VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Personal Journey
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 90%: Everyone notices the empty chair beside me but no one asks who it belongs to. It has a name. Not someone…
Everyone notices the empty chair beside me but no one asks who it belongs to.
It
has
a
name.
Not someone living. Not someone dead. The spare chair belongs to Maron, and she takes up exactly the right amount of space.
The classroom empties the same way every Friday. Chairs scrape against the floor, bags zip shut, and the door creaks closed. One by one, the noise disappears down the corridor until there is nothing left but the hum of the lights. I am always the one who stays behind, watching their backs vanish through the doorway.
I catch sight of them through the window as they cross the oval, four of them, already laughing at something I can't hear.
I tighten my grip on my pen, tracing its familiar edge.
"Look at them," Maron scoffs, letting the word fall with a quiet contempt. "Their simplicity is fascinating."
Their footsteps fade beyond me, carrying them along a path I’ve never stepped on.
I know them all separately. The loudest, the latest, the one who smooths things over before they break.
This kind of information accumulates without your knowing and finds a way to stay without your permission.
“They always laugh like that,” Maron murmurs. “It’s not even amusing.” I leave her words where they are. They are easier to hold than the silence outside.
Through the window, the tall one starts another impression. I lean closer, catching only fragments of her voice until the punchline reaches me.
Without warning, something escapes, a laugh, abrupt and unwelcome. My hand flies to my mouth but it's already out, spilling into a silence that wasn't built to hold it.
Another follows before I can swallow the first. Two laughs now, loose in a room with no one to catch them, no one to laugh back. I watch them outside, one covering her mouth, eyes crinkling as the other bends forward beside her.
Outside, they fold into laughter, shoulders touching, pulled toward each other.
Whatever is pulling them stops short of me.
Maron taps her pencil against my desk, waiting for my attention.
“Look at this,” she chuckles. She spins the pencil between her fingers, nearly dropping it before catching it again. “Still got it.”
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Personal Journey
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 87.5%: Everyone notices the empty chair beside me but no one has ever asked who it belongs to. It has a name. Not…
Everyone notices the empty chair beside me but no one has ever asked who it belongs to.
It
has
a
name.
Not someone living. Not someone dead. The spare chair belongs to Maron, and she takes up exactly the right amount of space.
The classroom empties the same way every Friday. Chairs scrape against the floor, bags zip shut, and the door creaks closed. One by one, the noise disappears down the corridor until there is nothing left but the hum of the lights. I am always the one who stays behind, watching their backs vanish through the doorway.
I catch sight of them through the window as they cross the oval, four of them, already laughing at something I can't hear.
I tighten my grip on my pen, tracing its familiar edge.
"Look at them," Maron scoffs, letting the word fall with a quiet contempt. "Their simplicity is fascinating."
Their footsteps fade beyond me, carrying them along a path I’ve never stepped on.
I know them all separately. The loudest, the latest, the one who smooths things over before they break.
This kind of information accumulates without your knowing and finds a way to stay without your permission.
“They always laugh like that,” Maron murmurs. “It’s not even amusing.” I leave her words where they are. They are easier to hold than the silence outside.
Through the window, the tall one starts another impression. I lean closer, catching only fragments of her voice until the punchline reaches me.
Without warning, something escapes, a laugh, abrupt and unwelcome. My hand flies to my mouth but it's already out, spilling into a silence that wasn't built to hold it.
Another follows before I can swallow the first. Two laughs now, loose in a room with no one to catch them, no one to laugh back. I watch them outside, one covering her mouth, eyes crinkling as the other bends forward beside her.
Outside, they fold into laughter, shoulders touching, pulled toward each other.
Whatever is pulling them stops short of me.
Maron taps her pencil against my desk, waiting for my attention.
“Look at this,” she chuckles. She spins the pencil between her fingers, nearly dropping it before catching it again. “Still got it.”
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Personal Journey
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 85%: Everyone notices the empty chair beside me but no one has ever asked who it belongs to. It has a name. Not…
Everyone notices the empty chair beside me but no one has ever asked who it belongs to.
It
has
a
name.
Not someone living. Not someone dead. The spare chair belongs to Maron, and she takes up exactly the right amount of space.
The classroom empties the same way every Friday. Chairs scrape against the floor, bags zip shut, and the door creaks closed. One by one, the noise disappears down the corridor until there is nothing left but the hum of the lights. I am always the one who stays behind, watching their backs vanish through the doorway.
I catch sight of them through the window as they cross the oval, four of them, already laughing at something I can't hear.
I tighten my grip on my pen, tracing its familiar edge.
"Look at them," Maron scoffs, letting the word fall with a quiet contempt. "Their simplicity is fascinating."
Their footsteps fade beyond me, carrying them along a path I’ve never stepped on.
I know them all separately. The loudest, the latest, the one who smooths things over before they break.
This kind of information accumulates without your knowing and finds a way to stay without your permission.
“They always laugh like that,” Maron murmurs. “It’s not even amusing.” I leave her words where they are. They are easier to hold than the silence outside.
Through the window, the tall one starts another impression. I lean closer, catching only fragments of her voice until the punchline reaches me.
Without warning, something escapes, a laugh, abrupt and unwelcome. My hand flies to my mouth but it's already out, spilling into a silence that wasn't built to hold it.
Another follows before I can swallow the first. Two laughs now, loose in a room with no one to catch them, no one to laugh back. I watch them outside, one covering her mouth, eyes crinkling as the other bends forward beside her.
Outside, they fold into laughter, shoulders touching, pulled toward each other.
Whatever is pulling them stops short of me.
Maron taps her pencil against my desk, waiting for my attention.
“Look at this,” she chuckles. She spins the pencil between her fingers, nearly dropping it before catching it again. “Still got it.”
