Ms. Dominico’s Year 12 VCE English Class

‘What people remember shapes their understanding of themselves and their world.’

Statement of explanation
The expository essay “What people remember shapes their understanding of themselves and their world” aims to inform and explain the essence of memory in shaping human experience. It explores memory persistence, its mutability and our dependence on them to negotiate life. It declares man a flawed but enigmatic creature. The intended audience is an educated adult one and the complex vocabulary, while appropriate for such an audience, discusses core ideas clearly and accessibly for even a non-specialist readership. The essay aims for a level of language sophistication that such an audience would expect and appreciate in a serious magazine. In a detached and formal tone the composition draws on “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind”, a parable on the futility of trying to escape the past. It concludes on an unexpected note as the “eternal sunshine’ is rejected as too bland and the central character’s choice to retain his memories are affirmed.

Essay:
(more…)

Granted that Ian McEwan is not a Year 12 VCE student, play along with me for the purposes of this activity.

Let’s Pretend:
* Ian is a Year 12 VCE student
* that he was given the same prompt as you for Post #6 (memory and lives shaping…)
* you are his VCE assessor

TASK: Follow the instruction in today’s Word document (Sample Written Explanation and Student Piece of writing) to highlight and assess McEwan’s writing. Post your edits onto your blog so we can all learn from you!

Here is the file: sample-written-explanation-for-atonement1

‘What people remember shapes their understanding of themselves and their world.’

In trying to make sense of who we are, we have only our memories of our past to help us to formulate our concept of ourselves as we are now. In a complex interchange our memories are joined to our personalities and help define our identity. Our values and beliefs are also shaped by our memories; either through social interaction or remembering the lessons passed on by significant people in our lives. Memories provide boundaries to our relationships with people in the world around – they govern our behaviour by providing a context to consider our actions.
(more…)

My father’s eyes widened, he stood still and just stared at me in bewilderment.

“Don’t be ridiculous! An artist! Pfft! Who is an artist? Who’s going to feed you! I haven’t slaved away my life, come to a whole new country to have a daughter of mine become an artist. What kind of a person is an artist?

You don’t even know any artist! What kind of job is that?”

I could see he was building himself up to a major eruption. We argued on, but in the end, I stalked out of the house. Hours later, when I returned, he was quiet, but vigilant. I decided the best course of action was to avoid communication on the topic. I duly filled in the preference form for my Year 12 subjects, and here I am, doing Art, Design Tech. and Media. There’s not a Science or Maths subject to be seen. My father’s disgust continues, but what can he do?

(more…)