Choosing Your Issue

Choosing Your Issue
Kristy Garrick & Simon Moss

http://www.vcenet.com.au

As a welcome into Units 3 and 4 of English, you're presented with 'issues,' being told to venture forth into the world (or library), and become immersed in a social issue of the day. For some, this involves choosing your own issue, researching extensively and generally looking very industrious. For others, your teachers do the initial legwork in selecting an issue and articles, leaving you to discover the intriciacies held within. Either way, you are left with an issue and a need to find out what's going on. In this article, we tell you how you can work all this out.
To get us started, let's take a look at what the VCAA say about issues in the media;
"Texts published in the Australian media since September of the previous year"
This gives us a pretty broad field of play, covering all forms of media (print, radio, TV, new media), over about a six month period, meaning that there's undoubtedly somehting that interests you over this time.
To give a bit of order to our task, I've split this article into three areas:

1.  Choosing the issue

2.  How to collect information

3.  How to research background information

Choosing An Issue

As the task requires the analysis of the use of language in the presentation of an issue, and the presentation of a point of view on the issue, try to choose an issue that has some depth to it. Also, if you get to choose your own, try and find something original, or at least find a unique way at looking at the issue. You could also use an issue that you are passionate about.
Before making your choice, read widely about the issue and build an understanding of the context of the broad debate on the issue that would then inform the analysis. Try to get information in your articles that see both sides of the 'argument' surrounding your issue.
Past issues studied have included:

·  Chroming

·  Nancy Crick (euthanasia)

·  Gay Parents

·  Stem Cells

·  Poker Machine Outlets

·  Cloning

·  Stolen Generation

·  Skateboarding in CBD

·  Women in Combat

·  Dingoes

·  Mandatory Sentencing

·  Injecting Rooms

·  Refugees/Asylum Seekers

·  Condoms in Schools

·  Bullying

·  GST on Tampons

·  Banks

·  Gambling

From this list you'll note that there's a huge diversity in the issues that are present in the media. For your SAC and the Exam, you'll be dealing with issues presented in the print media, but this doesn't mean that you can't include other media sources in your initial choice and research of the issue. In fact, it is highly recommended that you look for other sources in the initial stages, as radio, TV, the internet and magazines can be invaluable as tools for giving you background materianl and both sides of the story.

How To Collect Information

Read lots of newspapers! That seems to be the obvious way of collecting information in the media. But, how to get the right articles you ask!
The first step is to narrow down your topic. If you pick something as broad as "education reform" or "refugees/asylum seekers" you'll be overwhelmed with information. So, as a start, try to be as specific as possible about what you want.
With these specific keywords in mind, head to your internet connection or library. Call up a news-search engine, such as SAGE, Lexis Nexis, or even the Age, Herald Sun or Australian search archives.
Enter your search terms, and the dates you are after. Now comes the fun bit - sifting through all the responses. You should be able to tell from the headline if the article is relevant, and having tightly defined search terms should ensure that you aren't overwhelmed by responses. If you don't get enough responses, broaden your search (be less specific), or if you have too many, narrow it.
At this stage, it's important to ensure that you look for a balance in your articles. Look for a mix of editorials, opinion pieces, letters, reports and general news articles. You'll be able to tell what sort of article you have as it's one of the bits of information that you get along with the headline in your search list.
With your article list in hand, it's time to go and get the actual articles. Electronically is the easiest way, but if this isn't possible, you can easily do it manually. To do it manually, you need the article headline, publication date, source title and page number. With these bits of information neatly set out, you can wander into the school/local/university/state library to the print archives. These are usually ordered by source and date, so you can simply find the appropriate paper and your article, and photocopy it. If you're having trouble finding your information, ask one of the staff. Librarians are professionals at finding this sort of information and can save you hours in wasted time.
But once you have the clippings and all that sort of stuff what do you do with it? I've got one word for you& order. Yep, it's no use having 10 really interesting, contrasting, informative, exploratory pieces of writing and you just throw them into a pile on your desk. For starters photocopy them so that they're on A4 pieces of paper (small cut-outs can get lost very easily). On the top of the page in large, colourful, bold letters, write what sort of article it is. Having a photocopy enables you to be able to write all over the photocopies and yet still have the originals un-tampered with.
The final step in collecting information, and the easiest way, is to read the paper every day. It need only take 5 minutes per paper for you to flick through the pages, paying special attention to the letters/opinion/editorials, looking out for an article that is relevant to your issue. To make this even quicker and easier, pair up with a few friends who are doing the same issue and tackle one paper each, swapping and copying relevant articles every few days.

