We will start at the very beginning - a very good place to start.
Question 1 on the surface looks very straightforward but it is often one that is completed in a rush (at the end of the exam or to try and save time at the beginning) and therefore you don't achieve the marks that your skill set should.
I'm going to walk you through the process and then let you loose on a question.
First of all the question itself:
It is always a 'What do you understand about the x and y'.
Before you jump in, make sure you know what you are looking for.
Understand - is more than just the facts but it involves your inference as well.
X - is one of the things you should be focusing on.
Y - is another. Nothing other than these two things.
These are your trigger words from the question. They tell you that you need to Skim and Scan the text. (Skim = a quick read through to get the information from the article. Scan = focusing in on the quotations that link X and Y).
The question may often talk about issues - You should scan for facts, figures, quotations, annecdotes,
It also can describe experiences - look for 'I' and adjectives.
It is an 8 mark question and you should be taking 12 minutes to complete this. To adequately meet the requirements of the task you will need to make 4 good points with supporting textual detail embedded, some inference and to cover each part of the question (not necessarily equally).
Your inferences identify you as a higher level candidate showing you don't just focus on the obvious. If an article states '4 in 10 people' are overweight then you can infer that an issue will be health problems and that those health problems will put a strain on the NHS. This develops your higher level inference.
So as a check list when writing:
Summarise the key points that address each of trigger words in the question (5 or 6).
Embed some supporting quotations (4 + )
Make developed inferences - look beyond the obvious.
So here is your question:
What do you understand about Frankie Mullin's experiences of being deaf and the issues of being deaf in society?
Your text is here
I would like you to write the trigger words at the top of your answer.
Happy Revising
Mr Milne
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Weekly Homework - Revision - Question One
What do you understand about Frankie Mullin's experiences of being deaf and the issues of being deaf in society?
Trigger words/phrases: 'understand' ' issues' 'experiences '
In the article Liz Jones states that she wants to be 'included in the conversation', this suggests that she has had enough of doing nothing. It implies that she wants to stand up and portray her point of view making her more recognisable to the cause, this would help her as it would result in her being known to more people. This would effectively result in her achieving her goal.
Within the sub-headline the writer of this article states that 'talking to someone who can't hear ... can be annoying'. From this quotation we can understand that the woman doesn't know what to do in her situation. She is doing bizzare things such as talking to the deaf, obviously the listener can't understand the lady unless they are great lip readers, but the chances of that are low. So by doing things which you normally wouldn't do, the writer makes effectively makes themselves seem quite desperate.
Frankie Mullin's experiences of deafness have changed her, she changed to being someone who doesn't care about what others think. She subconsciously was like this because she didn't understand many things which were said to her. However she could have tried to help cure her impairment somehow. The fact that she was being rude to others is apparent in her speech when she refers to the things other people said to her. She referred to them as being 'Mumble's 'unintelligible' things.
Oskar Polanski
Oskar - Look at the question again and look at your first paragraph. Are you talking about the correct person.
I suggest you use the technique talked about in class and bullet point what you would say under the headings of the trigger words.
These trigger words should be repeated in every paragraph and you should be aiming to use 4 or more quotations.
This would gain you 3 marks - you have made inferences but these are not always focused on the trigger words in the question.
In this article, it can be understood that Mullin's experiences of being deaf is something that she has become accustomed to. The image of "four years working in a bar" causes the reader to interpret that Mullin would have found it difficult working there, since a "bar" is a place associated with loudness. However, soon after, we learn of her technique to "scrape by ", which is subtly used to highlight how her experiences of working in a "bar" have allowed her to develop methods that she could use to make communication easier for herself, suggesting that her experiences have only made her more determined to make sure that she doesn't miss out.
An issue of the neglect of someone deaf is also conveyed. The repetition of "blah" and use of "details" used to describe a typical conversation she would have to have, causes the reader to interpret how people can almost forget that someone is deaf and talk to them like they are talking to a normal person. This allows the reader to understand that an issue of being deaf is being able to keep-up with the conversations that deaf people have with people who may forget about - or just simply neglect - their disability.
Additionally, from Mullin's experiences of not being able to understand the "banter", we interpret that she has had many experiences of feeling left out, and not being able to take part in activities that people who are not deaf can take part in. We are able to then zoom out on Mullin and into a wider picture, from which we can interpret that feeling out is also a common issue that deaf people have to experience.
