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another 'should i do the subject?' (1 Viewer)

~*~loz~*~23797

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hey,
i have read the other threads asking the same question and the response seems to be 'GO FOR IT!'
wondering if anyone would like to inform me on how the subject is run. i go to a small-ish school and therefore not may students would take up the subject and only 8 people from my year are doing english extension 1.
i am into creative writing and if i do take upon what seems to be a fun yet draining experiance then i will be dropping visual arts.
i am currently in logger heads about this and the opinion and insight of everyone will be appreciated!
 

Dave2007

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EE2 is the least work of any course in the entire HSC, including aboriginal studies.

DO IT!!!

Your school may be different from other schools, being smaller and all, but at most... There is a "proposal" due at the end of term 4, where you write what you plan to do, a viva voce at the end of term 1 where you just have a chat/speech about how its all going, and a report about the impact of independent investigation on your major work (think an english essay on acid where you have to do all the work). Then around this time of the year you hand in the major work.

These are four very workable tasks, not the draining goliath many portray it to be. If you have a good idea - or even a workable idea, that you can justify the problems of throughout these 4 tasks, you will do very well.
 

jimmayyy

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while i totally disagree with the poster above me re: ee2 being the least work, he's right about going to a small school. hopefully you have an even smaller class for ee2 (3 or 4 people), be able to bond really well with the writers around you and be on a good personal level with your teacher. like pointed out, if you have some sort of idea for a concept, the course is extremley fun as long as you are passionate about what you are doing.
 

~*~loz~*~23797

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thanks a lot for the replies.
i am really pumped about doing the subject
your insight helped especially the details given in the first reply.
thanks :D
 

Girlfriend

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Dave2007 said:
EE2 is the least work of any course in the entire HSC, including aboriginal studies.

DO IT!!!

Your school may be different from other schools, being smaller and all, but at most... There is a "proposal" due at the end of term 4, where you write what you plan to do, a viva voce at the end of term 1 where you just have a chat/speech about how its all going, and a report about the impact of independent investigation on your major work (think an english essay on acid where you have to do all the work). Then around this time of the year you hand in the major work.

These are four very workable tasks, not the draining goliath many portray it to be. If you have a good idea - or even a workable idea, that you can justify the problems of throughout these 4 tasks, you will do very well.

entirely disagree. ee2 took up most of my time and if ur gonna do the subject properly, it'll be the subject requiring the most amount of work because of all the research you have to do (if u want good marks that is). i'll tell you, it is definitely a draining experience. nevertheless, there's this huge relief after you've finished it and definitely a rewarding experience.
 

tanjin

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Dave2007 said:
EE2 is the least work of any course in the entire HSC, including aboriginal studies.

DO IT!!!
NO FRIGGIN WAY. I have no idea how you could possibly say that.

To ~*~loz~*~23797 - It's a 4 unit course - there is quite a lot of work involved. Do not waste any time, manage stress and time properly and this course will be simple. Procrastinate and you are fucked. Try and get most of your research done in the early stages of the course so when its close to hand in time...you won't have to worry about fixing up your journal - because its completely empty, in the last minute.

Definitely have a go at it because i loved this course and there's a lot of freedom with what you can do but remember that there is a fair bit of work to do. :)
 
Last edited:

naughtymanolo

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i found it to be the least time consuming of all my majors, and the one that needed the least though (concept wise) then again i had most my drafts finished by the start of yr 12 cos i knew i was goign to do the subject and what my plot was.
 

Studly.McGee

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It can be as little or as much work as you want it to be, and depending on your intial skill as a writer, your mark will be reflected in that.

The syllabus states that the course is comprised of 'systematic, rigourous and intensive investigation' (not verbatim, but words to that effect) and it is in this sense that the researching process of the major work should not be taken lightly, even if you are doing a short story.

That said, I implore everyone to do the course. It is an amazing experience and if you do EE1, you'd be stupid to not do EE2.

If EE2 was a female, I would tap that.
 

starrysky

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Dave2007 said:
EE2 is the least work of any course in the entire HSC, including aboriginal studies.

DO IT!!!
Yeeeee ... no. Not quite. I have to disagree with you. But this depends on how your school goes about teaching the subjects. Some schools have very in-depth lessons where the teacher is involved directly in research that's conducted, and where almost everything is done in-school. At the other end of the spectrum, other schools only have EE2 lessons once every week or fortnight, perhaps to explore the medium through the distribution of various examples of whatever medium it is, to check up on Journal entry and progress, etc; in this latter case, most of the work is done independently by students.

So it depends on which way you look at it.

But back to the point.

DO IT. DO IT. DO IT.

Come to the EE2 side. We have cookies.

No, seriously. EE2 has been by far my favourite subject of the ten units that I'm doing (goodbye UAI of 83, but that's another incohesive 5:30 AM rant for another day); it allowed me to express things that I'm passionate about, through a medium that I consider my strengths. And you can get to know people in creepy ways, too - I found out how my classmate ticks by reading her Major Work and finding a flaw in her main character in the way he reacts to bad situations (heh, I feel so evil ...). But that's beside the point ...

EE2's an insightful and fun course. How difficult it turns out to be depends entirely on how difficult you make it for yourself; some people I know attempted post-modernism and tackled the ex-gay movement or chose scarily in-depth, omniscient psychoanalytical viewpoints for their Major Works, and the amount of research they ended up having to do boggled the mind. BOGGLED, I say. But others I know drew a lot from personal experience (myself included), with some research needed, but not nearly as much as others.

The good thing about EE2 is that you have free reign over pretty much everything you do. Just don't go forming a montage of porn-esque sequences or we'll all be worrying. :p I jest. But seriously - you have practically limitless creative freedom when it comes to what you do. The only other course that really gives you that is, of course, Visual Arts.

