How should you respond to a quote-based essay prompt? This is one of the 3 most common essay questions VCE English/EAL students get in Year 11 and Year 12, but it is also the most confusing type of essay question!
Many students don’t know what to do with the quote provided because the quote is rarely a question, and the directive that sometimes follows seems unrelated to the quote provided. What exactly are the VCE English/EAL examiners expecting?
In this kind of essay prompt, students are provided a quote from their book or film, and then sometimes there is a command or question that follows the quote. The question may in the form of ‘Do you agree?’ or ‘Discuss’ (see our earlier blog posts for more about these prompts), or they may be direct questions. Whatever combination the VCE English/EAL prompt is made up of, students are asked to explore the theme(s) present in the quote.
So how should you tackle a quote-based essay prompt?
Step 1: Identify as much information as you can about the quote.
What scene is it from? Who says it, and to whom? What plot point is it about? What’s the situation or circumstance surrounding the quote? What theme is it about? Does this idea or phrase occur elsewhere in the book or film?
Step 2: Connect the quote with the question, directive or command that follows.
How does this quote (and everything you know about it) connect with the question? What does this quote tell you about the statement? How do the ideas in both the question and the quote relate to each other?
Do I have to use the quote in my essay?
No. And Yes.
There’s no explicit advice from VCAA that students must use the quote in their essay. However, the quote is definitely about the themes students are expected to discuss, so it can definitely be used in the essay discussion!
Our advice to students is to make use of the quote where appropriate, but to make sure they have other quotes and evidence to support their analysis. In other words, we advise students to use the quote, but don’t rely on it.
Here’s our full video explainer on the 3 types of essay prompts in VCE English/EAL:
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