25 Module A Textual Conversations Practice Essay Questions for the Eng Adv HSC

We've put together 25 challenging Module A: Textual Conversations questions to make sure that you can prepare for your HSC.

Written by:
Matrix English Team

Are you ready for English Advanced HSC Paper 2? Well, we’ve got 25 Module A: Textual Conversations practice essay questions to get you exam ready!

 

25 Module A Textual Conversations practice essay questions

For Module A, in the HSC, you can be asked 3 different types of questions. They are:

  1. General questions about Textual Conversations (Q1 – 6)
  2. General questions with stimulus material (Q7 – 11)
  3. Questions that are specific to a pair of prescribed texts (Q 12 – 25)

To help you prepare, we’ve put together a variety of questions so you can practice all of these.

Ready?

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General questions about Module A: Textual Conversations

 

Question 1:

Evaluate how composers use representation to convey their thoughts and perspectives of the world.

In your responses, discuss how your prescribed texts engage in a textual conversation that challenges or affirms the audience’s views of society.

 

Question 2:

You studied a pair of texts in Textual Conversations.

Critically evaluate how your understanding of social or personal values are influenced by the textual conversation between your pair of prescribed texts.

In your responses, use detailed textual references to compare the composers’ representation of these values.

 

Question 3:

The connections between texts create an ongoing cultural conversation that gives insight into truth.

In your responses, discuss how your pair of prescribed texts engage in this conversation to shape audience perspectives.

 

Question 4:

Composers select a specific form and media for their texts in order to convey their message about the world.

Critically evaluate the role of form and media in shaping the composer’s message with a close comparison of your pair of prescribed texts.

 

Question 5:

Your personal experiences and knowledge influence how you interpret texts.

Evaluate how your study of Textual Conversations challenged your pre-conceptions and attitudes whilst simultaneously, enhancing your understanding and appreciation of both texts.

In your responses, closely refer to your pair of prescribed texts.

 

General questions with stimulus material

 

Question 6:

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all.” – Abraham Lincoln

To what extent is the above statement true in your study of Textual Conversations?

In your responses, refer to your pair of prescribed texts with a close discussion of the composers’ purposes and intentions.

 

Question 7:

The best things in life make you sweaty.” – Edgar Allen Poe

Drawing on the ideas in the above statement, evaluate how conversations between texts can simultaneously horrify and motivate audiences.

 

Question 8:

Good conversation is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh

To what extent does your study of the prescribed texts show the above statement to be true?

 

Question 9:

Perspective is everything when you are experiencing the challenges of life” – Joni Eareckson Tada

With close references to the above statement, evaluate the role of perspective in shaping messages in texts and discuss how this is enhanced in a study of Textual Conversations.

 

Question 10:

One good conversation can shift the direction of change forever” – Linda Lambert

To what extent is the above statement relevant to your study of Textual Conversation? In your response, make close references to your pair of prescribed texts.

 

Question 11:

No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead.” – T.S Elliot, The Sacred Wood

Drawing on the concepts from the above statement, explore how innovative language concepts, form and style shape new meaning. In your response, closely refer to your pair of prescribed texts.

photo of cute old people having a conversation

 

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Questions that are specific to a pair of prescribed texts

Question 12: Shakespeare & Pacino

Does Pacino’s reshaping of Shakespeare’s representation of villains and heroes resonate with Shakespeare’s warning about ambition?

In your responses, evaluate how the effects of context are apparent in a comparative study of Richard III and Looking for Richard using detailed close discussion of the above statement.

 

Question 13: Shakespeare & Pacino

In England, you have had centuries when words are totally divorced from truth.” – Vanessa Redgraves, Looking for Richard

Evaluate the use of confronting metaphors in the textual conversation between Shakespeare’s King Richard III and Pacino’s Looking for Richard to explore the characters’ moral dilemmas.

In your responses, refer to the quotation and make detailed reference to your prescribed texts.

 

Question 14: Shakespeare & Atwood

Atwood’s contemporary exploration of imprisonment echoes Shakespeare’s message about humanity’s flaw.

To what extent does is the above statement true in light of your study of the textual conversation between Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Atwood’s Hag-Seed? In your responses, make close reference to both texts.

 

Question 15: Shakespeare & Atwood

“TRINCULO:
There would this monster make a man. Any strange beast there makes a man. When they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian
– Act 2, Scene 2, The Tempest

Use the above quotation as a starting point for an exploration of how different forms and media can be used to reshape meaning. In your response, make detailed reference to Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Atwood’s Hag-Seed.

