English Tutor

Scholarship Test Writing

Posted by on March 8, 2012 at 7:35 am

I’ve written before about the desire and method for achieving an original response to a prompt. In this example, I took the image of a robber/thief and composed the following creative response. . INTRUDER Like a thief in the dead of night I came. Silent and dangerous; deadly and burning with malice. I stole into […]

Scholarship Test Writing

Posted by on March 8, 2012 at 7:34 am

In the tests they might give you an image to write creatively about. Sometimes it’s good to consider how the image can be considered metaphorically or symbolically. I looked at the image of a mouse, and wrote the short narrative below: I deliberately tried to give it an interesting title and to use dialogue. What […]

Back in da drivin’ seat

Posted by on February 24, 2012 at 9:00 am

Sheesh! I guess I could feel some shame for neglecting the posts on this site for several months, but this past summer has been fantastic! And anyway, why would I want to be punching away at the keyboard when my preference is to sit outside with pen and paper feeling the fresh breeze flowing and […]

VCE English Outcome 1: On the Waterfront

Posted by on October 17, 2011 at 10:37 am

Terry says to Charley: “I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum. Which is what I am”. Does the film support Terry’s judgment of himself? Poor Terry Malloy: stuck between a rock and a hard place, or conversely between the hard men of the mob and struggling to find the […]

VCE Outcome 3: Language Analysis Essay

Posted by on October 14, 2011 at 12:30 pm

Mobile Concerns by David James Call me a cynic (you’re a cynic Gus!), but I must suspect the purposes of the article published in Driver magazine. The writer is apparently responding to a call by the Accident Prevention Group (APG) to ban all forms of phone use by drivers in all vehicles. Although I think […]

VCE Outcome 3: Language Analysis Essay

Posted by on September 28, 2011 at 11:12 am

I’m not convinced by the facts (or lack thereof) of Mr/Mrs “Name and School withheld” argument in “The Case Against a National Curriculum”. It seems rather silly to assume that the National Department of Education would ignore entirely the “differing needs” of Australia’s 3.3 million students. Instead, the article appears to be an obvious attack […]

VCE Outcome 3: Language Analysis Essay

Posted by on September 28, 2011 at 11:03 am

In the editorial “Turning the muck filter on”, the writer intends to present a “no-nonsense” argument for a new Government policy to police the internet. Yet despite their strong ridiculing bias, their clever distinctions, their efforts at alliteration and their illuminative analogies, I for one do not need a filter to see the gaps in […]

VCE Outcome 3: Language Analysis Essay

Posted by on September 28, 2011 at 10:52 am

It has often been said of retired politicians that they should stay retired. Having given up (or lost) their mantle, it is not wise or wanted for them to comment on party affairs. Peter Costello though, has published a book of his memoirs, and is currently published by The Age on political matters. In his […]

VCE Outcome 2: The Crucible – Encountering Conflict

Posted by on September 27, 2011 at 12:29 pm

“We should be more concerned about the damage conflict does to people than the reasons for the conflict.” Quick plan: JP on the gallows – determined and steadfast Symbols: chains = justice sunrise = insight and epiphany Dusk/mist = Abigail and Judge Concepts: martyrs, resistance, cowards and liars vs traitors to the truth SALEM’S VICTORY […]

VCE Outcome 2: Paradise Road – Encountering Conflict foli

Posted by on September 26, 2011 at 9:18 am

Conflict brings out the best and worst in humanity February 1942: Take 104 – the noise of the transport ship’s engines formed a noisy barrier to sleep, even as the waves rocked me from port to starboard, port to starboard… Many of my nursing sisters cradled a child (an orphan in the making?) as we […]