Tip: You should start compiling your quotations and examples list NOW!

This
will undoubtedly put you ahead of the pack.
The first issue around quotations and examples is the usability of them. Firstly, have
these examples and quotations been grossly overused so as to become somewhat of a
clich? For example, when students talk about slang in their essays, they may be
inclined to use LOL, which while being a valid example, it is indeed an overused and
clichd one. Part of being an excellent student in VCE English Language is the ability
to source your own UNIQUE quotations and examples. Why you ask? Its simple: if
you have unique quotations and examples it shows the assessors you have
researched extensively on your own, while also displaying your own unique abilities.
The second issue around quotations and examples is the relevance and credibility of
them. Examiners have often noted in past exams that students make excessive use of
media examples, yet fail to link them back to the topic or indicate their relevance
within the essay. While media examples are allowed, they must be used appropriately
and relevantly. Examiners have often recommended that students also source quotes
and examples from linguists and other credible sources. While providing media
examples, you must also provide linguist examples to back up or prove your point.
So now you know why we need them, you now need to know where to find them.
Firstly, my online course has a quotations list which can provide you with a complete
list of quotes from both media sources and linguists. Secondly, I would recommend
you go through the Green Book (Kirsten Foxs VCE English Language Study Guide),
and highlight any key quotes or examples you see in the essays or stimulus material.
Thirdly, I would consult Google and Google News, and search for quotes relevant to
the topic. For example, you may decide to find some modern quotes on euphemisms
or political correctness. So to do this, you may decide to go to Google News and type
in political correctness and you will see a plethora of modern articles on the topic.
This would therefore be your source of credible quotes and examples (make sure you
can verify it!).

When writing a context piece, what are the different styles within persuasive?
Also, vague question but, which style is "safest"?(ie. you don't go off topic easily)
The most common form of a persuasive piece is a speech, though it could also be a
letter or an essay. The forms are really up to you, and there isn't really a definitive list
of what you can/can't do. The styles, however, are broken up into three categories:
Context Styles: Expository, Persuasive, and Imaginative/Creative/Personal (some
schools have different versions of this third one) or Hybrid
Context Forms: Essay, Speech, Letter, Diary Entry, Short Story, POV of a character,
Reflection/ Inner Monologue, Dialogue, Poem(?) etc.
The Expository format is objectively the safest. Obviously you should play to your
strengths, but do a cost benefit analysis for each style. In expository, you'll have the
easiest way to communicate ideas quickly and effectively using a broad range of
examples, but if done badly it can be a bit bland/formulaic. It's also the most common
style around the state, and you don't want to bore your assessor. Persuasive pieces
are good when you have a strong opinion regarding the prompt or the text, but if your
opinion differs from your assessor then you run the risk of their bias impacting your
mark. And creative pieces are for showing off, essentially' whether it's your vocab or
your storytelling abilities, the creative style showcases everything and gives you a lot
of leeway in terms of what and how you can write. But it's by far the riskiest; fulfilling
the criteria is your priority, not constructing a fluent and engaging piece (but if you
can do both I tip my hat to you) Annoyingly many assessors can read a creative piece
and think it was entertaining and well-crafted and emotive, but if it doesn't tick those

