This Written Task 2, Critical Response, uses question 3 – How and why is a social group represented in a particular way? – as the prompt to discuss a magazine cover from a 2012 South African edition of Women’s Health. At the time of writing, most Written Task 2s on the website are based on literary texts, and this risks inadvertently suggesting that it is always better to base Written Task 2 on a literary text. This Written Task explodes that idea; this is a very sophisticated response. There is little to complain about in this particular example of student work.

Before we look at the Written Task more closely, a few assorted reflections: Firstly, students often recognize what a text reveals, but they struggle to show how a text reveals. The task of Language and Literature teachers is, in part, to narrow this gap. In the case of this Written Task that gap has been closed. Some of the linguistic understanding, embedded in sophisticated contextual awareness, is in this instance rather elevated.

Secondly, it is revealing how the questions for Written Task 2 can, on the one hand, provide good preparation for Paper 2 where a literary text is selected, and, on the other hand, provide good preparation for Paper 1 where a non-literary text is selected. This is a rather broad claim, but it contains more than a grain of truth. Thus, as teachers plan their courses it is helpful to view Written Task 2 not only a summative assessment in its own right (which it is), but also as a formative assessment that prepares students for final examinations.

Finally, and straying a little off-topic, theorists of globalization often like to point out that in manifestations of globalization there exist localized idiosyncrasies. This is a fair observation – eating McDonald’s in Manhattan is not exactly the same experience as eating McDonald’s in Jakarta although they may appear very similar. In this Written Task, the student critiques the cover of a South African edition of Women’s Health. The student, with only 1000 words to play with, doesn’t mention globalization. However, for teachers bringing this Written Task and the analyzed magazine cover to the classroom, it may be interesting to ask students whether exactly this kind of magazine cover populates the news stands of their own local community. For this website writer, perhaps anticipating some stereotypically derived exoticism, the apparent homogeneity of the magazine cover is striking; is it possible that women are being represented in the same way the world over? If they are, who is doing the representing and in whose interests? If, by contrast, women are represented differently cross-culturally, how can this be explained? Asking questions like this helpfully blurs the boundaries between Language and Literature and Theory of Knowledge and grows critical thinking. There isn’t much wrong with that.

Returning to the Written Task, before student’s read the sample and the teacher’s comments, please ensure that they are familiar with the assessment criteria, and that they attempt to mark the essay using this criteria.

Sample Critical Response

Teacher's Comments