English - ATAR Year 11

Aesthetic

A sense of beauty or an appreciation of artistic expression.

Analyse

Consider in detail for the purpose of finding meaning or relationships, and identifying patterns, similarities and differences.

Appreciation

The act of discerning quality and value of literary texts

Attitudes

An outlook or a specific feeling about something. Our values underlie these. These can be expressed by what we say, do and wear.

Audience

The group of readers, listeners or viewers that the writer, designer, filmmaker or speaker is addressing. This includes students in the classroom, an

individual, the wider community, review writers, critics and the implied audience.

Author

The composer or originator of a work (for example, a novel, film, website, speech, essay, autobiography).

Context

The environment in which a text is responded to or created. This can include the general social, historical and cultural conditions in which a text is responded

to and created or the specific features of its immediate environment. The term is also used to refer to the wording surrounding an unfamiliar word that a reader or listener uses to understand its meaning.

Convention

An accepted practice that has developed over time and is generally used and understood, for example, the use of specific structural aspects of texts such as in

report writing with sections for introduction, background, discussion and recommendations.

Digital Technologies

The use of digital resources to effectively find, analyse, create, communicate, and use information in a digital context and incorporates the hardware of

mobile phones, cameras, tablets, laptops and computers and the software to power these devices.

Digital Texts

Audio, visual or multimodal texts produced through digital or electronic technology, which may be interactive and include animations and hyperlinks.

Examples of digital texts include DVDs, websites and e‐literature.

Evaluate

A consideration of important factors and available evidence in making judgement that can be justified, with regards to an issue or information

Figurative Langage

Word groups/phrases used in a way that differs from the expected or everyday usage. They are used in a non‐literal way for particular effect

(for example, simile - 'white as a sheet'; metaphor - 'all the world's a stage'; personification - 'the wind grabbed at my clothes').

Form; forms of texts

The shape and structure of texts.

Genre

The categories into which texts are grouped. The term has a complex history within literary theory and is often used to distinguish texts on the basis of their subject matter (for example, detective fiction, romance, science fiction, fantasy

fiction), form and structure (for example, poetry, novels, biography, short stories).

Hybrid Texts

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

Ideas

In this course the word has an open meaning and can be interpreted as understandings, thoughts, notions, opinions, views or beliefs.

Idiom

A group of (more or less) fixed words having a meaning not deducible from the individual words. They are typically informal expressions used by particular social groups and need to be explained as one unit (for example, 'I am over the moon', 'on thin ice', 'a fish out of water', 'fed up to the back teeth').

Interpretation/Reading

The process of making meaning of text. This process draws on a repertoire of social, cultural and cognitive resources.

Issues

Matters of personal or public concern that are in dispute; things which directly or indirectly affect a person or members of a society and are considered to be problems. These are raised in texts and it is for the reader/audience to identify these.

Language Features

The aspects of language that support meaning (for example, sentence structure, noun group/phrase, vocabulary, punctuation, figurative language, framing, camera angles). This helps define a type of text and shape its meaning. These choices vary according to the purpose of a text, its subject matter, audience, and mode or medium of production.

Language Patterns

The arrangement of identifiable repeated or corresponding elements in a text.

Literary Texts

Past and present texts across a range of cultural contexts that are valued for their form and style and are recognised as having enduring or artistic value.

Media Texts

Spoken, print, graphic or electronic communications with a public audience. They often involve numerous people in their construction and are usually shaped by the technology used in their production.

Medium

The means or channel of communication such as the spoken word, print, graphics, electronic/digital forms (for example, television, newspapers and radio).

Metalanguage

Language used to discuss language (for example, language used to discuss film or literary study, such as mise‐en‐scène, symbolism, characterisation, or language used to talk about grammatical terms, such as 'sentence', 'clause', 'conjunction').

Mode

The various processes of communication: listening, speaking, reading/viewing and writing/creating.

Mood

The atmosphere or feeling in a particular text. For example, this might be sombre, reflective, exhilarating or menacing depending on the imagery or other language used.

