Techniques for Analysing a Visual Text

September 9, 2019

Techniques for Analysing a Visual Text

This article has been written by Celine Badaoui, an HSC Biology & Personal Development, Health and Physical Education Tutor at Learnmate. If you’re interested in private tutoring from Celine then please check out her page here.

The first section of the HSC English paper one requires students to analyse and answer questions on a range of texts, including poems, book extracts and visual texts. A visual text simply refers to some type of image, which can take the form of book covers, paintings, posters, movie frames, photographs and more. Typically, every English examination paper will contain at least one of these visual texts, and there are a range of specific techniques to analyse them, so this article aims to help to break down a few of these so students can carefully construct their analysis of visual texts with confidence.

Colour and Lighting

Colour and lighting are the most obvious techniques to observe first when analysing a visual text. This is because colours represent a range of different feelings and emotions, whilst lighting assist to enhance this. For example, the colour red is usually symbolic of lust and anger, whilst yellow is symbolic of happiness and optimism, and green can be associated with nature and life. Analysing the colours used in a visual text can therefore be helpful when determining the mood that is being conveyed towards the audience. Contrast can also be analysed when observing the colour of a visual text, for example contrasts between black and white, or dark and light colours, which in turn allows for things within the image to stand out based on their relevance and importance to the meaning of the text.

Salience and Vectors

Salience and vectors are also important components to be analysed in a visual text. The salient feature of a visual text refers to wherever the viewer’s eyes are drawn to first. This is always done deliberately and is essential to convey to viewers what part of the image is most important towards the overall meaning of the text. Salient features often take the form of a person, an animal or an important word that needs to stand out.

The vector is the feature of a visual text which the audience’s eyes will follow a path towards when viewing the image and is often the second most important area for viewing following the salient. Analysing the vector is essential when discussing a visual text as it usually provides a deeper meaning or understanding towards what is being conveyed in the image. For example, a salient feature of an image may be a crying women, whilst the vector may be a gravestone in the background, providing a deeper meaning to the story shown in the image; that the women is sad over the death of a loved one.

Gaze and Body Language

Gaze and body language are more advanced visual techniques that students should try to use when analysing a visual text to present higher standard answers that will stand out to the markers. Gaze referrers to the direction in which a character is looking within the image, which in turn directs where the audience will subsequently look. There are different terms used to describe different gazes, for example an ‘offer’ gaze refers to the character looking towards another area in the image, which is usually important for viewers to follow when understanding the importance and meaning of features being presented. A ‘demand’ gaze refers to the characters eyes making direct contact with the eyes of the audience, such as the famous Mona Lisa painting by Leonardo da Vinci, which is often important when analysing the mood and emotions of a character based on their facial expression. This is linked to body language, as the gestures and positioning of a character can convey meaning regarding their attitude and personality. For example, a slouched over woman with her head tilted down, gazing towards the floor may be experiencing sadness or grief.

 

To get in contact with HSC tutors and other tutors in Sydney from LearnMate, please learn more here.

If you loved this article, you will LOVE all of our other articles, such as: 5 Ways to Best Prepare for the HSC!,The Best Way to Reduce Stress in Year 12: It’s Not What You Think and Study Tips for HSC English This Year!

 – LearnMate Tutoring.

 

LearnMate is Australia’s leading tutoring agency offering private lessons in all primary & high school subjects including English, maths, science, humanities, foreign languages, and so much more. Our mission is simple: to provide professional, engaging and enthusiastic tutors to students, while also ensuring the student feels empowered and confident during their assessments! Ultimately, our goal is to empower students all over Australia to achieve amazing results and make their dreams come true!

LearnMate provides you with tailored, one-on-one lessons for tutoring in a variety of suburbs in Melbourne, Sydney, Geelong, Brisbane, Hobart, Canberra, Perth & Adelaide! With hundreds of tutors on the LearnMate platform, you’re bound to find someone local for any primary or high school year level! You can choose to have lessons in-person or online – whatever is easiest for you!