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Text we're studying in class - Animal…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 90%: The sheep's stomachs churned with acid. The land cracked under the unforgiving sky that promised no life, its…
The sheep's stomachs churned with acid. The land cracked under the unforgiving sky that promised no life, its creations longing for a belly not so empty. The sheep had long since given up on the flourishing of the present, the current age now merely a period of waiting to progress into the next stage of life, trusting that permanent unconsciousness was kinder to beast.
Today, another death had been announced. The sheep listened in undying jealousy to the snakes reporting on Daisy, whose suffering had ceased. The snakes continued on with the same rhetoric that the sheep had become quite accustomed to.
'In this period of uncertainty, it is of utmost importance to lean on your peers...'
The sheep's eyes glazed over as they silently mouthed the extraordinarily impersonal monologue, longing for the closing sentence to free them.
Today, it never came.
The snakes cleared their throats, straightening their posture in a demonstration of respect they'd never before given. One particularly thick viper slithered forward to address the assembly.
'Friends,' he began, his thin lips stretching into an impossibly charming smile, 'I have a proposal for you all.'
Curious about the unfamiliar addition to the monologue, the milky glaze lifted from the sheep's eyes.
'As we are all very well aware, this famine is soon to be the death of us.'
Cautiously, the sheep cocked their heads.
'But while others have been mourning our circumstances,' the viper continued in a soothing, honey-like tone, 'I have been hard at work devising a brilliant new order for managing the farm. If you grant me leadership, the age of starvation is a matter of the past.'
What followed was a storm of voices, hope and fear tearing at one another until neither could be distinguished from the other. Eventually, someone suggested a vote.
27 in favour, 24 against.
It was settled.
'Good.'
They slithered away.
By dusk, a pile of food had miraculously appeared in the centre of the field. It was strange, consisting of what appeared to be tree sap glowing artificially blue; the sheep had never eaten anything like it.
'This will be replaced – it is not nutritious enough to sustain a population long-term,' the snakes hissed before disappearing again.
However, it was enough to keep the sheep from immediate death. To the sheep, this was a reasonable deal.
Exhausted by the day's events, the sheep fell into a deep slumber.
Upon waking, the world had changed.
Gone was the grey.
The morning dew sitting atop the blades of grass sparkled in the brightened sunlight, the blue tree sap perfectly replenished in the field. The sun sat impossibly static in the sky. Not a blade of grass stood taller than the other.
Deeply embroiled in their joy, the sheep did not notice the snakes quietly observing them from the hill.
The following day was much the same.
'What commendable leaders,' the group repeated amongst themselves, 'they have fed us and provided this beautiful new world for us all. We are no longer hungry.'
VCE · Language Analysis
Language Analysis: Parminder Preciosa is a columnist for…
VCE Language Analysis essay scoring 72.5%: In her opinion piece, “Taxing the T-bone: it’s time to give red meat the chop,” Parminder Preciosa argues…
In her opinion piece, “Taxing the T-bone: it’s time to give red meat the chop,” Parminder Preciosa argues that red meat consumption should be taxed because of its harmful effects on people’s health, the environment and animals. Preciosa uses a dramatic and alarming tone to encourage readers to reconsider their thiughts towards red meat. She begins by comparing red meat to smoking, before creating her argument through health statistics and environmental and ethical concerns. She ultimately presents tax as a reasonable way to reduce consumption and make individuals responsible for the costs their choices make on society.
Preciosa first argues that like smoking cigarette, eating red meat is harmful to our health and should be taxed to discourage consumption of it. She begins by placing the reader in a restaurant scenario, describing a meal of “sausages and mashed potatoes” before introducing the smell of “cigarette smoke”. Her detailed description of the smoke “stinging” the readers eyes and making their food taste like “an astray” creates a strong sense of disgust. By placing the reader directly in this uncomfortable situation, Preciosa encourages them to sympathize with her anger towards smokers. She then transfers the negative feelings toward red meant, claiming suages are “just as much a threat to your health as that packet of cigarettes.” Through this analogy, she makes readers recognise red meat as another dangerous habit and that society should be concerned about it. Her comparison is made to shock readers who usually view red meat as an ordinary thing.
Preciosa then strengthens her health argument through statistics and scientific evidence, presenting red meat as a threat to society. She mentions the World Health Organization classifying red meat as a “carcinogen” and states that millions of deaths are associated with red and processed meat consumption. She also highlights the healthcare cost of US$285 billion. By presenting these statistics, Preciosa appeals to logic and reason, making her argument appear supported by authentic evidence rather than being her personal opinion. However, she also acknowledges that readers may react with “disbelief” because foods such as bacon and pepperoni are enjoyable. Preciosa reinforces her comparison with cigarettes, suggesting that society has underestimated the dangers of harmful products. Her dramatic language combines with the statistics to encourage readers to take the health risks seriously.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Bronte explore the moral…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: Within the moral distortions of hierarchical impunity, Brontë presents moral integrity as requiring the…
Within the moral distortions of hierarchical impunity, Brontë presents moral integrity as requiring the prioritisation of personal principles when they conflict with conscience, suggesting that authentic autonomy depends upon resisting temptation rather than sacrificing one's convictions. As Jane arrives at Thornfield, the estate's thorn-laden nomenclature symbolically foreshadows the obstacles that will challenge her moral integrity and sense of self, with the "thorn" connoting the adversity through which her principles must be tested and ultimately upheld. Jane's evolving relationship with the Byronic Rochester crystallises the profound dialectic between romantic desire and autonomous self-hood, as Brontë interrogates whether passionate attachment can endure without necessitating the subordination of individual compromise. Jane's declaration of love to Rochester constitutes an exercise of principled self-determination, as her metaphor that "I am no bird; and no net ensnares me" elevates her expression of desire into an autonomous choice that aligns with her principles, revealing that selfhood is preserved when desire remains consistent with conscience. Even so, Brontë positions Rochester as a moral antagonist contrasting sharply with
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Oedipus the King evoke the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 82.5%: The Greek tragedy is an exploration of society, the world, and the mind experiencing them, exploring a world of…
The Greek tragedy is an exploration of society, the world, and the mind experiencing them, exploring a world of pain both fictional and real. In Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus the King, the playwright evokes both sympathy for Thebes and horror in the Athenian audience by presenting a pessimistic worldview and suggesting significant implications in the lives of the viewer. Sophocles posits man’s inability to be a political hero, with their ultimate corruption inevitable. He subverts the Athenian ideal of justice, revealing man’s susceptibility to strict punishment for actions they never chose. Ultimately, the political and philosophical revelations experienced throughout the play cause great psychological harm, with Sophocles presenting internal composure as a fleeting comfort in a world of omnipresent pain.
