NSW ETA Consolidation of Extension 2: Poetry

Lucy Solomon
So, You Want to Write Poetry?
Before you start, it’s essential to know what
you’re working towards. Like any other
course, it is important that you follow the
requirements stipulated by the syllabus and
fulfil the necessary criteria outlined in the
marking guidelines. These are available on the
NESA website and you can see them below. It
does not matter which form you choose, the marking guidelines will remain the same.
These are the guidelines for the A band: 17 to 20.
 Composes a highly original and sustained Major Work that demonstrates coherence to
achieve a fluent integration of meaning(s), value(s) and form

 Formulates sophisticated insights and concepts through investigation

 Communicates highly developed ideas with sophistication
 Demonstrates a highly skilled integration of language, technical skills, conventions and
medium for the intended audience and purpose

 There is a conscious and highly successful shaping of meaning to engage an audience

which is evident throughout the work

Highlighted in green, you will see the criteria that your marker is looking for in the work
while highlighted in yellow, are the adjectives used to determine the extent to which you have
engaged with that criteria. So, for example, in the A band, we are looking for work that is
highly original, yet in the B band, the work is recognised as just original.

So, what does it look like to tease out

the criteria …
These are the major assessment criteria
used in the marking of a Major Work in a
nutshell:

1. Textual integrity
2. Quality of insights and
concepts, developed through
independent investigation, and the communication of developed ideas.
3. Manipulation of features that shape meaning and response
4. Quality of engagement.

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 1. The ability to compose a highly original and sustained Major Work that
demonstrates coherence to achieve a fluent integration of meaning(s),
value(s) and form(s)

“Highly original” should be discerned in a range of ways:

 Originality needs to be effective.
 It could involve an extension to the field that is not necessarily unique.
 It offers refreshing different perspective/s.
 It could be original in the treatment of the medium.
 Its originality is integral to the work and does not come at the expense of textual
integrity.
 There might be a possibility of hybridity and playfulness, playing with genre, texts
and expectations.
 It is important to remember that you must work within the parameters of the Major
Work type as defined by the syllabus. For example, ficto-crits come under Critical
Response.

What is a “sustained Major Work”?

 It must meet the Major Work category requirements.
 The central idea is held continuously throughout the piece.
 High quality means that a unity of concept and form is sustained across the breadth of
the Major Work.
 There are no lapses in the work.

The Major Work must show coherence

 Choices about language, forms, features and structure have a sense of being
deliberate.
 These choices are informed through research and understanding.
 Reflects the careful and deliberate process of drafting.
 There is a clear relationship between the text and the reflection statement.
 The construction of the text is based on a highly developed internal logic.
 This relationship is vital and unequivocal for a high mark or full marks to be
achieved.
 Hybrid works or the use of vignettes must occur with purpose and not just for the
sake of doing something different. If a story or essay is broken into different parts, it
is important that the reason for this separation is clear, that voices are delineated if it
is offering a different perspective, but crucially, these separate parts must work
together in shaping the meaning of your work.

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What is “fluent integration”?
 Integration is such that the Major Work flows easily and smoothly.
 A student’s ready command of language means that the integration is successful.
 There needs to be a seamless, fluent integration of meaning(s), value(s), (ideologies
and worth) and form.
 The response should avoid jarring. This means that nothing in the work should make
the reader pause; from punctuation to authentic details relevant to character and
setting. Research should also be integrated fluently, reflecting a student’s deep
understanding of their concept in a way that does not make the marker feel
bludgeoned by their knowledge. As part of this, fluent integration means showing
rather than telling.
 There is a conscious manipulation of meaning to explore and express values.
 The integration is central to the Major Work and it needs to be recognised and
demonstrated by the student.

2. Formulates insights and concepts through investigation, and

communicates developed ideas with flair. This communication may be
elaborated, complex, subtle and refined and may offer a new perspective
or synthesis of ideas and concepts in new, original or inventive ways. The
focus of the work is clearly articulated and sustained.

