I have an extra 24 hour period on after the rest of the crew has gone to cryosleep to make sure they all go off to dreamland without a hitch. So far I've listened to everyone's playlists, read most of their messages home (which won't reach home for another three weeks), and am going through... Continue Reading →
This is the sort of task that I didn't think we did any more: students had to continue this narrative in the style used by the writer, and incorporate one literary device from a text you have studied in Module C. The plains that I crossed in those days were not endlessly alike. Sometimes I... Continue Reading →
This is from a Trial paper from Cranbrook. "First of all," he said, "if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view." Atticus Finch, To Kill a Mockingbird. Use this... Continue Reading →
This is from a Trial by Fort Street HS. The bombs fell, cutting off any exit from the city and throwing up a radioactive perimeter, creating a roughly circular zone, of which the Museum of Modern Art was the centre. Since the raid had happened just on dawn the city was mostly unpopulated by the... Continue Reading →
This is from a Trial at Hornsby Girls' HS. Sometimes, when I’ve been driving down the motorway, I’ve looked up at a tatty banner hanging from some overpass. You know the ones I mean: cheap art-class white poly-cotton, frayed at the edges and graying with exhaust fumes. The writing in capitals done with a wide,... Continue Reading →
For more fun in the sun this week, I've used Cheltenham Girls' Trial paper - they evidently did Margaret Atwood's 'Spotty-Handed Villainesses' essay. Here was the task: There was no way it would ever be written off as an accident. Switching the cribs could be accidental. Switching the babies in the cribs could be accidental... Continue Reading →
This week's Mod C is from Caringbah High School's 2022 Trial. It's very much the same as the last few, asking about stories and their value (I think I'm going to stop answering sample questions that focus on this because I'm bored stiff with it). Stories matter. Stories can be used to empower and to... Continue Reading →
This is from Ascham school's 2022 (?) Trial paper Books contain everything worth knowing except what ultimately matters. The sort of books I write, anyway. The sort that sell. After trying and failing to sell stories about what does matter, I gave up. It's enough to know the truth; you don't have to share it.... Continue Reading →
This is from the Abbotsleigh school's 2022 Mod C assessment, which said: In response to an aspect of the image compose an imaginative moment that captures the wonder of the natural world. (12 marks) This is where Everything would end, he thought. Where it all began. Land and water and sky becoming light. He wondered... Continue Reading →
This sample answer is from Cherrybrook Technology High School, which asked 2022's students to Write your own original narrative. This story may be linked in terms of ideas/concepts or characters or form to any of the core or craft texts but should represent something that you are particularly interested in writing about. You may write... Continue Reading →
The Craft of Writing 