Sophocles presents politics as a cycle of evil in which leaders cannot escape, compelling his audience to empathise with Thebes while also questioning Athens’ political foundations. Throughout the play, Thebes is embroiled in a constant cycle of tyranny. Laius is the city’s despotic past, supposedly ‘destroy[ing]’ his son to prevent his downfall from power. Oedipus is the city’s present, initially appearing to break from the cycle through claiming ‘read[iness] to help’ and a willingness to ‘do anything’ for his city. However, Oedipus eventually falls victim to his system, allowing ‘crude, mindless stubbornness’ to nearly destroy Creon on a belief he ‘must rule’. The king descends into tyranny through forcing the shepherd to ‘talk with pain’, creating a stark contrast between compassion and cruelty which allows the character to embody terrifying unpredictability. Sophocles uses nautical imagery to illustrate Oedipus’ subversion of Thebes’ hope. Initially compared to a ‘good helmsman’ who can ‘lift her head’ of his ship from ‘the red waves of death’, Oedipus’ ultimate failure as a leader mirrors ‘drowning’ in the ‘fatal harbor’, with Sophocles suggesting man’s failure to overcome challenges associated with leadership. Creon, the future of Thebes, is superficially presented as a ‘man of sense’; a ‘calm’ and ‘rational’ opportunity for Thebes to leave their past. However, Sophocles posits that Creon is merely a continuation of his predecessors’ tyranny, attempting to avoid ‘report[ing] in the presence of [Thebes]’ and mocking Oedipus for ‘none of [his] power follow[ing] [him] through life’. The ambiguity of Creon’s future exercise of power elicits sorrow and fear for the city, and ultimately suggests that no leader may escape Thebes’ cycle of political evil, despite appearances of benevolence. Therefore, the audience is drawn to pity the city for their entrapment in the cycle. Furthermore, Sophocles’ assertions force the Athenian audience to question their own political system, and find fear in the evil nature of politics. The ‘double doors [which] dominate the facade’ of Thebes’ royal house reinforce the idea, representing a barrier between the people and their leader. The playwright therefore suggests that the barrier allows rulers to present themselves as the ‘best of men’ while their internal corruption remains in the unknown. Sophocles ultimately creates an audience unsure of their own political future, grieving for Thebes while also questioning themselves.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Oedipus the King evoke the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 75%: In forcing the audience to confront political and philosophical pessimism, Sophocles encourages them to observe the…
In forcing the audience to confront political and philosophical pessimism, Sophocles encourages them to observe the fragility of the mind. The search is initially framed by Oedipus as ‘defend[ing] [him]self’; a search for emotional alleviation from his ‘spirit griev[ing] for the city’, yet leads to widespread internal suffering. Sophocles uses peripeteia to suggest that joy is temporary and fragile. Although the royal couple meet the messenger’s ‘wonderful news’ with excitement and relief - Jocasta incredulously questioning Polybus being ‘dead-dead?’ and Oedipus promising a ‘rich reward for the shepherd’ - the revelation of the truth leads to an instant psychological unravelling of the royal couple. Oedipus’ exclamation of ‘Dear god’ and rapid questioning of the messenger, and Jocasta’s frantic pleading with Oedipus highlight the shift. Sophocles uses the subversion of their relief to amplify their sense of suffering, encouraging the audience to share their horror and realise the fragility of their own emotional comfort. The catharsis represents the continuation of the peripeteia, where characters experience complete psychological destruction. Jocasta’s realisation of her immorality ‘whip[s] [her] to fury’ as she ‘[mourns] the marriage bed’ where she unknowingly transgressed the inflexible rules of
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: How does Oedipus the King evoke the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: The Greek tragedy is an exploration of society, the world, and the mind experiencing them, exploring a world of…
The Greek tragedy is an exploration of society, the world, and the mind experiencing them, exploring a world of pain both fictional and real. In Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus the King, the playwright evokes both sympathy for Thebes and horror in the Athenian audience by presenting a pessimistic worldview and suggesting significant implications in the lives of the viewer. Sophocles posits man’s inability to be a political hero, with their ultimate corruption inevitable. He subverts the Athenian ideal of justice, revealing man’s susceptibility to strict punishment for actions they never chose. Ultimately, the political and philosophical revelations experienced throughout the play cause great psychological harm, with Sophocles presenting internal composure as a fleeting comfort in a world of omnipresent pain.
