VCE English flashcards
VCE English · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Contention
- The central claim or position an author or speaker argues for; identifying it accurately is the first step in analysing an argument or building one.
- Tone
- The attitude conveyed by an author's language toward the subject or audience, such as ironic, urgent, or conciliatory; shifts in tone are persuasive strategies.
- Appeal to reason
- A persuasive strategy using logic, evidence, statistics, or cause-and-effect reasoning to convince an audience that a claim is rationally sound.
- Appeal to emotion
- A persuasive strategy that evokes feelings such as fear, sympathy, or hope, often through anecdotes, vivid imagery, or value-laden language.
- Appeal to credibility
- A persuasive strategy that draws on the authority, expertise, or shared identity of the speaker or cited sources to make the argument trustworthy.
- Rebuttal
- The move of acknowledging an opposing argument and then arguing against it, often used to appear fair-minded while reinforcing the author's own position.
- Inclusive language
- Use of pronouns such as 'we' and 'our' to position the audience as sharing the author's view, creating solidarity and aligning readers with the argument.
- Visual persuasion
- The use of images, cartoons, layout, or graphs to influence an audience; analysis should address salient features and their intended effect, not merely presence.
- Narrative perspective
- The point of view from which a story is told, such as first-person or third-person limited; it shapes what the reader knows and how characters are judged.
- Close reading
- Detailed analysis of a short passage's language, structure, and imagery to explain how meaning and effect are created, supported by embedded quotation.
- Motif
- A recurring image, phrase, or idea in a text that accumulates meaning across the work and often signals a central theme.
- Characterisation
- The methods an author uses to construct a character, including dialogue, action, description, and other characters' responses, which together shape reader judgement.
- Transformation
- A creating-texts task in which a source text is reworked into a new form or perspective, requiring explicit connection to the original's details and concerns.
- Form
- The genre or structure of a text, such as a monologue, feature article, or diary entry; each form carries conventions that shape voice and organisation.
- Embedded quotation
- A short quotation integrated into the grammar of the writer's own sentence, used as evidence without interrupting the flow of analysis.
- Theme
- A recurring idea or concept explored in a text, such as power, grief, or belonging, developed through characters, events, and language across the whole work.
- Structural choice
- A decision about how a text is organised, such as chapter breaks, time shifts, or framed narration, which shapes meaning alongside word-level language choices.
- Reader positioning
- The ways a text encourages the audience to adopt particular attitudes toward characters or events, achieved through perspective, tone, and information control.
- Comparative essay
- An essay that analyses two texts in relation to a shared idea, organised by points of comparison rather than by summarising each text in turn.
- Point of comparison
- A specific basis on which two texts are examined together, such as how each represents a theme, uses a narrative technique, or constructs a character.
- Comparative connective
- A word or phrase such as 'whereas', 'similarly', or 'in contrast' that signals the relationship between two texts within a sentence or paragraph.
- Context
- The historical, social, or biographical circumstances surrounding a text's production; used in comparison only where it illuminates differences in meaning or construction.
- Genre conventions
- The expected features of a form, such as a play's dialogue and staging or a novel's narration, which shape what each text can express and how.
- Balanced evidence
- In comparison, quoting and analysing both texts with roughly equal depth so that neither is merely mentioned while the other dominates the discussion.
- Synthesis
- A concluding move in comparative writing that draws the two texts together into a claim about what they jointly reveal about the shared idea.
- Shared idea
- A concept treated by both texts in a comparison, such as loyalty or isolation, which forms the basis for analysing similarities and differences.
- Oral presentation
- A spoken argument delivered to a present audience, requiring a clear contention, signposted structure, and delivery features such as pace and emphasis.
- Multimodal presentation
- A presentation combining spoken language with visual or audio elements, where each mode contributes to the argument and should be chosen deliberately.
- Signposting
- Structural markers such as 'first' or 'more importantly' that help a listening audience follow an oral argument they cannot re-read.
- Audience calibration
- Adjusting language, evidence, and register to the specific values, knowledge, and expectations of the audience present for a presentation.
- Delivery features
- Elements of spoken performance such as pace, pause, emphasis, and gesture that carry persuasive meaning alongside the words of a presentation.
- Reflective evaluation
- Commentary on a presentation that assesses the effectiveness of specific choices, such as a strategic pause or a visual used as evidence, rather than general impressions.