Formal Requirements for Task 2
There are two prescribed questions for each of the areas of study listed below. Task 2 is a critical response to one of these six questions. The prescribed questions are designed to be as open as possible and are intended to highlight broad areas within which students can explore and develop their responses to the texts.
The critical response is based on material studied in the course. This material could be a longer work such as a novel or a group of poems. It could also be a shorter text or texts such as a newspaper article or a sports blog. A rationale is not included with task 2. Instead, students are expected to complete an outline. This outline is submitted with the task for external assessment.
This outline must include:
• the prescribed question that has been chosen
• the title of the text(s) for analysis
• the part of the course to which the task refers
• three or four key points that explain the particular focus of the task.
Practical Requirements for Task 2
Where appropriate, task 2 must reference, in a bibliography, the relevant support documentation such as the newspaper article or magazine advertisement on which it is based. Where a complete shorter text is chosen (for example, a newspaper article or an advertisement from a magazine) students may refer to other texts to support their response. The critical response is in the style of a formal essay and must be clearly structured with an introduction, clearly developed ideas or arguments and a conclusion.
Students are required to include, where appropriate, bibliographic reference to the text(s) on which the critical response is based when submitting the assessed work.
Areas of Study
Students must address one of the following areas of study:
Reader, Culture and Text
Students are encouraged to consider that a text’s meaning is determined by the reader and by the cultural context. The interpretation of a text is dependent on various factors, including:
• the reader and producer’s cultural identity or identities
• age• gender• social status
• the historical and cultural settings of the text and its production
• aspects of language and translation
Power and Privilege
Students are encouraged to consider how and why social groups are represented in texts in particular ways. In addition, consideration may be given to who is excluded from or marginalized in a text, or whose views are silenced. Social groups could include:
• women• adolescents• senior citizens
• children• immigrants• ethnic minorities
• professionsText and Genre
Students are encouraged to consider the genre in which a text is placed. Certain textual features belong to a particular genre and can be identified by a particular reader or audience. Writers make use of, or deviate from, particular conventions of genre in order to achieve particular effects. Students may also explore how texts borrow from other texts, and how texts can be re-imagined or reconstructed. Examples of conventions of genre include:
• structure• storyline• characterization• stylistic devices
• tone, mood and atmosphere
• register
• visual images and layout.
Task 2—Questions
The student’s critical response must correspond to one of the following questions. Each question is followed by examples of texts that may be studied in response to the questions. Students are not limited to these examples.
Reader, Culture and Text
1. How could the text be read and interpreted differently by two different readers?
• The study and analysis of a political speech by a world leader that excludes references to certain groups or issues