What Is Success?

Apologies for not getting the following up. I thought I’d copied the file to my pendrive. What follows is the full text from the handout.

You can ask questions as comments at the bottom of the post.

WHAT IS SUCCESS?

• Write down the names of 5 people you think are successful.
• Write down the reasons you think they are a success?
• Write down 5 ways someone could be judged successful?
• Write down 5 qualities that will help people be a success.
• For each if these questions, YOU have been making decisions.
• For each of these questions, YOU have been writing YOUR point of view.

W1: DISCURSIVE WRITING

Task: What is success?

You are to write an essay of between 600-800 words (with an absolute maximum of 999!) on what you think success is.

PLAN 1. define success… Tell the reader what you think success is; 2. give examples of people you think have been successful, and try to explain why they have been successful in your eyes; 3. write about the qualities that you think bring success… and try to give suggestions for how others can be successful; 4. finish off by summing up your main points in a few sentences. If possible, try to make your last sentence a question that challenges the reader to be a success.

IDEAS

Success is not just money — anyone could win the lottery (that is ‘luck’ NOT success)! It can be measured in terms of family, friends, money, fame, power, skill, respect, influence… or any one if a hundred other measures.

What you think counts as success may not be the same as the person next to you… we are all different, so what we see as success will be different as well.

WHAT TO DO

Look at the notes you made in response to the original questions.

How much of what you have written is opinion, and how much is factual? (Opinions are good, but you do need facts to back them up — time to hit the library/Internet/bookshop)

Find evidence to support the reasons you think the people you have identified are successful.

Eg: Richard Branson: Started the Virgin Record label [QUOTATION TO SUPPORT], then moved into retail (with the Virgin stores) then got into transport with Virgin Rail and Virgin Air [QUOTATION TO SUPPORT], this also allowed him to start Virgin Holidays (these actually started small with one luxury island in the Caribbean) [QUOTATION TO SUPPORT] and now he is about to take people into space with his Virgin Space project. Each of these projects has been very successful financially [QUOTATION TO SUPPORT], and this has made him one of the richest men in the world – he is a great success at business. This is because he has worked hard and persevered even when others have thought he was mad or foolish[QUOTATION TO SUPPORT] to do so.

(I have deliberately not given any evidence here to stop you simply copying my ideas… but what you can see is places where you could or should USE EVIDENCE. Every time I make a statement, I should think about backing it up with evidence).

How would you measure success?

You will need to explain to the marker how YOU would measure success… this will be even stronger if you can effectively persuade the marker that you have good reasons, or can make your reasons personal.

And here are the slides I used in class:

Use the comments to ask questions. 8)

What Is Success?

In a moment of great stupidity, I’ve left the original Word file on my PC at school… and therefore cannot access it… HOWEVER…

The task is roughly as follows (please use the comments to add more, especially if you have the sheet at home!)

What is success?

I asked you to think of:

• five people you consider successful;
• five ways of measuring success;
• five qualities that help make you successful.

From this, I asked you to try and come up with a definition of what success is.

The people you mentioned will help you provide EVIDENCE to support your point of view, and the points you made on measuring success and the qualities that help you be successful, will help you make a strong argument.

I gave the following rough outline to point you in the right direction by using Richard Branson as an example of a successful business man.

Richard Branson started by creating a record label [QUOTATION/EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT] which was very successful. From here, he was able to start the Virgin Stores [QUOTATION/EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT] to sell records. Following the success of this, he became involved in travel [QUOTATION/EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT] when he started companies like Virgin Rail [QUOTATION/EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT] and Virgin Airlines [QUOTATION/EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT]. This also allowed him to form Virgin Holidays [QUOTATION/EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT]. His latest idea is to send tourists into space on a Virgin Spaceship [QUOTATION/EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT].

Now, I know that this is a pretty inaccurate summing up of Richard Branson’s career, but the point of doing this was to show you places where you might need to find evidence to support what you are trying to say. Yours will be MUCH better!