Sophocles presents politics as a cycle of evil in which leaders cannot escape, compelling his audience to empathise with Thebes while also questioning Athens’ political foundations. Throughout the play, Thebes is embroiled in a constant cycle of tyranny. Laius is the city’s despotic past, supposedly ‘destroy[ing]’ his son to prevent his downfall from power. Oedipus is the city’s present, initially appearing to break from the cycle through claiming ‘read[iness] to help’ and a willingness to ‘do anything’ for his city. However, Oedipus eventually falls victim to his system, allowing ‘crude, mindless stubbornness’ to nearly destroy Creon on a belief he ‘must rule’. The king descends into tyranny through forcing the shepherd to ‘talk with pain’, creating a stark contrast between compassion and cruelty which allows the character to embody terrifying unpredictability. Sophocles uses nautical imagery to illustrate Oedipus’ subversion of Thebes’ hope. Initially compared to a ‘good helmsman’ who can ‘lift her head’ of his ship from ‘the red waves of death’, Oedipus’ ultimate failure as a leader mirrors ‘drowning’ in the ‘fatal harbor’, with Sophocles suggesting man’s failure to overcome challenges associated with leadership. Creon, the future of Thebes, is superficially presented as a ‘man of sense’; a ‘calm’ and ‘rational’ opportunity for Thebes to leave their past. However, Sophocles posits that Creon is merely a continuation of his predecessors’ tyranny, attempting to avoid ‘report[ing] in the presence of [Thebes]’ and mocking Oedipus for ‘none of [his] power follow[ing] [him] through life’. The ambiguity of Creon’s future exercise of power elicits sorrow and fear for the city, and ultimately suggests that no leader may escape Thebes’ cycle of political evil, despite appearances of benevolence. Therefore, the audience is drawn to pity the city for their entrapment in the cycle. Furthermore, Sophocles’ assertions force the Athenian audience to question their own political system, and find fear in the evil nature of politics. The ‘double doors [which] dominate the facade’ of Thebes’ royal house reinforce the idea, representing a barrier between the people and their leader. The playwright therefore suggests that the barrier allows rulers to present themselves as the ‘best of men’ while their internal corruption remains in the unknown. Sophocles ultimately creates an audience unsure of their own political future, grieving for Thebes while also questioning themselves.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Shirely jacksons novel is a celebration of…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: Established against the patriarchal milieu of the 1960s, Shirley Jackson's proto- feminist novella, ‘We have always…
Established against the patriarchal milieu of the 1960s, Shirley Jackson's proto- feminist novella, ‘We have always lived in the castle’, presents a nuanced examination of female companionship as both a protective and entrapping force. Through sisterhood, Jackson challenges the patriarchal structures that traditionally subordinate women, presenting the sisters’ relationship as a means of resisting male authority and reclaiming agency. However, Merricat’s possessiveness and Constance’s submission complicate this solidarity. While their companionship offers refuge from a hostile world, Jackson questions whether it enables genuine liberation or becomes another form of imprisonment through fear, dependency and isolation. Thus, while the novel celebrates the protective power of sisterhood, it simultaneously exposes the dangers of allowing love to become a form of imprisonment.
Initially, Jackson celebrates female companionship as a source of solidarity and empowerment, demonstrating how sisterhood enables women to resist patriarchal hostility and establish independence beyond societal expectations. Through Merricat’s first-person narration, Jackson establishes her attachment to “My sister Constance, Richard Plantagenet…and the death cup mushroom”, using the tricolon to juxtapose familial affection with symbols of power and poison. This unconventional association positions Merricat’s devotion to Constance alongside her rejection of conventional social values, suggesting that their bond enables them to construct an identity beyond patriarchal expectations. Jackson further reinforces the protective nature of their relationship through the recurring motif of gates and locks, revealing that “Our father had put up the signs and the gates and the locks when he closed off the path.” Although initially imposed by their father, these barriers become a means of preserving the sisters’ separation from a hostile village, transforming the family estate into a refuge where their companionship can flourish beyond external judgement. The hostility they face is intensified through Jackson’s violent imagery, as Merricat likens the female shoppers to a “flock of taloned hawks” striking with “razor claws”. The predatory connotations of this metaphor depict the village as a threatening collective, positioning the sisters as vulnerable targets of social cruelty and reinforcing their need for mutual protection. In contrast, Jackson foregrounds the enduring strength of female solidarity through the image of the Blackwood women’s preserved food, described as “a poem by the Blackwood women”. The metaphor elevates traditionally feminised domestic labour into a lasting testament to women’s collective resourcefulness, suggesting that female power can be sustained through shared traditions rather than patriarchal authority. Consequently, the sisters’ ability to “eat away the year” without seeking acceptance from others demonstrates how their companionship enables them to establish a self-sufficient existence beyond the constraints of conventional society. Ultimately, Jackson celebrates sisterhood as a source of resilience and autonomy, portraying female companionship as a powerful means of resisting social exclusion and reclaiming control over women’s lives.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Ghost wall, violence depends upon…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 70%: Set against a modern‑day reenactment of Iron‑Age Britain, Sarah Moss’s 2018 novella Ghost Wall explores how…
Set against a modern‑day reenactment of Iron‑Age Britain, Sarah Moss’s 2018 novella Ghost Wall explores how patriarchal nostalgia and imagined authenticity warp ordinary people, revealing the dangerous ways fear and curiosity shape identity, power, and violence in contemporary society. Violence in Ghost Wall is heavily dependent on silence as a stimulant; there is a certain inevitability that arises as the consequence of generations upon generations of violence. While response or a lack thereof clearly serves as a catalyst to repeated domestic abuse, large‑scale demonstrative behaviour exists outside this framework.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: 'The Ground Beneath'
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 95%: ‘The Ground Beaneath’ The following is an extract from Eliza Connel's upcoming memoir "My Brilliant…
‘The Ground Beaneath’
The following is an extract from Eliza Connel's upcoming memoir "My Brilliant Radicalisation". Eliza is the Director of 'Animals Australia', a not-for-profit designed to promote animal welfare and is the 2028 Australian of the year.
Pre-order is available from December 3rd at www.worldofeliza.com.au
It was just like any ordinary day. The autumn leaves drifted lazily through the wind, rustling together upon the ground below. The grade three classroom at Sunvale Primary was starkly lit in juxtaposition to the gentle conditions of the outdoors. Inside raged a battle of will amongst students. The concept of 'show and tell' held strong appeal to all.
Perhaps it was Noah's hand that extended the highest. Or maybe Mrs Higgin's hadn't yet sensed what was to come.
"Noah, you may go next," Mrs Higgins announced in her usual tone of stern ferocity.
I was slightly afraid of Noah at the time. Though looking back I see nothing but a thin, gangly boy of about nine who was desperately afraid of being alone, being forgotten, ignored.
