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VICEnglishQuick questions
Unit 3: Reading and creating texts
Quick questions on Mentor texts as models: VCE English Unit 3 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 you are reading for transferable moves, not for meaning?Show answer
A paragraph that handles dialogue well is a paragraph you can learn from regardless of what the dialogue is about.
What is you are reading slowly and locally?Show answer
A single paragraph held under attention is worth more than a whole essay skimmed. The mentor text is a workshop, not a survey.
What is you are reading with intent to use?Show answer
Annotation should mark the craft moves you might borrow, not the themes you might discuss.
What is sentence-level craft?Show answer
How clauses are arranged. The relation between sentence length and effect. The places where the writer breaks rhythm.
What is voice and tone?Show answer
The persona the writing constructs. The diction. The implied relation to the reader.
What is imagery and figurative habits?Show answer
The kind of image the writer reaches for. The frequency. The integration of image with argument or action.
What is structure?Show answer
How the piece is organised at the paragraph, section, and whole-piece level. The places where the writer chooses to break, return, or repeat.
What is audience management?Show answer
How the writer brings the reader into the piece and what the writer assumes the reader already knows.
What is describe the move in terms of mechanism, not feel?Show answer
"The writer's spare voice" is a feel; "the writer's habit of refusing the obvious adjective" is a mechanism.
What is describe the move in transferable terms?Show answer
The description should make sense for a different writer working on different material. "The refusal of the obvious adjective" can be tried on any subject.
What is quote the move?Show answer
The quotation is the proof that the move exists. Without the quotation, the description is speculative.
What is apply the move to different material?Show answer
If the mentor uses a syntactic move on a domestic scene, try the same move on a public scene. The transfer of context separates craft from imitation.
What is use the move sparingly?Show answer
A piece that contains one or two deliberate borrowed moves looks crafted. A piece that contains ten looks like a tribute.
What is make the move your own?Show answer
Adjust the move to fit the rhythm of your own voice. A move learned from a mentor text should sound, by the close of the piece, like your move.
What is modes overlap in real writing?Show answer
A persuasive piece often uses imaginative scene-setting; a reflective piece often uses argumentative cadence. Reading across modes builds the flexibility good writing needs.