Of clumsiness and SBQs

Sigh. Had a tumble just now down the stairs while on the way home and sort of dislocated my right ankle. I'm going to have a slight limp tomorrow, but doubt that's gonna mess up my exquisite demeanour *laughs evilly* Don't ask me how I rolled (yes, rolled!) down the steps but I remember thinking of how to explain SBQs to you girls when I fell.

Nah. Just joking. As in, I really have a limp now, but I wasn't thinking of SBQs then. Kinda sad, isn't it, if I think of SS all the time.....

Anyway.

I think I need to make some things clear about SBQs. Some of you have asked about whether the "who what who what" tag is only applicable for inference questions, some asked about whether comparing/contrasting questions require you to follow strictly the table I gave you. Maybe it's my fault for rushing lessons so much that you sort of lost the main points you were supposed to take away from the lessons. My apologies....

OK. First things first.

There WILL be both inference and comparing/contrasting questions in the exam, be sure of that.

In inference questions, the common question format would be "What is the main message of this source?", "Why do you think the cartoonist/author/artist/etc drew this picture/wrote this source?", "What do you think the author is trying to say?". Now, the minute you see questions like these, a "Ding Ding Ding!" (bells ringing) should sound in your head. This is an inference question and immediately you should look for the purpose of the source.

How do you answer inference questions? First, let's assume it's a pictorial source for convenience sake. Look at the picture and see if you can see anything that is out of the ordinary. For example, in the Sri Lanka SBQ I've given you, the sleeping tiger is not alarmed at all by the sound of the alarm clock. This is something out of the ordinary, as you would expect to be erm.. alarmed by the alarm clock. =) Next, look at the provenance. The provenance normally tells you a lot about the source, tells you stuff that you can use as EVIDENCE in your answer. In this case, the author is a third party from Thailand right? So is he involved in the conflict directly? What does this mean then? You go figure.

Next, go on to the general content of the picture. State what the picture shows (the duh part) and then say what it means. OR you can always say what something means first and then point to the part of the picture which is the evidence for it. Whichever way, you have successfully done inference for content.

Last, but the most important, PURPOSE. This is, of course, where the tagline that I hope you will remember for the rest of your SS studies comes in.

WHO SAYS WHAT TO WHO TO DO WHAT?

Now, obviously there will be small overlaps between the first "who" and "what", as well as what you have already answered about content above. It's fine. If there are overlaps, then skip those and move on to the second "who" and "to do what". So who's the audience? Look at the provenance again. Does it say anything? Is it the international community? Or is it a local publication meant only for locals? Recall the source I gave you about the Indian man being cornered up on a tree with sharks swimming below. It was published in the Hindustan Times, which probably means only the Indian Tamils will get access to it.

The minute you know the audience, you can then infer what the author wants the audience to do. There are some critical words that are usually used for this part: criticise, accuse, defend, praise, inform, persuade, etc...

And guess what? You're done for inference! Easy? =)



Now I'm actually not going to say much for comparing/contrasting, mainly because I actually think I've done enough by giving you the table format for you to fill in. The 5 common factors you see in the table are things that you HAVE to be able to know when you are comparing or contrasting. Look again at the first page of the comparing/contrasting notes I've given you, the one with the points you need to know for comparing/contrasting. At the bottom, the different variations of comparing/contrasting question forms are given, together with whether you need to answer only similarities, only differences or both. So don't ask me again!

In case you missed out what I've told your class previously, if for example, you look at the clock during your paper and you realise you have not enough time to finish your comparing/contrasting question, dive in straight to the last 2 common factors in your table: tone and purpose. You can leave the rest out if you are short of time.

Now, girls, please note: you WILL NOT get full marks for your answer if you only answer the tone and purpose because the other 3 factors are important as well for a full mark. I only asked you to zoom in straight to tone and purpose ONLY IF you have no time to finish the question. If you do have the time, pls answer ALL 5 common factors in order to score a higher mark. The tone and purpose carry about half the marks, that's why I rather you leave out the other 3 factors and concentrate on these 2 factors.


Phew. I think that's about all I can think of for SBQs. Any questions?


Comment away.......