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VICEnglishQuick questions
Unit 1: Reading and exploring texts and Crafting texts
Quick questions on Features of effective and cohesive writing: VCE English Unit 1 Area of Study 2
15short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is transition?Show answer
Connectives that name the relationship between ideas. "However" signals contrast; "because" signals cause; "still" signals concession. A transition chosen carelessly misleads the reader about the argument.
What is progression?Show answer
Each sentence advances the piece. A sentence that adds nothing new (a restatement, a rhetorical filler) is a cohesion drag.
What is simple sentence?Show answer
One independent clause. Useful for emphasis, for closing a paragraph, for breaking the rhythm of longer sentences. A simple sentence in the right place lands.
What is compound sentence?Show answer
Two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, so, yet, or). Useful for setting two ideas in balance or contrast.
What is complex sentence?Show answer
A main clause with one or more subordinate clauses. Useful for showing the relationship between ideas: the subordinate clause names the condition, cause, time, or concession, and the main clause carries the central claim.
What is length variation?Show answer
A piece in which every sentence is 15 to 20 words reads as flat. Mix sentences of 5 to 8 words with sentences of 20 to 30 words. The short sentence after a long one carries emphasis.
What is one claim per paragraph?Show answer
A paragraph that develops one idea and then drifts to a second has split itself in half. Break.
What is a topic sentence that orients the reader?Show answer
Not every paragraph needs a textbook topic sentence, but every paragraph needs a sentence in its first few that lets the reader know what the paragraph is doing. The orientation sentence can be the first, the second, or the last sentence of a previous paragraph.
What is end focus?Show answer
Place the most important clause at the end of the sentence. English sentences carry their weight at the end. A sentence whose main claim sits in the middle is undermined by its own structure.
What is subordination as argument?Show answer
A subordinate clause names what the writer treats as background; the main clause names what the writer treats as central. The decision about which idea goes into the main clause is an argumentative decision.
What is parallelism?Show answer
Two or three clauses with the same grammatical shape, placed in sequence, build emphasis. "She did not ask the question, she did not press the point, she did not return to the topic." Parallelism rewards the reader who notices.
What is name the relationship?Show answer
Where two ideas connect, name the connection with a precise transition. Not "also" but "and beyond that"; not "but" but "though"; not "so" but "because".
What are track the argument across paragraphs?Show answer
Each paragraph should pick up something from the previous paragraph (a word, an image, a claim) and advance it. The pickup is what makes a piece feel built rather than assembled.
What is return to the opening?Show answer
A piece that ends having forgotten its opening reads as unfinished. The closing paragraph should answer, qualify, or reframe what the opening began.
What is plan the sentence-length curve?Show answer
Before drafting, decide where in the piece the short sentences will fall. The decision is usually at moments of emphasis (the close of a paragraph, the turn of an argument, the ending).