Noah rose with a start - it was rare for him to be called upon for joyous reasons in class.
After a sputtering cough, Noah launched into his story.
"On the weekend Dad and me went shooting cockies in the trees at the back of the paddock with Grandad's old rifle and we got all of them there were white feathers everywhere!”
Noah's words came out in a single breath, as though in anticipation of being cut off.
The class was dead silent.
Mrs Higgin's offered Noah a thin smile. "Thank you for sharing" she stuttered.
The shocked faces of my classmates were obvious. Some had their mouths agape, others looked faintly amused, but many of us looked truly horrified.
That weekend just gone I had experienced cockatoos in a vastly different manner. Staying at my grandparent’s cottage near the beach, the sounds of the cockatoos opening seedpods was one I was used to.
My grandfather and I had gone birdwatching. Seated in the treehouse in Pa's backyard we had munched on salad sandwiches and fresh green apples as we observed the birds through the window. Graceful red-tailed black cockatoos swarmed a nearby tree, pecking daintily at seed pods before gliding to the ground beneath. White cockatoos soared overhead with flashes of yellow darting in and out of my eyesight. Wrens flittered about on low branches.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Write a persuasive piece
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 90%: Every Dungeons and Dragons game begins the same way; a blank character sheet. Before the adventure starts, you…
Every Dungeons and Dragons game begins the same way; a blank character sheet. Before the adventure starts, you roll the dice and decide what kind of person you want to become, dictated by both your skills and your flaws. Intelligence? Wisdom? Strength? Every decision shapes how you'll face the world.
If modern society had a character sheet, we'd have invested heavily into building ambition, productivity, and independence. We'd boast impressive Intelligence scores, Strength of massive proportions, maybe even of Wisdom beyond our years. But somewhere along the way, Charisma became our dump stat. We forgot that no adventure, real or imagined, is meant to be completed alone. We rolled a natural 1, a critical fail, on our ability to be human, and to seek connection in others like we have in years gone by.
When I tell people I spend my Thursday afternoons playing D&D, I usually get one of two reactions: confusion or amusement. To many people, it's still a weird game about rolling dice and pretending to be elves. Worst case, they believe its some devil-worshiping, cult-y freakshow with too many innuendos and too little deodorant. Yet despite this, every week, Santa's D&D club fills with students who stay long after the (silent) final bell, choosing 'make-believe' instead of going home. The same thing is happening far beyond M2.35 as well. Stranger Things transformed the Hellfire Club from a negative stereotype into a symbol of community, Baldur's Gate 3 introduced over 20 million players (so far) to collaborative storytelling (reimagined in game format), and audiences continue to spend hours watching strangers play D&D through Critical Role, and many other channels similar.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Personal Journeys
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 75%: "I hate you! I wish I were never born!" was the last thing I ever said to my mother. I ran upstairs to my room,…
"I hate you! I wish I were never born!" was the last thing I ever said to my mother. I ran upstairs to my room, waiting until she and my brother fell asleep. In my hands were two bags of clothes, on my back was a bag with my laptop, a charger, and my mother’s diamond earring in the pocket.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Personal Journeys
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 75%: "I hate you! I wish I were never born!" was the last thing I ever said to my mother. I ran upstairs to my room,…
"I hate you! I wish I were never born!" was the last thing I ever said to my mother. I ran upstairs to my room, waiting until she and my brother fell asleep. In my hands were two bags of clothes, on my back was a bag with my laptop, a charger, and my mothers diamond earring in the pocket.
That night, I slept under the stars and thought about the life I had ahead of me without my mothers constant nagging. Julliard was waiting for me, and my life was around the corner.
I spent three days in this park before I saw myself on a 'missing' poster, that night I couldn't sleep knowing my mother was already looking for me. The echo of my little brother asking why I’m not at the dinner table consumed me. On the fourth day I bought a bus ticket to the furthest state it drove to, showering in the public bathroom before it left. The decision to take that opportunity was my best one yet because, coincidentally, my first girlfriend had the seat next to me. I hadn't seen her in years.
"Why are you going out of state?" She asked after tense silence.
"Just to see my uncle." I lied quickly.
"Cool. I didn't know you had an uncle."
I don't have one. Although I have 10 aunts I could've said I was visiting. "Maybe if he's out sometime, we could catch up."
"Yeah. Maybe," but I was already looking away, at the wild dogs we passed out the window.
It took a week, and getting kicked out of three McDonald’s, to call her. She was happy to hear from me, until I told her I called for a place to stay. Eventually she agreed to help me out, letting me have a shower and sleep on her couch. To make up for taking up her dorm space I let her take repayments from me in whatever form she wanted from me, before she kicked me out when her boyfriend was about to move in.
"I just don't want him to know I'm interested in someone like you." She told me without an ounce of empathy.
With nowhere to stay after weeks of buying every meal, I found a pawn shop that would take my laptop and stolen jewellery. However, when I got to the counter he said he'd take my laptop but not my earrings.
"They'll help you attract customers from that corner." He pointed to the street lined with workers. I had no other choice.
He handed me a hundred dollar note and my earrings.
"You'd better get out there now, they're stealing your business," he laughed as a woman stumbled to get into the backseat of a car.
The note was tucked into my pocket
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: Sunset Boulevard Template essay
VCE Text Response essay scoring 95%: Exposing [1a · the topic's key term as the thing the film reveals] beneath the naïve 'wicked dream' of stardom that…
Exposing [1a · the topic's key term as the thing the film reveals] beneath the naïve 'wicked dream' of stardom that has 'seized' the hearts of everyone who arrives on it, Billy Wilder's quintessentially American Sunset Boulevard (1950) [1b · Contention: verb + Wilder's claim, in the topic's exact words.] Compounded by the overlay of a gothic lens upon noir's fatalism, this posthumously narrated mystery performs as both a meditation on the brutality of the studio system and a sardonic, yet subtly sympathetic, depiction of the people it manufactured and discarded — [2 · Complication: the part of the topic you will not concede, as a clause.] Through his blend of fiction and meta-cinema — real Hollywood figures cast as versions of themselves, Gloria Swanson screening her own abandoned Queen Kelly projected by the director she fired from it — Wilder's opus emerges as a vivisection of [key term] not as anyone's private failing but as the ordinary arithmetic of a business doing what it was built to do.
