Considering that the first question refers to Shakespeare's
Othello, I think it's safe to disregard that one in favour of the second.
Although if you were exceptionally keen about it, you could exchange
Othello for
The Crucible and have the first question as a practice response so that in the event of an exam (the Year 11 yearlies are around this time, aren't they?), you're less likely to be thrown by a question they give you.
... unless
Othello is one of your other texts, in which case I'll just carry on.
I got a similar question in my Advanced Trial a few weeks ago (NEVER AGAIN. *twitches*) - something along the lines of "A responder's awareness of the composer's viewpoint is essential in determining the nature and blah blah blah". So with the first quest, I'd advise thinking about how you view Shakespeare's purpose in writing the tragedy; touch on Shakespeare's purpose in a concise sentence or two, and then emphasise how your awareness of his purpose affects how you viewed the tragedy both as a whole and as a text in itself.
In this question, it's a speech, so usually throw your thesis in as the very first sentence, then write something along the lines of "Good morning/afternoon/evening/someungodlyhour senior students. Under the hammer today: making meaning from text. In reading William Shakespeare's
Othello, I've come to understand that yadda yadda" and so forth. Speeches are fun, verily they are ... it's a personal question, so inject the thing with first-person viewpoint and discuss how you personally responded to the tragedy, what you thought of it, and how your awareness of Shakespeare's purpose in writing the thing (I'm repeating myself, aren't I?) altered or influenced what you thought of it. Aaaaand so on. That's pretty much the extent of my spiel, since I hate Shakespeare (even though techniques seem to be so much easier to spot in his texts) and I never did
Othello ... I did ...
Macbeth. *gags*
H'okay! Second question ...
Key words/phrases in the question are personal reflection, explaining your intention of idea representation, and evaluating your achievements, so if you go off writing an essay in a formal tone, you're likely to lose quite a few marks because of misconstrued text type. I didn't get this question last year when I did
The Crucible, but I got it this year for inner journeys so I'll do my best to lend you some suggestions.
Take into consideration three or four key ideas concerning themes that are presented in the play. From memory, I seem to be thinking it's set in Salem some time in the 1600's, so with the witch trials etc. taken into account, you could think about how Miller chose to represent the genders of male and female, and examine how he differentiates between them in terms of roles, standards, expectations, etc. That's all I can think of in terms of thematic elements, but if you find something a little easier for yourself, by all means, go for it.
Since it's a play, techniques techniques techniques - take on Miller's viewpoint, and think about how he uses things such as stage directions, dialogue, asides (are there any asides? I don't seem to remember, but then I can't remember what I did last night, so ... yeah.) and linguistic techniques to convey the themes. "Looking back on the process through which I was able to write
The Crucible, I needed to use ..." I had a mind-blank, but I guess my advice here is that with this kind of question, you're encouraged to use a more informal tone, to enhance the personal perspective and to accentuate the nature of the reflection.
The composer's point of view is essential here, so I'd say do a little burrowing and think about his own ideas on the themes that are represented. Not only that, but find out how the play fared in terms of success, how people as an audience viewed it, etc., as well as Miller's view on the completion of the composition process and reflection on the success of his work in terms of how the thematic ideas were communicated, so the evaluating achievements criteria is ticked.
I ... can't think of anything else (and I thought Advanced would've pumped me full of more of this than what I've churned out for you), so I'll just say good luck with the question.