Don’t forget to keep a note of the places you find your evidence as you will need to include this information in the final essay!

The (very) rough plan for your essay is as follows:

1. Introduction: say what you think success is, and mention how you are going to use some people to show what you think is true;
2. Evidence section: Use your example(s) to make the points and to support your argument. Remember the importance of TOPIC SENTENCES and LINK SENTENCES to make your writing better.
3. Conclusion: Remind the reader of your thoughts on what success is and how you can achieve it.

Obviously, there is more information on the sheet I gave you… I’ll attach it to this post when I get back on Monday.

FINALLY: Remember that we do not have (and are not able to get) access to PCs in the school so you are going to have to do lots of this as homework. You can stay after school to work in the Library, or you may prefer to go into the library in Perth.

 

Please leave your thoughts as comments, and don’t hesitate to ask questions if you are stuck. I’ll see what I can do to help!

 

Test Post From PA

This is a test

The Text (at last)

Boot Camp

I still prefer this to Military school. Having the chance to actually shoot people instead of dummies. Even thought that was my favourite subject. I laughed quietly to myself. ìWhatís so funny?î Charlie asked. He laughed, echoing me. Charlie was like my big brother. Well. Sometimes, it depended what mood he was in. Charlie has been here since he was eighteen. HmmÖ If I joined when I was younger does that make me more experienced? ìYou know kiddo; your mind wanders a lot more than an average sixteen years olds.î I made a funny huff under my breath. ìShut up Charlieî I said sharply. I suppose if heís 24 that mean heís been here for 6 years but what about me? I canít remember when I joined. I walked over to my tent that I shared with my campmates. I say mates but Charlie was the only ëmateí I had here. I shared the compact space with three older girls. But honestly I donít think you would notice them as girls unless you saw them this often. The first was Bobby. She joined a few days after I did and I still despise her for it. She has long black hair that she ties back with a rubber band and insists she doesnít need to wash but her size tells a different story. She is really, really big. Not in height but in width and the reason sheís here must embarrass her because she never talks about it. In fact she never talks at all. Her fistís do enough of that. I call her blobby but after she found out she sort of got me back for it. I still call her blobby but only behind her back. I donít even dare to say it under my breath after my broken wrist. I always wander how she can fit into her uniform. Shauna is quite short and so is her hair. I envied her. Her bright pink hair stuck up in spikes and looked awesome. I once sat up one night making plans on how I could take in from her and stick it on my own head with permanent glue. She was quick and light fingered. Shauna was outgoing and loud. Her look really reflects her personality. Sheís friends with everyone. I suppose I did get along Shauna But that only raised my friend count to two. The other girl I didnít know much about but I didnít want to. Her head was always in a book so I never got a good look at her face. I think her name was Maggie or Megan or something like that. I thought of her as bookworm. Her medium mousey brown hair lay on her bony shoulders and flowed down past he elbow then stopped. Her round brown spectacles sat on her long nose and were a sight to see. They reminded me of a teacher from the world war. I donít know why sheís here. She surely canít have done anything wrong being such a goody two shoes. Shauna was brought here a few months ago for robbing several banks around the country and she wouldnít stay in prison. Although she very rarely got caught. Blobby was accused of suffocating her little brother by sitting on his head when he was sleeping. She had only been here a few weeks. Bookworm has been here since I arrived but I never met her properly. What could she have done to end up in place like this and for so long? I was lost in my train of thought when someone sat beside me. This was new because Charlie was the only person I liked and even Shauna didnít dare sit close to me in front of blobby. I cocked my head to the side and it was Maggie or Moggie or Megan whatever. ìH-hiî She stuttered. Was she afraid of me or something? I chuckled. She wouldnít give up although I was clearly uninterested in her small talk. ìIím Samanthaî Wow. I was way off. Does ëSamanthaí even have a G in it? ìíSupî I murmured sourly. She looked at me curiously. Clearly she didnít know what sup meant. I tried a different approach. ìIím Joeî I never used my full name. Joanna has never suited me. When heís winding me up Charlie calls me that but he knows I canít stand it. No one knows my last name from what I gathered ease dropping on staff meetingís I was left on their door step when I was a baby. A man called Arthur looked after me and I remember him bouncing me on his knee but then the accident happened. I shook my head trying to get rid of the memory. She tapped my shoulder cautiously. I didnít blame her I fought s hard as I could not to give her a piece of my mind. It reminded me of those cartoons. I felt like steam was coming out of my ears. I was about to stand up but I stubbed my toe. ìOuchî I regretted saying that word all the time. It was a sign of weakness Bookworm looked up. She asked me if I was okay but I ignored her. . I walked across the camp to the caravan for our daily meal. They were numbered. 1-9. Shauna, Blobby, Bookworm and I shared a caravan with number three. This was Charlieís group. Our tent is number 6.I sat down beside Charlie at one of four tables. He looked at me as if he was expecting something. ìNo ëHií? He asked then he sighed. ìJust remembered the morning run?î He chuckled. Morning run? What morning run? Was I even there when they discussed it? Although, I did skip training last week and the week before. ìOhÖdaî I didnít finish my sentence before the announcer boomed across the camp with her microphone. ìAll traineeís to Main Square immediately!î I groaned. I was to tired to walk never mind run and our itchy sheet less mattresses didnít contribute to comfort. Charlie rose and grinned at me. Lucky idiot. He got to do target practice and I loved that but no, I had to run 16 miles around the Square before I could do anything exciting. I jogged over to the Main Square because that was the only warm up I could squeeze in. I was already late. When we started it turned into a race. I overlapped blobby and Bookworm easily but Shauna was more difficult. I ran so fast that I didnít feel my feet touch the ground but I noticed that it wasnít a good thing. I started to feel lightheaded.

