Major Work Research (1 Viewer)

[Sheehan :)]

hey my major work story in my opinion is quite dull........but thats becuase all my research is evident in it.............im writting a political satire on the overall corruption of power .....so i was wondering can i still hope for a good mark if my story isnt that good but all my ideas flow through it?

 

[scott_hendo]

hey my major work story in my opinion is quite dull........but thats becuase all my research is evident in it.............im writting a political satire on the overall corruption of power .....so i was wondering can i still hope for a good mark if my story isnt that good but all my ideas flow through it?

look, don't think about how interesting it is for you, think about how interesting it will be for the markers. Obviously if you're writing this story and your ideas are in fact flowing through it, it shows the markers that it's "a well structured response" because it has the consistency of research. You are a teenager and may not find the issues raised in your story particularly interesting but most markers are middle age or older people and may find it brilliant, particularly from a youngster's perspective. Your idea (writing a political satire) sounds original. Just remember that you're not marking it so don't critisise it from your point of view...think of what the markers will think of it.

of course you can still hope for a good result.

cheers

 

[jack white]

the markers love political stuff, that is, according to my very political teacher...

i don't think your story could be that dull...political satires are usually very good... if you think it is that bad then maybe experiment with structure and style a little to give your short story some more verve...

 

[nick1048]

political satires are a good idea but they are in no way original... Brave New World, 1984, Animal Farm, The Handmaid's Tale even Dune to some extent are all examples of political satires.

 

[miss_pixie]

At least a political satire will show off knowledge and research.
Is it possible to get a good mark for a short story if there isn't a lot of research evident? I originally planned to write on a topic requiring a lot of investigation but ended up writing about depression, which I suppose is a fairly common teenage short story topic. It's too late now to change it, but I just want to prepare myself if I'm going to get a bad mark.

 

[Lunatic]

Shh... my research involves reading things *after* finishing my major work and tying them in somehow...

There is a line between witty satire full of information, and brain-numbing factorama of boredom-inducing. Give your story to someone else to read (stack this in your favour- give it to someone who's likely to understand the work, lol) who hasn't read it before, and let them tell you their opinion.

You can still get good marks if your story is as boring as a... really... boring... THING, but it's easier to get marks if it's interesting *and* informative or whatever.

edit- No offence, but depression is really, really overdone in EE2, or so I've heard anyway... even so, as long as the story is interesting, demonstrates your understanding, and does a little exploration of your topics in EA and EE1, you should still be able to expect good marks... I'm not sure just how much the actual 'theme' of the story counts for in the marking process so it might not matter at all.

 

[Jace]

i read through the 2004 showcase (of last years best of the best ext 2 stories etc) and generally i found them to be shallow stories with a strong political, social or philosophical ideal so clearly the markers dig that, but that being said, it is still a short story, so you may want to be careful.

 

[666_blessings]

I found the 04 showcase to be a rather distasteful affair too.

 

[paper cup]

Shh... my research involves reading things *after* finishing my major work and tying them in somehow...

There is a line between witty satire full of information, and brain-numbing factorama of boredom-inducing. Give your story to someone else to read (stack this in your favour- give it to someone who's likely to understand the work, lol) who hasn't read it before, and let them tell you their opinion.

You can still get good marks if your story is as boring as a... really... boring... THING, but it's easier to get marks if it's interesting *and* informative or whatever.

edit- No offence, but depression is really, really overdone in EE2, or so I've heard anyway... even so, as long as the story is interesting, demonstrates your understanding, and does a little exploration of your topics in EA and EE1, you should still be able to expect good marks... I'm not sure just how much the actual 'theme' of the story counts for in the marking process so it might not matter at all.

and so is anorexia, nobody do anorexia - do you hear me, 2006ers?
mine is political, sort of, (haha check out my come help me out with my major work thread that turned into a whole debate about chinese govt policy) but it was tied in with the cultural aspects and at the end I sort of had to cut down on it because it really confused people and distracted them from the emotional pull of the story. so as long as you remember that one of your primary purposes is to entertain, you should be right.

 

[bigwillz]

geez, "depression is overdone". depression isn't overdone, as much as the character being constantly depressed is, there's a difference. Many ppl are doing this winters favorite protagonist the "im an angsty teen, i can make it on my own, i dun want your help, i dun wanna be a cowboy, where's my journal, i need to do a few pages of excruciating internal monologue" which is good, cos it means the rest of the entries will look better. however if ou do what cherry blossom infers, and have a depressing issue, whilst still retaining character development then no need to worry.


and yeah i read the 2004 showcase, i was trippin. those stories were painful to read, hopefully this years entries have a bit of entertainment value, instead of having the entire feeling of reading war and peace within 8000 words.

 

[666_blessings]

War and peace in 8k words would have at least been an achievement. Some of those majors were more like an episode of pokemon dragged on for 8k. And considering the strartling similarities between the depth of the stories, i'd say those folks have a bright future ahead of them as anime script writers.

 

[HinikuTheNinja]

*quietly notes down*
No thoroughly depressed characters, no anorexia, check...

 

[c_james]

Fact of the matter is, every work in the '04 showcase got 49-50/50. That's what the markers want. You can be all quixotic and say you won't let your major work's integrity be compromised simply to appease the markers, but at the end of the day you're writing something for a HSC marker that could potentially determine your UAI to an extent. You should be writing for the markers (as well as yourself, of course). There, I'll cop a lot of shit for that comment, but someone had to say it.