Why this shape scores (from the annotation). Embedded quotation in the first clause shows textual familiarity before the film is named, and no character is named until the body — the opening is about the film's claim, not its plot. Quintessentially American sets context without a context-paragraph. The topic's words appear in sentence one and again in sentence three. Gothic lens and noir mystery are generic descriptors that do the work of a paragraph. Sardonic, yet subtly sympathetic is the equivocation — the contention has two sides before the body starts. Metalanguage (posthumously narrated, meta-cinema) is embedded, not listed.
Body one — Cause
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: To what extent is Oedipus the architect of…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 87.5%: In Oedipus the King, the interplay between human agency and divine will creates an environment where destruction…
In Oedipus the King, the interplay between human agency and divine will creates an environment where destruction becomes inevitable. The play is not merely a tragedy of fate, but a profound examination of the limitations of human knowledge and the dangerous arrogance of those who believe they can transcend them. While the outcome is ostensibly sealed by divine decree, it is the relentless, hubristic pursuit of the truth that cements the architect’s role in their own unravelling. Through an examination of how futile resistance against prophecy generates disaster, how the erosion of rational governance under the weight of paranoia destabilises society, and how the obsession with insight necessitates a visceral cost, the play illustrates that ruin is not a divine accident, but an inevitable consequence of character. Ultimately, the work serves as a didactic warning to the Athenian audience, suggesting that the health of the polis depends not on the individual brilliance of a leader, but on their capacity to embrace the humility of the human condition.
The attempt to exert human agency over divine decree often serves to validate, rather than subvert, the inevitability of the cosmic order. By centring the narrative on the oracle’s instruction that "the murderer of Laius... must be found," Sophocles illustrates the inescapable gravity of fate. In the protagonist's attempt to evade predestined patricide at the crossroads, their physical actions become the very mechanism that validates the prophecy, framing defiance as a violation of cosmic order rather than an act of liberation. The tension escalates during the confrontation with Tiresias; in a desperate bid to protect their own agency, the King rejects the seer’s divine insight. Tiresias responds with a crushing indictment of hubris: "You’ve lost your power, stone-blind, stone-deaf sense, eyes blind as stone." By dismissing this truth, the monarch does not merely display stubbornness; they actively sever the bridge between the mortal world and divine reality. In doing so, Sophocles cautions the Athenian audience that human arrogance, when confronted with the will of the gods, leads only to self-imposed isolation and destruction.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In Born a Crime, Noah presents complexity…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: Comedian Trevor Noah's extended memoir "Born a Crime" offers a deep exploration into families and how they operate.…
Comedian Trevor Noah's extended memoir "Born a Crime" offers a deep exploration into families and how they operate. Through his prose, Noah views that complexity is present in family life, he argues that complexity can but optional arise as a result of having exterior motives, and that it doesn't always need to affect families. Beginning by arguing that complexity is present in all families then moving onto how that same complexity could be erased if there were no external motives before ending by arguing that complexity doesn't always have to affect families.
Noah begins by arguing that complexity is ubiquitous in all families. South Africa Under apartheid almost all black families had restrictions put upon them. the values represented by restrictions and mentality of having restrictions was then inherited by South Africans despite not living under apartheid anymore, leading to complexities in family life. This can be seen through Patricia and Abels relationship. Abel inheriting Tsonga required patriarchal respect and Patricias attitude towards injustice mean that they were constantly getting into arguments, leading to beatings and a complex life. Noah uses their relationship to argue how everyone has different fundamental values, leading to differences and complexities in family life. Noah contrasts this through Patricia and Roberts relationships, who, despite being symbolised as "Fire and Ice" had a harmonious marriage. Furthermore Noah uses his own birth, mentioning "[He] was born a crime" and how that decision was a result of his mother. Noah uses his birth to demonstrate how, despite differences in personality, individuals can co-exist and still face complexity through his birth. Noah proceeds to
highlight that complexities can occur as a result of families. This can be seen through Noah and Patricia's relationship and the motifs of her "raising [Noah] like a white kid". Under apartheid, the very act of raising an educated child was seen as defiance and allowed Noah to think outside the box and recognise fallacies, leading to him ending up in situations like prision. Noah frames his education this way to highlight how even having good intentions for your child can contribute to complexity meaning demonstrating how an inability to conform can lead to complexity.
VCE · Creative Response
Creative Response: Essay on Protest Title: Refuse now…
VCE Creative Response essay scoring 85%: Published to Harvard University’s Online Forum Protesting is a right given to all individual no matter what…
Published to Harvard University’s Online Forum
Protesting is a right given to all individual no matter what race, sex or gender you are but why are you not utilizing that? You know one of your a fellow student got racially discriminated but why are you not doing anything about it. Protesting should be direct and confronting but you people refused to stand up. Refusing now would not bring change no matter what, it's not what you do but the purpose behind it. Speak up for change, so this would not happen to you or people around you. "Change is a slow moving river" yes it is true, protest doesn't get what you want right away, but think about the student who experienced racism on campus, think from their perspective, no one stepped up for them but it is not too late to fight for change, it takes effort, it takes time but more importantly, it takes passion and a mind that says to keep going and refuse to back down. Protesting has its own risk associated with it, yes its dangerous, yes it may result in chaos and yes you may get injured but is it all worth it? Yes you are fighting for change and for your fellow students and refusing now will only make think [things] worse. If you back down and refuse to change how others trust you this will happen again, plenty more times, so don't refuse now and fight for what is right, which is change. "A river that does not move is a swamp"; if you do not speak up for change then what's the purpose, you want more people to get racially discriminated? You yourself are causing more harm than good by refusing to fight for change but think about it, you are not the only one who wants change, there are others and more if you just say the words "We need change" you will be encouraging more students to be along side you and once you are in there is no looking and refusing to get back up. This is protest, fighting for change and speaking up to do what is right for others, for students, for teachers and everyone else.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: In the society of the town, honour is a…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 72.5%: The actions taken by an individual are heavily influenced by honour, the moral code which a community of people…
The actions taken by an individual are heavily influenced by honour, the moral code which a community of people live by. Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novella, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, set within a 1960s Columbian village, explores honour not as a noble moral code, but as a social illness that determines sacrifice. Through the repressive upbringing of Angela Vicario and her kept virginity, the theatrical performance of the Vicario brothers, and the paralysing inertia of the townspeople, Marquez suggests honour is a corrosive ideology that sustains itself through control and public performance, destroying both individual lives and the moral integrity of the society that upholds it.