Boot Camp Text

Here is the original text. It is in .txt format so it can be opened in just about anything.

Apologies for the delay. I had forgotten to send it to myself.

If you go this route, you can have till Friday.

Text here…

It looks like I am unable to upload the text as a file, so here it is in full.

Boot Camp

I still prefer this to Military school. Having the chance to actually shoot people instead of dummies. Even thought that was my favourite subject. I laughed quietly to myself. “What’s so funny?” Charlie asked. He laughed, echoing me. Charlie was like my big brother. Well. Sometimes, it depended what mood he was in. Charlie has been here since he was eighteen. Hmm… If I joined when I was younger does that make me more experienced? “You know kiddo; your mind wanders a lot more than an average sixteen years olds.” I made a funny huff under my breath. “Shut up Charlie” I said sharply. I suppose if he’s 24 that mean he’s been here for 6 years but what about me? I can’t remember when I joined. I walked over to my tent that I shared with my campmates. I say mates but Charlie was the only ‘mate’ I had here. I shared the compact space with three older girls. But honestly I don’t think you would notice them as girls unless you saw them this often. The first was Bobby. She joined a few days after I did and I still despise her for it. She has long black hair that she ties back with a rubber band and insists she doesn’t need to wash but her size tells a different story. She is really, really big. Not in height but in width and the reason she’s here must embarrass her because she never talks about it. In fact she never talks at all. Her fist’s do enough of that. I call her blobby but after she found out she sort of got me back for it. I still call her blobby but only behind her back. I don’t even dare to say it under my breath after my broken wrist. I always wander how she can fit into her uniform. Shauna is quite short and so is her hair. I envied her. Her bright pink hair stuck up in spikes and looked awesome. I once sat up one night making plans on how I could take in from her and stick it on my own head with permanent glue. She was quick and light fingered. Shauna was outgoing and loud. Her look really reflects her personality. She’s friends with everyone. I suppose I did get along Shauna But that only raised my friend count to two. The other girl I didn’t know much about but I didn’t want to. Her head was always in a book so I never got a good look at her face. I think her name was Maggie or Megan or something like that. I thought of her as bookworm. Her medium mousey brown hair lay on her bony shoulders and flowed down past he elbow then stopped. Her round brown spectacles sat on her long nose and were a sight to see. They reminded me of a teacher from the world war. I don’t know why she’s here. She surely can’t have done anything wrong being such a goody two shoes. Shauna was brought here a few months ago for robbing several banks around the country and she wouldn’t stay in prison. Although she very rarely got caught. Blobby was accused of suffocating her little brother by sitting on his head when he was sleeping. She had only been here a few weeks. Bookworm has been here since I arrived but I never met her properly. What could she have done to end up in place like this and for so long? I was lost in my train of thought when someone sat beside me. This was new because Charlie was the only person I liked and even Shauna didn’t dare