Prep for Progress: Equipping Year 10s for Year 11 ATAR success

Session Focus: Context, purpose, and audience tutorial

Notes on context:

Context in action: Consider the opening of the short story

composed by Adam Kealley, a writer from WA.
The day had finally drawn to a close.
My back was killing me, and my shoulders ached from reaching
up to twist apples from the trees in the orchard. I looked across
to Tim, my boyfriend from school. He wiped his hand across his brow and exhaled loudly.
“I’m so glad that’s over!” I groaned.
“Same,” he replied. “Still,” he continued, grinning, “Another day another dollar. We’ll have that
Kombi before you know it!”
We had been planning to drive around Australia as soon as we could afford a van. Tim figured that if
we were in the middle of nowhere, he couldn’t be conscripted. Ever since Australia had committed
to the Vietnam War, we had seen friends drawn in the birthday ballot, and sent off to fight a war
none of us believed in. We’d joined the protests in the city, but that hadn’t stopped our friends
disappearing one by one. Tim turned eighteen in just a few weeks, and we dreaded what should
have been a groovy day.
Heaving the last bag of apples onto the cart, we slowly trudged back to the packing shed. For eight
hours, every day for the last three weeks, we had worked our way through the orchard, stripping
the trees of their fruit. Initially, there were a half dozen others, but they had preferred to laze
around under the trees, sometimes smoking grass, and the farmer had eventually fired them.
Entering the shed, Tim manoeuvred the cart into place, ready for the apples to be graded and
crated. The farmer started walking over to Tim and I. We exchanged glances. I felt the weariness
start to dissipate as I thought about the cash that I would soon hold in my aching hand. The Kombi
was nearly within our grasp.
The farmer stood in front of us, counting out twenties. Looking at Tim, he said, “So what are you
planning for your wages, young man?”
“We’re buying a van, man, and hitting the road. Heading across the Nullabor.”
“Long drive,” the farmer noted.
“We’ll share it, take it slow,” Tim replied, nodding to me.
The farmer flicked me a glance before sniggering.
“You’d be safer driving with your eyes closed than with a girl behind the wheel.” I swallowed, biting
back a sharp reply. I could see Tim’s jaw clenching, but I shook my head at him. Let’s just get our
money and get out of here.
“Three hundred right there,” the farmer said, handing a wad of cash to Tim. He handed a noticeably
smaller bundle to me.
“Two for the little lady.”
I was outraged. “Two hundred?” I blurted. “But I’ve done the same hours as Tim!”
He turned to me, sneering. “I guarantee he’s worked harder than you, girly. You really believe you
matched him, apple for apple? Who pushed that cart up here? You? I doubt it. You’re lucky you
even got the job.”
Focus question:
- What is significant about the historical context of this narrative?

- How does it shape our response?

 Notes on context for composing:

Context in action:
An Open Letter to Our Dear Mothers: We are more than just a “girl”
– published in The Conversation
Dear Asian mothers of Australia,
I understand how you’ve been brought up. It was a world where technology was under-developed,
and money was hard to earn. So, a way for you and your family to feel somewhat secure of how
you’d turn out, was keeping in check how you presented yourself to other people. As to get a good
place in society was to make sure people liked you and approve of you. With every society around
the world marginalising women and no way to change their opinions, you had to conform to the
stereotypes that were laid out for you.
You had no choice but to become quiet, obedient and be pretty.
But the world we live in now is immensely different to the one you grew up in. Many things have
changed, including the way us women are able to express ourselves. Many women before me have
fought to break the stereotypes that society had carved for us. Yet, as the rest of the world
progresses it is clear to see that our culture is being left behind. We’re being left behind because
we’re still hung up on that false image of an ideal woman. And honestly, I don’t want to be left
behind. I don’t want to be another product of a stereotype just because that is the only way we can
respect our tradition and other people.
Just because you had no choice but to succumb to the image of a “perfect” woman, doesn’t mean
you have to bring history with you and force it upon our lives. You have always encouraged us since
we were born, to be the best and do everything we can but how can we even reach the prerequisite
of “best” when we’re constantly being taught the ways of the 20th century?

Focus questions:

-How does the candidate establish context in the piece?

Purpose in action:
Consider the opening of a speech about reality TV.
The explosion of reality television in recent years has been the most harmful media influence since
the advent of advertising. It has led to a generation who believe that a worthy life goal is fifteen
minutes of so-called fame on late-night filler TV.
This phenomenon has had many harmful effects on our children, in particular. From setting
dangerously unrealistic body image expectations, to the belief that attention equals self-worth, to a
dramatic decline in common decency, reality television has a lot to answer for. We have become
voyeurs of the very worst kind, granting people fame and in some cases fortune for demonstrating
the very qualities we should be criticising.
Parents, I urge you to consider the reality television shows you expose your child to. Even something
as seemingly innocuous as My Kitchen Rules teachers your child harmful values. Every season
features the notoriously ‘bitchy’ contestant, whose comments continually criticise and demean
their fellow competitors. This, in a country where we try to instil values of sportsmanship and fair
play. The only thing worse than the ugly values these people represent is the sense of
schadenfreude the producers rely; the awareness that a bloodthirsty audience just cannot wait to
see such arrogant competitors brought to their knees with a spectacularly low-scoring failure in the
kitchen. Either way, society is the loser with terrible values exploited at each turn.

