General Tips for English Extension 2 (1 Viewer)

[know_it_all]

ne1 from 04 willing to share sum words of wisdom?

ne ideas..
tips...
warnings for us newcomers

who, as im gathering, have no idea!

 

[Monkey Butler]

Words of wisdom are all over the place, just look at the topics at the top of the page... other than that, it's the same as the rest of year 12:

• Don't Stress
• Your mark doesn't define you as a person, it's just a number on a piece of paper
• There's always a way to get what you want, so if you don't succeed at first, try again (or even take a different approach)
• In the end, you're going to look back and think that this wasn't such a big deal, so remember that when you make a big deal out of it

Hope that helps

 

[know_it_all]

thanks

 

[ujuphleg]

Tips for English Extension 2.

• ORGANISATION.

This is very very very important in this subject. While the enjoyment of the creative process is an obvious privilege in this subject, there are still assessment tasks, and they should be completed on time. By being organised, you will do well, and doing well is easy if you are organised. By this, I mean, you should allocate deadlines of your own for your major work. While your teacher will usually specify that they would like say 4000 words completed by your Viva Voce, this should be done before hand (about a week before)

Additionally, the freedom of 4U and the tiny candidature means that often, there are no regular classes for Extension. Please, please, please. Do not wait for your teacher to come to you. If you want something, need something, are wondering about that assessment, take the initiative. Go and see them and ask them.

NOTE: Most Viva Voces fall in the last weeks of Term 2. While there are no scheduled Exams for HSC students at this time, more often than not, assessments for other subjects tend to pile up at this time. By being organised, you will save yourself the headache, strain and stress of adding your Viva to this inevitable stockpile of assessments.

• DON’T LEAVE THIS TO THE LAST MINUTE!!! (follow on of ORGANISATION)

As any EE2 student will tell you, this is not cool. English Extension isn’t the sort of subject which you can say, hey! Its two weeks till the due date for my Major Work. Maybe I’ll start it now… DON’T. You’ll suffer.

• Keep your journal up to date.

The journal is a very important book. While at times, it may have to be slightly contrived, it is important for your teacher to be able to determine the validity and originality of your major work.

• Keep a photocopy of your journal.

A good idea is to take a photocopy of your journal every couple of weeks. This means that, if for whatever reason you lose your journal, you have proof that the work is yours. This may sound paranoid but a mulitude of things can go wrong: it could get wet, you may leave it somewhere, it might get dirty beyond repair or worse, somebody malicious steals it. Please, keep up to date copies of the journal.

• Don’t disregard the Reflection Statement

English Extension markers will tell you just how important this document is. It is imperative. While they are not allowed to disclose how many marks out of 50 are allocated to the Reflection Statement alone, it would be a good estimate that the value of this document stands at somewhere between 15-20 marks out of 50. Work on it, polish it, and perfect it. It will be worth it.


I can’t reveal any specific details, but I put this together after a non-certification was issued for the Reflection statement of a person I knew. This has been detrimental to that persons external assessment mark. Combined by a lazy attitude to their internal assessments, this person has done very very badly in Extension English – and it is a pity cos they could have done well, had they applied themselves.

I invite all previous English Extension students to post your tips here for all future students.

If you need any extra help, particularly with film scripts, do not hestitate to PM me.

Good Luck.

 

[glitterfairy]

I'd just like to add that while it is extremely difficult for some *cough* fellow BOS member *cough* to share their works, having your drafts read by other people - teachers, or literary critics or readers such as Mrs Killmeister (who read mine twice, with much editing with PURPLE pen and a summary page of comments and constructive criticism) or even the interviews with Timothy Daly, all of these will help your work so much.

When you're in full control with no-one else but your teacher to keep track of your work it's easy to be oblivious to the fact that some areas just don't work, or from one perspective, some areas should be built upon. The more critique you get, the better. Whether it's me (please feel free to send your drafts and even Reflection Statement drafts to me for critique, I'd love to read it) or someone else, it doesn't matter.

The point of this is that many of you story writers will do as I did and try to do something crazy or a bit out-there in an attempt for originality. This is good, but your audience actually has to understand it. If they do, you rule, if they don't, you're screwed. And you won't know until a fresh eye with no background knowledge of your work gets a read of it.

