Contents
- What is a Written Explanation?
- Creative Writing Written Explanations
- Oral Presentation Written Explanations
1. What is a Written Explanation?
The Written Explanation (also known as Written Commentary, Statement of Intention, Set of Annotations, and various other names throughout different schools) is a short written piece that accompanies your written texts, usually in the Creative Writing and Oral Presentation Areas of Study. It explains the reasoning behind your writing choices. There are 5 key points you should touch on in your Written Explanation, so we’re going to walk you through an acronym that can help you organise your thoughts - FLAPC:
Form, Language, Audience, Purpose, Context
Form: This refers to the type of text you’ve created, such as a short story, poem, speech or essay. The form you use will strongly influence the way your ideas are presented.
Language: When writing, you choose particular words, phrases and techniques to convey your ideas. This can range from the language devices and techniques you’ve incorporated to create meaning (e.g. metaphors, anecdotes or imagery - in otherwords, metalanguage), to the tone, style and register you’ve adopted. It also includes dialogue within the text (e.g. two characters talking to each other). Think about what type of language you have used and why.
Audience: Audience is the person/group of people you are addressing or writing for.
Purpose: This is the goal of your text. This could be what you, or the persona you are writing from the perspective of, hopes to achieve - whether that’s to argue, express, reflect or explain.
Context: Context encompasses the circumstances surrounding your text. This could include when and where it was written or delivered, as well as the social, historical or cultural factors that influenced it. The inspiration you drew from other sources or mentor texts, or the reasons you selected that topic and approach, also add context to your piece.
Let’s take a look at how FLAPC can be applied to the specific Areas of Study (AoS) in which you’ll do a Written Explanation.
2. Creative Writing Written Explanations
The terms Written Commentary (mainstream English) and Set of Annotations (EAL) are more commonly used in the Creative AoS, but both still refer to a Written Explanation. We highly recommend that you read through our Ultimate Guide to VCE Creative Writing so that you understand the Creative as a whole. As for the Written Explanation component, the study design states:
'[Students] reflect on the deliberate choices they have made through their writing processes in their commentaries.’
VCAA suggests that your Written Commentary (for mainstream English students) should be around 400 words, and the Set of Annotations (for EAL students) should be about 250 words. With such a small word limit, you’ll need to be succinct and thoughtfully choose what you discuss in order to score the maximum allocated marks.
There is no rigid structure that you need to follow, so consider which aspects of Form, Language, Audience, Purpose and Context you wish to discuss, for example, there may be a specific language technique (which is an aspect of Langauge), you want to unpack. Just make sure that each point you make establishes how and why you have written your Creative piece.
Keep in mind that your Written Explanation will be marked internally as part of your SAC, so it’s important to keep your teacher’s preferences in mind!
As far as we know, you will not be required to do a Written Explanation in the final English/EAL exam.
Form
The Creative piece you produce can range in style, from short stories, to reflective think pieces, to persuasive opinion essays, or anything in between (excluding works of poetry or verse). In the Form section of your Written Explanation, the aim is to reflect on why you chose that particular form to communicate your message.
For example: ‘I chose to write a speech for parliament*, employing the conventions, format and style of a persuasive presentation. This allowed me to express my ideas in a logical order while adopting an impassioned but sophisticated tone.’*
Language
Perhaps your piece is formal or informal, sophisticated or simple, or from a first or third-person perspective. Also consider language techniques you may have incorporated such as repetition, rhetorical questions, metaphors, symbolism and more ( check out What Is Metalanguage? if you need help identifying and labelling the language you’ve used).
For example: ‘I have chosen to write my short story from a first-person perspective to shed light on the inner workings of my protagonist, as the story focuses on her journey to self-discovery. I used descriptions of the characters’ eyes as a motif to symbolise her emotional connection with the people around her.
Audience
You must select a targeted audience for your Creative piece. Your choice can be anything, from adults to young children, a broad cultural demographic to a specific political figure, or you could even write to your future self. Make sure your target audience is suitable for your piece - select a group that would realistically be interested in your work.
For example: ‘My piece is to be published in an anthology for those who have had difficulty assimilating into a new group or culture*. As they have familiarity with the concepts I discuss, I intend for readers to depart with a greater understanding and appreciation of the ideas in my written piece.’*
Purpose
The Creative piece you produce needs to be written with a particular purpose in mind. The Purpose section of your Written Commentary is where you discuss the message you would like to send to your audience. Consider the concerns explored in your Framework, and the ideas presented by the title and stimuli on your SAC. Here, you discuss the intention behind your writing and the point of view you wanted to share.