context boxes then you'll be lucky to scrape by with a 6/10 It's dumb, but many
students can make it work. Just experiment a little bit till you find your strengths
...I certainly found it more fun. And I suppose it was easier for me to write, but it was
harder to score well. How you write in context is entirely up to your own strengths,
but as I've said before, expository is the safest style, persuasive is best when you
have strong opinions, and creative is for showing off, but it's the riskiest out of the
three.
Of course it does depend on the form of your writing too. Something like a psych
evaluation report on one of the characters in the text that discusses the ramifications
of what they went through could almost be expository in some places, and so is far
less risky. But if you're going for a full blown short story, then you do put your self at
the mercy of a) dumb assessors b) smart assessors who misinterpret the piece c) lazy
assessors who can't be bothered finding the relevance, or d) just writing an irrelevant
piece. It can be hard to strike the balance between writing well, and writing what the
assessors want from you. Not sure if I've mentioned this on here before, but one of
my creative pieces was marked by an ex-VCAA Chief Assessor who wrote: 'You could
be given a 6/10 and that is an insult to you.' So whilst the good assessors might
recognise writerly merit, they can only give you credit for how well you fulfill their
marking rubrics. If you can do this, then more power to you
Quite literally, anything you want. Imaginative pieces are limitless, I'm sure for
obvious reasons. Some popular ones include diary entries, letters (sometimes from
one character in the text to another character in the text), blogs, short stories, poems
(if you can hit the criteria and pull a poem off I will fucking bow down to you), you
could do a series of Facebook comments if you wanted to (good luck with that). In
fact, I once wrote a rap for my context (Identity and Belonging - Skin) just to rustle
the jimmies of my teacher :3Mainstream English Context Rap!
Persuasive could be similar, as long as it is persuasive. In Year 9 I wrote an
imaginative/persuasive hybrid in the form of a movie scene. It was a speech from
some figure to some audience, but in writing it as a 'script' from a movie, I was able
to include screen directions such as "thunder booms" etc during the more intense
parts of the speech. You could just do an ordinary speech, you could do a letter to the
editor, a persuasive blog, a column such as Andrew Bolt's, a radio advertisement
(actually I saw a very fucking clever radio advertisement, it might have been for the
2012 or the 2011 or the 2010 exam, I'm not sure. But it was very witty and
impressive). A T.V advertisement. You can do whatever you want for
persuasive/imaginative, so long as they are persuasive/imaginative and hit the criteria
hahaha.
In case that information wasn't enough, to answer your questions directly:
- Both styles have their advantages and disadvantages. The expository style allows for
explicit communication of ideas, but can be boring or pedestrian unless you're a good
writer with something interesting to say about the Context & prompt. The imaginative
style is risky given the amount of subtle 'show don't tell' requirements, as well as the
difficulty of balancing the writing of a believable short story/ inner monologue/ w/e,
with the actual Context task criteria. However, it gives you a much bigger opportunity
to show off and write a piece that's enjoyable for you and your reader.
It basically comes down to what kind of good writer you are. If fluency and
sophistication are your thing, then writing an expository piece will suit you well,
whereas if you gravitate towards creativity and 'flare,' then an imaginative piece can
better showcase your abilities.
What I'd recommend instead of just going cold turkey to a totally different style of
writing, is to try a 'hybrid' piece. This is a very generic term to describe any 'inbetween' sort of writing. It could be a predominately expository discussion about an
issue in the media, presented in the form of a newspaper or journal piece; it could be
a short story interwoven with expository reflections, or it could be a straight up

interpolation between an essay's exposition, and a creative piece (as in, one
paragraph on each with common threads between them.)
So there isn't really any restriction on what either style can do because you can call
your piece a hybrid and get away with whatever experimental combination works best
for you.
With regards to the marks, I remember being told that the averages for expository
were pretty much an exact bell curve because it's the most popular style, and there's
a lot of variation in ability across the state. Contrarily, the creatives tended to be
(roughly) spread between 5s/6s and 9s/10s. Obviously they try to standardise these if
there's enough of a margin, but generally speaking you'll either get a creative piece
totally spot on, or off by a long shot.
If your teacher is pushing you down an imaginative path, then you should definitely
give that a go for the SACs, but speaking from experience, trusting an expository or
hybrid piece is probably best from an exam standpoint, but that's just my opinion
Yes, a letter can work well provided you're able to walk the line between 'a real,
believable letter' and 'a Context piece.'
The most common mistake is for people to prioritise the latter at the expense of the
believability of the piece - then you end up with stuff like:
15 June, 1944
Dear Margaret,
It has been so long since I've seen you. Just the other day I was pondering the
nature of identity and belonging...
Not always that clunky, but it is quite common.
A good rule of thumb (which can definitely, and in some cases should be broken) is to
not use the name of your context (ie landscape, reality, conflict, identity/belonging) if
you can avoid it. The best hybrid pieces will usually blend the forms, so you're not
transitioning between telling a story through letters and forcing in exposition;
you're showing your contention throughout the story itself.
Therefore, not letting yourself use the easy get-out card of mentioning the context,
you're forced to convey ideas about conflict or w/e in other ways, which should make
for a stronger final product.
That said, there are many different ways to write a good context piece, and you'll
probably be at the mercy of your teacher for the SACs, so get a feel for what s/he is
looking for, and tailor that to your own style.
If you need help with that process, have a chat to your teacher and maybe grab some
good examples off them, and let me know if it's not making sense