anti's Guide to Diary/Journal Entries and Letters

[anti]

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Diary entries / Journal entries / Letters

This is probably a text you won’t be asked a lot of in the modules section, but just in case you are..

All three come under a single genre really. They’re personal reflections on a theme, place, situation or person. Important words here are ‘personal’ and ‘reflection’.

Little things
Because I’ll forget otherwise (everybody does), letters and diary entries should have a date. Letters usually have an address. You also need some kind of address to the recipient eg. Dear Diary, Dear My Sweetheart Far In Rome, etc. You will probably want to sign off – and don’t sign, just write your character’s name – after the body of the entry/letter. This will help the marker if your text hasn’t made it clear enough.


Construction
Letters don’t really need so much planning since they tend to focus around a single point (or several small points). It’s good to write down what your focus IS though, as well as examples from the texts you have studied.

Don’t waste time writing ‘My mother is fine, she came down with a bad case of bronchitis but she came through, bless her heart’ unless it’s necessary (ie. relevant OR it’s something that happened in the text which allows a reader to say ‘oh, this must be Mary Jane’).

Also don’t waste time retelling the story, only relevant parts – “I am in America. The ship sank – the Titanic, the unsinkable, sank! – and I do not know what to do. I cannot contact my family.” – which show some kind of insight into the character’s personality or situation.

Always write from the first person (I should have mentioned this first but I thought it was obvious).

Keep the tone of the character from whom you are writing, and if you choose a character who is not known for their memoirs (say someone illiterate), use correct spelling and grammar. It’s not worth losing a few marks for authenticity!

Note that people tend to use a bit more hyperbole in letters than they would in speech, and they only ever show their side of things, never the opposition.

[Happeninchick]

Same again! Thank you so much. Everything seems so much clearer, especially now I know that we are going to get major text types in this module paper, because the journeys stipulated no set text to write in. THANK YOU AGAIN!

[em_516]

i dunno..maybe it's obvious..but i was just wondering..how do we actually incorporate our texts into the letter or diary entry..would it be like:

"i feel socially superior..just like Emma did in the novel by Jane Austen..rah rah rah" (yes..really poor example..i know)

or do we pretend to actually be Emma and mimic how she would have felt? is this even making sense? agh..

[anti]

Usually diary entries will tell you to choose a character and write from their perspective - if they don't specify, always choose a character and write from their perspective.

I don't think I've ever seen an assessment that asks you to write and incorporate your texts

[em_516]

ok cheers mate..you've been such a help *thumbs up*

[munkaii]

what about formal letters?

e.g. I've been asked to write a letter to sydney morning herald as the persona of a Painter who satirised another painting, explaining why/how i did it..

[Es.B]

hey, just curious...when typing up a story before hand to a practice question, what do u guys think is a suitable word limit or amount of words i should limit myself to in order to be real in terms of how much i would write in an exam? (i hope that makes sense) :worried:

[Addictd2]

Ummm from memory its about 1200 words. thats bout 1 1/2 to 2pgs typed i think and 3-4 pgs written. something like that.

[Es.B]

k thanks

[mazarina211]

jus wondering, if u have 2 write a letter in a character's perspective, how do u incorporate techniqyes, themes etc