Issues Book 2010

Well, the dust has barely settled on the 2009 English Exam (more posts about that particular 3 hourexperience later) and we’re already thinking of next year.
This week we saw the brand-new, pre-release, freshly minted and entirely rewritten Issues Book, which we’ve been working on for a while. It’s great to see it ready to go [...]

Headline of the Week

This week it had to be from the AFL Grand Final and the AGE headline: ‘The Cats Get the Dream’.

Analysing Language

The AGE is always a great resource of interesting articles and opinions. Today’s edition contained two letters with diametrically opposed views on the the issue of W-Class trams.  Keep your analysis skills intact and have a go at analysing these two letters in a short essay.
Retire these relics

THERE will be regret at the passing of [...]

Media Diversity?

We hear a lot about the diversity of our press, especially in comparison with other countries such as China, but it wasn’t really in evidence in the sports pages in Melbourne this week. Maybe some good advice would be to ‘think of the most obvious headline, and then think again!’.
‘Dream team’ 28/7/2009

Jumping Jack Flash 27/7/2009

Behind the Lines

Looking to improve your visual literacy skills in preparation for language analysis? And have a laugh at the same time? We’re pretty certain that some kind of visual will be part of the language analysis in the exam so it’s a skill you need to develop.
So, maybe check out the new exhibition, Behind the [...]

2008 Examiners Report

The report from the examiners who marked last  year’s paper went online yesterday and should be considered essential reading for VCE students.  It’s particularly interesting this year because last year was the first of the new course and just how the context, for example, would exactly look, was a bit unknown.
The examiner’s report goes through [...]

Headline Watch

Students doing language analysis may like to know that the start of the footy season is often the silly season for headline writers, but cycling was the inspiration for my silly headline of the week.  This was from the Herald-Sun today on the news that cyclist Lance Armstrong had broken his collarbone:
‘Not So Arm Strong’
The things [...]