English Extension 2! Where to start? (1 Viewer)

[Sweet16123]

Ok, so my medium is a short story.

And I have chosen to write about an haunted house; with an witch, and everything.

My question is; how much research will I have to do? What books/texts do you recommend I can read to explore some ideas about this story?

 

[Deep Blue]

First question you should ask yourself is: why have you chosen to write about these things. This is important for your reflection statement and having a greater understand of why you wish to explore an area with give your greater motivation to pursue it. Research? As much as you can; the more you do, the more clarified and cohesive your piece will be. Two main ways I would research are texts that reflect the form your are working in (i.e. short stories) and texts that reflect the theme/context/genre that your are with.

 

[Sweet16123]

Well, I want to write about an haunted house because the genre thriller interests me?

And I also want to ask; what could I link this type of story from the Advanced or Ext 1 topic?

And what do I do with all the research?

 

[Shadowdude]

First question you should ask yourself is: why have you chosen to write about these things. This is important for your reflection statement and having a greater understand of why you wish to explore an area with give your greater motivation to pursue it. Research? As much as you can; the more you do, the more clarified and cohesive your piece will be. Two main ways I would research are texts that reflect the form your are working in (i.e. short stories) and texts that reflect the theme/context/genre that your are with.

^ That.

If you want to start - read what is outlined above.

 

[Sweet16123]

So any film/book/poem/text that writes about an account on the genre thriller?

 

[Shadowdude]

Well, yeah. For example, part of my major work was a love story. So what did I do? Sit down and read romantic fiction. <_<

My major work was a short story. So what did I do? Read collections of short stories.


Read within your genre, and your form. Watching movies and the like is less helpful... but it could give you conceptual ideas.

 

[Sweet16123]

Ok, and to link it back to an Advanced/Extension 1 topic, it could be Crime Fiction?

 

[Shadowdude]

For yours, yes. If so, you can even use the texts you studied as 'inspiration'. So really, you could've already done part of your "research" for EX2 just by doing EX1.

 

[Deep Blue]

And what do I do with all the research?

Put it in your research diary.

 

[Shadowdude]

i.e. the Journal

 

[Sweet16123]

Yes, but how do I apply it to my story? I'm a bit confused about that; the purpose of the research.

 

[Shadowdude]

I'll give you an example...

For Extension 1 English, I read a book called 'The French Lieutenant's Woman'. In a nutshell, it has multiple endings. I read that and was like "Hmm, I like this idea of multiple endings" - so I put one into my story, and then I described in my Journal how reading the book inspired me to write a second ending into my own story.

Do you... get it now? Basically you do your research to inspire ideas you use or even won't use in the story.

 

[yours]

It hinges on what your texts are for Advances and Extension 1: can you clarify these? Research into the short-story genre is imperative. If nothing else, do this at least. Some popular authors of short stories:
Jhumpa Lahiri - Interpreter of maladies (collection of short stories, it won a pulitzer prize(!), read some of her stories and write your thoughts in your journal )
Joyce Carol Oates (she has countless short stories. Google her or go to your local library and you'll probably find a large anthology)
Tim Winton (you probably know of him already, look for his short story collections: Scission, Minimum of Two, 'A Blow, A Kiss', and The Turning)
Anita Desai
Aliceson Munro (Canadian)

This is a start and will count as 'research into FORM'. Research into 'concept' is separate, or at least should be initially (I think they merge later on when you have a more specific idea). Like, for example, you can research into the genre that 'the haunted house' belongs to. It sounds like Gothic to me - write about the tropes of the genre, what defines it, what specific sub-genre you're interested in, read or reference novels/short-stories of the genre for ideas on themes and purpose. It's so incredibly broad there's no strict approach, though the more pages in your journal the better. It will help you to pick something that sparks your imagination and gets your story going.
Don't write in your journal and worry thinking 'is this relevant?' - it's your major work and it's your research, so yes, it's relevant! If you can show some sort of evolution and development this is good also. Show how you start at point A, discovered text B, was thus interested in concept X, which led you to text C, which linked to your studies in module A/B/C etc etc etc.

The more you research the easier it is to make links to the studied english courses.
The freedom can be a blessing or a curse, but it teaches you to work independently.

 

[Deep Blue]

Yes, but how do I apply it to my story? I'm a bit confused about that; the purpose of the research.

Research is how you collate the ideas, concepts, themes, contexts, techniques and values of your story. For example, I doubt that one day you will just wake up, know everything that is going to be in your story and write the whole thing out in one sitting, then your reflection statement and submit it. Between the beginning and the end of the course, you will need to research how you will put your story together, how you will put across your ideas and why the audience should care that you are putting across these ideas. In your journal your can write how you are feeling about you piece, its strengths and weaknesses in its present form. You can put in drafts, or snippets of ideas that you think you could use or criticism of someone who has read your work. Put in previous drafts, cut and paste them, rearrange them. What you submit is just the finished product to mark but it's really the in research where all the work goes.

 

[Sweet16123]

Do I need to have stuff like personification, imagery, metaphor, simile, etc?

Also, I read this book in Yr 8 which one was one of the best novels I have read. I'll briefly explain the plot to you; A group of high school graduation friends met up to go to an house. When they got there, each one of them after the other started dying, and everyone suspected each other, but turns out it was actually the person who drove them to go where they did.

So, perhaps in my journal I could write "This story gave me inspiration for an setting of an haunted house; the phase where death occurred is what inspired the brief controversy of first part of my story."

Something like that?

 

[yours]

Do I need to have stuff like personification, imagery, metaphor, simile, etc?

Also, I read this book in Yr 8 which one was one of the best novels I have read. I'll briefly explain the plot to you; A group of high school graduation friends met up to go to an house. When they got there, each one of them after the other started dying, and everyone suspected each other, but turns out it was actually the person who drove them to go where they did.

So, perhaps in my journal I could write "This story gave me inspiration for an setting of an haunted house; the phase where death occurred is what inspired the brief controversy of first part of my story."

Something like that?

Yes you should put in techniques, especially narrative techniques e.g. non-linear story line. The wikipedia page has loads of examples. Do mention metaphors/imagery etc. in your journal. It's english so this is always appreciated. These often helped my writing skills in a general sense rather than specifically for my story, but you should still do them.
Your example is correct. Words like influenced and shaped are good also

PSS. I've been told it's weak to make links to Belonging - this is too general and easy, so teachers see it as a cop-out. Refer to content from advanced modules or extension and you'll be fine

 

[Sweet16123]

Cool. I can't wait to start.

I'm not entirely sure on what Advanced or Ext 1 topic to link this back to -- any ideas? Crime Fiction?

 

[yours]

Cool. I can't wait to start.

I'm not entirely sure on what Advanced or Ext 1 topic to link this back to -- any ideas? Crime Fiction?

If you're doing frankenstein for module A that has a lot to do with the Gothic genre, so there are many links there, any 'background research' on frankenstein can also contribute to your MW (two birds one stone). But what are all your texts? All schools do different texts

 

[Sweet16123]

You mean for HSC, or Prelim?

Also, how would I link it back? Just mention it in the Reflection statement? Maybe I could use Frankenstein as an concept/idea to explore on and expand?

 

[Deep Blue]

HSC. Linking back can either be through further exploring ideas or concepts addressed in the text or more briefly in your major work journal as something that helped give your work focus or depth of understanding. Mention it in the reflection statement. It is possible to use frankenstein as an idea/concept to explore and expand in your story. This would be an obvious link to the comparative study.