard A series of drawings which approximate to a sequence of images used for planning a
film text.

structures of texts The relationships of different parts of a text to each other and to the text as a complex
whole. The structure of a text can refer to the internal organisation of ideas, as in an
argument or story, the development of parallel plots in a novel or play, or the
overarching framework of the text (see language forms and features and textual
form).

stylistic features The ways aspects of texts, for example words, sentences and images, are arranged,
and how they affect meaning. Style can distinguish the work of individual authors (for
example Jennings' stories, Lawson's poems) as well as the work of a particular period
(for example Elizabethan drama, nineteenth century novels). Examples of stylistic
features are narrative viewpoint, structure of stanzas, juxtaposition, use of figurative
language and tone.

symbolism Use of a symbol that represents something else, particularly in relation to a quality or
concept developed and strengthened through repetition. For example, freedom can
be symbolised by a bird in flight in both verbal and visual texts.

synonym A word or word group with the same or similar meaning as another word or word
group, for example want (desire), go away (leave).

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text structure The ways information is organised in different types of texts, for example chapter
headings, subheadings, tables of contents, indexes and glossaries, overviews,
introductory and concluding paragraphs, sequencing, topic sentences, taxonomies,
cause and effect. Choices in text structures and language features together define a
text type and shape its meaning (see language features).

textual form The conventions specific to a particular type of text, often signalling content, purpose
and audience, for example letter form, drama script, blog.

theme ● Refers to the central or one of the main underlying ideas or messages of a text.
● Grammatical theme – in a sentence the theme is the clause that comes in first
position and indicates what the sentence is about. Theme is important at different
levels of text organisation. The topic sentence serves as the theme for the points
raised in a paragraph. A pattern of themes contributes to the method of
development for the text as a whole.

tone ● The voice adopted by a particular speaker to indicate emotion, feeling or attitude
to subject matter.
● The author's attitude towards the subject and audience, for example playful,
serious, ironic, formal.

types of texts Classifications according to the particular purposes texts are designed to achieve.
These purposes influence the characteristic features the texts employ. In general,
texts can be classified as belonging to one of three types (imaginative, informative or
persuasive), although it is acknowledged that these distinctions are neither static nor
watertight and particular texts can belong to more than one category.
● Imaginative texts – texts that represent ideas, feelings and mental images in
words or visual images. An imaginative text might use metaphor to translate ideas
and feelings into a form that can be communicated effectively to an audience.
Imaginative texts also make new connections between established ideas or
widely recognised experiences in order to create new ideas and images.
Imaginative texts are characterised by originality, freshness and insight. These
texts include novels, traditional tales, poetry, stories, plays, fiction for young adults
and children, including picture books and multimodal texts, for example film.
● Informative texts – texts whose primary purpose is to provide information through
explanation, description, argument, analysis, ordering and presentation of
evidence and procedures. These texts include reports, explanations and
descriptions of natural phenomena, recounts of events, instructions and
directions, rules and laws, news bulletins and articles, websites and text analyses.
They include texts which are valued for their informative content, as a store of
knowledge and for their value as part of everyday life.
● Persuasive texts – texts whose primary purpose is to put forward a point of view
and persuade a reader, viewer or listener. They form a significant part of modern
communication in both print and digital environments. Persuasive texts seek to
convince the responder of the strength of an argument or point of view through
information, judicious use of evidence, construction of argument, critical analysis
and the use of rhetorical, figurative and emotive language. They include student
essays, debates, arguments, discussions, polemics, advertising, propaganda,
influential essays and articles. Persuasive texts may be written, spoken, visual or
multimodal.

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values These are the ideas and beliefs in a text. They may be reflected in characters, through
what they do and say; through the setting of the text, reflecting particular social views;
and through the narrative voice of the text, perhaps through authorial comment.
Values are specific to individuals and groups, and a text may contain a number of
conflicting values.

vector An item that directs our eyes towards a focal point, for example when the subject in a
visual text is pointing or looking in a certain direction. As the reader or viewer, our
eyes will follow the direction in which they are pointing or looking.

