English

• Course Content of the Year
  
• What is involved?
  
• What can be done before year 12 or what should be done ASAP?
  
• The Major Interactive Study
  
• General Advice and Tips For Year 12 English
  

• read one or two books and write a piece on each
  
• watch one or two forms of media and write a piece on each
  
• watch one or two performances and write a piece on one
  
• communally discuss and go over ten poems and write a piece on two
  
• analyze twenty separate poems independently
  
• independently read four or more books and write a piece on one
  
• major interactive study
  
• respond eight texts (individual essays) (all of above must total this eight, it is flexible)
  
• prepare and deliver four speeches
  
• write four pieces that are not responses to texts
  

• the book should have some sort of literary value, i.e. it should contain something for you to write about which has an aspect of English in it, for example
  
  For a matter of interest and maybe for a few ideas, here is a list of the books that I read:
  
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
  
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
  
• Beyond the Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
  

• throughout the entire project you must realize three things:
  
  • this is an INTERACTIVE study, therefore focus on interaction
    
  • don't just interact and then forget about it - you MUST WRITE IT UP
    
  • an interactive study is a terms worth (10 weeks) of work, therefore the same amount of effort as a terms worth of normal Year 12 English work
    
• you must spend a rather long time on choosing the topic, your final choice must
  
  • be something that you are interested in - of you are not interested in it then you will give up when the going gets tough and you wont have as much incentive to do a thorough job
    
  • involve many possible interactions with other people - for example, a topic of "Do Aliens Really want to Take Over Earth?" would be stupid in the extreme because there aren't many people that are going to be available to speak about it and there are certainly not going to be many resources about it either
    
• some sample topics are:
  "I Want to Work at the Air-Port but as What?"
  "Job Satisfaction in the Information Technology Industry"
  "Teaching Young Children - Will it Suit Me?"
  "World Vision Welfare - Where Does the Money Go?"
  Note that one of the best ways to get ideas is to look at other peoples interactive studies, you can go to my English work download page and take a look at mine if you want (I got a 20/20)
  
• once you have chosen your topic, start by writing a list of interactions / resources that you are going to use, you must do this at the conclusion of your project anyway, so I will list what I handed in (this can also be found in the interactive study available for download):
  

  Language Skills used:	Example
  organising	the order and indexing system used for the interactive study
  discussion	participation on the first lesson introducing the interactive study (see log)
  telephoning	many people rang, and I rang others to arrange interview times
  requesting	the letters written to the possible interviewees, requesting their assistance
  interviewing	interviews with Steve, Stephen, Trevor and Mr.W
  surveying	surveys distributed to five main computer companies in the area
  reading	reading the newspaper article and resources found on the internet
  recording	interviews were recorded using both written and audio tape means
  questioning	emails sent to people across the word, and also amidst the interviews
  enquiring	personal enquiry into weather I would be allowed to survey a particular company also, searching for resources on the internet
  compiling	compilation of surveys and the resultant statistics was a major skill used
  researching	researching for the resources on the internet used to compare with my own statistics
  evaluating	the skill of evaluation was used in almost all my pieces of writing, especially in conclusions and reflections
  comprehending	comprehension and interpretation of the survey results
  writing	this interactive study consists of > 15,000 words!!!!!!!!

  
  
  
  

  Language forms used:	Example
  transcriptions	used for the four main interviews
  report	a report was used to show the results of the survey in prose form
  interview	four people were interviewed, with reports being written about each
  evaluations	evaluations were used in both standard response writing and the conclusion and reflections
  news articles	a news article was shown and reported on to show that I must be 'on the right track' with my theory
  journal	each major interaction was documented with my personal feelings and descriptions of events
  log	a brief log of the dates and main events involved in construction of the interactive study was kept
  questionnaire	surveys were used to gain a wider perspective on my subject
  drafts	MANY drafts lay between the initial interactions and the final documentation
  analysing	analysis was used with statistical survey results and 'reading between the lines' of emails
  graphs/tables	used to express the statistical results of the survey graphically
  letter(s)	a fair number of letters were relayed between interviewees and myself to request and arrange times

  
  
  
• write a 10 week (or whatever) timetable and try to stick by it as much as possible, leave about a week for compilation of the assignment - yes, it will take that long
  
• check this timetable with the teacher and make sure that you will have a satisfactory number and quality of interactions, once you get the approval on this then you are ready to start work
  
• work by your teacher approved timetable like a bible, feel free to make adjustments to it as you work and as you get a feel for how long things will take - for example transcripts of interviews will take a lot longer than you first may think, hence you may have to adjust your timetable accordingly
  
• after you have written all of the reports, start someone checking them for you, make the adjustments on the computer then get the teacher to check them, make the adjustments and then finally allow yourself time to check them on the computer - to construct a good piece of English writing, it is essential to have:
  
  • flow - this is almost the most important aspect of an essay, since a marker might accidentally overlook errors, omissions or anything else if the essay flows extremely well
    
  • logical progression of ideas - you should progress and develop upon an idea or concept in a well thought out manner - this is what an essay plan will help with
    
  • correct spelling and punctuation - at Year 12 level, these should be absolute perfection, and markers expect this - at most you should get 1 mistake per piece but this is still too much
    
  • appropriate content - don't bore the marker with irrelevant information
    just remember that this interactive project should continually be focused around interaction
    
  • for more detail on essay writing, see the section below
    
• now that you have transcripts, records of interactions and reports it is time to organize them into what will make up the final order of your interactive study, here is a general guide to follow, however I would strongly recommend that you ignore this and go straight to the English download area to look at mine or that you go and look at someone else's, this is the only real way to get a proper idea
  
  • Introduction / aims
    
  • Introduction to body (~method)
    
  • Body / main arguments / presentation of ideas
    
  • Results (only if a practical activity was involved)
    
  • Conclusion (summary of body & results, and small report on the success of your efforts)
    
• now that you have planned all this organization...do it!!!
  place all of your work in a type of display folder that will be easy to change things around in and will also look nice - don't make the mistake that I did and put it in a hard cover folder, they will reject this because it is too hard to handle
  use a display folder of some sort - I would recommend what they call a ZIP folder
  with this, you can rip out individual pockets and put them in another place - this makes it incredible easy for rearranging sections when the teacher gets fussy!
  
• save a few sleeves for a contents then make it and put it in, with page numbers
  
• when it is finally in the folder it is an excellent idea to make a title page with your name, topic, school, teacher, year and other information on it - moderators and teachers alike love this because they can easily understand the contents of the folder
  
• after all has been done, go through the final check list:
  
  • have you included a diary?
    
  • have you included a list of all interactions, resources and language skills?
    
  • have you included an activity log?
    
  • is the contents correct to what is in the assignment?
    
• you are finished