Best wishes! It's going to be a bumpy but very exciting ride!

 

[glycerine]

My advice is not to panic if you don't have a brilliant idea right away, or if you feel like you do and then you find out it's not working. Very few people pick one idea and stick with it; if you read my proposal you will find that it's very different to what I wound up with. The whole point of this is that it is a work in progress, and if you're flat out of ideas, go see your teacher, or try and organise a mentor.

Also you may find that you're suffering from writer's block, in fact, I say that this happens to everyone, no matter what medium you choose. I had writers block for a LONG time and I started to panic that I would never get it started, but even though my first bits of draft were complete and utter shit at least I then had something to build on. Don't expect yourself to be perfect right away; one of my biggest problems was that I thought that what I was doing wasn't good enough. One of the biggest skills I gained from this course was the ability to build on my writing and draft and edit and rewrite until it was perfect. By the end, your satisfaction with your finished product will be much better than the instant gratification of getting it right right away.

My last piece of advice is not to panic if you don't stick strictly to whatever deadlines you set yourself. While I'm not encouraging you to be completely lax and leave it to the last minute, you can always catch up. If it gets to the point where you've meant to finish your first draft and you're completely behind, relax, and if you can, try to spend an entire day just working. (When I did this I'd take my laptop to the library, plug in the laptop and just write and rearrange all day).

Like everyone else says, good luck. This is a fantastic course, I almost wish I could do it again : )

 

[AsyLum]

Never underestimate the power of pressure though. The one thing i learnt was that despite my best efforts to organise, i was still finding myself rushing, and sometimes people work in those circumstances better than when not in pressure.

 

[Enlightened_One]

DON"T LEAVE TO THE LAST MINUTE - TRUST ME ON THAT.

Anyway, for more generalised writing tips:

Make your characters interesting, real. Try to understand them and make them seem three dimensional. Good characters interest a reader and sometimes hide a shit plo (though probably not from a EE2 marker).

Use description at times, just don't go to far.

Remember you have eight thousand words, so if you have a bland six thousand word story you can add description, and metaphors, and all sorts of tricks with those extra words.

And remember, if you go over that it's takes up less word count than it is, same as that's, and they're, etc. (Best to use only in conversational context though).

Try to casually throw in some of those writing tricks you analyse in english like metaphors, similies, personification, and oxymorons.

The best critic for your work is yourself. If you don't like it then that's not a good start. your major work should interest and impress you.

I've plenty more but you'll have to wait for my Guide for Idiotic Extension 2 Writers Who Leave Their Works for the Last Weekened to hit shelves.

Oh, and did I mention, Don't leave it to the last minute.

 

[jhakka]

As usual, I am referring to short stories in this post, though the advice could also be used for other mediums.

One piece of advice that I've given out a few times (either on this forum or in class... I can't remember), is that if you have no idea of what you want to do, just write. And write. And write.

If you don't like what you've written, save a copy and maybe you can come back to it later if you can't come up with something better. Hopefully you'll find something you enjoy more before you get to that stage.

If you have an idea, but can't work out how to make it work, write a little bit and then leave it for a while. I left mine for a month or two after writing my first section because I didn't know how I could use the plot I wanted to use. I just kept what I wanted in mind and tossed a few ideas around in my head. You'll come up with something eventually.

Try and get a first draft done by early Term Two so you can change bits around. I scrapped a whole section of my first draft and completely rewrote it. A term is more than enough time to get from a first draft to a well written story, especially if you go over it a few times with a pencil before you even hand it to another person. Then let them go over it with a pencil or pen. Do that a few times with each draft, and you should get 90-99% of the bugs out of it (wording, grammar and plot holes).

Try and get your work done at least three weeks before the due date so you can work on your reflection statement (I started my Reflection Statement two weeks before and I am quite happy with it, though an extra week would have made me a bit more comfortable). Go through the same thing with your Reflection Statement as with your story: proof read it a couple of times yourself and then hand it to others to go over. Do that for every draft of it. It helps.


Good luck. Don't stress. Try and get a first draft done by early Term Two.

 

[callisto]

EE2 is a great course! It scales well, if you enjoy writing it hardly feels like school work and there's no exam at the end!