Techniques for Analysing a Visual Text
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The Importance of Personal Development

September 2, 2019 ,

The Importance of Personal Development

This article has been written by Lydia McClelland, a VCE French, Music Theory, Literature & VCE English Tutor at Learnmate. If you’re interested in private tutoring from Lydia then please check out her page here.

Getting through high school can be an incredibly challenging time. Adding to the tough mixture of stress from schoolwork and drama in friendship groups and social circles, is also the ever-developing identity – high school is a pivotal time in the development of self. The first aspect of one’s personality to suffer from all of these changes is often self-confidence.

But how can you build confidence?

  • Put yourself forward for new opportunities. Remind yourself that experiencing failure does not mean that you are a failure. Most experts in any field would agree that repeatedly trying and failing is necessary for development, and is inescapable if you are to fully participate in the world. Trying new things can allow you to develop new understandings of yourself and your abilities which you could not realise otherwise: put yourself forward to join that debating team, or go for that leadership position you always wanted, or apply for that job you don’t think you have a chance of getting.
  • Make sure you take care of yourself. Are you overworked? Constantly tired? Burnt-out? It can be difficult to allow positive self-talk when you are always feeling low. Know that it is healthy to take breaks and do things that you love alongside the tricky work you’re slogging through. Join a sports team, or go and walk in nature after you’ve spent an hour studying, or go and get a coffee with friends. Have fun!
  • Affirm yourself. So many people live with constant negative self-talk which is so internalised that they may not even be cognisant of it. You are probably your own harshest critic! Work on becoming aware of the ways that you think of yourself. Practice complimenting yourself, or affirming something about yourself which might be an insecurity. If you practice this consciously, such positivity and self-image can shift to the subconscious.
  • Notice the goals that you meet. As well as acknowledging your inevitable failures, make sure you notice and celebrate the successes in your life. These could be the smallest of victories, or the things that you have worked tirelessly towards of which you are most proud. Make to-do lists where you can divide up your work, and relish that feeling of accomplishment as you tick each item off. An idea floated in this article is to use “did-it” lists, a method of reflecting on your achievements which will affirm you of your abilities and give you the opportunity to celebrate them.

So how will building confidence help you? Not only will you reap the benefits of heightened self-confidence in your current daily life, but it will also help you in the future, as you navigate the world of work and employability. These days, employers are looking for well-rounded people with a range of attributes. The self-confidence that accompanies putting yourself forward for new opportunities will allow you to constantly develop your skills and your ability to articulate these skills.

It is worth acknowledging that sometimes, nothing you do can seem to help your self-confidence or negative self-talk. In these cases, consider seeing a professional counsellor or psychologist: recognising that you need help is a sign of strength, not weakness. You are not alone.

If you loved this article, you will LOVE all of our other articles, such as: 3 Facts You Should Know About Your ATAR, Tips for Supporting Your Child in Year 11 and 12! and Will anyone care about your ATAR in a year?

 – LearnMate Tutoring.

LearnMate is Australia’s leading tutoring agency offering private lessons in all primary & high school subjects including English, maths, science, humanities, foreign languages, and so much more. Our mission is simple: to provide professional, engaging and enthusiastic tutors to students, while also ensuring the student feels empowered and confident during their assessments! Ultimately, our goal is to empower students all over Australia to achieve amazing results and make their dreams come true!

LearnMate provides you with tailored, one-on-one lessons for tutoring in a variety of suburbs in Melbourne, Sydney, Geelong, Brisbane, Hobart, Canberra, Perth & Adelaide! With hundreds of tutors on the LearnMate platform, you’re bound to find someone local for any primary or high school year level! You can choose to have lessons in-person or online – whatever is easiest for you!

The Importance of Personal Development
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Discussion and Examples of Language Varying to Reflect Identity

September 2, 2019

Discussion and Examples of Language Varying to Reflect Identity

This article has been written by Liam McAlary, a Years 7 – 12, VCE Legal Studies and VCE English Language Tutor at Learnmate. If you’re interested in private tutoring from Liam then please check out his page here.

