PAPER 1 - SECTION 2COMPOSING

CREATIVE WRITING ON BELONGING FOR THE HSC

Teresa Welsh – Coffs Harbour Senior College

WHAT DO THE MARKERS WANT?

• Use the key term/s of the question as a central idea within your response.

(This may or may not include a stimulus – see the 2011 paper)

• A sustained and engaging imaginative response.

• A perceptive exploration of belonging.

• Skilful control of language and structure appropriate to context.

EXAMINER’S COMMENTS

• “Candidates used one of the quotations (or key term in the question) as a central idea”

• “Better responses … the use of an authentic, sustained and engaging voice” ….. “They explored the challenges of belonging and not belonging with insight, complexity and/or subtlety”.

• “Average responses tended to be recounts”

• “mechanics of language were applied skilfully” ....... “Flawed mechanics tended to impede”

• “Candidates are reminded that responses must satisfy the requirements of the BOS ‘All Your Own Work’ policy”

• “the quality of handwriting did sometimes detract from the fluency of the response”

HOW DO YOU ACHIEVE THIS?• Consider a range of characters and scenarios that explore a thesis about

belonging. These will work best if they have meaning for you through your own experiences or interests.

• These scenarios and characters will allow for this exploration of a thesis best if they have a crisis, some conflict or reason for reflection. You want a moment in time not an entire life story.

• Select 2-3, brainstorm and research the terminology that would be appropriate to them. Realism comes from deep knowledge of your scenario and character.

• Write about your selected characters and scenarios using a range of structures and refined language techniques. Remember to focus on ‘exploding a moment’ rather than detailed plot.

• Practice adapting your stories to different questions and stimuli.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS &DETENTION CENTRES

• Expectations of belonging v’s reality.

• ‘Rules’ of belonging.

• What do we expect of people for them to belong?

• Alienation rather than acceptance.

REFUGEES• Who is accepted?

• How is acceptance shown?

• Enrichment and challenges

• Barriers or obstacles.

• The impact of time and memory.

CONVICTS or FIRST SETTLERS

• “Tyranny of Distance”

• Separation from all that is familiar.

• How is a new sense of belonging established?

• Social class and divisions.

BUSHFIRES & FLOODS

• Community belonging.

• Can a natural disaster destroy your sense of belonging or make it the stronger?

• How important is place to belonging.

• Clarity about what is important.

SPORT - NATIONAL

• The role of sport in bonding.

• Tribalism - rivalry and belonging.

• Nationalism and statehood.

• Can belonging to one group cause conflict with another?

TEST –TUBE BABIES,SURROGACY & ADOPTION

• How important is family to belonging?

• Nature v’s Nurture.

• Where do we gain our sense of identity from?

• Who do we belong with and to?

TRACING FAMILY HISTORY

• The role of culture and heritage in belonging.

• Understanding yourself & other people.

• Caught between places to belong. Confusion over where you belong.

• Can you belong in two places? Is there any need to choose?

ANZAC DAY & GALLIPOLI

• National or community belonging.

• The forging of a national identity.

• The importance of rites and rituals.

• Connections across time and continents.

• The role of history.

Vietnam Veterans

• Bonds of war that occur due to traumatic events.

• Mateship

• Rejection of returning veterans – the need for a welcome home.

• What are the consequences of lack of support?

• Community guilt & reconciliation.

Stolen Generations & Wards of the state

• The role of events in creating alienation.

• Assimilation in order to belong. Loss of culture.

• Who determines acceptance?

• Mistaken policies of governments & institutions.

National Apology

• The role of events in making amends – symbolism.

• Acceptance overcoming alienation.

• Personal, group and community identity.

• Future belonging.

DOWN SYNDROME

• Stereotyping and physical appearance affecting belonging.

• Assumptions in regard to belonging.

• Community and family acceptance.

• Overcoming barriers.

Surfing

The Beach

• Belonging to a place.• Shared experience.• Choosing to not belong conventionally.

Cronulla Riots

• Exclusive belonging.

• Violent rejection of others.

• Territorial attitudes – localism.

• Misguided nationalism?

RITES OF PASSAGE

• Different stages of belonging and responsibilities.

• The role of ritual in creating belonging.

• Cultural continuity.

• Conformity or rejection?