verb The verb is perhaps the most important part of the sentence. A verb states what is
happening in the sentence. Finite verbs locate the condition or action of the verb in a
specific time frame: past, present or future (see finite verbs and tense). Verbs create
the relationship between the subject and the object of the verb (see subject–verb
agreement). Different types of verbs include:
● action verbs, for example 'They danced all night.'
● relating verbs, for example 'Cows are herbivores.'
● thinking verbs, for example 'She forgot his name.'
● feeling verbs, for example 'Sarah likes baked beans.'
● possessing verbs, for example 'He has a new car.'

visual features Visual components of a text for example placement, salience, framing, representation
of action or reaction, shot size, social distance and camera angle.

visual language Language that contributes to the meaning of an image or the visual components of a
multimodal text and are selected from a range of visual features like placement,
salience, framing, representation of action or reaction, shot size, social distance and
camera angle. Visual language can also include elements, for example symbol,
colour, scene and frame composition, setting and landscape, lighting and the use of
editing.

visual texts Texts in which meaning is shaped and communicated by images rather than words.
Visual texts use techniques, for example line, shape, space, colour, movement,
perspective, angle and juxtaposition to shape meaning. Examples of visual texts
include cartoons, billboards, photographs, film, TV, artworks, web pages and
illustrations.

voice ● In reference to a text, voice means the composer's voice – the idea of a speaking
consciousness, the controlling presence or 'authorial voice' behind the characters,
narrators and personas in a text. It is also described as the implied composer.
The particular qualities of the composer's voice are manifested by such things as
her or his method of expression (for example an ironic narrator) and specific
language.
● Grammatically, voice refers to the way of indicating who is doing the action.
Active voice is where the 'doer' of the action comes before the verb, for example
'Ann broke the vase'. Passive voice is where the 'receiver' of the action is placed
before the verb, for example 'The vase was broken by Ann' (see theme).
Stylistically, active voice is usually preferred in writing, as it places the agent of
the verb at the start of the sentence and has a sense of immediacy, whereas
passive voice creates a sense of detachment between subject and verb and is
not so easily read and understood.
● In speaking, a description of the oral production of text.

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APPENDIX 3
GLOSSARY OF TERMS TO USE WHEN DECONSTRUCTING LITERATURE

To appreciate how meaning is shaped, you need a solid understanding of the features of language, form and
style utilised by composers. The following glossary is adapted from the resource book The English Handbook.
This glossary has been divided into the three categories identified in the Module Statement. However, this
does not mean some of the terms don’t overlap into multiple categories.

FEATURES OF LANGUAGE

ALLITERATION - The repetition of consonants sounds in consecutive, or nearly consecutive words. An

example is: naughty Neville knocked over Nancy’s new nardoo. Alliteration is commonly used in poetry to
create patterns of sound and rhythm.

ALLUSION - An indirect reference; it is assumed that the audience is familiar with the reference, which might
be to something or someone in mythology, history, religion and literature. For examples, an allusion to the
Sword of Damocles refers to a Greek legend where the unfortunate Damocles was forced to sit under a
sword suspended by a single hair; hence this allusion implies a situation where there is an immediate threat
or danger.

APOSTROPHE - As well as being a term for a punctuation mark, this word also refers to a literary techniques
where the speaker or writer suddenly addresses the person or thing no present, the purpose being to
concentrate the attention on a particular idea or emotion. An example is: O death, where is thy sting? O
grace where is thy victory?

ASSONANCE - The use of similar vowels sounds in words occurring in the same sentence or phrase. The
sounds do not have to be identical but must be close. An example is: How now, brown cow?

CIRCUMLOCUTION - A serious fault in expression, where the person goes round and round in circles, either
never getting to the point of communication, or confusing and boring audience so much that the point is not
recognised when it is reached. “Circumlocution” comes from two Latin words meaning round about and to
speak about.

CLICHÉ - A tired, worn-out phrase or expression that when first used was arresting and effective, but through
overuse has become almost meaningless. Examples include: Don’t judge a book by its cover; Better safe
than sorry; Actions speak louder than words.

COLLOCATION - The expected pattern or arrangement of words, as is green as grass; how do you do?;
point of view. This habitual grouping of words facilitates rapid reading and removes the necessity to listen
carefully to every spoken word.

COLLOQUIAL LANGUAGE - The everyday, spoken language used by the majority of people in ordinary
communications, characterised by an informal use of vocabulary and structure. Example G’day mate how’s
the barbie cooking’?. Are Australian slang terms.

