SACE Stage 2 English cheat sheet

Close reading begins with the question's directive verb: 'analyse' requires breaking a text into components and showing how they combine, while 'evaluate' requires a judgement supported by evidence.

Evidence must be quoted or precisely referenced, then explained; a quotation alone earns nothing unless the writer links it to a claim about meaning or effect.

When analysing a visual or multimodal text, treat layout, colour, gaze, salience and framing as choices with effects, just as word choice functions in written texts.

Personal response is defensible only when it is reasoned: state the reaction, then identify the specific textual feature that produced it and why that feature works that way.

Structure analytical paragraphs as claim, evidence, technique, explanation, link; the explanation step is where interpretation marks are earned, so it should be the longest.

Audience and purpose determine register: a response to a persuasive speech should itself use evaluative metalanguage rather than simply restating the speaker's argument.

Distinguish author, narrator and implied reader; conflating them produces errors such as attributing a character's views directly to the writer.

Every created text must satisfy three constraints simultaneously: the stated purpose, the nominated audience, and the chosen form's conventions (for example, a feature article needs a headline, standfirst and byline).

Show, don't announce: instead of stating a character is anxious, render physical detail, fragmented syntax or sensory focus that lets the reader infer it.

Register must stay consistent within a piece; a persuasive speech that slides into casual slang without a deliberate reason reads as uncontrolled rather than versatile.

Deliberate stylistic choices should be identifiable after drafting: name the technique (motif, juxtaposition, direct address) and confirm it recurs or develops rather than appearing once.

Dialogue punctuation follows the convention that speech marks enclose the spoken words and the reporting clause is separated by a comma, with new speakers beginning new paragraphs.

A text transformation must change form or perspective while preserving the original's core ideas; adding wholly new content usually breaks the transformation requirement.

Proofreading targets the errors markers penalise most consistently: comma splices, tense shifts within a paragraph, and pronoun reference that is ambiguous.

A comparative response must sustain both texts in every paragraph; alternating whole paragraphs on one text each produces description rather than comparison.

Comparison operates on three levels: similarity, difference, and the significance of that similarity or difference given each text's context and purpose.

Use comparative connectives precisely: 'similarly' and 'likewise' signal convergence, 'whereas' and 'conversely' signal contrast, and 'both' must be followed by a genuine shared feature.

Contextual comparison requires noting differences in composer, period, form or audience only when those differences explain a textual difference.

A strong comparative thesis names the shared concept and the divergent treatment of it in a single sentence, rather than listing two separate arguments.

When texts share a subject but differ in form, compare how form shapes the treatment: a memoir's retrospection differs structurally from a novel's present-tense immediacy.

Quotations from paired texts should be balanced in length and specificity so neither text is treated as the primary and the other as an afterthought.

External assessment tasks are completed under supervised conditions with set time limits, so planning must be compressed into a few minutes rather than a full draft.

Responses are marked against performance standards describing knowledge, analysis and communication; higher bands require sustained analysis rather than retelling.

Intertextual study requires connecting the set text to a studied connecting text, and the link must be argued rather than merely asserted.

Timing allocation follows the mark weighting: divide available minutes across questions or sections in proportion to their marks, then hold to that division.

Planning notes made during reading time should record the thesis and the sequence of key evidence, not full sentences, to conserve writing time.

Handwriting legibility and clear paragraphing affect communication marks; an unmarked response cannot be credited for ideas the marker cannot read.

Quotations must be recalled accurately; where exact wording is uncertain, paraphrase and reference the moment precisely rather than inventing a quotation.