This Resource is for Years 11 & 12 Mainstream English students under the VCE Curriculum studying AOS1  Reading and Comparing Texts

Comparative Texts Prompts have 3 Categories:

Using the example of comparative texts of 7 Stages of Grieving and The Longest Memory

1. Character-based prompts:

   1. ‘How do characters in both texts explore the idea of belonging?’
   2. ‘Compare the ways in which individual and collective memory affects the lives of characters in both texts’

2. Thematic prompts:

   1. ‘Compare what the two texts suggest about racial discrimination’
   2. ‘How do the authors of 7 Stages of Grieving and The Longest Memory explore the idea of identity?’

3. Views and values prompts:

   1. ‘What is the impact of one group assuming mastery over another both on attitudes and lives in 7 Stages of Grieving and The Longest Memory?’
   2. ‘Both 7 Stages of Grieving and The Longest Memory argue that individuals cannot escape the roles that society imposes on them’.

What to do first

1. Choose a prompt you CAN answer
2. Dissect prompt words and look them up if needed (use your dictionary)
3. Is the prompt character based / theme based or a value prompt?
4. Take the basic idea/message from the prompt and break it down
5. What are the authors trying to demonstrate about the subject matter?
6. If the prompt has quotes, work out who said them and in what context and the quotes plus explanations must be included in one or other of the body paragraphs
7. Look for similarities and differences in the messages of the texts
8. You need at least 6 quotes to cover ideas in the prompt as your evidence (3 per text per body paragraph) that must be embedded into sentences and not great slabs of quotes by themselves without explanation

Using Comparative Texts Pair Example = 7 Stages of Grieving and The Longest Memory

Prompt: ‘Compare what 7 Stages of Grieving and The Longest Memory say about injustice’

Comparative Text Essay Structure

1. Introduction = Main Contention & Message of Author/Director
2. Body Paragraph 1 = Cause/Accept Prompt / Topic Sentence / Text 1 Evidence & Explanations / Transitional Sentence from Text 1 to Text 2 / Text 2 Evidence & Explanations / Link back to topic
3. Body Paragraph 2 = Response/Develop Prompt Further / Topic Sentence / Text 1 Evidence & Explanations / Transitional Sentence from Text 1 to Text 2 / Text 2 Evidence & Explanations / Link back to topic
4. Body Paragraph 3 = Consequences / Topic Sentence / Text 1 Evidence & Explanations / Transitional Sentence from Text 1 to Text 2 / Text 2 Evidence & Explanations / Link back to topic
5. Conclusion = Sum up briefly / Message of Author/Director

What is the Context for injustice?

In both texts the notion of racial superiority, whereby skin colour correlates with intellectual and moral capacity, is a form of justification for both slavery in the American Deep South and the marginalisation of Indigenous Australians in Australia.

What are the Authors Value Statements about injustice?

Both authors demonstrate that injustice is detrimental and its effects are long lasting even generational.  They promulgate the idea that entrenched racism is not merely physically harmful but emotionally devastating as well.

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