Formulates insights and concepts through investigation, and communicates

developed ideas with flair.
 There is a clear and sophisticated sense of the process involving extensive and
rigorous investigation of concept/s and form (research and investigation).
 Investigation should demonstrate an extension of knowledge, understanding and skills
developed in the English Advanced and Extension 1 courses.
 Learning from the investigation is integral to the work.
 Approach and process to investigation is autonomous/independent.
 Thorough understanding of investigation boundaries and the context of the research
required.
 Balance between Major Work and the reflection statement. Both have integrity and
can stand alone.
 There should be evidence of some sort of research on every page of the major work.
 Flair means demonstration of talent, aptitude and perceptive understanding; and,
sense of individual style, control and confidence (flair should incorporate both these
aspects).

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This communication may be elaborated, complex, subtle and refined and
may offer a new perspective or synthesis of ideas and concepts in new,
original or inventive ways.
 Student needs a sophisticated understanding of the language of the medium to achieve
any or all these elements.
 May offer a new perspective.
 The focus of the work is clearly articulated and sustained.
 Focus is expressed and evident throughout the breadth of the Major Work and there
are no lapses for a very high mark or full marks.
 The purpose is clearly established in the Major Work and this is consistent with the
way it is articulated in the Reflection Statement.
 It is clear from reading the work that the student wanted a certain message to be
delivered i.e. purpose and this is clearly woven throughout the work.

3. Demonstrates highly effective manipulation of language, technical skills,

conventions and medium for the intended audience and purpose. This
manipulation is sophisticated and may be inventive and experimental.
There is a conscious and successful shaping of meaning to engage an
audience. This is evident throughout the work.

Demonstrates highly effective manipulation of language, technical skills,

conventions and medium for the intended audience and purpose.
 Manipulation is the focus. Manipulation needs to be effective, linked to rationale and
justifies textual choices appropriate to the nature of the medium.
 The choices made are appropriate to the intended audience and purpose.
 The student demonstrates a clear understanding and research of the medium.
 They are conscious of their process and of the choices made in composing.
 When you get to the Reflection Statement, you will need to be able to target these
specific words: language, technical skills, and conventions. As such, it is crucial that
they are part of your work. Reading ‘how to’ books, as well as other examples of your
form, should expose you to the various skills and conventions that will need attention
in your work. So for example, in the short story form, this might look like the way
you use motifs or character focalisation, while in an essay this will look like thesis
construction and building an argument.
 In terms of engaging an audience, you need to keep asking yourself, will my marker
want to keep turning the pages because my work is so well written and interesting.

This manipulation is sophisticated and may be inventive and experimental.

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  The manipulation therefore has a sense of style and demonstrates full command
without lapses in the chosen register.
 The student has a perceptive understanding about the effectiveness of the choices
made in such manipulation.
 The manipulation produces communication that is clear and successfully achieves the
intended purpose.
 It is appropriate to the intended audience.
 The manipulation is highly developed, complex and refined.
 The Major Work has been edited and proofread.
 The manipulation may be inventive and experimental.
 The inventive and experimental nature of this manipulation does not prevent the
Major Work from fulfilling course requirements.
 Such innovation or experimentation does not impede the unity of the work.

There is a conscious and successful shaping of meaning to engage an

audience.
 The audience is engaged.
 The audience should be discernible in the Major Work and outlined in the Reflection
Statement.
 Both texts (Major Work and Reflection Statement) should function independently and
the intended audience should be clear in each.
 Conscious – the student is highly aware of their process in composing the Major
Work and Reflection Statement.
 Successful – the shaping of meaning is appropriate to the intended audience and
purpose.
 It is effective in engaging the audience.

This is evident throughout the work.

 This conscious and successful shaping of meaning to engage an audience is sustained
throughout the Major Work and is consistent with the Reflection Statement.

4. Composes a sophisticated and critical Reflection Statement that explains

the intentions, development and realisation of the Major Work.