sit close to me in front of blobby. I cocked my head to the side and it was Maggie or Moggie or Megan whatever. “H-hi” She stuttered. Was she afraid of me or something? I chuckled. She wouldn’t give up although I was clearly uninterested in her small talk. “I’m Samantha” Wow. I was way off. Does ‘Samantha’ even have a G in it? “’Sup” I murmured sourly. She looked at me curiously. Clearly she didn’t know what sup meant. I tried a different approach. “I’m Joe” I never used my full name. Joanna has never suited me. When he’s winding me up Charlie calls me that but he knows I can’t stand it. No one knows my last name from what I gathered ease dropping on staff meeting’s I was left on their door step when I was a baby. A man called Arthur looked after me and I remember him bouncing me on his knee but then the accident happened. I shook my head trying to get rid of the memory. She tapped my shoulder cautiously. I didn’t blame her I fought s hard as I could not to give her a piece of my mind. It reminded me of those cartoons. I felt like steam was coming out of my ears. I was about to stand up but I stubbed my toe. “Ouch” I regretted saying that word all the time. It was a sign of weakness Bookworm looked up. She asked me if I was okay but I ignored her. . I walked across the camp to the caravan for our daily meal. They were numbered. 1-9. Shauna, Blobby, Bookworm and I shared a caravan with number three. This was Charlie’s group. Our tent is number 6.I sat down beside Charlie at one of four tables. He looked at me as if he was expecting something. “No ‘Hi’? He asked then he sighed. “Just remembered the morning run?” He chuckled. Morning run? What morning run? Was I even there when they discussed it? Although, I did skip training last week and the week before. “Oh…da” I didn’t finish my sentence before the announcer boomed across the camp with her microphone. “All trainee’s to Main Square immediately!” I groaned. I was to tired to walk never mind run and our itchy sheet less mattresses didn’t contribute to comfort. Charlie rose and grinned at me. Lucky idiot. He got to do target practice and I loved that but no, I had to run 16 miles around the Square before I could do anything exciting. I jogged over to the Main Square because that was the only warm up I could squeeze in. I was already late. When we started it turned into a race. I overlapped blobby and Bookworm easily but Shauna was more difficult. I ran so fast that I didn’t feel my feet touch the ground but I noticed that it wasn’t a good thing. I started to feel lightheaded.

Once More With The File!

Oops… forgot to attach the file!

Boot Camp Text

Apologies for the delay. I had forgotten to send the file to my home so I could upload it, and the original was not available to me. As a result, if you wish to edit the text file, you can now submit this to me on Friday rather than Thursday.

The text is now here. Just click to download the file. It is a .txt file, so should open in any word processor.

Test

Taking Apart A Sonnet

As promised, here are the slides I was using in class. You can go through them at your leisure, and feel free to use the comments to ask any questions!

Next up is the poem we were looking at in class. For copyright reasons, I cannot post it here myself, however, you can find it HERE!

Lastly, here is the Grid we were using in class. It’s available as a PDF: Sonnet Toolkit or a M$Word document: Sonnet Toolkit.

Dont hesitate to leave a comment if you want clarification! ;