Year 11 · Units 1 and 2
WACE English ATAR, Year 11 (Units 1 and 2)
English ATAR formalises something Years 7-10 have been building toward all along: reading and writing a text as a deliberate response to purpose, audience and context, not in isolation. Unit 1 establishes that triad as the lens for everything else in the course, then works through imaginative, interpretive and persuasive text types in turn. Unit 2 shifts to comparison — reading two texts against each other and analysing how genre, rhetoric and representation shape meaning. It's the ATAR English pathway, distinct from General, and it assumes a student is comfortable with sustained analytical writing already.
Unit 1
The purpose-context-audience triad, established as the lens for the whole course.
Purpose, context and audience
Establishing purpose, context and audience as the three lenses used to analyse and create every text in the course.
Language modes and metalanguage
Using the correct metalanguage to discuss spoken, written and multimodal language modes precisely.
Imaginative, interpretive and persuasive texts
Distinguishing the conventions of imaginative, interpretive and persuasive text types.
Text structures and conventions
Analysing how text structures and conventions serve a text's purpose.
How stylistic choices shape meaning
Analysing how an author's stylistic choices shape the meaning a reader takes from a text.
Vocabulary, idiom and rhetoric
Analysing precise vocabulary, idiom and rhetorical choices at ATAR-course depth.
Description and imagery
Evaluating the impact of descriptive language and imagery on a reader.
Visual and multimodal meaning
Analysing how visual elements contribute to meaning in multimodal texts.
How context shapes a reader's response
Analysing how a reader's own context shapes their response to a text.
Form, content, style and tone in writing
Creating original texts with deliberate control over form, content, style and tone.
Evidence, argument and referencing
Constructing an evidence-based argument with correct academic referencing.
Planning, drafting and editing
Applying a full, disciplined writing process from planning through to final editing.
Reflecting on purpose and context
Reflecting critically on how well a student's own text achieved its intended purpose for its context.
Unit 2
Comparison, genre and how texts position an audience.
Comparing texts by purpose and context
Comparing two texts by analysing how their differing purposes and contexts shape their content.
Where students get stuck: Comparing two texts by describing each one separately rather than making a genuine connective argument about the relationship between them. At ATAR level, this is the single most consistent gap between a strong and a mediocre comparative response.
Analysing style and structure
Analysing style and structure across texts at a more sophisticated comparative level.
Hybrid texts and genre
Analysing texts that deliberately blend genre conventions and explaining the effect.
How texts represent ideas and voices
Analysing how a text represents particular ideas, attitudes and voices.
Rhetorical devices and persuasive techniques
Analysing rhetorical devices and persuasive techniques at ATAR-course depth.
Multimodal and digital effects
Analysing the effects created specifically by multimodal and digital text features.
Attitude, mood and atmosphere
Analysing how a text builds attitude, mood and atmosphere.
How texts position an audience
Analysing the specific techniques a text uses to position its audience toward a particular response.
Writing with voice, tone and style
Creating original texts with a controlled, deliberate voice, tone and style.
Reflecting on values and positioning
Reflecting critically on the values embedded in a student's own text and how it positions its reader.
How it is assessed
- Unit 1 and Unit 2 are entirely school-assessed — there is no external exam in Year 11.
- A satisfactory result in both units is required to move on to Unit 3 and Unit 4 in Year 12.
- Reporting is against the WACE unit grade for each unit, not an ATAR score — the ATAR is calculated from Year 12 results only.
Common questions
- Has this syllabus changed recently?
- WACE senior secondary syllabuses are reviewed by SCSA on a rolling basis rather than all at once — there's no single blanket revision date the way there is for the P-10 curriculum. Check senior-secondary.scsa.wa.edu.au for the current syllabus version of this specific course before relying on unit content for assessment planning.
- Is English ATAR much harder than the Year 10 English a student is used to?
- It's a real step up in sustained analytical depth and in the volume of independent writing expected, more than in genuinely new concepts — a student who was comfortable with Year 10's comparative essays and source synthesis has the right foundation, but should expect Unit 1 to ask for that at greater length and precision.
- How is English ATAR different from English General?
- ATAR is built around sustained literary and textual analysis and contributes to the ATAR; General is built around everyday, workplace and media texts and doesn't contribute to the ATAR. The right choice depends on whether a student's post-school plans need an ATAR-contributing English result, and how much they enjoy sustained literary analysis specifically.
Related year levels
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Start learning for freeWritten from the current WACE course syllabus. Requirements change — check SCSA for the official syllabus.