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Section 2 (1 Viewer)

xx__savannah

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Luckily I remembered something I heard about not being able to get full marks without a title, (don't know where I heard that, so it could possibly be false). My title was so fantastically original for a memorial poem:

"In Memory of a Man"
 

sideshowtim

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You did a poem for your Section 2? I'm not sure that was such a good idea...I hear the markers hate poetry...
 

dagwoman

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xx__savannah said:
Luckily I remembered something I heard about not being able to get full marks without a title, (don't know where I heard that, so it could possibly be false). My title was so fantastically original for a memorial poem:

"In Memory of a Man"
Uhhh... you did a poem?
 

amaer

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First post^^

OK...first of all, I havent read the forums so far so sorry if someone's already brought this up, but:

Would you agree that the question they asked almost forced us to adopt a male protagonist?

...cuz it seemed like it to me at the time (cant remember the exact quote they gave out, can someone refresh my memory???). This wasnt really a problem for me, the story I'd pre-written had a male protagonist. But, from what my teachers/others have told me (feel free to disagree with me on this point), males generally find it easier to write a convincing male character than females do (and vice versa). So it seems to me that the question that they chose gave me an advantage over other students simply because I am male, which isnt exactly fair.

I guess theres nothing that can be done about it now, but it juz annoys me a lil, is all. I'm sure girls will still do much better than guys overall in the creative writing section, but they are still disadvantaged imo.

So what do you guys think? Agree? Disagree?

Lol, and to repeat what I said before: if this has already been discussed, juz ignore me. :)

P.S. Replies to the posts I've read:

Maskd: in my opinion you dont need a title...it's just one tool among many that you can use to convey meaning in your story. Titles are only really worthwhile if you can come up with one that says something about your story (e.g. in my story I used the title to stress the importance of a particular concept)...if not it doesn't matter at all. To me, titles are like similes or any other tool u can use in the story...its nice if you can get it to work, but u can very easily produce a good piece of writing without it. Thats how I see it, anywayz.

casper: Lol yeeeaaahh!!!! Go the monologue about someone coming to the city!!! Thats what I wrote (lol were you saying that that topics a cliche, or that that was the one u used?). Hehe my story doesn't really have a plot, but meh...the teachers seem to like it (I swear they decide which story is best by working out which is the most boring)

Ducky: Lol mine didnt die....his voice got a bit raspy by the end, but that was about it.
 

dagwoman

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No, I don't think the quote implied a male protagonist, I think it could have gone either way. Mine was in first person, and the protagonist was female, but I wrote a very similar story for my trials and my marker commented that she enjoyed the aspect of the ambiguous gender of the persona, but I didn't intend that at all!
 

xx__savannah

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sideshowtim said:
You did a poem for your Section 2? I'm not sure that was such a good idea...I hear the markers hate poetry...
dagwoman said:
Uhhh... you did a poem?
Yep. I really couldn't see any other way I could work any of what I was thinking into a story at all, because I knew I'd get sick of it and try to rewrite it about twenty times.

My Eng teacher asked what I did for it, and she seemed rather pleased with what I did, and she's a senior marker, so I hope that all the markers are like that and not like what I've read about on here. Admittedly, after the exam I saw some of these posts and just though "oh shit."


amaer said:
Would you agree that the question they asked almost forced us to adopt a male protagonist?
I don't know, I've read on here plenty of grandfather/granddaughter stories, so there are plenty of female protagonists, the male was just kinda the catalyst for the story. I did write speaking from a son, though, so it goes both ways.

amaer said:
in my opinion you dont need a title...it's just one tool among many that you can use to convey meaning in your story. Titles are only really worthwhile if you can come up with one that says something about your story (e.g. in my story I used the title to stress the importance of a particular concept)...if not it doesn't matter at all. To me, titles are like similes or any other tool u can use in the story...its nice if you can get it to work, but u can very easily produce a good piece of writing without it. Thats how I see it, anywayz.
Half agree with you here. A had a teacher years ago liken a title to an actual ending, you might not be able to write one under exam conditions, but without one you won't necessarily get high or full marks.
 

~Sw33ti3~

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poem is tricky... coz last yr they had a fantastic poem *my tutor had the honour of marking* it was very very very brilliant, but it only got a 8/15. because they said it limited their response blah blah blah. true to an extent, but i think it shouldn't be so....

i had the man as my father telling me the stori of my mother... the stori was very feminine, managed to add that my father recalled it word for word, just how mother told him... hope that was alrite.... =S no old man didn't die... i just 'realised' something...
 

daiseydai

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xx__savannah said:
Luckily I remembered something I heard about not being able to get full marks without a title, (don't know where I heard that, so it could possibly be false). My title was so fantastically original for a memorial poem:

"In Memory of a Man"
I also did a poem. :) It went for 5 pages.
I didn't quite have a title though.

My poem is reminiscent of that text in the bos stimulus booklet for change called 'sky high' which was actually a response to a creative task. it was a poetic prose rather than a dwindling narrative that had a beginning, middle and end.

i don't think people understand that creative doesn't mean story with a narrative.

i think by choosing a different text-type, you're awarding yourself with the marker's immediate interest after thousands of repetitive grandpa suicidal/revelation plotlines.
goodluck.
 

nikturner

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I also did a poem, the style that the open line was written in lent itself to becomming a poem, and it wasnt a specified text type.

i agree that poems then add interest among the thousands of stories. in poetry you can also intergrate alot of techniques and stuff which can only help with marks.

how did u answer it then onitz??
 

BrentDG

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Originally looked at the quote and thought that this was the most ridiculous quote, and that it left little for the imagination. Got around it, able to use my pre prepared story.

Wrote a parody of lord of the rings and attacked the cliche journey. Character repeatedly says i've discovered this and that about journey. Hopefully will be good enough.
 

dagwoman

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It's impossible to write good poetry, that's substantial enough to be marked out of 15, in 40 minutes. And they told us over and over again, don't do it.
 

daiseydai

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dagwoman said:
It's impossible to write good poetry, that's substantial enough to be marked out of 15, in 40 minutes. And they told us over and over again, don't do it.
speak for yerself m'dear. 'they' say alot of things, because usually 'they' are speaking to the masses. thus, if the whole state wrote a poem, it would be virtually impossible for 'everyone' to get '15'.

don't let impossible limit you.
 

lindataylor

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tarsus said:
Completely filled the booklet! I made it a feature article, used the quotation as a paradigm, and made up a random title on the spot. Kinda different from my prepared story but I felt okay with it. My story was on obesity, NEETs and single parasites. I hope no one used that as their social implication...
i wrote a feature article too!
although mine was more a column, like something someone writes once a week for the paper.
my teacher told our class to do that cos it would stand out to the markers - i just hope she's right.

i filled the booklet up too, my story was in first person and how i, as the journalist found a diary on a train and i read it decided to post some entries in my column cos it was so moving lol. the entries were about how "i" lost my sister, never found out what happened, maybe this "creepy man" took her, never found out, 3 years later still missing - sadness.

just hope the markers like it :)
 

dagwoman

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daiseydai said:
speak for yerself m'dear. 'they' say alot of things, because usually 'they' are speaking to the masses. thus, if the whole state wrote a poem, it would be virtually impossible for 'everyone' to get '15'.

don't let impossible limit you.
Oh dear. Good luck to you.
 

square-nothing

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i hated it!!!! they usually give 4 or 5 options. i was soooooooo incredibly annoyed!!! my story didn't fit the opening sentence in the slightest so i completely screwed it up trying to make it fit then changing my mind half way through it
 

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