English Advanced Question Thread

[aadharmg]

Hi...

I am in a bit of a similar situation at the moment, with a well-need renovation for my creative. My main issue was with an over complicated plot, so I tried to start from scratch with a new plot, and then insert some sentences from my old creative where relevant.

But if your downfall is adaptability, I would think that you don't necessarily have to come up with a new story altogether, or even a new plot.
Here are some general ideas for how you could make your current story more malleable to stimuli (without having read it, myself):

1. Add objects, pieces of imagery, or a motif into your writing, that can easily be changed to allow for different types of stimuli.
2. Think about ways in which you could use the stimulus metaphorically or symbolically - so that you don't have to force random ideas into the piece.
3. If your story has more than one scene, try rearranging the order and manipulate the structure a bit. This is particularly helpful for adapting the parts of the rubric in focus.
4. Depending on your preparation style, sometimes just having a loose plot structure, rather than knowing everything 'word-for-word' for the piece can help it be better suited to what the question is asking. Sometimes the pressure of a time-limit can help to pull the loose strings together in forming a well-rounded piece.
5. Practice, practice, practice! If you keep looking at way to adapt your piece, it will only make it easier to adapt in the exams. And remember to critique your own work, as well as getting other peoples' opinions, e.g. teachers, peers,  to get a gauge of how well you are able to adapt.

So, before deciding to scrap your current creative piece, I would encourage you to give it a hard-core evaluation. Work out whether you can still 'salvage' it, and then go from there. If you do end up writing a whole new piece, to fast-track the process, its probably better to stick to something simple and straightforward, and then once you have nailed making it adaptable, then add some personal flair to your hearts content!

Hope this helps. 

Hey!
While everything kauac says is true, and i encourage yo to follow his advice
I'm gonna present a different idea.
And that is of designing a character. So this pretty much means you design a character and get to know them in depth. Literally every detail about them. Get to know this character you've created inside and out. When you truly know this character, start finding stimulus from past papers and throwing your character into different situations. This way your character seems more fleshed out and it makes it easy to adapt. I've found this works for me.

Just a suggestiion, you don't have to follow it.
Whatever you do, good luck! 

Thank you guys for the advice. I have actually evaluated my creative, and I can say this with absolute confidence, now that I look back on it, is that the plot was horrible, the characterisation was really weak and all in all, there were no sort of groundbreaking elements of discovery within the piece. Which is why I am definitely going to completely switch lanes and try something new. I will surely try to implement your advice and see where it takes me, as anyone and everyone is probably better than me at creative writing, so all advice is valued. Thank you.

[henrychapman]

Hello! So for mod b i'm doing Yeats' poetry, and i have a speaking assessment task coming up in the next week. It's in the form of a viva voce (interview) where a teacher will ask us questions relating to context, themes + ideas, textual integrity etc. i'm struggling to decide which two to choose, since they aren't specifying.

Should i choose two poems with similar ideas or ones that explore different themes? A few of the questions will ask us to refer to both poems, while for others you only need to refer to one. I'm debating between Easter 1916, Leda and the swan and The Second Coming, however i'm open to doing the others too

Thanks

Hey !
I'm currently doing Yeats - so I can probably help you. I think a combination of one of his earlier poems and one of his "mature" poems is a good road to go down, because you can demonstrate your knowledge of Yeats' body of work as a whole. If you're set on Easter 1916, I would use that. Then its a case of which one you understand better out of the two - Second Coming is probably a better one just purely from the fact Leda and the Swan is uncomforting and the content matter is rather controversial. The Second Coming alludes more specifically and explicitly to the gyres and Yeats' lamenting the new cycle of time. And you can connect Easter 1916 with it by exploring Yeats' ambivalent nature of war at the time when he wrote it (coz it was during the war) then you can say "ok now we can see how his opinions have developed and he is certain of the effect of the war." If this makes sense, the ambivelence is no longer towards the war, the ambivalence Yeats suggests in the Second Coming is the effect that the new era will have om humanity. He kind of insinuates that it will be negative, however we aren't too sure to what extent. Remember to allude to Yeats' construction of antinomies, the enduring nature of his poetry and form in your interview because any analysis about poetry must include an explicit mention of form and how it creates meaning. And with yeats, this is rather easy because the form he uses mirrors the theme that he presents in each poem.
Hope this helps! reply back if you have any other questions

[zanibalh]

Hey guys,
Hope everyone is doing absolutely gr8888!

