VCE English argument and language analysis (Unit 4 AoS 2) quiz

Whether you agree with the author's position

How the text positions its audience to share its argument through specific language and structural choices

Whether the author has used good grammar

How many techniques you can identify in the text

Spotting techniques is too easy

VCAA criteria reward analysis of how techniques operate together to position the audience, not lists of devices present in the text

Techniques are not relevant to argument analysis

Markers cannot read technique lists

Yes, always state your position

Only in the conclusion

Never. You are analysing the construction of persuasion, not voting on the merits

Only if you disagree

Your view on the topic

The one-sentence statement of what the text is arguing

The list of techniques the text uses

Whether the text is fair

Where the audience sits when reading

Shaping the audience's response to the issue (what they feel, what they believe, what they do)

The author's tone

The length of the text

Section A

Section B

Section C (60 minutes of the 3-hour exam)

It is only in SACs

The author uses rhetorical questions.

The author's framing of opponents as 'a small fringe' minimises their cultural authority and positions the audience to dismiss alternative views as marginal.

Rhetorical questions are persuasive.

The author has used three rhetorical devices.

No, only language counts

Yes, visual elements are part of the persuasion and contribute to positioning the audience

Only if the question specifies

Visuals are for art class, not English

One paragraph entirely on Text A, then one on Text B

Each body paragraph engages both texts on one shared rhetorical concern, ending with a comparative synthesis sentence

Only analyse the longer text

Alternate sentences between texts

Say 'the audience is the readers of the newspaper'

Be specific: educated metro readers, parents of school-age children, people sympathetic to environmental concerns, etc.

Audience identification is optional

Assume the audience is everyone