Students appreciate, examine and analyse at least two short prescribed texts as well as texts from their own wide reading, as models and stimulus for the development of their own complex ideas and written expression.

They evaluate how writers use language creatively and imaginatively for a range of purposes: to express insights, evoke emotion, describe the wonder of the natural world, shape a perspective or to share an aesthetic vision.

Through the study of enduring, quality texts of the past as well as recognised contemporary works, students appreciate, analyse and evaluate the versatility, power and aesthetics of language.

Through considered appraisal and imaginative engagement with texts, students reflect on the complex and recursive processes of writing to further develop their self expression and apply their knowledge of textual forms and features in their own sustained and cohesive compositions.

During the pre-writing stage, students generate and explore various concepts through discussion and speculation.

Throughout the stages of drafting and revising, students experiment with various figurative, rhetorical and linguistic devices, for example allusion, imagery, narrative voice, characterisation and tone.

Students consider purpose, audience and context to deliberately shape meaning.

During the editing stages students apply the conventions of syntax, spelling, punctuation and grammar appropriately and effectively for publication.

Students have opportunities to work independently and collaboratively to reflect, refine and strengthen their own skills in producing highly crafted imaginative, discursive, persuasive and informative texts. Note: Students may revisit prescribed texts from other modules to enhance their experiences of quality writing.

Text List for Advanced

Prose fiction (7)

Chopin, Kate, The Awakening

Harrower, Elizabeth, ‘The Fun of the Fair’

Kafka, Franz, Metamorphosis

Le, Nam, ‘Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice’

McCann, Colum, ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking’

McCann, Colum, ‘What Time Is It Now, Where You Are?’

Mistry, Rohinton, ‘The Ghost of Firozsha Baag’

Nonfiction (4)

Garner, Helen, ‘How to Marry Your Daughters’

Hustvedt, Siri, ‘Eight Days in a Corset’

Orwell, George, ‘Politics and the English Language’

Smith, Zadie, ‘That Crafty Feeling’

Speeches (3)

Atwood, Margaret, ‘Spotty-Handed Villainesses’

Brooks, Geraldine, ‘A Home in Fiction’

Pearson, Noel, ‘Eulogy for Gough Whitlam’

Poetry (4) / Performance Poetry (1)

Boey, Kim Cheng, ‘Stamp Collecting’ (p)

Harwood, Gwen, ‘Father and Child’ (p)

Stevens, Wallace, ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird’ (p)

Tennyson, Alfred Lord, ‘The Lady of Shallot’ (p)

Tempest, Kate, ‘Picture a Vacuum’ (pp)

What are some typical features of reflective writing?

Reflective writing may include some of the following features:

Use of first person to express self-assessment

Use of evaluative language

Considered use of examples

Use of anecdotal references, imagery or metaphor

Explanation, description or justification of the use of specific language or stylistic devices

Connections between what students learn about writing and the writing that they craft

Self-awareness of the learning process

May be objective and/or subjective

(Source: NESA Website)

From Module C FAQs (February 11 2019)

“Select … texts … that exemplify writing styles as well as those that comment on writing so that your students have opportunities to:

•imitate specific aspects of writing – narrative, character, point of view, argument, figurative language, genre, perspective and style

•write in a range of forms and for different contexts

•explain the effects of their writing choices for audiences and purposes

•reflect on their own writing as required by the module”.

https://educationstandards.nsw.edu.au/wps/portal/nesa/11-12/stage-6-learning-areas/stage-6-english/english-advanced-2017/modules/module-c-the-craft-of-writing

Practicalities of Module C

•Module C counts: worth just as much as other modules 20/60 marks for Paper 2

•Module C must be part of the Assessment schedule with a minimum weighting of 25%

•30 hours of class time: school decision as to how to program

•Can be concurrent or stand alone and at least two texts must be studied

•These texts “do not contribute to the required pattern of prescribed texts for the course” p. 5 NESA

Exam Info

•Paper 2 in third section

•40 minutes’ writing time

•The question on Module C will be different to all past Paper 2 questions

•The question may be one part: sustained response

•It may have two parts: sustained response and reflection

•Be prepared for a specified TYPE of response

Exam Rubric

Your answer will be assessed on how well you:

• craft language to address the demands of the question

•use language appropriate to audience, purpose and context to deliberately shape meaning

•The question may specify the form i.e. imaginative or discursive or persuasive or reflective or informative

•The question may offer student choice for the form i.e. imaginative or discursive or persuasive or reflective or informative

The question may include unseen text for analysis and as a stimulus for writing

Imaginative Texts Definition

• Texts that represent ideas, feelings and mental images in words or visual images.

• An imaginative text might use metaphor to translate ideas and feelings into a form that can be communicated effectively to an audience.

• Imaginative texts also make new connections between established ideas or widely recognised experiences in order to create new ideas and images.

• Imaginative texts are characterised by originality, freshness and insight.

• These texts include novels, traditional tales, poetry, stories, plays, fiction for young adults and children, including picture books and multimodal texts, for example film.” From the 2017 Stage 6 English Syllabus

Your text choices in Module C are vital

•The texts need to speak to you

•Be familiar with the whole range of Module C texts in your decisions

•This is not a close study of the text but illuminates the process of the craft of writing or exemplifies the craft of writing

•Some texts are richer examples of the craft of writing and will give your students more opportunity to experiment and write in different ways

•Consider texts that can offer more one than one aspect of writing: versatility of the text to build student capacity across the course

“Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up’’

Jane Yolen.

“When you write, you lay out a line of words. The line of words is a miner’s pick, a woodcarver’s gouge, a surgeon’s probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory. Is it a dead end, or have you located the real subject? You will know tomorrow, or this time next year. You make the path boldly and follow it fearfully. You go where the path leads. At the end of the path, you find a box canyon. You hammer out reports, dispatch bulletins. The writing has changed, in your hands, and in a twinkling, from an expression of your notions to an epistemological tool. The new place interests you because it is not clear. You attend. In your humility, you lay down the words carefully, watching all the angles. Now the earlier writing looks soft and careless. Process is nothing; erase your tracks. The path is not the work. I hope your tracks have grown over; I hope birds ate the crumbs; I hope you will toss it all and not look back”

(Annie Dillard’s ‘The Writing Life begins’).

Page updated

Report abuse