Exam Revision 2011

Create a piece of writing which explores ideas
and arguments related to encountering
conflict. This piece must:
 Relate to the prompt provided in the exam
 Draw on ideas/ arguments dealt with in at least one of
the texts (The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif/ The Crucible)
 Demonstrate your ability to construct a piece of writing
in a specific form, for a particular audience and purpose
1. understanding and effective exploration of the ideas,
and/or arguments relevant to the prompt/stimulus
material
2. effective use of detail and ideas drawn from the
selected text as appropriate to the task
3. development in the writing of a coherent and
effective structure in response to the task, showing an
understanding of the relationship between purpose,
form, language and audience
4. controlled use of language appropriate to the
Learn how to structure your
purpose, form and audience
sentences appropriately, and edit
your work to ensure you are doing
so!
Step One
Step Two
(before exam) (before exam)
Step Three
(in exam)
Step Four
(in exam)
Step Five
(in exam)
Understanding
ideas about
encountering
conflict
Using the
prompt to help
determine
what ideas you
are going to
explore
Using these
ideas to
develop a
purpose and
select an
audience
Planning a
piece of writing
that utilises all
the features of
your chosen
form, caters for
your selected
audience and
achieves your
purpose.
Understanding
how
encountering
conflict is
explored by
one or both of
the texts
Deciding what
form will best
achieve your
purpose
Only then are you ready to start writing!


This is about your own thinking, not simply
understanding the text. You must develop
your own ideas and understanding about
encountering conflict.
How?
 Using open-ended questions to explore prompts
 Researching past conflicts
 Finding examples in media/ literature
 Writing, writing, writing!







What is conflict?
What types of conflict are there?
What are the different ways we encounter
conflict?
Why does it exist?
Who usually starts it?
What if conflict didn’t exist?
How does encountering conflict cause
change?
Conflict is omnipresent for every individual regardless of time
and place. It is a fundamental part of human existence,
leading back to the earliest forms of conflict where our
human ancestors competed with other species for survival
tools such as food and shelter. Nowadays, conflict has
developed into infinite forms – from merely debating what
to have for lunch to global issues such as climate change.
Without conflict, our experiences in life would undoubtedly
be less dynamic and vibrant. Conflict is an essential factor to
shaping our identity. Our relationship with conflict defines
who we are because we learn to formulate our own opinions
and values. Conflict is a natural element in the world and
although we may not notice each and every single time it
presents itself, conflict is a part of our everyday lives.





Difference in beliefs, morals, values
Difference in culture, religion
Unmatched expectations
Fear
Exposure to the unknown/unfamiliar

Everyone encounters a range of conflicts during
their life. However, every person’s experiences
with conflict are different. Whether it’s the type
of conflict, their involvement in a conflict, their
response to conflict – it is unique to every
individual. We are able to empathise with others
when they experience conflict because we’ve
been there ourselves. Think about your own
experiences– have you been involved or
observed a conflict within the past week?
Does it merely imply when and where one is
confronted with conflict?
Conflict can be encountered at any place and
any time but think about the way in which
people respond to conflict. Everyone’s
reactions are different. While one may flee
from the conflict leaving the mess behind for
others, others may face up to the conflict and
tackle the problem such as the ‘flight or fight’
concept.
Negative consequences:




mass death or injury through violence/ wars
loss of friendship/ relationship breakdown
expose weaknesses
regret and guilt
Positive consequences:
 can bring people together/ build stronger
relationships
 can learn from conflict/ prevent future mistakes
 draw out strengths












Extremism
Terrorism
Religious conflict
Political conflict
Cultural conflict
Family conflict
How we endure conflict
Living with conflict
Hope
Seeking asylum from conflict
Understanding conflict
The consequences of conflict
Person/ group
Perspective
Individuals Najaf Mazari
Hakima
Maria
Robin
The ‘slave driver’ rug lady
As a victim
As a perpetrator / instigator
As a participant
As a witness
As someone who seeks to stop the
conflict
As someone who deals with the
consequences of the conflict
As someone who seeks to exploit conflict
Groups –
The Hazari
The Taliban
The Mujahedin
The Communists
The people smugglers
Immigration detention officials

The effects of armed conflict are widespread & long
lasting.
 Najaf loses 2 brothers, an uncle and a cousin
 Injured when his house is bombed
 Forced to flee his homeland when the Taliban threaten his
life

It exposes the many ways war impacts upon
individuals and groups
 Emphasises conflict’s psychological & societal
repercussions

Psychological consequences of conflict?
 Fear, powerlessness & behavioural change
 How are these portrayed in the text?