 The scope of the Major Work’s sophistication addresses all bullet point criteria as
specified on page 131 of the Stage 6 English Syllabus.
 A sophisticated Reflection Statement must keep the Major Work within the word
limit of their chosen category. It must
be within 1000 - 1500 words.
 It must reflect on both the process and
the completed product.

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Some thoughts on research and ideas which tend to do
well … as well as some which don’t tend to do well!
When you begin research, the key thing to bear in mind is that you are building on and
increasing your understanding of English and constructing a Major Work that reflects an
extension of your knowledge of English – which is why it is called ‘Extension’.

Therefore, you are entering a vast and developed field of knowledge which you need to
navigate effectively in order to succeed. Whether you are writing a critical essay or a short
story or poetry, you need to research how to do it in a sophisticated way.

It is critical that you start researching early. Term 4, the Christmas holidays and Term 1 are
the main times for your research but you may supplement it in Term 2 (and even Term 3) if
there are some final pieces you are trying to track down.

Your research should reflect the key areas your Major Work will examine: this usually means
it has two strands – the content area of your work AND the medium/genre/form you are
intending to use. For example, if you were writing poetry based in modern Paris, you need to
research Paris (your content area) and how to write poetry (your genre/form). Your research
should be balanced between these two strands. It should be both broad and focused – look at
both ‘how to’ books and courses, but also look at significant examples of published poetry,
past HSC and school showcase pieces.

This notion of entering a field of knowledge, and making yourself familiar with it, and
tracking down relevant sub-fields that are relevant to you, is what the research process is all
about. Follow all leads and suggestions from mentors, parents and friends to make yourself
familiar with the area you are intending to examine. To continue our example, your poetry set
in Paris may take the form of odes as well. Therefore, you would try to examine the fields of
poetry writing, the sub-field of odes and even, perhaps, any examples of crime odes focused
on Paris.

Students should avoid the type of research based exclusively on their own life story, talking
to their friends, watching videos, and scanning the internet. This is why we say no mental
health or teen angst/romance stories. Students need to formulate research questions which
emerge from their analysis, and are specific and achievable. To enter and show sophistication
in your research of a field within subject English, it is important to look for sources that are
sophisticated and thoughtful: University-level articles, quality books, quality literary fiction,
arthouse cinema are the kind of material that will more likely help you shape a sophisticated
Major Work. This kind of research will make it far easier to incorporate one of the
expectations into your Reflection Statement, which is a discussion of how your Extension 2
project emerged out of, or was influenced by Extension 1 and Advanced English in years 11
or 12. Try to follow up some leads you may have gained from those courses and build that
into your research.
Remember to think broadly about your research. If you wish to claim to be writing from a
eco-feminist perspective, or a nihilist one – and so on – you must show a degree of mastery

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of these ways of seeing the world. It is not enough to plug in a whole lot of 'isms' and 'ists' in
the Reflection Statement without adequate explanation and justification.

