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Planning a Text Response Essay
Planning a Text Response Essay
Write out the question / topic.
Circle the key terms (can be one or more words). These are the words (concepts or issues) that the topic is asking you to address in your essay.
Note any words like ‘always’, ‘most’, ‘all’ etc – qualifying words that can change the meaning of a topic
Find synonyms for the key terms that you can use in your essay to avoid repetition and show that you understand the topic.
Write down the key questions that the topic is asking you to address. What ideas will you have to cover to fully resolve this topic? The answers to these key questions will become the topic sentences for your body paragraphs.
Turn your key questions into topic sentence statements. Make sure these are about ideas, not characters
Work out a sensible order for your body paragraphs
Introduction
Introduction
Don’t simply agree or disagree with the topic. Try to find distinctions or qualifications within the topic. You might generally agree but see some exceptions. Teachers / examiners will usually set topics which allow for this as it gives more insightful students scope to show their knowledge and understanding of the text.
Introduce the text. Title, director full name), genre (eg novel, film etc), context (social and historical), leading in to the issues addressed by the topic.
Thread of key ideas you intend to make in relation to the topic, teasing out the ideas from your contention.
Contention: your overall response to the prompt
Overall views and values
Body Paragraph 1 - 3
In your body paragraphs, remember to provide specific references to events / details from the text and to use quotations to support the general statements you make. Quotes need not be long. Embed them into your sentences rather than have them sitting out on their own. This shows familiarity with the text and your ability to select appropriate detail to answer the question. Don’t retell the story
For a film, your evidence must also be what the audience sees – cinematography, lighting, costuming, staging, performance, mise-en-scene)
Topic sentence (must mention the title or author and be about an idea, not a character)
Explanation / elaboration of the topic sentence (optional)
Evidence (refer to events and use quotations)
Explain the significance of this evidence
(You may use two or three of these ‘evidence-explain’ sequences in a paragraph)
Link back to the essay topic
Conclusion
Conclusion
Sum up your overall conclusions about the topic.
Don’t just repeat your introduction.
Your conclusion should be the logical end point of your discussion. Try to build up to it.
What is the author’s overall message about this topic?
Key Points For Writing a Text Response (based on the VCAA criteria)
In each topic sentence, and throughout your paragraphs, mention the author/director and how she / he is sending a particular message to readers. Some helpful verbs:
Explores
Shows
Demonstrates
Illustrates
Creates an image of
Suggests
Describes
Creates the impression that
Depicts
Portrays
Sends the message that
Presents
Make sure you keep mentioning the author’s views and values. How does the way the author presents his characters and the way they are treated or treat others affect the way the reader responds to these characters? Where do the author’s sympathies lie and why? Just as in a language analysis, how are readers positioned to accept or reject certain characters and their actions or attitudes?
Mention the historical and social context – dates, facts, events, attitudes. These factors influence the way characters respond to the variables in their lives. What ideas and attitudes have been inculcated in them by their own upbringing and how do they deal with changes in their situation that challenge or question these internalised values?
Make it clear that you understand that there can be different interpretations of events, characters’ decisions etc. There is not only one way to understand what is happening and, if you can show that you appreciate this, you will demonstrate a more sophisticated and thoughtful interpretation of the text and the author’s intentions. Never claim without providing evidence.
Evaluative verbs.docxintegrating_quotes.pdfGenerating ideas and selecting evidence
Generating ideas and selecting evidence
You might form an instant opinion on the topic as soon as you see it. If so, you can move straight to generating ideas and selecting evidence to support your view.
If you're unsure of your opinion, you should begin by brainstorming ideas and evidence that will help you form a contention in response to the topic. An effective way to brainstorm ideas is to ask yourself as many questions as you can about the characters and/or themes in the topic - in particular, why and how questions.
Next, you can:
Identify the main ideas in your brainstorm
Organise with relevant pieces of evidence.
Part 1.pdfPart 2.pdfWriting Topic Sentences to start Paragraphs
Now that you know what points you’re going to make in each paragraph, you need to write a topic sentence for each one.
A topic sentence states the IDEA you’re going to discuss and should mention the AUTHOR. It discusses WHY the author has written things in this way.
It also discusses HOW the author portrays the IDEA. It makes a statement about what the author does in the text to demonstrate the idea.
Avoid discussing character names or giving examples in topic sentences. Your essay should be concerned with IDEAS and the text’s central concerns - its VIEWS & VALUES.