Hey guys, here is my September article. This article discusses Unit 4, Area of Study 2, which is individual and group identity. This article will focus on the variation of language across various social groups, as well as discussing examples of where language is used to reflect individual and group identities.

Firstly, variation across social groups. The study design lists factors which can contribute to the variation of language that we see in Australia (there are obviously many more but these six are definitely worth being across for assessment purposes, because they are expressly stated on the Study Design). The six that are listed on the study design are age, gender, occupation, interests, aspiration and education.

One example of variation according to age which is particularly interesting is teenspeak. Teenspeak is not just interesting because of some of its key features, but it is also interesting to observe as this language is likely to become more and more commonplace in society as teenagers (who are quite obviously the people who use teenspeak) grow up and become more prominent in society. Teenspeak is commonly used by teenagers to promote individual and group identity by excluding those who do not understand it (usually older generations such as their parents) also reflecting an identity as somebody who is, ‘modern.’ As a result of teenagers developing language to exclude their parents, websites such as this (https://parentinfo.org/article/online-teen-speak-updated) have developed and are incredibly useful for our purposes, as they give you a list of lexicon, and its meaning. Additionally, a closer read of that website also showed that teenagers use a lot of initialisms and acronyms (beware of the difference, it is an initialism if you say the letters, it is an acronym if you say it as a word). Moreover, in terms of syntactic features, a lot of teenagers end their sentences with the coordinating conjunction, ‘but,’ which is obviously non-standard, however it does help to create identity.

Secondly, jargon is one feature of language which is particularly effective at conveying identity. Jargon can convey group identity in terms of occupation as the use of the, ‘technical vocabulary’ (David Crystal) enables people within an occupation to communicate quickly and efficiently. For example, doctors use the adjective, ‘greenstick,’ to describe a minor fracture of a bone, and the initialised noun, ‘ASA,’ for Acetylsalicylic acid (commonly referred to as aspirin). The mutual understanding of this jargon fosters individual and group identity, whilst its ability to exclude outsiders and, ‘erect successful communication barriers’ (Kate Burridge) can further promote group identity. In addition to occupation, jargon also helps to promote identity as it pertains to interests. For example, when I am talking to some of my friends who are football (I am referring to association football in this context)  fans, I might use words such as, ‘Bosman’ (a term to describe a player moving clubs on a free transfer upon the expiry of their contract), ‘number 10,’ (an attacking midfield player who plays behind the main striker (another one) and traditionally wore the number 10 shirt), or the phrase, ‘park the bus,’ (a tactic commonly employed by a weaker side whereby they allow the opposition to have a majority of the ball and the primary aim is to be hard to break down and score against), in order to convey my identity as a person who is interested in football.  I could write all day about how jargon conveys identity, and it will not be hard for you to find really good examples to use in your essays (think of the language you use at work\, interest groups, sporting clubs, or even school).

Anyway, I hoped you have found this article helpful.

If you loved this article, you will LOVE all of our other articles, such as: What To Expect As A First-Year University Student, Social Purpose and How it Relates to Informal Language and The Summer Holidays and Formal Language Examples.

 

LearnMate is Australia’s leading tutoring agency offering private lessons in all primary & high school subjects including English, maths, science, humanities, foreign languages, and so much more. Our mission is simple: to provide professional, engaging and enthusiastic tutors to students, while also ensuring the student feels empowered and confident during their assessments! Ultimately, our goal is to empower students all over Australia to achieve amazing results and make their dreams come true!

LearnMate provides you with tailored, one-on-one lessons for tutoring in a variety of suburbs in Melbourne, Sydney, Geelong, Brisbane, Hobart, Canberra, Perth & Adelaide! With hundreds of tutors on the LearnMate platform, you’re bound to find someone local for any primary or high school year level! You can choose to have lessons in-person or online – whatever is easiest for you!

Discussion and Examples of Language Varying to Reflect Identity
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How Much Should I Pay a Tutor?

August 20, 2019 ,

How Much Should I Pay a Tutor?

This article has been written by Lydia McClelland, a VCE French, Music Theory, Literature & VCE English Tutor at Learnmate. If you’re interested in private tutoring from Lydia then please check out her page here.

