Exam revision

Your exam next week will be 2 hours 20 minutes. You will need blue or black pens and refill to answer the essay questions. There will be the same three standards as last time:

"To Kill A Mockingbird" essay
* Make sure you get the names right - title, author, main characters...
* Read the question carefullly; make sure you can answer all parts.
* Plan your essay first. Organise your ideas in a logical order, and group similar ideas together.
* Make sure you have a supporting quote or detail in every paragraph.
* Remember the SEXIST structure - develop your ideas with reference to author's intention, relevance to society, and importance of themes.
* Don't waste time counting words - what you write is more important than how much you write.

New Zealand poetry essay
* Choose two poems - make sure you know titles and authors.
* Include quotes and language techniques from each poem.
* Make sure you address the connections between the poems.
* Remember the SEXIST structure - develop your ideas with reference to author's intention, relevance to society, and importance of themes.
* Don't waste time counting words - what you write is more important than how much you write.

Unfamiliar texts
* You will need to know your language techniques. Go through your glossary and test yourself, or make flash cards.
* Remember Technique, Example, Effect. It's not enough to say the effect is "to create effect" or "for emphasis" or "to make it memorable" - you need to say what the effect is in this SPECIFIC context. What is it emphasising? Why is it important for the reader to remember this?

Here is a list of visual language features to test yourself on:

Balance: dividing the image into equal parts.
Bold lines: outlining parts of an image.
Borders: around a text or to separate sections within a text.
Colour: used to attract attention or for symbolism.
Contrast: contrasting colours, ideas, or pictures with text.
Dominant feature: the biggest image, which first grabs a viewer’s attention.
Empty space: can be used for an effect.
Graphics: graphs, tables, symbols etc.
Juxtaposition: the placement of two contrasting images next to each other.
Layout: a general term referring to how the parts of an image are arranged.
Lettering/Font: size, shape, colour, style, etc.
Perspective: two dimensional (flat) or three dimensional (with depth).
Pictures/illustrations/photographs
Proportion: the size of parts of a text in relation to other parts of the text
Reverse print: white writing on a black background.
Rule of thirds: dividing a text into three roughly equal parts, either horizontally or vertically.
Superimposition: placing one part of an image on top of another.
Symbol: a colour, picture, or object that represents an idea.