COLOURED LANGUAGE - Also known as persuasive language and emotive language, coloured language
uses the resources of English expression to create emotions in the audience, usually with the intention of
changing attitudes and opinions, or to modify behaviour. Advertising, for examples, uses coloured language
to persuade to persuade the audience to buy a product.

CONNOTATION - A shade of extra meaning collected by a word as it used in language over a period of time.
For example, bad connotations surround the word reckless, whereas good connotations are suggested by
daring. Words can have negative (bad) connotations, positive (good) connotations or neutral (neither good
nor bad) connotations.

CUMULATION - The accumulation of images or ideas, one after the other, so that each reinforces the overall
effect, thus achievements. More than if any part were taken by itself.

EMOTIVE LANGUAGE - See Coloured Language

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ENJAMBMENT - A technique in poetry where one line runs over and finishes on the next, as used by the
poet Gerard Manley Hopkins:
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil.
Crushed…

EUPHEMISM - A mild, indirect, or vague expression which is used instead of an embarrassing, hard, or
upsetting one. Subjects such as death, excretion, and sex have many euphemisms associated with them.
Examples include passing away and pushing up daisies for dying.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE - The use of words, not with their literal, straightforward meaning, but with
another meaning suggested by the imagination. This extension of meaning occurs with poetic devices such
as metaphors, similes, and personifications. Another term for figurative language is metaphorical language.

HYPERBOLE - A deliberately exaggerated statement used to emphasis, but not meant to be taken literally,
for example: “I’ve told you a million times not to exaggerate!”

IAMBIC PENTAMETER - A pattern of stress or emphasis in poetry where five main accents occur in each
line. The word iambic refer to the most common meter us English poetry, where the second of each two
syllables is stressed. Pentameter refers to the fact that there are five such accents in any one line.
Shakespeare’s plays are written in iambic pentameter. This example is taken from Fitzgerald’s translation of
the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
A book of verses underneath the bough,
A jug of wine, a loaf of bread – and thou

IMAGERY - The creation in the imagination of powerful impressions involving the senses of sight, hearing,
touch, smell, or taste. For example, a poet could use language to create un the reader’s imagination the
impression of being in a small yacht in rough weather, tossed by waves.

INVERSION - A change in the normal, expected word order to emphasise or give particular importance to
an idea or image, for example: Not weak am, the force is strong in you, is it not? (Yoda Talk)

JUXTAPOSITION - The deliberate placing of two contrasting things (words, scenes, characters, situations)
next to each other, so that the comparison will give strong emphasis. For example a bomb and baby being
placed right next to each other.

MALAPROPISM - A word taken from the name of a character (Mrs Malaprop) in Sheridan’s play the Rivals,
it applies to the unintentional, and often humorous, confusion of similar words:
I never forget anything because I have a photogenic memory.
My optimist says I need spectacles.

METAPHOR - A comparison in which two things are identified with each other, the intention being to highlight
in a particular quality the two share. In the metaphor he is a lion in battle a comparison is drawn between the
bravery of the person and the behaviour of a lion. An extended metaphor (also called a sustained metaphor)
occurs when the comparison is continued with associated comparisons. In the following example of an
extended metaphor the comparison is between the sea and crowd.
He looked down at the sea of faces in the square. Suddenly a current ran through the crowd,
and a tide a of humanity swept up the steps of the building. Waves of screaming people flowed into the hall
below.

METONYMY - The substitution of one single word to stand for an idea, as in the saying: the pen is mightier
than the sword. Taken literally, the statement is nonsense, but the audience understand that the pen and
sword stand for concepts. (See Symbolism.)

METER - Also spelt “metre”, this term applies to any regular division of verse into units of stressed and
unstressed syllables. Each unit may be referred to as a foot, so a line is made up several feet. The most
common meters in English are iambi, trochaic, anapaestic, and dactylic.

NON-VERBAL CUES - Signal/cues, which aren’t spoken, that extend, accentuate or contradict the words of
a speaker. These include facial expressions, hand gestures, body language and symbols in the setting.

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ONOMATOPOEIA - The creation or use of words that attempt to sound like the thing they represent, for
example purr, buzz and tinkle. Onomatopoeic words are sometimes called echoic words because they
attempt to echo a sound.