Seven different wars take place in the
timeframe of the text – no winners and no
change, only more fighting. (p251)
 Illustrates the pointlessness of conflict


Encounters with conflict appear to be
ineffectual (p36)
Expressed through Najaf’s direct comments
throughout the text.
 Conflict does not offer anything constructive and
is entirely destructive p52.
Najaf’s world arises from his devout
faith.“Unnecessary things are the most
dangerous” p27
 Armed conflict by its very nature destroys
things.

 It wounds people , scars the landscape and cripples
the community


War destroys what is good and beautiful
People fighting in war must blind themselves to
the beauty of ordinary things: a lack of humanity
 Some people take sides and join the fighting,
fuelled by anger or religious fervour
 Others, like Najaf, are resilient; and deal with
despair, overcome tragedies and continue
peaceful, productive lives amidst the violent
conflict happening around them
 The text celebrates hope and resilience of the
human spirit





Civil war between Taliban and Government
forces in Afghanistan
Civil war between Government and Tamil
forces in Sri Lanka
Genocide in Rwanda
Genocide in Sudan
Civil war in Zimbabwe


Arthur Miller wrote this play in the early
1950s
The action of the story was influenced by two
historical events:
 Miller used the witch trials that occurred in the
small Massachusetts village of Salem as the
setting
 His play was also written in response to Senator
Joseph McCarthy, who was in power in the USA in
the 1950s
1690s
Salem Witch
trials
The witch hunts focus as an allegory for the
McCarthy era in America – Miller was able
to disguise his criticism by placing his play
in a different historical context
1950s
‘McCarthy era’
of American
History



Conflict occurs in an insular society obsessed
with sin and damnation
The people of Salem have a propensity to
judge others harshly and to feed off the
shortcomings of their neighbours
The Massachusetts theocracy enforced its
moral expectations on the populace with a
heavy hand
The witch-hunts forced the citizens of Salem
to make a terrible choice between compliance
to an uncompromising authority and their
own consciences
 Individuals are forced to choose between the
truth and a false confession
 This choice is complicated by the fact that the
truth will result in death
 That witchcraft is ‘an invisible crime’ makes it
virtually impossible for an individual to defend
themselves

This conflict in Salem parallels the conflict that
occurred in America in the 1950s McCarthy era
 Important to understand the role of fear in this
conflict
 The public in both cases were almost as guilty as the
state – they had fallen victim to propaganda related
to the devil and communists, thus their fear allowed
those in control to abuse their power

The Crucible shows how conflict can arise in the
hearts and minds of individuals, the personal crisis
of conscience which can be exacerbated by guilt or
self-doubt
 Proctor is an example of this – his guilt over his
affair with Abigail diminishes his view of himself and
continues to damage his relationship with his wife

Elizabeth also suffers from internal conflict – she is
forced to choose between lying for John and telling
the truth – it is her decision to lie that ultimately
condemns him
 Hale demonstrates the effects of internal conflict
through his demise from a self-confident Reverend
to a broken man who has lost faith in his religion





Conflict within the community
Interpersonal conflict
Religious conflict
Generational conflict




That an encounter with conflict can be caused by a lack of
inner strength and inability to act with conviction (through
Mary Warren)
That private guilt or personal crisis can relate to wider public
conflict (John Proctor)
That personal conflicts can be more damaging than external
threats (Proctor falling victim to his own doubts based on his
belief that he is a sinner)
That it is possible to overcome internal conflict by following
your conscience (Proctor, Elizabeth, Hale)





That guilt (particularly as a result of an oppressive
society) is corrosive and destructive of the human
spirit
That oppressive and rigid religious regimes breed
internal conflict
That telling the truth is the only answer to a corrupt
State
That individuals have little power when a State
chooses to abuse its power
That lurking under religious tolerance is often
vengeance, hatred and distrust
Identify how elements of conflict are encountered
by both individuals and Salem as a whole: which
characters seem most affected?
 Which succinct quotations best reinforce and
emphasise aspects of conflict?
 What results from such diverse forms of conflict?
Are any of these positive?
 What are the larger issues Miller is wanting us to
reflect on?



Define and find synonyms for key terms
Use open-ended questions to expand it
 What/ Where/ When/ Who/ How/ Why/


Consider ideas previously explored in class/
revision, including real-world examples
Consider how it relates to the ideas about
encountering conflict in one or both texts
(The Rugmaker/The Crucible)


Key terms: changes, powerful, powerless
Example questions:
 How does conflict change people?
 Who are the powerful/ powerless in conflict?
 Who instigates conflict- the powerful or the
powerless? Why do they instigate it?
 How do the powerful/ powerless deal with
conflict?
 What type of changes occur to the powerful/
powerless through conflict?

