SACE Stage 2 English flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Directive verb

The instruction word in an essay question, such as analyse, evaluate, discuss or compare, which determines the thinking operations and structure the response must demonstrate.

Metalanguage

The specialised vocabulary used to describe how texts work, including terms such as syntax, motif, salience and register, allowing precise analytical discussion of technique.

Implied reader

The audience position a text constructs and addresses, which may differ from actual readers and from the writer's real intended audience.

Salience

The feature of a visual text that draws the eye first, created through size, colour contrast, placement or focus, and therefore signalling importance.

Narrative voice

The perspective from which a story is told, including first or third person and degrees of omniscience, which shapes what readers can know.

Textual evidence

A quotation or precise reference drawn from the text that supports an interpretive claim and must be explained rather than merely inserted.

Tone versus mood

Tone is the composer's attitude conveyed through style; mood is the emotional atmosphere the reader experiences, though the two usually reinforce each other.

Close reading

Sustained attention to a short passage, examining diction, imagery, syntax and structure to show how meaning is produced at the level of language.

Standfirst

The short introductory paragraph beneath a headline that summarises or hooks the article's angle before the body text begins.

Register consistency

Maintaining the same level of formality and vocabulary throughout a created text, unless a shift is deliberate and serves the stated purpose.

Show, don't tell

Conveying character or emotion through concrete sensory detail and action rather than direct statements, letting readers infer the feeling.

Text transformation

Rewriting an existing text in a different form, genre or perspective while preserving its central ideas and concerns.

Audience positioning

The techniques a writer uses, such as direct address or shared assumptions, to place readers in a particular relationship to the text.

Motif

A recurring image, phrase or idea that accumulates meaning across a text and reinforces its central concerns.

Comma splice

Joining two independent clauses with only a comma; it is corrected by a full stop, semicolon or coordinating conjunction.

Persuasive appeal

A strategy aimed at audience response, commonly through logic, credibility or emotion, each requiring different supporting evidence.

Comparative thesis

A single sentence naming the concept shared by two texts and the significant divergence in how each treats it.

Sustained comparison

Discussing both texts within each paragraph so that similarities and differences are argued continuously rather than described separately.

Comparative connective

A linking word such as whereas, similarly or conversely that signals whether the following point converges with or contrasts against the previous one.

Contextual difference

A divergence in composer, period, form or audience between texts, relevant only when it explains a difference in textual treatment.

Shared concept

The abstract idea, such as ambition or belonging, that both texts explore and that supplies the organising thread of a comparative response.

Form and meaning

The principle that a text's genre and structure shape what it can say, so comparing a play with a memoir involves comparing their formal capacities.

Balanced evidence

Selecting quotations of comparable length and specificity from each text so neither is treated as primary and the other as secondary.

Divergent treatment

The differing way two texts handle a shared subject, which is the analytical substance a comparison must explain rather than merely note.

Performance standards

Descriptions of quality levels used to judge responses, with higher bands requiring analysis and control of language rather than summary.

Intertextual study

The assessment requirement to connect a set text with a studied connecting text, arguing the relationship rather than merely asserting a link.

Supervised conditions

Assessment completed under observation within a set time, which rules out drafting at length and requires compressed planning.

Mark-weighted timing

Allocating available minutes across sections in proportion to their marks, so a heavily weighted question receives correspondingly more writing time.

Reading time

The initial period before writing in which questions are read and a thesis plus evidence sequence is planned in note form.

Communication marks

Credit awarded for clarity, structure and accuracy, which legible handwriting and clear paragraphing protect.

Accurate quotation

Recalling wording exactly; where uncertain, paraphrase and reference the moment precisely rather than fabricating a quotation.

Question weighting

The relative marks or suggested time attached to each assessment task, which determines how much depth and evidence each response needs.