How To Research Background Information

Ok so you've decided what issue you are going to focus on. You've collected lots of newspaper articles. You may have even watched the news programs when it's come up on there. However there is one more important step to take that will give you the best possible tools to work with when you do your analysis. Background Information. Unless it's an issue that has never existed before in one form of another (even the issue of the shards at federation square has existed before - not specifically - but in terms of opposition to new construction), there's sure to be some previous example that you find and examine.
So throw yourself into your issue head on and do some research into its background. For example if you are looking at Refugees find out the laws regarding refugees etc. Or if you are looking at The Nelsen Education Review look into the history of HECS and higher education funding. A quick way into the background of any issue is to look at what your current articles say about the past - do they refer to laws, past examples, ideas or principles. If so, go and find out about them, where they came from, and what happened.
The most important thing to remember in all of this is that for you to do well, you must engage with the topic at hand. This means you need to be interested, you need to be informed, and you need to be passionate.

The Persuasive Response and Writing to Form Requirements
Wei Lum

Your persuasive response will only really be effective if you consider the following points before you start writing.
PURPOSE: What do you want to achieve by writing this text?
FORM: What would be the most effective kind of writing for this purpose?
AUDIENCE: To whom am I directing my text?
STRUCTURE: What is the best way to order and develop the ideas I want to convey?
This article primarily focuses on the FORM of your response. Texts, as we know, can take different forms for example, a letter to the newspaper, an argumentative essay, an opinion article etc.
This article works in tandem with the other articles on the issues section of course, so be sure to check them out.
What are form requirements, then? They are the structural features and norms unique to each form of writing, to which writers conform, in order to gain maximum persuasive effect from their writing.

Writing to Form Requirements for the Persuasive Response

Writing to form requirements goes toward fulfilling the Outcome 1 criteria below:
Coherence and effectiveness of the structure and organisation of writing

·  structure your piece of writing so it is appropriate to the word length, form and purpose of the task

Control of the conventions of the English language

·  use language that is accurate and appropriate to the specific purposes of the task

The point of writing to form requirements is not to strip you of all your creative freedom, but simply to expose students to the different, distinctive features of accepted forms of prose. Writing in a style appropriate to the form of the task you have chosen will demonstrate your knowledge and control over English.

EDITORIAL

·  found in newspapers, magazines, newsletters

·  aimed at government, decision makers and the general public

·  often explains how the issue has arisen

·  represents the stance of the newspaper as a body, not the viewpoints of individual journalists

·  uses formal paragraph structure

·  uses relatively formal, objective and authoritative language

·  often adopts a measured and moderate tone

·  Often concludes by making recommendations as to decisions that should be made or action that should be taken

ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY

·  an in-depth exploration about the issue

·  expresses a personal point of view

·  can be written from first or third person

·  can be written by a 'persona' eg. someone of expert status

·  develops argument through traditional intro/body/conclusion form

·  uses formal sentence structure (with longer sentences for coherence and shorter sentences for effect)

·  uses each paragraph to introduce new point and corresponding evidence

·  has high level of factual detail and evidence

·  accurately uses vocabulary specific to issue

·  rebuts major opposition arguments

LETTER TO A NEWSPAPER

·  found in newspapers, magazines

·  replies to published articles, letters

·  refers to context of letter - eg. previously published article or letter

·  focuses on most important arguments and evidence

·  varying tone- can be passionate or detached

·  often asks challenging questions

·  uses concise word length to deliver message that is catchy

·  structured so that it leads towards a powerful or challenging conclusion

OPINION ARTICLE

·  found in newspapers, regular commentator columns magazines, newsletters

·  often feature in regular columns with headshot of writer

·  often associated with a particular journalist, expert or prominent player in issue, whose name and brief background are provided at the end of the article

·  can represent the viewpoint of the writer or the organisation the writer is representing

·  can be written in first or third person

·  can draw upon personal experiences and expertise

·  varying tone

A Final Note:

If you can understand the differences between the structures of these types of writing, it makes it easier to analyse why the language techniques specific to that text type are effective or not. You don't need to memorise the lists above: a lot of it is common sense that you will have picked up from your media reading over the years. You just need to understand it, and have it to refer to throughout your Issues outcome.