GANGS

• United through anger and previous feelings of alienation

• Can denial of one type of belonging see a search for another?

• Camaraderie

• Earning respect & acceptance

PRISON

• Institutionalised belonging.

• Social sanctions on belonging.

• What happens to those that are rejected by society.

• Prison culture.

OTHER IDEAS• Walking the Kokoda trail.• Australia Day• Tsunami survivors rebuilding• Aged person in a nursing home• Homosexuality – alienation v’s

acceptance• Relocation of Native Americans• Apartheid in South Africa• Segregation in America• Retirement• A child with an imaginary friend

Brainstorm and research the terminology

that would be appropriate to them.

ANZAC DAY AT GALLIPOLI• Mateship• Patriotism• Nationalism• Heroism• National identity• Courage• Honour• Naivety• Youth• Sacrifice• Bayonets• Sandbags• Slouch hat• Red poppies• Baptism of fire• Russel’s Top, Quinn’s post

• Dardanelles• Mortality• Adversity• Sanctity• Battalion• Turkish• Simpson• 2273 Australians lost at Lone Pine, the

battleground the size of two soccer fields.• Nine Victoria crosses• 3rd Light Horse Brigade - The Nek• Ari Burnu war cemetery• Gallipoli from the Greek Kallipolis,

"Beautiful City.“• Irony

Write about your selected characters and scenarios using a range

of refined language techniques

Anzac Day - Version 1 I sat on the rocky ground at Gallipoli and

thought about all the men that had died there. All the Australians, and how I was linked to these men and the sense of belonging that this created. I had walked up the cliffs overlooking the sea in the afternoon and the place had an weird feel even then. Now as dawn approached I saw all the other people there.

Anzac Day - Version 2 I perched on a sandstone outcrop at Gallipoli

and felt the ghosts of those before me sweep in with the morning mist. The cool tendrils of vapour connected me like an umbilical cord to the past and I shivered for more reasons than the chill. The steep climb to the precipice of Lone Pine and Russel’s Top the previous afternoon had been filled with awe at the heroism and sacrifice of another generation. Now in the grey light of dawn silhouettes emerged.

Practice adapting your stories to different

stimuli

Use one of these images to compose a narrative text.In your narrative explore the central concept of belonging you feel is being conveyed by that image.

Anzac Day - Version 1 with stimulus

I sat on the rocky ground at Gallipoli and thought about all the men that had died there. All the Australians, and how I was linked to these men and the sense of belonging that this created. I had walked up the cliffs overlooking the sea in the afternoon and the place had an weird feel even then. Now as dawn approached and I saw all the other people there, many with Australian flags, I really understood why we had all come.

Anzac Day - Version 2 with stimulus I perched on a sandstone outcrop at Gallipoli and

felt the ghosts of those before me sweep in with the morning mist. The cool tendrils of vapour connected me like an umbilical cord to the past and I shivered for more reasons than the chill. The steep climb to the precipice of Lone Pine and Russel’s Top the previous afternoon had been filled with awe at the heroism and sacrifice of another generation. Now in the grey light of dawn silhouettes emerged, united by more than our accent and the southern cross that draped their shoulders.

Have more than one idea ready

Stolen Generations – Version 1

“Whitey”, “Whitey” they kept yelling. It made me feel sick. It wasn’t my fault that I had been cut off from my people, taken away by the coppers. I was a “Malteser”, chocolate on the outside but white on the inside. The stolen generation that now didn’t belong anywhere or to anyone. Our town was split in two and I was in the middle.

Stolen Generations – Version 2

“Gubba” came the taunt again. No matter how many times I heard it my face burned and my throat constricted around a painful lump I could not swallow. Severed from my people for twenty years some considered me as white as the sergeant that had taken me away. A “Malteser”, chocolate on the outside but white on the inside. Assimilation it was called but the effect had been the opposite, I wasn’t accepted on either side of the railway dividing line that ran like razor wire through our town.

HOW TO END YOUR NARRATIVE?

• Definitely NOT that is was all a dream or by killing off your character.

• Consider a cyclic structure e.g. a symbol, item or phrase made earlier in the narrative is repeated with different emphasis or meaning.

• Open ended – leave an ambiguous decision or comment that can be taken several ways.

• Twist or irony – lead the reader to expect one ending and give them another that is plausible.