As far as tips go:

-As above: don't stress, it will show in your work (haha, no i'm jk)
-The best piece of advice I was ever given was to 'write what you know', (yes I KNOW that's from Never Been Kissed, but hey, it still applies)
-umm, get to work EARLY!!! Theres nothing worse than rushing to finish in term 2 when you have loads of work for other subjects to do as well
-Most importantly, have fun!

Good Luck

 

[hotcocoababe]

Ohhhh yea, whatever you do, DONT leave it till the last night like me - a 4am job aint the best to impress professional markers
I left mine till very late the night before as I had problems in the last few months - I just didn't want to end my beeauuuutiful story! I was enjoying myself too much to end it! If you keep putting it off because you 'just don't want to end it' like I did, then force yourself to sit down and tackle it.. that's my advice

 

[winicat]

your journal becomes sacred, don't let them take it away from you ... i pine for mine!!! umm... i spent all year reading and writing little ideas and had massive writer's block (i did CR) and my teacher hated it BUT you don't (or i didn't...) really do any classwork so your teacher doesn't really control anything. only suggestion i can make is that i think time barriers would have been a good idea for me. ask your teacher (if they don't already do this) to make you hand in a certain amount of words each week/month/term/whatever as it suits you. i think it just really helps with time frames and guide lines.

none of that made sense and was jambled. shut up, i never have to do high school english again!!!1!

 

[hotcocoababe]

Nah it made sense, and winicat's right.... guidelines would have been good for me too LOL

 

[co+ca]

some advice? ahhh... learn to spell?

haha nah im just joking. pretty much what everyone else has said but mainly just be original, i know its hard to do and you unconciously plagarise but originality is soooo important, especially when you take into account the many peope that do this course. if your work stands out the more likely the markers are to like it, despite the medium and/or genre.

good luck!

 

[televators]

The OAC test..

Originality
Ability
Coolness

 

[mz_purfect]

hmmm X2 is an awsum subject mainly cuz deres no HSC extrnl for it, but i assure u its only gr8 if u have evrythn under control.....

my advice is dat no matter wot jus don't leave da journal to da last minute cuz den u'll end up like me (making up bull* 2 hrs b4 handing it in!).

Also, don't leave perfecting n editing de Major Work till da last minute, do ur first draft at least 2 mnths b4 due date and den do de editing on a regular basis...and getting others to read it etc

and plz don't fink 2 urself dat 'reflection is easy...i'll jus say dis n dat'. NO! cuz writing a perfect and catchy reflection statment isn't as easy as it seems and it cannot b done within 2 nights!

finally.... PLAN evrything...ur drafts, ur ideas, ur research, a 'to do list' and set urself due dates so u don't ignore this subject....cuz frm my experience i tended to only pay attention to X2 wen i had an assessment task, otherwise....it was like...'yeh the due dates yonks away...'

GOOD LUCK n remember that if ur in X2 ur the ELITE of the ELITE! so give it ur BEST shot!


Sorry. Me no English.

The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvment'

 

[veridis]

Words of wisdom are all over the place, just look at the topics at the top of the page... other than that, it's the same as the rest of year 12:

• Don't Stress
• Your mark doesn't define you as a person, it's just a number on a piece of paper
• There's always a way to get what you want, so if you don't succeed at first, try again (or even take a different approach)
• In the end, you're going to look back and think that this wasn't such a big deal, so remember that when you make a big deal out of it

Hope that helps

we're looking for motivation here not excuses to make us feel better when we dont study. pile on the pressure. its the only way to make us work =)

 

[glycerine]

Haha, well, I did mine this year and seriously, it's ok if you don't meet your deadlines to the minute and it's ok if you get writers block. Just take it allll slow.

 

[veridis]

if i get writer block writing an 8 minute script i'm in some pretty big trouble. but i have no idea what i'll be doing in class once i have my script unless i bring my laptop to school and edit then, which seems too much trouble. will the teachers mind if i nick off early most of the time later on?

 

[glycerine]

dude, i bought my laptop to school allll the time! i used to bug teachers to let me use their rooms all the time, and sometimes when we had substitutes i would con them into letting me piss off to do work. bring drafts to school whenever you can, cuz you can even make small changes which'll save you time and hassle later.