I, on the otherhand have had a very (extremely) complicated week trynna find a related text for module C.

It can't be the same medium of production to my prescribed text: Brave New World.
It has to have opposing ideas and values to BNW but still represent people & politics.
So, BNW is a dystopian society and my related text has to oppose that.

& I'm at a point in my life where I don't know where I'm supposed to find something like that.
So if anyone wants to help a sister out, please please please drop your suggestions.
Preferably something short and understandable by someone with 2 brain cells and a mediocre vocab.

Thanks so so so so so much!
Absolutely, so deeply appreciated.

[jamonwindeyer]

Hey guys,
Hope everyone is doing absolutely gr8888!

I, on the otherhand have had a very (extremely) complicated week trynna find a related text for module C.

It can't be the same medium of production to my prescribed text: Brave New World.
It has to have opposing ideas and values to BNW but still represent people & politics.
So, BNW is a dystopian society and my related text has to oppose that.

& I'm at a point in my life where I don't know where I'm supposed to find something like that.
So if anyone wants to help a sister out, please please please drop your suggestions.
Preferably something short and understandable by someone with 2 brain cells and a mediocre vocab.

Thanks so so so so so much!
Absolutely, so deeply appreciated.

Hey! I did V for Vendetta as my related for BNW in Year 11, worked a treat. Similar dystopian ideas of manipulation and control but explored in a very different way. If you click here you can download the essay I wrote on the two of them in Year 11 (I didn't do a great job on the Thesis but there are a tonne of quotes)

[LaraC]

Hello

Just wondering if anyone has any notes or tips on the different aspects of context in 'Why Weren't we Told'? e.g. Social, Political, Cultural, Intellectual, Historical....I have found it really hard to find resources online for this text - no published study guide available either

Thanks!

[Bells_123]

Hello,
I was pretty much in the same boat as you last year. I had no clue on how to write a good creative and I wasn't getting the marks I wanted. Then my English teacher gave me this advice and now I'm getting band 6, 15/15 creatives!

1) write about your interests:

Think about your favourite school subject and work from there. This is a great place to start because you would've learnt a lot of the key terminology within those subjects, making your story more interesting and authentic. For example, I studied music where I learnt how to analyse components in musical pieces and I was a part of 2 school musicals. So I took these experiences and incorporated music terminology (i.e staccato, syncopation etc) I've learned over the years into a creative about a sporty boy auditioning for a school musical (very high school musical I know). You'll find that all your knowledge that you've gathered over the years studying a subject allows you to come up with sophisticated descriptive language as well as unique experiences that can be turned into interesting creatives.
Other ideas can come from: your favourite sport, your favourite book/movie etc.

2) Read other creatives. Read short stories. Watch short films.

In class, we often have the debate on "nowadays, is anything original?" because some way or another, an idea normally stems off another idea, current event etc.. In saying that, you have full liberty to take concepts and snippets from your favourite stories, and appropriate them into your creative. Try not to steal ideas from dystopian novels, developing a whole dystopian society in a short story is a very hard task. My creative was very clichéd with it's school setting and similarities to high school musical but I still made it my own by including lots of music terminology in my descriptive language, adding a couple motifs here and there etc. So if you're still out of ideas, steal someone else's! Take note of nice phrases that stand out to you! Reading other creatives also gives an idea of how you should structure your own creative which leads me to my next point...

3) Keep the plot short

I've read creatives that only depict a walk down a street (mind you it was a very interesting walk) and some that just involve an interview which brings about a memory. These aren't stories that have multiple complications and have multiple stages. My creative was initially going to end when my character actually performs in the musical, instead I ended up finishing when he finds out he got the role, saving me a lot of writing, yet still providing a sense of closure. [fyi my creative ended up having about 3 stages: 1. development of his character with a love for music yet reputation to sustain. 2. desperation to audition, then finally auditioning. 3. arriving at school the next day, to find everyone ridiculing him, but he got the role.] Basically you don't want to go into the nitty gritty, you only want to provide what's important to advance the plot. Aim for your creative to be around 800-1000 words, depending on how fast you can write.

4) Include a recurring motif

This is what would make your creative really stand out. A recurring motif can be as simple as a lamp that is mentioned ever so often. Again, using my past creative as an example: The use of music was a motif in itself but I also used light and dark to describe and contrast certain things throughout my piece - 'a light shone around the auditorium's patricianly opened door' 'the school walls casted a menacing shadow'. This helps to make your creative feel whole and is something very particular that can help improve the complexity of your creative.