Aaran.
This is a strong answer. It contains all the detail necessary but needs the fluency to achieve the sophistication of full marks. You could change the 'interpret' sections to a more confident register:
e.g. 'cause the reader to interpret' could change to 'highlights Mullin has found it difficult...'
This makes you sound more confident and is more fluent to read.
This would gain you 6 or 7 marks.
Well done
Hiya sir this is my homework exam question.
Question 1:
What do you understand about Frankie Mullin’s experiences of being death and the issues of being death in society?
I understand that she doesn’t have ‘a clue what was being said’ most of the time therefore it makes it hard to participate in conversations so therefore she might not be fully participating in life as it is hard to.
I also understand that there is the issue with not being liked because she often finds herself ‘not engaging, just standing there’ and therefore is disliked because she doesn’t join in and they may find her boring or think she is ‘rude’.
I understand about her experiences in the bar that she doesn’t always listen to people and just holds ‘entire convocations without having a clue what was being said.’ and an issue with this is that she could miss interpret what someone had said and offend them or upset them so I understand she needs to be careful.
I understand another issue is that she can at least get by and others cant here at all and ‘there are thousands of people coping with deafness far worse’ than hers so it is even harder for them and they may feel even more isolated so I understand that she wants people to be aware of this and maybe not judge straight away.
How can I improve? thank you
Hello Anonymous.
You are demonstrating the ability to infer and you have the correct number of quotations here. If you look at your work though each paragraph starts in the same way and doesn't really link to give an overall argument. This means that it does not read as a clear or sophisticated response giving you 4 marks.
To improve - I would avoid writing in the first person altogether and link your paragraphs together with discourse markers / connectives.
See how:
'I understand that she doesn’t have ‘a clue what was being said’ most of the time therefore it makes it hard to participate in conversations so therefore she might not be fully participating in life as it is hard to.
I also understand that there is the issue with not being liked'
Sounds a lot more sophisticated as:
Source one highlights that Mullins doesn’t have ‘a clue what was being said’ most of the time therefore it makes it hard to participate in conversations so therefore she might not be fully participating in life as it is hard to (you could develop this by adding - leading to her missing opportunities many of us take for granted).
Further on in the article she also highlights that there is the issue with not being liked...
These subtle changes would gain you 5-6 marks and the development of your inferences would take you to 7 or 8 marks.
Well done and happy revising.
Mr Milne
What do you understand about Frankie Mullin’s experiences of being death and the issues of being death in society?
In source one Frankie mullin highlights that a recurring experience is that she doesnt have ‘a clue what was being said’ most of the time therefore it makes it makes it hard for her to participate in conversations. furthermore highlighting that she might not be fully participating in life as it is hard to due to the problem of not connecting with people because she can't hear them.
later on mullin mentions an issue with not being liked because she often finds herself ‘not engaging, just standing there’ and therefore is disliked because she doesn’t join in and they may find her boring or think she is ‘rude’ because if she doesn't reply it looks as if she is ignoring them and sometimes people don't realise the reason why she can't as an issue is they jump to conclusions.
However she also talks her experiences in the bar where she gets by because she doesn’t always listen to people and just holds ‘entire convocations without having a clue what was being said.’ An issue with this is that she could miss interpret what someone had said and offend them or upset them so I understand she needs to be careful just incase they again think she is being rude. But and experience is that she is getting better at looking less aloof as she can hold 'entire convocations' anyway.
Another issue is that she can at least get by but others cant here at all and ‘there are thousands of people coping with deafness far worse’ than hers so it is even harder for them and they may feel even more isolated so I understand that she wants people to be aware of this and maybe not judge straight away as she has experienced it too and has been judged due to it.
Here is my improved question one is this okay? thank you
You have all the elements of an 8/8 answer here but your lack of capital letters in places and missing apostrophes or sentences with typos or errors would hold me back as an examiner from giving you full marks. Though it doesn't specifically give you marks for accuracy in this question, I would be reluctant to call the work sophisticated with simple inaccuracies.
Always hit the basics as they can be the differences between grades!
Your inferences are very well developed however so I should be giving you full marks but will give you 6/8 because of this.
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