critically evaluate? (1 Viewer)

[silentprayer]

how do you do this?

Make critical judgements about the effectiveness of these ‘ways’ and the extent to which the thoughts presented in the provided text expressed the ways of thinking and how they are shaped in texts

the word critical always seem vague to me, please help~

 

[glitterfairy]

HSC lingo tends to turn my brain into cotton wool (hence the lack of definitions I'm going to use) but I'd interpret that as "rather than regurgitating stuff from study guides, tell us what YOU think using examples from the texts to support your case".

For example if they want to talk about how important a form of a message is, points you might want to bring up are books (most people can read these days, books being easily avaliable in many languages wherever you go), also things like how the reputation/celebrity status of an author can help particular texts be read by more people (effectively spreading the message out to more people - for example Geri Halliwell's autobiography. You wouldn't touch it if she wasn't an ex-Spice Girl, would you?).

It's time like these when you need to have a firm grasp of the content covered by the course, and then be able to independantly think about the IDEAS brought up - not neccessarily quotes and "the use of <insert technique here> conveys a sense of blahblahblah", but actual ideas you come up with on your own.


To nutshell things a bit more (mainly for my benefit, I hopped off a plane this morning and my head is spinning - I'm not even making sense to myself at the moment :S), your paragraph topics should be ideas/concepts of your own (such as the examples above), and THEN you support this stuff with examples from the text.

Umm... *searches through computer archives* here's an example of a "paragraph topic" I used in my hsc year

"It could be said that the action of ‘digging’ might refer to a search for self-identity. " <blahblahblah about Heaney's poem "Digging" here>

 

[silentprayer]

hmmm... things are starting to make sense.. i think i should be on the right track as im creating my own way of thinking on the ending of the castle (based on rftg ideas of course hehe) that provides an alternative.. as in uh... cannot fully retreat from the global...

wow but thanks anyway for typing that and for helping!~

 

[glitterfairy]

Good start, but don't get too hooked up on the alternate "way of thinking". You need to provide an answer to the essay question, too

For example: Essay question asks you what kind of values the texts convey to new audiences and the effects they have.

"The use of knot motifs to convey blahblahblah is significant because it creates stronger textual integrity" is NOT a good answer, even though it could be straight out of a study guide.

Whereas something like "By reading about traditional values which tend to focus on family relationships and developing an internal sense of balance that is not dependant on material goods, global audiences may discover that 'local' values are still of value today and give a sense of fulfilment that may not be able to be found in the heavily materialistic global world of today" actually answers the question. It's NOT something you could find in a study guide though - this is the part you'd have to come up with yourself. Subsequent paragraphs would support this "thesis", with paragraph topics such as "relevance of local values today"/"impact of ressurgence of local values" --> preservation of local history/local customs/local etc etc

 

[silentprayer]

wow what you just wrote just hits the bell again. so a good critical evaluation would give an answer to the question yet at the same time provide an alternative that shows you're really thinking?

thanks again.

 

[glitterfairy]

^ absolutely Ideally, your "answer" should already show the way you think, so you shouldn't have to tackle them as two separate answers. Way of thought = response to question = way of thought, you know?