 

[Lilith]

I wrote of Fantasy story, which will probably have a HSC marker scribbling big fat X's all over it. Though there were many many things to research, I'm not sure that i did it in the way that they would like.

i read through the 2004 showcase (of last years best of the best ext 2 stories etc) and generally i found them to be shallow stories with a strong political, social or philosophical ideal so clearly the markers dig that, but that being said, it is still a short story, so you may want to be careful.

I found the 04 showcase to be a rather distasteful affair too.

So which ones did you think were shit?

(If i'm thinking of the same book) I read some of them, i found the one attacking post modernism (had big people in white clothes with 'R for responder' following some bloke around) to be really good and also the butterfly one was excellent.

 

[Jace]

Fact of the matter is, every work in the '04 showcase got 49-50/50. That's what the markers want. You can be all quixotic and say you won't let your major work's integrity be compromised simply to appease the markers, but at the end of the day you're writing something for a HSC marker that could potentially determine your UAI to an extent. You should be writing for the markers (as well as yourself, of course). There, I'll cop a lot of shit for that comment, but someone had to say it.

Be careful though, the people that chose the showcase are just a select few of the markers, and they were choosing for the purpose of a book that they wanted to sell, its probably not a trustworthy way of trying to gauge what the markers want.

As for why i didn't like the stories... i didn't believe they were stories, generally they lacked any sense of developed narative, and the characters were flat and generally uninteresting. The styles seemed more the reason that they had been selected, for they were all done in what might be called an innovative approach to prose, but which personally struck me as unrealistically distorted - in effect it gave the visade of great originality and brilliance in these students, and i think in the end it was a visade, for they might have a deep conceptual base, but they weren't in truth good naratives. They struck me as if the markers who selected them were trying to show off english ext 2, but in a sophistic manner.. bright, shiny new storys that lacked any true ability.

But thats just what i think, and what do i know.

 

[c_james]

Be careful though, the people that chose the showcase are just a select few of the markers, and they were choosing for the purpose of a book that they wanted to sell, its probably not a trustworthy way of trying to gauge what the markers want.

As for why i didn't like the stories... i didn't believe they were stories, generally they lacked any sense of developed narative, and the characters were flat and generally uninteresting. The styles seemed more the reason that they had been selected, for they were all done in what might be called an innovative approach to prose, but which personally struck me as unrealistically distorted - in effect it gave the visade of great originality and brilliance in these students, and i think in the end it was a visade, for they might have a deep conceptual base, but they weren't in truth good naratives. They struck me as if the markers who selected them were trying to show off english ext 2, but in a sophistic manner.. bright, shiny new storys that lacked any true ability.

I think it's a bit of a sweeping and erroneous statement to say that those students lacked any "true ability".

It's difficult to give the impression of "true ability" in 8000 or so words (even less for other forms such as poetry). The works do seem pretentious at first, but when you actually take the time to appreciate them for what they are you'll see that there's some meaning behind the madness.

I will admit that the '04 showcase is an acquired taste. I didn't like them all, but all of them have some merit, and about three or four were actually quite enjoyable to read. Granted, they weren't page-turners, but these students had a long list of syllabus dot points to fulfill in limited space and time.

"Ability" means different things to different people. To the markers who selected the '04 showcase works, it meant something with a "deep conceptual base", as you said. In all likelihood there will be no dramatic change this year.

For all their postmodernism and whatnot, what you can't dispute is that they were all conceptually solid and read well - that seems to be the secret to success in EE2.

But thats just what i think, and what do i know.

No need for self-deprecation. I respect your opinion.

 

[krystalp]

i thought the showcase was awful, for the most part.
i think they went a bit overboard with presenting original, and forgot about character development, and interest.
in general i found them to be ideas, with minimal plot. there should be an ability to write a thesis for these people, rather than short story. MOST (not all) were not short stories at all.

i did like the puzzle/soil thing thought...for originality. but to be honest i looked at the pictures....the words bored me.

 

[c_james]

i thought the showcase was awful, for the most part.
i think they went a bit overboard with presenting original, and forgot about character development, and interest.
in general i found them to be ideas, with minimal plot. there should be an ability to write a thesis for these people, rather than short story. MOST (not all) were not short stories at all.

i did like the puzzle/soil thing thought...for originality. but to be honest i looked at the pictures....the words bored me.

The definition of a "short story" is rather broad though. Postmodern short stories, for example, usually incorporate a wide range of other text types, and from I've learnt that's pretty much what they're looking for. You'd be hard-pressed to find a linear narrative in the showcase.

 

[krystalp]

yeah your right, sorry.

thats just kind of, well, i dont like it. to say 'ok im going to give better marks to post modern, im sick of normal stories' is very discoraging to people who dont like post modern!

 

[c_james]

yeah your right, sorry.

thats just kind of, well, i dont like it. to say 'ok im going to give better marks to post modern, im sick of normal stories' is very discoraging to people who dont like post modern!

I know; the stigma of non-postmodern short stories kinda sucks. I even have a friend who dropped Extension 2 after seeing the showcase, simply because he thought his work wouldn't get the marks. It's a shame, too, because he's a capable student.

I guess a couple of kids just got too creative one year and were since emulated, and now we suffer the consequences...