By framing female honour as an inescapable mechanism of entrapment, Márquez illustrates how the sanctity of virginity functions as a commodity, reducing women to mere instruments of family reputation. The control of female honour is sustained through systematic cruelty, exemplified through Pura Vicario, the mother of Angela Vicario, where Pura “watches over” her daughters with a vigilance that resembles custody rather than care. Marquez reinforces this subjugation through the observation of the Vicario sisters, who had been “reared to get married,” suggesting their life is a process of commodification. Through the zoomorphic metaphor, Marquez implies that the importance of women within this town is similar to the use of livestock. By objectifying women within the novella, Marquez portrays the town as a site of domestication designed to strip women of agency, preparing them for a life of "suffering" in service to men. The destructive reality of this code is exposed through the moral logic following Angela’s return to her Vicario estate; Pura’s statement of that she “beat [Angela] for two hours” straight, reveals that this violence is not an emotional outburst, but a performance devoted to the to the town’s rigid rules. In this culture, a woman’s virginity determines her family’s social worth, meaning Pura’s instinct is to physically "correct" the shame rather than offer compassion. Ultimately, by presenting domestic cruelty as a socially accepted necessity, Márquez indicts a patriarchal system that prioritises the hollow performance of honour over human life, leaving individuals trapped in a cycle of irreparable psychological and physical harm.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: BORN A CRIME is a story of finding the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 77.5%: Trevor Noah's recollection of trials and tribulations in apartheid and post apartheid South Africa is…
Trevor Noah's recollection of trials and tribulations in apartheid and post apartheid South Africa is encapsulated in his memoir Born A Crime. Noah explores the effectiveness of different tools in surmounting adversities faced in the arbitrary and discriminatory rule of South Africa. While acknowledging the difficulties of overcoming adversity, poverty and violence, Noah champions the use of language, humour and education while condemning the restrictions actively implemented by the South African government. Ultimately, Noah conveys the idea that while resourcefulness and discovery of survival mechanisms assist in mitigating the impacts of adversity, you can only get so far with the systems working against you.
Noah celebrates the resourceful nature of South Africans in the face of adversity. Despite facing a wide range of misfortune and hardship, Patricia and Trevor employ humour and language. Noah celebrates humour as a coping mechanism to overcome misfortunes in the face of adversity. Despite getting thrown out of a speeding minibus', Noah depicts how '[they] stood there, a little boy and his mom, [their] arms and legs covered in blood and dirt, laughing together through the pain'. Noah reveals humour as a tool that Patricia and Noah especially employ to overcome traumatic and seemingly destructive events. This concept is bookended, with the response to Patricia being in hospital following the shooting, by Noah and Patricia is 'crack[ing] each other up'. Mirroring the sentiments at the beginning of the memoir, they 'laugh[ed] together through the pain'. Through the bookending of using humour to overcome distress, Noah celebrates humour's continuous contribution as a tool to access admist many adversities. Furthermore, Noah lauds Patricia's strategic and empowering decision to both learn, and teach Trevor multiple languages. He champions both of their manipulation of their own linguistic capabilities to adapt to and often conquer challenges. Noah self description of a 'chameleon', where he 'couldn't change [his] colour but [he] could change [the] perception of [his] colour', saw language become his weapon. It saw him use his polyglot status to avoid theft, communicate in jails, and to simply create his own safe haven in a world that denied him belonging. Overall, in times of tribulation's both Noah and Patricia's application and manipulation of humour and language saw them tackle hardship.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: “If it’s all you can do / to keep on…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 90%: In her collections “American Primitive” and “Dream Work”, Mary Oliver explores the intriguing relationship between…
In her collections “American Primitive” and “Dream Work”, Mary Oliver explores the intriguing relationship between understanding and hardship through both the natural and human realms. Though she depicts struggles and setbacks as a key ingredient in comprehension, she presents nature as a constant source of relief from human struggles precisely by providing understanding. As such, Oliver contends that, while setbacks can play a role in enabling revelations, it is through self-acceptance and humble participation in nature that one is able to begin understanding the world around them.
