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← English Literary Studies syllabus

SAEnglish Literary Studies

Responding to Texts (50%)

12 dot points across 12 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How does the relationship between author, text and context shape the meaning a reader makes?

How do you build a sustained interpretation of a short text studied closely with your class?

How do you analyse a text whose meaning is made by images, layout and the interplay of word and picture?

How do you turn a close reading of a short passage into a sustained analytical argument?

How do you build a genuine comparison that argues something neither text could show alone?

How do you weigh competing critical readings of a text and stake out a defensible position of your own?

How does a text steer a reader toward particular values and attitudes without ever stating them outright?

How does a text gain meaning from its relationship to other texts, and how do you analyse that without just spotting references?

How does choosing a critical perspective change which features of a text you notice and what it seems to mean?

How do you organise an analytical response so its argument builds rather than just accumulates?

How do you use literary terminology so that it sharpens your analysis instead of decorating it?

How does the choice of who narrates, and how, control what a reader knows, trusts and feels?