BESIDES! ("Oh shit," they say, "the ramble continues ... let's run while we can!") It's entirely up to you, but balancing Visual Arts and EE2 is very very very very (very very very) possible; the two correlate in many ways, and although the workload may seem really taxing, they are fun subjects. I didn't take VA for the HSC, but my friend did both for hers and she turned out fine. *nods encouragingly*

OH.

But some advice, at this point (as you've indicated great excitement about doing EE2, so let's party, yo.):

DON'T go changing your idea a term before the process ends.

...

... that's it. :) I've known people who've done that and managed to get through everything, and then others who almost ripped their hair out (or they might've just been moulting excessively ...) from the same decision. SO! *breathes*

That's my two (billion) cents. Best of luck with EE2! And let us know how you're going with it, yes?

:)
 

~*~loz~*~23797

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thanks again
letting all know, i am indeed doing the subject that seems to be a lot of fun and a reasonable amount of work

have a few ideas in mind, but i will keep those for later :p
anyway
thanks
 

shut up

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i l0ved it. yes, it is work but its generally fun work. it depends on ur writing skills definitly - i worked really hard on my first drafts, then a month before it was due started from scratch - i do mean completely from scratch - and wrote it all in a week. (this was the holidays though)
do it
but do it as an extra unit if u can, in case u have a disaster like mine or in case sum1 ahead of u in ranking does shithouse
 

spythan

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~*~loz~*~23797 said:
hey,
i have read the other threads asking the same question and the response seems to be 'GO FOR IT!'
wondering if anyone would like to inform me on how the subject is run. i go to a small-ish school and therefore not may students would take up the subject and only 8 people from my year are doing english extension 1.
i am into creative writing and if i do take upon what seems to be a fun yet draining experiance then i will be dropping visual arts.
i am currently in logger heads about this and the opinion and insight of everyone will be appreciated!

GO FOR IT!!
 

patty4848

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Hey I've already decided to do Ext 2 English next term, and my teacher recommended that I do it as well so I will be...I'm just wondering -
- How much 'stuff' gets put into the journal (as in how many pages of research roughly)
I know it will vary depending on what you're doing, but just as a general idea...or just at least tell me how much everyone has got in their journal now.

BTW, I go to a selective school and we get roughly 15 people each year doing EE2...However, we will only be meeting once every 2-3 weeks with the teacher to talk about it...Is this disadvantaging me? I didn't know that people had classes for it!
 

starrysky

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patty4848 said:
Hey I've already decided to do Ext 2 English next term, and my teacher recommended that I do it as well so I will be...I'm just wondering -
- How much 'stuff' gets put into the journal (as in how many pages of research roughly)
I know it will vary depending on what you're doing, but just as a general idea...or just at least tell me how much everyone has got in their journal now.

BTW, I go to a selective school and we get roughly 15 people each year doing EE2...However, we will only be meeting once every 2-3 weeks with the teacher to talk about it...Is this disadvantaging me? I didn't know that people had classes for it!
1. EVERYTHING you could possibly stuff in there pertaining to the process of independent research and composition. Once you have your central themes and idea down-pat, start to research. And every bit of research, even if it only has, say, 25% relevance to your idea, print it out/photocopy it/whatever, and stick it in. Just make sure it's all in a cohesive, sensible order or you might make the marker rip their hair out. :p

My journal only ended up 2cm thick, but my idea wasn't very hefty on the research in the first place. My Major Work was an autobiographical piece that made fair use of roman a clef, so the only themes I had to research into were some things that obviously needed research in addition to a personal touch.

2. Classes. You're only meeting once every FORTNIGHT? No offence, but holy shit. Believe me now, that may seem alright for others, but if you feel in least bit that it'll disadvantage you, don't fall into the routine. Go and see your teacher every week if you need to. I saw my teachers twice a week for the scheduled lessons (one was Tuesday afternoon, one was Wednesday afternoon), but I felt that wasn't enough. In the peak time of EE2, I was seeing them almost every day continuously for two weeks with re-written versions, hastily stapled bits of research that had tea stains all over them from the previous night, etc.

Essentially, what I'm saying is that whenever you feel like you need to see your teacher, go for it, even if you don't have a lesson that day/week. It's up to you - ultimately, this is a very independence-oriented course, and it's up to you to do everything you need to do in order to produce the finest package you can give to the markers (reflection statement, major work, journal).

PS: Do you have MSN? PM me and I can give you mine if you'd like an EE2 2007 kid to talk to. :)
 
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NO WAY is eng ext2 the subject with the least work...please trust me on that

patty
classes whether you attend or not doesnt really matter much seeing as you dont learn anything in class..its more just support and to keep you knowing what you have to do next...so whenever you need to talk to your teachers..that is what they are for really *shrugs*...so its no disadvantage

also with the journal...they rarely look at it. Just use it to organize your thoughts...keep all your research together...it is the best way and even if they didnt ask for a journal is really affective...so use it as something to help you and not something just for markers...everyone uses it differently and to different degrees..so dontworry to much.

just remember to update it when new things come your way
 

Guol

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I'm also considering taking this subject - some of you may have seen my thread.

Just a quick question:
what kind of things are you able to do for EE2.
I mean I guess there's the usual stories and poetry. And probably films, right?
But what else is there, and what are the word counts / time limits?
 

sarakelly89

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i completely agree with 'girlfriend' that EE2 is not the subject requiring the least work. It was my most draining subject and the research was so extensive it took up most of my time. I loved this course because I love to write and that is the only reason i got through it. It is a lot of work, but totally worth it:)
oh and in reply to the comment about Aboriginal Studies, it is definately not easy! I did that too and worked my arse off!! So much content made it one of my more difficult subjects. I hope ihave been some help!!
 

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