5) Consider a circular plot

This is a very useful idea when it comes to discovery. Lets say you started your discovery with a person in the bleachers watch a game. Then the story finishes with the same person on the field, gazing over at the bleachers. Basically, where you begin is where you finish. By doing this, you're highlighting the transformation (which results from a discovery) that has occurred. 

6) Seek feedback

Finally, once you've finished your creative, send it to a friend, a teacher and ask for any pointers, check grammar etc. There's even a marking a feedback thread on the ATAR notes site. (also there are a number of discovery creatives there that you can read - referring back to point 2). A good creative usually takes several drafts, so don't be too hard on yourself if it takes a long process to finish it. But once you have an idea, write as much as you can from that initial idea and then edit edit edit edit edit.

I hope this was helpful for you! If you ever want to post your creatives on the Atar notes marking and feedback thread, I'd be happy to give some feedback and I'm sure many others would be too
KT

Thank you so much for your amazing advice! I will definitely try to refine my creative story (maybe even write a new story)
And, if I do remember, I'll also post my creative story on here for critiquing 

[itssona]

hello
was wondering,
is it acceptable for a mod c essay to write with this structure:
Body para 1 : text 1 theme 1
Body para 2: text 2 theme 1
Body para 3: text 1 and 2  theme 2

[jamonwindeyer]

hello
was wondering,
is it acceptable for a mod c essay to write with this structure:
Body para 1 : text 1 theme 1
Body para 2: text 2 theme 1
Body para 3: text 1 and 2  theme 2

Hey! It's just a tad asymmetrical but if the content is good then I wouldn't be too fussed! Are you having trouble getting a full two paragraphs out of Theme #2? It could be worth considering other options, if so!

[owidjaja]

hello
was wondering,
is it acceptable for a mod c essay to write with this structure:
Body para 1 : text 1 theme 1
Body para 2: text 2 theme 1
Body para 3: text 1 and 2  theme 2

Hey there,
Just remember Mod C is an essay on representations and text, not a comparative essay! Your essay should be focused more on the context of the composer and the way they presented the relationship in your prescribed text. Your related text should be a supplement to your prescribed.

Hope this helps!

[sheeza.khalid]

How do I start a speech? My speech is due tomorrow and it focuses on textual integrity. I want to start my speech with a quote, however i can't find anything about the relevance of the past. Pleaseeeeeeeeeeee help 

[jamonwindeyer]

How do I start a speech? My speech is due tomorrow and it focuses on textual integrity. I want to start my speech with a quote, however i can't find anything about the relevance of the past. Pleaseeeeeeeeeeee help 

Hey there! This guide might help

Click here!

[kristieevans]

Hey,

So I'm doing Hamlet for Mod B, and we have an essay due in a week (in-class) and we haven't actually watched any productions yet...

The question is:

Through its portrayal of a variety of human experiences, Shakespeare’s drama,
Hamlet, reinforces both the significance and enduring relevance of the play.

Evaluate the way the enduring qualities of the play have shaped your informed
personal understanding of the text.

Does anyone know of any good productions I could refer to in my essay?

TIA

[emily_p]

Hi! I'm currently in need of a related text for Mod C: Representing People and Landscapes, hoping someone could help out? My assigned text is Judith Wright poetry, the practice essay question we've been given is:
'Remembered landscapes of the past are as powerful in shaping an individual's identity as the real landscapes of the present.'

The related can't be a poem but my teacher suggested a short story! Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks!

[owidjaja]

Hi! I'm currently in need of a related text for Mod C: Representing People and Landscapes, hoping someone could help out? My assigned text is Judith Wright poetry, the practice essay question we've been given is:
'Remembered landscapes of the past are as powerful in shaping an individual's identity as the real landscapes of the present.'

The related can't be a poem but my teacher suggested a short story! Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks!

Hey there,
I was thinking Bridge to Terabithia or even Narnia but I'm not sure if teachers are cool with children's literature as related texts.

[KT Nyunt]

Hi! I'm currently in need of a related text for Mod C: Representing People and Landscapes, hoping someone could help out? My assigned text is Judith Wright poetry, the practice essay question we've been given is:
'Remembered landscapes of the past are as powerful in shaping an individual's identity as the real landscapes of the present.'

The related can't be a poem but my teacher suggested a short story! Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks!

Hi!
My school is doing Judith Wright as well! If you want to do a short film I highly recommend "the Important Places"  I think it could work well with your question and it should only take 9 minutes of your time!

Hope this helps