Audience in action:
Below is the opening of an open letter to Star Wars fans. It was published on Scenes Media, a
website that connects passionate fans with creatives.
Dear Star Wars Fans,
It’s time for you to wake up and realise that the new generation of Disney Star Wars films are
incredible. As much as you want to claim that nothing could ever surpass the greatness of the
original trilogy, it’s time that you all grew up and admitted to yourself that it may not be as good as
you remember it to be. So let’s take off those dusty, rose-coloured glasses of nostalgia that make
you long for the familiarity and comfort of your childhood memories. Instead, let’s open our eyes to
all that the new era of Star Wars has to offer and all that the original trilogy did wrong.
I’m assuming that, if you are reading this, you are familiar with the original trilogy. So, firstly, we
need to talk about A New Hope. Seriously, Obi-Wan is the coolest Jedi and Alec Guinness will always
own that role. Yet, when I recently re-watched the film, I couldn’t get past how whiny and shrill Luke
was. Honestly, after a while, his voice sounded like screech of a tie fighter. Don’t get me wrong, I still
love the film for its technological innovations and experimentation, but Hamill’s delivery does not
stand the test of time. Anyone would struggle to relate to him as a character. Despite this, you need
to find a protagonist for the films. Someone we can relate to and connect with. Leia is a great
character whose development is one of the most interesting parts of the trilogy. But she too is
flawed. Following the destruction of her home planet of Alderaan, which is completely obliterated
by the Death Star, Leia quickly recovers and is soon back to bantering with Luke and Han. She simply
forgets to grieve the deaths of everyone she knows and the annihilation of her entire planet. Does
this seem like normal, relatable human behaviour? For me, it’s moments like these that take the
human element out of the movies within the original trilogy, making them far harder to connect
with as a modern viewer.
Focus questions:

-Who is the audience? (Be specific as you can)

-Who is the persona constructed and how do they establish their persona?

-What is the opening letter encouraging?

Audience in action:
Consider the promotional images and the poster that were released for the documentary The Game
Changers in 2018. The Game Changers tells the story of James Wilks — elite Special Forces trainer
and The Ultimate Fighter winner — as he travels the world on a quest to uncover the optimal diet
for human performance. The documentary explores how plant-based eating provides powerful,
proven advantages for health, wellness, and longevity.
Who would be the audience for this documentary?

What visual elements appeal to this audience?

Focus questions:
Purpose, audience, and context in action:
The below is a speech delivered at Hale School in 2016.
Mr Jones, Mr Freidrikson and Mrs Capelli,
Thank you first of all, for allowing me to come and address the Leadership Team today. As the Arts
Captain, I am grateful for this opportunity to speak on behalf of my fellow Year 12s and, I’m sure,
many of the boys in younger years.
We have a long history of boys’ education at our school. We pride ourselves on being part of a
system that helps us become the young men we ought to be. Ours is a school that ensures we have
a well-rounded education, balancing our academic studies with sport, service and cultural pursuits.
It is a stated aim of our school to “develop young men who are resilient, independent and prepared
to become active members of our society.” By and large, our school succeeds in this aim admirably.
As a boy's school, we have a wide range of opportunities presented to us to develop skills. We learn
skills of caring for others in the peer mentor programs. We learn how to fix our cars in the home
mechanics workshops. We learn how to build coffee tables and other furniture in Materials and
Design, and how to program our computers in AIT. We can undertake a Cert II in building and
construction. We can even take part in music and drama lessons. The personal development
program even helps us to develop skills for independent living, such as financial literacy and time
management. But there is one aspect of essential life skills that is sadly missing from our
curriculum, one which is increasingly noted by my classmates. That is the ability to cook.
Food is more than just sustenance; it is a significant aspect of human interaction. We celebrate all of
life’s great milestones with feasts, to say nothing of the impact a simple family meal can have on
maintaining communication and camaraderie. In just a few months, some of us will graduate and go
away to university, either on our own or sharing with others in student accommodation. As adults,
even those of us who remain at home will be expected to contribute to the operation of our
households. Yet this is an opportunity that is denied the boys at this school.
Our sister school, just a few blocks away, has amazingly well-equipped commercial kitchen facilities,
and classes that are routinely full. They run one-off classes and workshops for other students after
school. The senior students operate a café every Friday to develop commercial food skills. Why is it
that our school lacks such facilities? This is not the first time that students have asked for food
technology classes to operate at the school. Yet instead of this facility, we have just built a new
weights room and rowing shed. I’d argue that, in this day and age of gender equality, men are just as
responsible for providing nutritious, flavoursome and attractive meals. I’m here to change your
attitude that cooking is not an essential skill for males, and propose that this need gets addressed in
next year’s budget.

Focus questions:

Who is the persona constructed? Why do they have credibility to speak about the subject matter?

What contextual factors have influenced the creation of the text?

Take-home activity:
Compose a persuasive text inspired by the issues shown in this image:

Consider:
- What the context is of the writer? (May be the persona you are constructing, not necessarily you
as a student.)

-What contextual factors could influence the content of your piece (i.e., contemporary case
studies, cultural allusions?)
 Consider:
-What is the context of an audience?

- What will be the purpose of your persuasive text? (Is it a concrete action, or are you encouraging
your audience to adopt a specific viewpoint?)

-Who is the audience? Consider age, gender, prior knowledge on the subject matter, beliefs and
attitudes, past experiences etc.

Task: Produce the opening of a persuasive speech or blog, with the intent of writing for a specific
purpose and for a specific audience.