Real-world examples
 Recent elections overthrow ruling party in Zambia
 Southwest airlines versus L-Word star/ Billie-Joe
Armstrong

Text examples
 The Crucible- Abigail, Mary Warren, Reverend
Parris, Hale- How does the conflict affect them
and their status?
 The Rugmaker- rotation of leaders, refugees as
powerless, effect on Australian society

To inform, educate, persuade, convince, explore,
encourage, promote, reveal, investigate etc

Purpose and audience will affect your language choices
 Level of formality
 Use of specific language (such as jargon/ technical
terms/ persuasive language)

Will the examiner be able to tell who you’re writing for if
you write for your peers?

Use a heading/ provide contextual information about audience, form
and purpose

The Rugmaker of Mazar-e-Sharif explores the
experience of an Afghani refugee in order to
educate the Australian public and the wider
global community about the challenges and
trials faced by illegal immigrants. It suggests
that conflict is ever-present and ongoing in
society, and argues that there are no winners
among those affected.

Arthur Miller uses his play, The Crucible, to point
out similarities between a historical conflict,
which the American public understood to be
tragic, and a more recent conflict which the
American public was more divided over. Just by
drawing the comparison, he suggests that the
McCarthy ‘conflict’ was just as groundless and
hysterical as the Salem Witch Trials, and is able
to explore how people encounter conflict and its
consequences through the model of what
happened in Salem.

Must be able to use the form to explain,
explore and develop ideas about
encountering conflict (from the text, the
prompt and your own thinking)

Must be able to use the features, structure
and conventions of the form

Must suit your purpose and audience- what
are you trying to do, and for whom?
Expository
Persuasive
Imaginative
To explain/ explore/
discuss/ share/ point out/
educate/ inform/
demonstrate
To argue/ convince/
persuade/ prove/
demonstrate
As with other styles, but
you must do it through
imaginary characters and
events rather than directly
addressing audience
Informative essay
Newspaper article
Biography
Report
Persuasive essay
Speech
Letter-to-the-editor
Opinion article
Editorial
Narrative/ short story
Letter
Perspective writing
Allegory
Point of View (opinion piece):

How we encounter foreign conflict as Australians lends itself to
persuasive writing. Students can think about:

How many refugees we let into Australia

Conditions of refugees

Amount of foreign aid and support we give

Conditions of refugees has been very topic recently. Senator Steve
Fielding of Family First toured the Federal Government’s
detention facility on Christmas Island and described it as being like
a ‘motel’. See all his comments on his webpage:

http://www.stevefielding.com.au/news/details/fielding_says_thing
s_on_christmas_island_look_pretty_good/
Investigate Report:
Recently Foreign Correspondent has aired two episodes
that deal directly with themes from The Rugmaker of
Mazar-e-Sharif.
 The report ‘Hell or Highwater’ is an investigate report into
the story of Tamil Refugees. The story almost directly
mirrors that of Mazari.
 The report ‘Afghanistan – The Golden Hour’ is an
investigate report into the current conflict in Afghanistan.
 All reports can be watched on the Foreign Correspondent
website: www.abc.net.au/foreign/

Feature article:

You might associate Marie Claire with lightweight
articles like: “Horoscope Special – Love and You.”
Well, you’d be right. It does also go in for serious
journalism. In the same edition as the horoscope article,
a feature report on asylum seekers was also published.

Review – is the Rugmaker effective?

Many texts deal with conflict and writing a review can be an
effective way of exploring conflict. An example of a review of
The Rugmaker can be found on:
http://reviews.mediaculture.org.au/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2
608

Speech

This context easily lends itself to persuasive speech
writing. See Justice Marcus Einfields speech about
human rights. Also, Barak Obama is a great model for
effective speechmaking. Youtube is filled with his
speeches. The first link below is a speech he gave at
Cairo University about the tension between Muslims
and the West. It deals explicitly with conflict. The second
speech has nothing to do with conflict but is a campaign
speech which includes highly effective speech
techniques.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_457yMzL60

Will depend on selected form
 Essay
 Feature article
 Letter-to-the-editor
 Speech

Plan how you will address criteria
 Demonstrate knowledge of features of form
 Demonstrate understanding of different ideas
 Overreliance on a text may undermine the capacity to
develop ideas that emerge from the prompt
 Quotations should generally be used judiciously
 The text was often used as illustration to support a
conceptual discussion and this worked well in responses
which offered excellent insights
 Weaker responses relied too much on the text and
responded with great slabs of plot

You do not have to quote from the text
 If you do, should support your ideas, not prove
you know text well.


You are not expected to write a text response
essay
You should use the ideas from the selected
texts to inform or support your writing

Use prompts to begin writing expository pieces as
basis for your understanding of ideas

Review and build quotes list
 Explain and explore quotes/ not just memorising

Vocabulary bank

Research relevant historical conflicts and conflicts in
the media

Write practise pieces and have your teacher assess
them using exam criteria