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Assignments

I have been to high school and university—no primary school—and for many subjects I have been required to write essays and to complete reports. I have here some of those, which I have modified slightly from the originals according to the comments that the tutor or teacher scribbled in the margins. They may not necessarily be very good, although for a number I did receive rather high marks.

Use the arrows within the assignments and essays to go to the next one on the list.

Imagery in Macbeth [ read ] 5kb
Year 12 was full of essays on topics that at times I would have left alone, if it was up to me, but on looking back, this is a particularly interesting essay. I hated it at the time as I remember, but Macbeth was and is a great play that deserves to be pored over again and again, which I will do many times before I die (may it be many years from now). The mark received for this essay was high. Comments: "Erika, a very well constructed piece showing excellent understanding of imagery in the play. Good use of quotations to support the points being made."

Poems Unravelled [ read ] 6kb
Ah, the joys of in-class essays. I received full marks for this effort—thankyou, thankyou. I was as surprised as anyone … and the pencil marks that were on the returned assignment shows that the marker hadn't a clue what a "byliny" was so ha! I knew more than them. This was the first part of a two-part in-class examination, and the other one involves the interpretation of individual poems, and I don't want to put the poems online in case I get into trouble or something.

America and Australia—Influences [ read ] 4kb
This appears to be a rather convoluted yet overly simplistic essay. Surely the US cannot be held responsible for Australia and our changes; nor do I truly believe that what is written is wholly true. Our tastes are our tastes, and should they concur with the US, then so be it. But it is not true anyway; look at the top 10 US and the top 10 Australia (in music); they are considerably different! Fashion, yes, well, it resembles that of the US, but then again, most of that of the Western world does. And as for language … language is a dynamic thing anyhow. It changes all the time, and there is no such thing as the perfect Australian English, let alone pronunciation. Comments: "Erika, a well-developed argument with only a few lapses in sentence structure. Proof-reading should eliminate these."

Double Hulling [ read ] 4kb
Reading this essay again upon typing it, the language was strong; overly so. It was replete with "merciless deaths" etc etc; not stuff that should really be in an essay, opinionative or not. I did get a little carried away. Comments: "Erika, some phrasing is still a little awkward, but generally a well structured and well written essay." Find out if you think it is too. Read it.

The Chrysalids—Title Evaluation [ read ] 4kb
Anyone not read Wyndham's classic? Hands up? Well, then you don't know what you are missing. The fact that I had to dissect this book in various ways made me only enjoy it all the more. I did a little research on the title, and this is what resulted. Perhaps Wyndham did mean for this interpretation; perhaps he did not (although somewhat unlikely). This is what I came up with and what I believe to this day.

The Chrysalids—Petra Strorm [ read ] 3kb
A relatively short character analysis of Petra Strorm, one of the characters of Wyndham's book. A bit of it was obviously directed at the teacher for marks—most especially the soppy end comments. I can't believe that I wrote that, so obvious it is as to whom it was directed.

The Qing Dynasty and the West [ read ] 8kb
Some history for you. The Qing Dynasty was the last of the Chinese dynasty. Here, the West's cruel involvement in affairs none of their business shows how it exacerbated an already tense situation. On purpose. For economic reasons. It destroyed a proud country and sought to undermine their government, for crying out loud! They succeeded, too, unfortunately.

Rally Around the Flag Boys—Vietnam [ read ] 8kb
A strong piece about Australia and her involvement in the Vietnam war. The causes of the war are looked at; the United States' reasons for promoting and protracting the war. The reasons for Australia's decision to contribute to what was essentially none of her business are mentioned, and the politics of the time. Truly, it was a dick-head war, and those that thought to subjegate Asia got what they deserved—even Australia. It is the stupidest war that I can think of—no disrespect to the veterans, you had to go -- because what happened really only concerned the Vietnamese.

Hitler [ read ] 3kb
Just a few words on Hitler; a short assignment I was compelled to do in the completion of an analysis of the book The Summer of my German Soldier. Not a bad book, just not my type really.