QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF:

What is the nature of discovery?

What is the impact of discovery?

How is experience and attitudes toward discovery linked to context?

How might the text affirm or challenge assumptions and beliefs about discovery?

The Board of Studies usually runs with a theme throughout the paper, so think about the 'sub-types' of discovery -  familial discovery, historical discovery, inter/cultural discovery, place, relationships.

The Board of Studies almost always opens the paper with a visual text. 

What follows is a guide as to how to tackle the most common text types. 

 
VISUAL TEXTS

Typically 2 mark questions

• What does the text say about discovery?
• Where can I provide textual evidence to support my answer?
• You can analyse anything in the visual (including the written text)
•  Textual features (symbolism, colour, proxemics, vector lines, salient image, facts, figures and statistics, inclusive language, imperative / declarative statements

POETRY

Typically 2-3 mark question

·      Start with the ideas first, then provide textual references

·      Literal and figurative levels of meaning

·      Poetic devices (imagery – simile, metaphor, personification / symbol / repetition, anaphora / rhythm / sound imagery / tone

PROSE

Typically 2-3 mark question

·      Usually HOW style questions

·      What does the text say about discovery and HOW is it shaped through form and features.

·      Focus on ideas first

·      Textual features.  (form – 1st, 3rd person – limited, omniscient, setting, characterization – are the characters dynamic or static? Symbols / motifs, figurative language, point of view, imagery)

NON FICTION

Typically 3 mark questions

•  What does it say about discovery? Ideas first
• Then textual references / features
• Factual recount of personal experience

·      These texts are often cause and effect texts

·      Contrast / comparison are often used in these texts – they are about characters, place.

Take key words and phrases for your quotes. Don't spend time rewriting whole chunks of text. 

TYPES OF QUESTIONS

·     There is no one way to answer the question, but generally there are two pathways  (techniques-based approach or concept-based)

·      Allow enough time for the 5 mark question

WHY type questions

o   Why is the sense of discovery important to the character (identity the type of discovery and then support answer from the text and explain why it is important)


How  type questions

o   Denoted by words such us explore, explain, analyse, compare, contrast and the word ‘how’ in the question

o   First: identify type of discovery

o   Then: explore, explain, analyse how the text presents this meaning with textual references


 Question (e)

o   Typically 5 marks – 1/3 marks

o   Allocate adequate time and write a reasonably lengthy response

o   Choose or write on 2 texts from a-d

o   Idetify key terms in the question

o   Involve synthesis or comparison

o   Must include textual references

o   As long as it answers the question, you CAN recycle what you have used in the previous questions.

Literary theories were developed as a means to understand the various ways in which people read texts. The proponents of each theory believe that their theory is the theory, but most of us interpret texts according to the “rules” of several different theories at one time. All literary theories are lenses through which we can see texts. There is no reason to say that one is better than another or that you should read according to any of them,

but it is sometimes fun to “decide” to read a text with one in mind because you often end up with a whole new perspective on your reading. What follows is a summary of some of the most common schools of literary theory. These descriptions are extremely cursory, and none of them fully explains what the theory is all about. But it is enough to get the general idea.

What are Literary Perspectives?
Literary perspectives help us explain why people might interpret the same text in different ways. Perspectives help us understand what is important to individual readers, and they show us why those readers end up seeing what they see. One way to imagine a literary perspective is to think of it as a lens through which we can examine a text. No single lens gives us the clearest view, but it is sometimes fun to read a text with a particular perspective in mind because you often end up discovering something intriguing and unexpected. While readers typically apply more than one perspective at a time, the best way to understand these perspectives is to employ them one at a time. What follows is a summary of some of the best-known literary perspectives. These descriptions are extremely brief, and none fully explains everything you might want to know about the perspective in question, but there is enough here for you to get an idea about how readers use them.