OXYMORON - A statement which makes an apparently contradictory assertion, as in more haste, less
speed, the effect being to catch and concentrate attention.

PARADOX - A statement which seems to be absurd, but, upon closer examination, proves to be logical; for
example; you have to be cruel to be kind.
PARODY - A close but mocking imitation of a writer’s work or style. It is an obvious “send-up”.
PERSONIFICATION - A form of metaphor where abstract ideas or inanimate objects are treated as if they
were people, each with separate personality and all the qualities of a real character. A capital letter is often
used to indicate personification, as in:
Now it is Loneliness who comes at night
Instead of sleep, to sit beside my bed.

PUN - A deliberate play on words for humorous reasons, as in; life depends on the liver. Puns rely on the
fact that English words often have more than one meaning.

REPETITION - The deliberate use of a word, idea, phrase, or image over and over again, the aim being to
increase the impact or to reinforce the overall impression. Repetition is a serious fault if not used carefully
and sparingly. This example is by Coleridge:
Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide, wide sea!

RHETORICAL QUESTION - A question that is posed to evoke thought, rather than for a direct response.

RHYME - Words or syllables that have the same, or very similar, sounds; for example, gun, shun, one, run.

RHYTHM - A regular patterns of stresses and pauses in language, where words and syllables receive more
emphasis than others.

SARCASM - The use of sneering or cutting remarks to indicate disapproved or condemnation. Sarcasm is
spoken and is indicated by tone of voice and supported by non-verbal cues, such as a raised eyebrow or
bitter smile. An example would be to say, “That was very smart!” when someone has done something
particularly stupid. It is important not to confuse sarcasm with irony.

SIMILE - Comparison where the words like or as appear, as in: he is as mischievous as a monkey and she
moved like lightning.

SYMBOLISM - The representation of an idea by one image, which actually stands for more than the word
itself means. Examples include a dove standing for peace, a cross standing for Christianity, and a skull and
crossbones indicating danger. (See Metonymy)

TAUTOLOGY - The unintentional and useless repetition of ideas, using different words. Tautology often
causes irritation or sometimes amusement in the audience. Examples are: I will reiterate again, she
advanced forward, Today’s Contemporary society.

UNDERSTATEMENT - The deliberate presentation of something as being less important than is, in fact, the
case. The effect of understatement can be to emphasise something; in context, this low-key presentation
can focus attention upon the subjects. Extreme modesty, such as when a conspicuously heroic person says
“It was nothing, really” is an example of understatement.

VERBOSITY - From a Latin word meaning Full of words, verbosity is a serious fault in expression where
far too many words are used. Verbose expression is the opposite of concise, brief, and clear
communication. (See also Circumlocution and Tautology.

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FEATURES OF FORM

ANTITHESIS - A form of contrast, where opposing ideas are balanced against each other; for example, many
are called by few are chosen.

ARGUMENT - The marshalling a series of points with supporting evidence with the intention of convincing
the audience of the truth of some statement or idea.

CHARACTERISATION - The creation and presentation of characters who appear as believable personalities
capable of some development and changes as real people.

CLIMAX - The peak to which ideas and actions build in a play, novel or poem. A series of events builds up
to a climax, which is the most exciting, important or tense point, and should occur near the end. A climax can
generate into an anti-climax if details are added that weaken the climax and allow it to slide to a disappointing
conclusion.

CONFLICT - The clash of ideas and/or personalities which provides tension and interest in a drama, novel,
or film. Inner conflict describes the fight between a person’s conscience and desires. A person may also be
in conflict with the environment; for example, he or she may be dying of thirst in a desert, or freezing in a
snowstorm. Conflict is an essential component, as without it there is very little to hold an audience’s attention.

CONTEXT - The surrounding words and circumstances of a written or spoken message. Words do not exist
in a vacuum, but are connected to the situation in which they occur; for example, the exclamation “help”
would mean one thing if used by someone trying to untangle a piece of string, but something else if the
person was rapidly sinking in quicksand.

DENOUEMENT - Literally meaning “unite a knot”, it is the term given to the unravelling of the motivations
and actions of characters after the principal climax of play, novel or film had occurred. The denouement can
also be referred to as the resolution. An examples would be Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, in which the
denouement is within the title as an allegory for the burning of metals to its natural elements.