How much should you pay a tutor?

For those who are unaccustomed to getting tutoring, it can be tricky to know how much you should be aiming to pay a tutor. This article will break down the average prices for tutoring and some of the traps which could await you if you are less informed.

Let’s break down some common assumptions about pay: how true are they?

‘You pay for experience’

The assumption that you pay for experience tends to be accurate. The least experienced tutors who are straight out of VCE generally will charge anywhere from $20 to $50 per hour. However, the more experienced that they become, you will most likely notice that their rates will increase. On the other hand, if you are looking to find a teacher to tutor you, they will probably charge over $70 for an hour, and subject examiners may charge even more. Keep in mind that these prices are just a generalisation, however, and the rate charged varies drastically from tutor to tutor.

‘You pay for what you get’

This can be a common assumption: that the more you pay, the better your tutor will be. However, this is not always the case. If you are a student, you know that not every teacher is a great fit for every student, so you may come across a very expensive tutor who is less helpful than someone straight out of school who understands the position that you are in!

It’s most important to find a tutor who understands your specific needs and is ready to meet these needs. Look into trial lessons – many tutors offer discounted or even free trial sessions. Use these to investigate your options and find the best value for money! Tutoring is a long-term investment, after all.

‘Tutoring is always expensive’

Tutoring is a massive market in Australia. If you are in a big city, you should always be able to find options for tutoring at any pay rate – and if not, you can always look into online tutoring.

A popular method of getting tutored at a cheaper rate is to do group tutoring. There are many tutors who accept and even prefer tutoring small groups of two or three students. The rates for group tutoring tend to be far cheaper (around $15 to $35 per hour, per student), and the learning outcomes can be even better when you’re working with peers or friends who help motivate you to study.

Online tutoring, as mentioned above, is another option usually less pricy than in-person tutoring. Because the tutor will not need to travel, they will usually reduce their set rate, and you reap the benefits of tutoring at the most convenient time, in your own home.

Additionally, keep in mind that tutoring does not have to be weekly, which is one of the factors that can make it so expensive! Most tutors are open to helping out every now and then when needed, which can be a better return for money if you don’t feel you need a weekly lesson.

If you loved this article, you will LOVE all of our other articles, such as: 3 Facts You Should Know About Your ATAR, Tips for Supporting Your Child in Year 11 and 12! and Will anyone care about your ATAR in a year?

 – LearnMate Tutoring.

LearnMate is Australia’s leading tutoring agency offering private lessons in all primary & high school subjects including English, maths, science, humanities, foreign languages, and so much more. Our mission is simple: to provide professional, engaging and enthusiastic tutors to students, while also ensuring the student feels empowered and confident during their assessments! Ultimately, our goal is to empower students all over Australia to achieve amazing results and make their dreams come true!

LearnMate provides you with tailored, one-on-one lessons for tutoring in a variety of suburbs in Melbourne, Sydney, Geelong, Brisbane, Hobart, Canberra, Perth & Adelaide! With hundreds of tutors on the LearnMate platform, you’re bound to find someone local for any primary or high school year level! You can choose to have lessons in-person or online – whatever is easiest for you!

How Much Should I Pay a Tutor?
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What are the Best Study Apps for On-the-Go?

August 2, 2019

What are the Best Study Apps for On-the-Go?

This article has been written by Celine Badaoui, an HSC Biology & Personal Development, Health and Physical Education Tutor at Learnmate. If you’re interested in private tutoring from Celine then please check out her page here.

In today’s technology-adapted world, there is an endless variety of apps available to individuals for almost any purpose imaginable. Students in particular are highly reliant on a range of apps for their everyday life, as they are the most tech-savvy generation to date. There are over 80,000 educational apps available to both teachers and students for a range of different purposes including organisational tools, study skill builders and lifestyle enhancers for use during exam preparation. Below are 5 of the best study apps currently available for use by students.