Throughout her poetry, Oliver often presents challenges and hardships as a central element to producing understanding. In “The Turtle”, the poem follows the arduous journey of a female turtle “across the shallows and through the rushes and over the mudflats” to lay her eggs, the polysyndeton highlighting the repetitive and challenging nature of the turtle’s journey. The speaker notes curiously that the turtle’s struggles are all to fulfil “an old blind wish…[that] isn’t even hers”, the choice of “old” and “blind” accentuating the mystery of this primal desire as beyond comprehension, and which outdates any individual turtle’s existence. However, Oliver notes that it is precisely this “patience…fortitude…[and] determination” which arrives as a result of the constant struggle that defines every creature’s place in nature, the “unbreakable string” by which all are connected. “Acid,” on the other hand, reveals a different kind of understanding through what society consciously overlooks. Set in a bustling marketplace, the speaker is immediately drawn to “a boy with a hideous mouth, begging,” instantly realising that “the wound was made for a way to stay alive”. Taking pity upon the boy, the speaker’s donation which “wouldn’t keep a dog alive” is reciprocated with “a look of cunning from the brown coin of [the boy’s] face”. The parallel of the boy’s face to a “brown coin” not only mirrors the dehumanising comparison to a dog, but highlights how human suffering has been commercialised. Yet, despite this interaction taking place among “vendors selling flowers and juice”, the apathy displayed by passerby illustrates the disturbing normalisation of exploitation. Thus, Oliver posits that hardships can often provide instinctive and moral forms of understanding, revealing both societal and existential truths.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: BORN A CRIME is a story of finding the…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 85%: BORN A CRIME is a story of finding the right tools for survival amidst adversity, poverty and violence. Discuss.…
BORN A CRIME is a story of finding the right tools for survival amidst adversity, poverty and violence.
Discuss.
Trevor Noah's recollection of trials and tribulations in apartheid and post apartheid South Africa is encapsulated in his memoir Born A Crime. Noah explores the effectiveness of different tools in surmounting adversities faced in the arbitrary and discriminatory rule of South Africa. While acknowledging the difficulties of overcoming adversity, poverty and violence, Noah champions the use of language, humour and education while condemning the restrictions actively implemented by the South African government. Ultimately, Noah conveys the idea that while resourcefulness and discovery of survival mechanisms assist in mitigating the impacts of adversity, you can only get so far with the systems working against you.
Noah celebrates the resourceful nature of South Africans in the face of adversity. Despite facing a wide range of misfortune and hardship, Patricia and Trevor employ humour and language. Noah celebrates humour as a coping mechanism to overcome misfortunes in the face of adversity. Despite 'getting thrown out of a speeding minibus', Noah depicts how '[they] stood there, a little boy and his mom, [their] arms and legs covered in blood and dirt, laughing together through the pain'. Noah reveals humour as a tool that Patricia and Noah especially employ to overcome traumatic and seemingly destructive events. This concept is bookended, with the response
to Patricia being in hospital following the shooting by Noah and Patricia is 'crack[ing] each other up'. Mirroring the sentiments at the beginning of the memoir, they 'laugh[ed] together through the pain'. Through the bookending of using humour to overcome distress, Noah celebrates humour's continuous contribution as a tool to access amidst many adversities. Furthermore, Noah lauds Patricia's strategic and empowering decision to both learn, and teach Trevor multiple languages. He champions both of their manipulation of their own linguistic capabilities to adapt and often conquer challenges. Noah self description of a 'chameleon', where he 'couldn't change [his] colour but [he] could change [the] perception of [his] colour', saw language become his weapon. This weapon saw him use his polyglot status to avoid theft, communicate in jails, and to simply create his own safe haven in a world that denied him belonging. Overall, in times of tribulation both Noah and Patricia's application and manipulation of humour and language saw them tackle hardship.
VCE · Text Response
Text Response: ‘And nobody knew for sure When freedom…
VCE Text Response essay scoring 80%: Within a society shaped by racial segregation, Langston Hughes ‘Selected Poems’ explores the way in which dreams…
Within a society shaped by racial segregation, Langston Hughes ‘Selected Poems’ explores the way in which dreams for freedom and liberty are ultimately unattainable in an oppressive society built upon white hegemony. Yet, the poet also demonstrates the strength and hope that comes from a collective endurance to overarching powers, suggesting that freedom can be actualised through the liberty that comes from communal resistance. Hughes laments how the oppressive mechanisms of America result in the founding ideals of freedom and peace being unachievable, and critiques how the erosion of individual and collective identity restricts African-American citizens’ abilities to endeavour to achieve the promises outlined in the nation’s Declaration. However, whilst the poet illustrates a despairing view of freedom and its inaccessibility within American society, he also concedes that elements of liberty can be found through communal resistance in an attempt to actualise these dreams for future generations.
Criticising the way in which oppressive societal mechanisms restrict the ability for marginalised citizens to obtain autonomy and peace, Hughes laments how discrimination systematically contaminates the environmental foundation of America, extending past individual acts to shape an entire society. In ‘Georgia Dusk’, the poet illustrates the “crimson trickle in the Georgia dusk” to convey the slow, continuous reality of the impacts of racially motivated violence on society. Through depicting the “trickle”, Hughes demonstrates the slow, gradual nature of the impact of oppressive systems on marginalised populations and the wider community, acting as a continuous “trickle” down ancestral ties to engulf and trap an entire society. Written amidst the despair of the Jim Crow South, Hughes subverts traditional pastoral narratives in depicting how a “blue bayou” becomes a “pool of fire” when African Americans are “put…on a rope” and “pull[ed] higher”. Through juxtaposing a “bayou”, typically symbolising peace and solace in its serenity, as a “pool of fire”, the poet laments how the racially motivated discrimination present in the lynchings acts as a catalyst for the corruption of the natural environment, ultimately deeming any sense of freedom and peace unattainable. However, whilst Hughes critiques the degradation of the natural environment as a result of systemic racism, he also shifts to a more social lens, still using nature as a vehicle for condemnation. In ‘Porter’, the poet depicts the “mountain / of yes, sirs”, utilising fragmentation and enjambment to illustrate the fragility and instability of African Americans’ obedience to authority. Through conveying the “mountain” of verbal compliance, Hughes emphasises how marginalised populations become increasingly trapped as a result of generational servitude and forced compliance. Foregrounding the realities of ‘Porter’ jobs for African Americans during the Great Depression, the poet conveys the inescapable nature of American systems. Ultimately, Hughes laments how both compliance and resistance exacerbate the entrapment of marginalised groups, positioning the idea of freedom merely as an unfulfilled hope held to maintain any sense of humanity and purpose.