Multimodal Text

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. In literary theory, this includes the story and the discourse.

Narrative Point of View

The ways in which a narrator may be related to the story. For example, the narrator might take the role of first or third person, omniscient or restricted in knowledge of events, reliable or unreliable in interpreting what happens.

Personification

The description of an inanimate object as though it were a person or living thing.

Perspective

A position from which things may be viewed or considered.

Point of view

The opinion or viewpoint expressed by an individual in a text, for example an author, a narrator, a character or an implied reader.

Prose

Ordinary language used in speaking or writing, distinguished from poetry by its lack of a marked metrical structure. Many modern genres, such as short stories, novels in fiction, for example, and letters, essays, and other types of non‐fiction writing are typically written in this language.

Readings

Particular interpretations of a text. The classification into alternative, resistant or dominant is quite arbitrary, depending on the ideology held by the reader.

Representation

Representation refers to the way people, events, issues or subjects are presented in a text. The term implies that texts are not mirrors of the real world; they are constructions of 'reality'. These constructions are partially shaped through the writer's use of conventions and techniques.

Rhetoric

The language of argument, using persuasive and forceful language.

Rhetorical Devices

Language techniques used in argument to persuade audiences

(for example, rhetorical questions, repetition, propositions, figurative language).

Short answer response

Well‐developed paragraph or paragraphs in Standard Australian English which include supporting detail and typically ranging between 200‐300 words depending on time allocation. While not required to conform to the conventions of formal essay writing, short answer responses should be succinct and directly address the question.

Standard Australian English

The variety of spoken and written English language in Australia used in more formal settings such as for official or public purposes, and recorded in dictionaries, style guides and grammars. While it is always dynamic and evolving, it is recognised as the 'common language' of Australians.

Stylistic Choices

The selection of stylistic features to achieve a particular effect.

Stylistic Features

The ways in which aspects of texts (such as words, sentences, images) are arranged and how they affect meaning.

Synthesise

Combine elements (information/ideas/components) into a coherent whole.

Text structure

The ways in which 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). Examples include sonnets, monologues and hypertext.

Theme

An idea, concern or argument developed in a text; a recurring element (for example, the subject of a text may be love, and its ______ could be how love involves sacrifice). A work may have more than one _______.

Tone

The way the 'voice' is delivered or the author's attitude to their subject matter.

Types of Texts

Classifications of texts according to the particular purposes they are designed to achieve.

Analytical texts

Texts whose primary purpose is to identify, examine and draw conclusions about the elements or components that make up other texts. These texts develop an argument or consider or advance an interpretation. Examples of these texts include commentaries, essays in criticism, reflective or discursive responses and reviews.

Imaginative texts

Texts whose primary purpose is to entertain or provoke thought through their imaginative use of literary elements. They are recognised for their form, style and artistic or aesthetic value. These texts include novels, traditional tales, poetry, stories, plays, fiction for young adults and children, including picture books, and multimodal texts such as film.

Interpretive texts

Texts whose primary purpose is to explain and interpret personalities, events, ideas, representations or concepts. They include autobiography, biography, media feature articles, documentary film and other non‐fiction texts.

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. They include advertising, debates, arguments, discussions, polemics and essays and articles.

Visual elements

Visual components of a text such as composition, framing, representation of action or reaction, shot size, social distance and camera angle.

Authorial voice

In the literary sense, this can be used to refer to the nature of the voice projected in a text by an author; the persona, role or character adopted by an author.

Narrative voice

The ways in which a narrator may be related to the story. For example, the narrator might take the role of first or third person, omniscient or restricted in knowledge of events, reliable or unreliable in interpreting what happens.

Voices in texts

As well as an author's voice, texts often contain 'multiple voices'. These are the views, positions, ideas and perspectives of other individuals or groups. It is important to recognise the various voices in a text, how they relate to one another, and how the creator of a text uses these to shape audience response.