When we look at the VCAA study design for both Text Response and Comparative,
what s written there can be hard to follow. I mean what is this? What do these things mean?
Explicit and implied, analytical interpretations, metalanguage, what? I remember when I was
studying, and I'd read these and I'd get a general gist of what they meant, but I wasn t 100%
sure. Today I m going to break down these key knowledges into simple, easy to action terms,
and show you examples on what you have to do in your exams to pass the VCAA criteria.
Rest assured, you probably have started including some of these without even knowing it!
But it's always helpful to actually give you the bigger picture so you can go into your exam
confident that you ARE nailing these points. Now I m going to move beyond
the basics, like making sure you answer the prompt which is a given. I'm going
to include the finer details you need to include in your essay. So what are they?
Criteria 1, Context 2, Views and values
3, Different interpretations by different readers
Criteria 4, Metalanguage
By knowing and incorporating these four points into your essay writing,
you'll be able to advance your ideas from a basic discussion solely about themes and characters
to an insightful showcase of your interpretation of the author's work. Let's get a better
understanding of each of these points and how they add to your analytical interpretation of a text.
Criteria 1 Context What's the difference between setting and context?
Setting is a specific time and place or physical location of the story. A specific time and place
or physical location of the story. For example, Twelve Angry Men is set in the summertime,
in a 1950s court jury room. The setting creates mood and a sense of the world the characters live
in. The extreme temperature of the cramped room exemplifies the jurors stress and frustration.
Context however, is a broader term which also considers the situation and circumstances
at the time the text was written or is set in. Context helps readers gain a
better understanding of themes, ideas and issues explored by the author. So not only
is Twelve Angry Men set in a courtroom, it s set In America during the 1950s,
a time rife with racism towards African-Americans. The white jurors prejudice towards the black
defendant parallels the real-life white American attitude during that period.
Notice how by understanding the context, we are able to add a lot more value in our discussion.
In our essays we will be able to touch on themes of racism, prejudice, and then explore this in
more detail as we understand the bigger picture of why this author has written this text and
what message that author is trying to teach us. So how does this translate into something
meaningful in your essay? Inclusion of context helps you understand the views and values of
those people of the time. I m going to switch text and give you an example for the text Medea.
Medea is set in an intensely patriarchal society a culture that privileges men over women. When
Jason leaves his wife Medea for another woman, Medea is expected to be submissive and accept her
fate due to her inferior status as a woman. As a proto-feminist, Eurpidies- the author-
thwarts traditional traits of women and ridicules men s misogynistic actions.
Criteria 2 Views and values
A good starting point for views and values is to adopt the mindset that all texts are written with
a purpose authors want to tell us something, send us a message, and share their understanding of the
world. Therefore, every author has a choice in how they construct a text to demonstrate
their views and values. Ask yourself what view does the author want the reader/you to believe,
feel, understand, and acknowledge? Here s an example for the text Station Eleven:
While post-apocalyptic tales tend to focus on the action around the impact of a fictional disaster,
Mandel s novel speaks to the attitudes and characteristics of people which drive any
action that occurs. She interrogates central questions about human society, inviting readers
to consider what human qualities can endure an apocalypse, what qualities are timeless.
Criteria 3 Different interpretations by different readers
Every reader develops unique interpretations of a text because of their own personal beliefs,
values, and experiences.
Different readings may include: Dominant readings, alternative readings like:
Resistant readings, Gender readings, Freudian readings, Post-colonial readings
There is no single correct interpretation of a text study texts can have various levels of
meaning. In your essay, you may even write: while some may perceive others may believe to showcase
your understanding that different interpretations do exist, depending on the audience.
Here s an example from Frankenstein:
In Frankenstein, the absence of a female role is a deliberate choice by the author and is interpreted
by some readers as a method to uphold literature standards of Shelley's era, when men dominated
novels. Meanwhile, other readers ponder the feminist message embedded in the text, that
perhaps Frankenstein is intended to expose the uneven representation of the sexes in this period.
I've done a more detailed video about different interpretations previously,
so head on over to watch that video after this one.
Criteria 4 Metalanguage
Metalanguage (also known as literary devices,
linguistic features or language elements) is language that describes language.
When writing an essay, our description of the way an author constructs their text through
words such as characterisation and symbolism are all terms referred to as metalanguage .
Ask yourself: how does the author use language to portray a certain
character or idea in a particular way? Here s an example from Old/New Poems:
The use of a colloquial idiom of kept pace only with the Joneses'' in Feliks Skrzynecki references
how his belonging only feels surface deep. However, as they are only the Joneses of his own
mind s making it also showcases his commitment to not simply copy and to still be individual.
Again, I've done a more detailed video diving into metalanguage,
so I recommend you have a watch of that too.
I d love to wrap everything up in this video, but with a lot of these criteria points there is
a lot that can be learned, so don t feel like you need to learn all in one go, it is something that
you will build upon over time and your essays get better and better because of it.
I explore each of these 4 criteria points in my, How To Write A Killer Text Response ebook.
There are heaps of examples tied to each criteria so you can actually gain a confident
understanding into how to exactly incorporate them into your essay. If you re interested,
you can also download a free sample of the ebook to give you an idea of what s inside and I promise
you it will be a bang for your buck. Thanks so much for tuning into this video today, I hope
that it helps you. Let me know if you have any questions, and I'll speak to you guys soon. Bye!