 

Question 16: Woolf & Daldry

A study of textual conversations enhances audiences’ understanding of the purpose behind a text,

In your response, critically evaluate how the representation of women in Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and Daldry’s The Hours are shaped by their contexts.

 

Question 17: Woolf & Daldry

 

blog-english-25-module-a-textual-conversation-questions-for-adv-eng-hsc-the-hours-screenshot-1
Stephen Daldry’s The Hours
blog-english-25-module-a-textual-conversation-questions-for-adv-eng-hsc-the-hours-screenshot-2
Stephen Daldry’s The Hours

 

Mortality and death remain constant themes explored throughout time. However, new modes, media and innovations allow composers to approach this theme in a different way.

Using the images provided, evaluate the above statement with close references to the prescribed texts.

 

Question 18: Camus & Daoud

Absurdity, nihilism and religion are themes that both Camus and Daoud explore in their texts.

Evaluate how examining the relationship between Camus’ The Stranger and Daoud’s The Meursault Investigation shape your pre-existing assumptions and perspectives about these themes.

In your responses, discuss the above statement with close references to your pair of texts and their use of evocative imagery.

 

Question 19: Camus & Daoud

That evening, Marie came by to see me and asked me if I wanted to marry her. I said it didn’t make any difference to me and that we could if she wanted to. Then she wanted to know if I loved her. I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn’t mean anything but that I probably didn’t love her. ‘So why marry me, then?’ she said.” – Mersault, The Stranger.

Drawing on the themes in the above quotation, evaluate how textual conversations allow different perspectives to be shared.

In your response, make close reference to Camus’ The Stranger and Daoud’s The Meursault Investigation.

 

Question 20: Donne & Edson

Both Donne and Edson redefine ‘the self’ in their texts.

Evaluate how both composers use mode, media and form to convey their meaning of the self and explore the influence of context on their perspectives.

In your response compare at least two poems from Donne’s John Donne: A Selection of His Poetry and Edson’s W;T.

 

Question 21: Donne & Edson

“E. M.:
Nothing but a breath—a comma—separates life from life everlasting. It is very simple really. With the original punctuation restored, death is no longer something to act out on a stage, with exclamation points… Life, death. Soul, God. Past, present. Not insuperable barriers, not semicolons, just a comma.
– W;t

Evaluate Donne’s and Edson’s use metaphors to convey their message in this textual conversation. Use the above quote as a starting point and refer to at least 2 of Donne’s poems and Edson’s W;T.

 

Question 22: Keats & Campion

Critically evaluate how Campion reshapes the representation of love in Keat’s poetry to enhance the audience’s understanding of the human condition.

In your response, closely examine how both composer use imagery and symbolism to represent their understanding of humanity. Make close references to at least 2 of Keat’s poems and Campion’s Bright Star.

 

Question 23: Keats & Campion

 

blog-english-25-module-a-textual-conversation-questions-for-adv-eng-hsc-campion-bright-star-screenshot-1
Campion’s ‘Bright Star’
blog-english-25-module-a-textual-conversation-questions-for-adv-eng-hsc-campion-bright-star-screenshot-3
Campion’s Bright Star

Evaluate the importance of conflict in the textual conversation between Keat’s The Complete Poems and Campion’s Bright Star.

In your response make examine both composer’s use of juxtaposition and evocative imagery to convey their messages with close references to the images provided.

 

Question 24: Plath & Hughes

Textual conversations give composers an opportunity to present their truth,

Using the above statement, compare Plath and Hughe’s representations of power with a close examination of Plath’s and Hughes’ use of evocative imagery.

In your response, make close reference to Hughes’ Red and Plath’s Lady Lazarus and at least ONE other poem from each poet.

 

Question 25: Plath & Hughes

“… I did not even know
I had been hit,
Or that you had gone clean through me –
To bury yourself at last in the heart of the god.” – Hughes, The Shot

Drawing ideas from the above quotation, evaluate how the dialogue between pairs of texts can change our understanding of their meaning.

In your response, make close reference to the quotation, Plath’s Daddy and at least ONE other poem by each composer.

Written by Matrix English Team

The Matrix English Team are tutors and teachers with a passion for English and a dedication to seeing Matrix Students achieving their academic goals.

© Matrix Education and www.matrix.edu.au, 2023. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Matrix Education and www.matrix.edu.au with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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