Exemplar:
Prompt: Sunset Boulevard is a true example of the noir film genre. Discuss
The two parts of our topic sentence
How? Through the classic film noir element of the protagonist's voiceover narration
Why? To demonstrate the menacing nature of Hollywood
Put the two parts together to finish : Through the classic film noir element of the voiceover narration in 'Sunset Boulevard,' Wilder accentuates Hollywood's menacing undercurrents, revealing the industry's concealment of moral decay.
Let's practice!!
Billy Wilder suggests it is difficult to remain ethical in the Hollywood of Sunset Boulevard.
Discuss.
Cause: the industry pressures/difficulties.
Effect: exploitation and loss of ethics.
‘Shout at me, strike me! But don’t hate me’
How does Sunset Boulevard convey the tension between idealism and disillusionment?
- Through a fixation with Hollywood’s promises of fame and affluence
- Holding onto past glory
- Moral compromise for success
EXEMPLAR OF INTRODUCTION:
Alfred Hitchcock manipulates the audience to question the morality and ethics of voyeurism. Do you agree?
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 thriller, Rear Window is set in the courtyard of an apartment complex in Greenwich Village on the lower west side of Manhattan. Hitchcock situates the action of his film at the height of American paranoia about the infiltration of communism, and this atmosphere of surveillance and suspicion permeates the work. L.B. Jefferies is incapacitated with ‘nothing to do but look out the window at the neighbours’ leading him to pry into their ‘secret, private world[s]’ for the seven six weeks of his recovery. Through Hitchcock’s strategic use of the camera, he manipulates the audience to come to conclusions about voyeurism through revealing character’s reactions to what they see. He also invites them to question the moral correctness of voyeurism as he reveals the detrimental effects which arise because of such invasive behaviours. Although Hitchcock suggests that voyeurism is an issue in 1950’s America, he does not completely condemn these actions, as several multiple characters benefit as a result of viewing their neighbours.
Body paragraph:
Hitchcock indirectly contributes his opinion concerning voyeurism through his use of camera and his characters’ facial expressions. Combined with occasional comments from characters, Hitchcock intends for the audience to question whether prying into the lives of others is morally and ethically correct. Hitchcock hijacks his audience who are ‘stuck’ in Jeff’s apartment and forced to view the world from Jeff’s perspective. This allows the audience to see and hear almost everything that Jeff does. Jeff views his neighbours through his rear window without their knowledge despite the general expectation for neighbours to keep their ‘secret private worlds’ separate. He views ‘pretty private stuff’ which he readily admits himself following viewing of Miss Lonely Hearts being attacked by a man in her own apartment. In a medium high angle shot from Jeff’s perspective, Miss Lonelyhearts closes her blinds revealing her desire for privacy, yet this does not deter Jeff or Lisa’s eager eyes as the camera alternates between her apartment and Jeff and Lisa who are focused on Miss Lonelyhearts personal date with a man from the bar. Jeff and Lisa’s expressions display regret and guilt following her attack which indirectly suggests to the audience that watching others is not right or appropriate behaviour although they do not explicitly comment on Miss Lonelyheart’s’ attack. Moments such as Jeff watching his neighbours during inappropriate moments further provoke doubt in the audience of their own voyeuristic behaviours as they view Miss Torso taking off her bra in a mid-shot and dancing in her underwear whilst an older man, Jeff, smirks, clearly gaining pleasure from watching her. This intends for the audience to feel uncomfortable due to invading others’ lives even without their knowledge. Jeff looks away guiltily from the newlyweds as they kiss and the husband carries his wife over the threshold of their home to create doubt about the moral correctness of viewing his neighbours in such intimate moments, however, he turns back to further his own curiosity. Lisa’s comments to Jeff reveal her understanding that watching others is immoral as she calls Jeff ‘diseased’ for going to the extent of using a telephoto lens and binoculars to spy on his neighbours. She physically turns Jeff away from the window in a mid-shot as she towers over him, symbolising her disapproval of with his voyeuristic actions, which further provides thought for the audience about interfering in others’ lives. Hitchcock does not tell his audience how to think, however he directs their thoughts with the use of the camera and the characters’ opinions to assist them in formulating their opinion about the appropriateness of voyeurism.
Example of a contention:
‘Sunset Boulevard is a biting critique of the Los Angeles film industry.’ Discuss
Billy Wilder’s 1950 gothic noir film, ‘Sunset Boulevard’, serves as a scathing analysis of the Los Angeles film industry by shattering the glamorous illusion of Hollywood and exposing the grim reality of a world where fame is prized above humanity.
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