06/08/2009 by Aileen.

To sit in my living room in the evening, french doors open to gentle rain, and to hear a green woodpecker yaffling in my neighbour’s garden. Heaven.

(I know it’s a green woodpecker. I saw it a couple of days ago, flying into Sharon’s enormous willow tree. I’ve heard it each day since.)

Also - while I’m in sentimental mood - here is a swan gliding over the pond at the back of the house.There are two of them, and although it’s a bit late in the season, I do wish they would mate.

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06/08/2009 by Aileen.

It makes sense now. I got 71% for the story and 92% for continous assessment which brings my mark to 82%.

This is much nearer what I was expecting. Thought 71% was the overall and couldn’t understand it.

Hey, three marks off a distinction isn’t bad. The story was probably a bit too chick lit. I’m still a bit peeved at not getting a higher score for presentation though. Maybe I sent in a draft copy!

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06/08/2009 by Aileen.

A215 results were out today. I got 72% and a Grade 2 pass. It might sound daft, but I really thought I would do better than this. My five pieces of course work gained 88%   95%   94%   96%   95%

I don’t think it’s the sort course where you do worse on the exam, as the conditions for writing are just the same and we had ages to work on it. Of course there’s a different marker, and creative writing is so sbjective.

Looking at the breakdown of the marks I got ‘good’ (between 70% abnd 84%) on language, voice and ideas, but only a ‘clear pass’ (between 55% and 69%) for structure and presentation of the story, and the analysis and presentation of my commentary.

My presentation was spot on as you can’t go wrong with this. (the typefont, line spacing etc) and with four more marks I could have got a distinction. How could I not have got four more marks for presentation?

Actually, I think I might query this. I know it doesn’t really matter, but I find it puzzling that I didn’t do better.

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