Finding an idea…
In terms of writing poetry, the greatest success seems to be found by students who write with
a historical focus or those who create a piece that is metafictive – this may be done by writing
a writer’s story in poetic verse or it can be achieved through a playful cognisance of the
writer’s process throughout. The beauty of history lies in the fact that it offers you a very
well-focused episode to research as well as characters and settings relevant to the narrative.
With at least 2000 years of history behind us, it is not difficult to find a story. There are some
events that tend not to engage as well as others, mostly because they have been overdone.
Some examples in this category include wars, especially World War One and Two and the
Vietnam War. The Holocaust is a really important part of history, but it is difficult to do it
justice and write in an authentic way having not been through the horror of that event.
Students often try to create mythological type pieces written in the ancient world, yet these
struggle to do well also. The trick is to find a lesser known historical event which you can
dramatize or take an incredibly original angle on a familiar event. For example, Gail Jones’
recently published Salonika Burning, traces the lives of three women working in a field
hospital near Salonika in WWI. It’s a highly different view on something which is usually
men in trenches at Gallipoli or on the Western Front.
Ideas exist which should be avoided because an enormous number of students try to write on
them, plus it’s very difficult to do so authentically with the required level of research as a 17
year old. While many students have had genuine experiences of mental illness, it is best left
out of the Major Work realm; so too other illnesses such as cancer and dementia. Any sort of
philosophy is best avoided, especially the likes of existentialism, but really any philosophy
whether it be modern or ancient, Western or Eastern. Gratuitous death and sex should be
avoided, likewise stories that revolve around a group of teenagers. You are trying to show
your marker that you are a sophisticated student of English and it is very difficult to show this
in authentic ways if you use the above concepts. Shallow depictions of philosophy do not
equate to sophistication. When writing poetry, students have a tendency to focus on the
highly personal and use it as a place to pour out emotions. This is not something which meets
the demands of the criteria – especially your research into the field.
In terms of writing poetry, students who write a suite of poems seem to do better than those
who write one long epic poem – I think because it’s hard to sustain meter, rhythm etc across
3000 words without a break. While students can poetry which looks at multiple poetic forms,
these responses tend to struggle with purpose and cohesion and therefore don’t do as well as
those who investigate a single form.

A bibliography of ‘how to’ books

on writing poetry…
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 Poetry Davison, C and Frase, G 2008 Writing Poetry: Creative and Red Globe Press
Critical Approaches

Poetry Dobyns, Stephen 1996 Best Words Best Order Palgrave Macmillan

Poetry Eliopulos, Tina and 2005 The Everything Writing Poetry

Moffett, Todd Book

Poetry Foulcher, J 1998 The Song in Your Head; Ways to Heinemann, Melbourne
write and read poetry

Poetry Fry, Stephen 2010 The Ode Less Travelled Hutchinson, London

Poetry Goodwood, John 2011 Poetry: Tools and Techniques Gneiss Press

Poetry Hass, Robert 2018 A Little Book on Form Ecco, New York

Poetry Hirsch, Edward 1999 How to Read A Poem Harvest Book Harcourt,
Inc. London

Poetry Oliver, Mary A Poetry Handbook

Poetry Pretty, R 1987 Creating Poetry Edward Arnold, Australia

Poetry Raine, K 1982 Inner Journey of the Poet Allen & Unwin, U.K.

Also – have a look in your local bookstore on “how to write” books. These are just a taste of
what you might find. We would love to have any feedback on books you found valuable
during your research for future students. Universities and other groups run holiday and
weekday courses in ‘how to write’ and making films which can be very worthwhile. Watch
the papers in October and November for details. Students are advised to consider the Writers’
Centre in Rozelle, the Australian Society of Authors and attend the Sydney Writers’ Festival
held annually in May.
Finally, be sure to research texts in the form you have chosen. So read poetry! Learn the
lessons which are available to you from other writers. How have they constructed a narrative
arc? How many characters are in their poems? How much time is given to developing
setting? How much dialogue is used?

Time to begin writing…

As you start writing, go back to the marking guidelines regularly and turn each of the dot
points into a question. For example, ask yourself, what am I doing so that my marker thinks
this work is original? What conventions of poetry
writing am I including in my poems? What are the
techniques I’ve used in my poetry? Is there evidence
of research into my concept on every page? If you

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are able to answer yes to each of these questions as you proceed, by the end, you should have
a fabulous Major Work!
1. What have I done so far to ensure that my work is highly original?
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2. Is the purpose of my work sustained throughout? Is the poetic form sustained
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3. Is my work coherent? That is, does it make sense? Do all the parts come together?
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4. Is meaning shaped through my work? What is it and where is it?
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 5. What are the insights in my work and where can this be seen? What research have I
done into concept and form and where is this visible in my work?
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6. What is my concept? Where is the visibility of my research into this?
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7. What are the ideas I am trying to communicate? Have I done this in a sophisticated
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8. How would I describe my use of language? Is it authentic to the era, to the character,
to the poetry I am trying to write?

