COMPONENT 3 - EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!!

This post is going to outline how you should go about writing your pieces, what you should put into them, and what you need to talk about in your commentary. Essentially, this will be your guidebook for the component!


Genre


So, firstly you need to take genre into account. We have no idea what genres it is going to ask you to write. It could be anything really. However, what you will need to do is to decide on about five CLEAR conventions that should be present in whatever genre it asks you to write, and make sure you put these conventions into your writing. Again, you need to be confident with these, stay calm, and make effective decisions. I WILL MAKE MULTIPLE BLOG POSTS SUGGESTING CONVENTIONS FOR LOTS OF GENRES.


Here is an example:


If it asks you to write an extract from a short story, make sure you put in FIVE conventions of short stories. Eg, make sure you use highly descriptive language, use subtle details to characterise your protagonist, use aptronyms (names which mean something), make sure you have a strong plot arc, make sure that you use setting to affect mood (pathetic fallacy etc).


These are not the only conventions of short stories. They are just the FIVE that I came up with on the spot. It doesn't matter if you decide on five totally different things. That is just you showing your skill as a writer. These conventions will help you to shape and craft your writing rather than staring at a blank page for ten minutes.


Here is another example:


If it asks you to write a monologue, put in conventions like this: A strong personal/realistic voice for the character (idiolect/sociolect, some non-verbal features), stage directions at start of monologue, a 'fade to black', embedded stage directions, an honest and confessional tone.


Again, I just thought of those on the spot, but they are very definitely things that we find in monologues. You MUST be brave and ensure that you make decisions about what needs to go into your writing, and use these conventions as a frame-work.


Nobody is expecting you to write a prize-winning piece of writing. They just want you to look like you know what you are doing, follow specific rules and conventions, and then point out what you have done in your commentary.


Audience and Purposes/Attitudes


As well as the conventions of the GENRE, you also need a strong sense of AUDIENCE and PURPOSE in your writing. All this means is that, you should have a specific audience in mind when you start writing, and you should put a few things in there which will appeal to that specific audience. Additionally, you should have one or two specific purposes within your writing, and you should write to these purposes.


If you do all of the above, your commentary will be very straightforward.


Like so: (No intro)


Paragraph 1 - Talk about how you have met the conventions of the genre (mention all the individual things you have done, and analyse their effectiveness using terms)


Paragraph 2 - Talk about the purposes/attitudes you set out to achieve. Provide quotes to show how you have done this and analyse their effectiveness using terms.


Paragraph 3 - Talk about what specific audience you set out to appeal to.  Provide quotes to show how you have done this and analyse their effectiveness using terms.


You probably will not have much more time to do anything else. If you do, then simply continue to add points analysing what you have done. DO NOT WRITE AN INTRO FOR YOUR COMMENTARY. GET STRAIGHT INTO THE ANALYSIS.