DRAMATIC IRONY - A situation where the words and actions of the character in a pay have more
significance for the audience than for the players on the stage because the audience has a special knowledge
of some significant fact. For example, in Shakespeare’s Macbeth King Duncan comments on the warm and
welcoming atmosphere of Macbeth’s castle, unaware that his murder is planned for that very night.

DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE - A form of poetry where the writer creates a personality, who in direct speech,
reveals his or her character, motivations, and actions. An examples is Robert Browning’s poem “My Last
Duchess”. (See also Persona)

PERSONA - Taken from the Greek word meaning mask, it is the personality that a writer or speaker pretends
to be, especially in poetry, where the poet will assume the personality of an imaginary character in order to
create convincing images of a certain time and place. An example is T.S Eliot's “The Love Song of J Alfred
Prufrock”. (See also Dramatic Monologue).

PLOT - The main story of a play, novel, short story, or poem. The plot is made up of the sequence of events
that provides the framework of the story.

PROTAGONIST - A term used to describe the principle character or character in a play or novel through
whom the action and theme are expressed.

FEATURES OF STYLE

ALLEGORY - The presentation of an idea or subject, not directly, but by means of symbol. This means
allegory can be understood at two levels: the obvious one where a story is told, and the deeper one where
the meaning lies. An examples of allegory is Orwell’s Animal Farm, which on the surface is a story about
power struggles between animals in a farmyard, but at a deeper level in concerned with the abuse of power
by totalitarian governments. (Usually context behind it).

ANALOGY - The drawing of a comparison between things between things that are partially similar; for
example, comparing the human brain to the computer, or the heart to a mechanical pump.

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ATMOSPHERE - The creation of a particular environment in which feelings, actions, and descriptions all
combine to convey a definite impression which can usually be summed up from one word, such as eerie
suspenseful, happy, shocking

CONTRAST - The setting of one idea or image against another in order to emphasise some particular quality,
as in this example: I turned from the rough, harsh glare of the noonday sun to enter the cool, soft darkness
of the cave.

GENERALISATION - An all-inclusive statement made about an entire category of people or things, where
no allowance is made for any exceptions to the rule, although these exceptions may exist. These sweeping
statements are often presented as facts during argument. Examples are: all students hate exams; every
small dog will yap.

IRONY - Subtle mockery or humour that implies the opposite to the normal or apparent meaning. Irony is not
meant to be taken at face value: the audience is expected to realise that there is another, opposing meaning
under the surface of words. An example is the opening paragraph in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
(See Sarcasm)

JARGON - The technical words of a field or subject, also referred to as a metalanguage or technical
language. Jargon is particularly used when writers and speakers are conveying specialised information to
specific audiences.

MOOD - A state of mind made up of certain feelings and emotions created in the audience by the words of
a writer or, in case of drama, the interaction of words and actions presented by actors. Mood is closely related
to atmosphere and feeling. For example, an atmosphere of hopelessness and a feeling of sadness may
create a mood of despair.

OBJECTIVE VIEWPOINT - A stance/point of view which is neutral. Thus, ab argument is presented from
two sides with a balanced perspective.

PROPAGANDA - A concentrate and one sided presentation of facts, ideas, and opinions to persuade people
to accept a particular point of view held by an organisation or movement. Propaganda selects only the
evidence that supports one viewpoint, and ignores or distorts any opposing arguments.

REGISTER - The selection of appropriate language to suit particular purpose of communication, the situation
and the audience.

SATIRE - A poem, novel, play or film in which a sustained attack is made upon some wickedness, fault, or
pretension in society. The folly or abuse is held up to ridicule, the aim being not only to reveal it, but to cause
changes in attitudes and action against it. Examples of satire include The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh and
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller.

STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS - A technique in writing where the thoughts of characters are reported, not
as a logical sequence, but as they occur in real life – a stream of impressions, stray thoughts, reminiscences,
and associations. Writers such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf have used this technique.

SUBJECTIVE VIEWPOINT - A point of view which is biased because it presents ideas about the subject
from one perspective/argument.

TONE - In written language the reader must rely on style, vocabulary and structure to establish the writer’s
attitude to subject. It sometimes helps to imagine the writer is reading the word aloud, and to ask yourself
what tone of voice would be used.

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