Evernote

Evernote is an organisational tool designed to allow students to effectively put all of their notes together in one place. Using this app, students can compile their notes, to-do-lists, memos, images and webpages in an ordered and systematic way to avoid chaos and confusion later on. As every student’s preference for organisation varies, Evernote accounts for this as they offer a wide range of organisational functions for students to choose from. For example, some students may have a preference for handwritten notes, whilst others may prefer typed notes. Hence, Evernote includes functions to store both within the app, as students can upload images of their written notes or Word documents and PDFs for their typed files, which can then be accessed on hand at any time. The simple layout and ease of navigation of Evernote makes getting organised an achievable task for all students.

StudyBlue Flashcards and Quizzes

StudyBlue is an educational app that uses flashcards and quizzes to enhance study skills and content retention in students. Flashcards have been proven as an effective revision aid, that particularly assists with the retention of terminology and definitions. This study method is a great option for on-the-go study, for example on the train or bus commute to and from school. One of the best benefits of StudyBlue is not only can students create and customize their own flashcards, the app also offers over 500 million user-made flash cards, made available for all users to practice with. The customization features of StudyBlue flashcards allow for the incorporation of text, images and audio, addressing the wide range of study preferences across different students. Another great feature of the app is the results-tracker, allowing students to monitor their progress, identify areas to focus on and hopefully see improvements over time.

Headspace

Headspace is a popular meditation app that can be used by students for the purpose of relaxation and mindfulness during study breaks. Stress reduction for students during exam periods is absolutely critical, not only important for maintaining good mental health, but also for improving the quality of work students produce and their overall performance in exams. Meditation is a proven method of stress reduction and is made easy through the Headspace app, regardless of a student’s experience level with mediating. Headspace has a large range of short courses to assist with the various needs of students during high stress periods, with examples including the sleep course and the productivity course. The use of Headspace will in turn help students relax, breathe and take a moment to themselves before returning back to study with a fresh mind.

Studious

Studious is a schedule planning app that assists students with the organisation of their class timetables and important study dates. In today’s digital world, student’s may not effectively use and follow their written planners or calendars. Hence, Studious offers an alternative to this, as the app-based planner allows students to schedule all of their timetabled classes and important study dates on their electronic devices instead. This also ensures students always have access to a log of their study commitments when they are on the go. When using Studious, students are notified of their assessment due dates and sent reminders when exams are approaching. The app even contains the function to automatically silence a student’s phone when scheduled to do so, minimising the chance of distractions.

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a popular app amongst high school students, used for the enhancement of knowledge and content based on the syllabus. The app provides a countless range of step-by-step videos, covering the vast majority of subjects and their subsequent modules. These videos can be effective for the general revision of topics, alongside further refinement of more complicated topics. This is beneficial to students as it is often effective to receive explanations from different sources and perspectives when learning a new concept. Khan Academy provides assistance with explanations of concepts that students may find particularly difficult to grasp, as students are able to pause and resume videos to effectively understand explanations at their own pace. Hence, the Khan Academy app provides students with an accessible, on-the-go option for active learning.

To get in contact with HSC tutors and other tutors in Sydney from LearnMate, please learn more here.

If you loved this article, you will LOVE all of our other articles, such as: 5 Ways to Best Prepare for the HSC!,The Best Way to Reduce Stress in Year 12: It’s Not What You Think and Study Tips for HSC English This Year!

 – LearnMate Tutoring.

 

LearnMate is Australia’s leading tutoring agency offering private lessons in all primary & high school subjects including English, maths, science, humanities, foreign languages, and so much more. Our mission is simple: to provide professional, engaging and enthusiastic tutors to students, while also ensuring the student feels empowered and confident during their assessments! Ultimately, our goal is to empower students all over Australia to achieve amazing results and make their dreams come true!

LearnMate provides you with tailored, one-on-one lessons for tutoring in a variety of suburbs in Melbourne, Sydney, Geelong, Brisbane, Hobart, Canberra, Perth & Adelaide! With hundreds of tutors on the LearnMate platform, you’re bound to find someone local for any primary or high school year level! You can choose to have lessons in-person or online – whatever is easiest for you!

What are the Best Study Apps for On-the-Go?
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