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9. What technical skills have I included in my work? Are they fulfilling a purpose?
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10. Who is my audience? (Remember this will always be your marker, but it should also
be a specified publication or forum)
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11. What is my purpose? This should evolve as your work proceeds and ultimately be
layered in terms of the message you wanted to convey and the choices you made with
regard to experimenting with form.
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 12. What conventions of my form can be seen in my work? How are these conventions
acting to target an audience and convey the purpose of my work?
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13. What is the meaning I want to convey? Where in my work can we say that is
happening consciously and successfully?
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14. Have I engaged my audience? How?

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A few final thoughts…

To create a sophisticated work, you are well advised to give some time to thinking about
layering and voice. It does not matter which form you choose, constructing a work which is
layered and offers a confident and unique voice, will see you go far.

So, what do I mean by layering? Quite literally, I want to see layers in your work. In an
essay, this will probably look like a thesis with multiple prongs which might be related to
concept, theory and form. In a short story, I want to see layers of meaning which may be
offered through events, characterisation, historical backdrop eg. politics, social conditions,
cultural references etc. In poetry, layers need to occur at the word level ie choose words

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 which act as symbols, signifiers or allusions as well as the surface meaning they convey.
Layers should also be relevant within your chosen form. In an essay, this might look like
sections with subtitles. In a short story, this might look like flashbacks or hybridity, such as
including flashbacks or poetry or letters. In poetry, this will be achieved through
intertextually, symbols and allusions.

In explaining your purpose, I would hope to see that you are able to address the different
parts of your poems which are all working together to shape meaning. Think beyond the
character’s story. What do you want to show me about the place they were living in, the
time they were living in, the conditions and beliefs they were trying to manage. What do
you want to show me with regard to a bigger concept, for example, feminism or indigeneity
or technological advancement. And were you wanting to show me something about your
form, about the process of writing or reading, about the role of the writer or the way we
interpret or the value of storytelling?

And what about voice? Every piece of writing comes with a certain voice, but there are a lot
of tricks available to you to create a certain voice and to ensure authenticity.
It can be difficult to get voices right in a poetry. Again, the marker is looking for
confidence, even if you are trying to construct a particularly shy and nervous character. You
need to spend time imagining what would be said in certain circumstances. Voice needs to
be culturally specific and true to the era you are reflecting. Let’s return to our Paris example
– if you have a character living in Paris, you might want to replace every time they say ‘the’
with ‘ze’. Similarly, our Frenchman may well be called Jean-Paul; he is unlikely to be called
Kevin. Don’t tell me he lives in Paris, tell me he lives in the elegant 9th arrondissement on
Boulevarde de Clichy, a block from his favourite Cou Cou Café, where he buys café au lait
every morning on his way to work at the Musee de Gustave Moreau. Within your narrative,
one voice can certainly be your own, but it is important that this is viable. The voice of a 17
year old male probably won’t naturally sound like the voice of a 5 year old female. Every
other voice in your work, needs to be constructed so you need to spend some time thinking
about visual and verbal quirks to delineate your characters.

Needless to say, voice isn’t just about characterisation. The way you narrate a story, even in
poetry, will also show your voice. Again, you want to rely on highly specific details to
create interest and authenticity. There is a fine line between using too many and too few
adjectives and adverbs – err on the side of caution. This story is your own, so think carefully
about the language which will create the atmosphere you require. A meadow of flowers at
sunrise conveys a very different vibe to a mangrove of dead trees at dusk. Don’t hold back,
rather say exactly what the scene requires – if you need graphic and gritty detail, then be
overt – don’t hide behind vague, soft language. Avoid over explaining. You can assume that
your marker understands what you are trying to say; they are smart people, so you don’t
need to spell it out for them. This keeps your writing tight and confident.

Finally, remember that this is a research project, so let your voice and layers reflect the
enormous amount of research you have carried out over many months.

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