For example: ‘The purpose of this piece of memoir is to reflect on my experiences of conflict*,* demonstrating that conflict can change us by forcing us to grow and develop new understandings of ourselves.’
Context
Since your Creative piece is based on the ideas explored in your mentor texts, you should provide a brief discussion of the way those mentor texts have inspired your piece. You can do this prior to your Purpose section, since it is a good lead-in.
For example: ‘In my persuasive opinion piece, I argued that the colonisation of Australia has contributed to the destruction of land, and that First Nations land management practices offer an insight into the solution to the climate crisis. I was inspired by Yumna Kassab’s ‘A Conquest of Land and Dream’, and similarly chose to adopt a second-person voice, addressing the reader directly to confront them with the harsh realities of dispossession and climate destruction.**’
3. Oral Presentation Written Explanations
The Written Explanation is no longer required under the current VCAA study design, but many teachers still ask students to complete one alongside your Oral Presentation. You’ll need to double check with your teacher to find out whether or not you’ll do one. If it’s a yes, we have you covered!
For your Oral Presentation, VCAA says that students need to be able to:
‘ apply the key structures and features of a spoken point of view text’
and
‘ demonstrate [an] understanding of purpose, context and audience.’
Using the topic of the gender pay gap in sports as a base, let's go through some examples to show you how a Written Explanation for Oral Presentation can be done with FLAPC. We have bolded key terms so that you can see how we’ve addressed each element.
Form
‘I chose to adopt the conventions of a persuasive speech delivered at a board meeting for the AFLW, structuring my speech around my rebuttals to the main arguments presented by the opposition. Throughout my speech, I embedded persuasive tactics in an effort to firstly, encourage engagement from the audience and secondly, sway them to readily accept my point of view.’
Language
‘For my presentation, I adopted the persona of an accomplished female athlete, as I felt this perspective could shed light on the inequality women endure in the sporting industry. Using a frustrated and outraged tone, I shared anecdotes of my persona’s experiences with sexism in her career, combined with statistical data to convey the prevalence of these experiences among many female athletes. I also addressed the audience directly as I delivered a series of rhetorical questions designed to highlight the hypocrisy of this inequality in Australian sport.’
Audience
‘I have opted to target board officials and committee members of the AFLW Commission, because I felt my argument would be most effective delivered to changemakers in the sport.’
Purpose
‘I aim to convince my audience to recognise the inequality in the sport of football, and to persuade them to change their policies by increasing the pay for female athletes.’
Context
‘Female athletes across a wide range of sports are paid considerably less than their male counterparts and experience an array of disadvantages to their success in their athletic careers. In the AFL, data shows that while the highest paid male athletes can make over $1 million a year, the highest paid female athletes are earning less than $90,000 a year. Recently, media attention has highlighted this issue, with AFLW players winning a pay rise in 2023, but their wages remain at roughly 16% of a male AFL player’s income. While many Australians passionately enjoy football, this gender pay disparity is widely accepted by many football fans, and some would even justify this inequality in pay.’
Sample Oral Presentation Written Explanation
We’ve combined the FLAPC sample paragraphs above and have rearranged them for flow and fluency to show you what a final Written Explanation might look like. This response is 322 words long - for an Oral Presentation Written Explanation, remember to check with your teacher for their preferred word count.
‘Female athletes across a wide range of sports are paid considerably less than their male counterparts and experience an array of disadvantages to their success in their athletic careers. In the AFL, data shows that while the highest paid male athletes can make over $1 million a year, the highest paid female athletes are earning less than $90,000 a year. Recent media attention has highlighted this issue, as AFLW players won a pay rise in 2023, but their wages remain at roughly 16% of a male AFL player’s income. While many Australians passionately enjoy football, this gender pay disparity is widely accepted by many football fans, and some would even justify this inequality in pay. I chose to adopt the conventions of a persuasive speech delivered at a board meeting for the AFLW, structuring my speech around my rebuttals to the main arguments presented by the opposition. Throughout my speech, I embedded persuasive tactics in an effort to firstly, encourage engagement from the audience and secondly, sway them to readily accept my point of view. I have opted to target board officials and committee members of the AFLW Commission because I felt my argument would be most effective delivered to changemakers in the sport. I aim to convince my audience to recognise the inequality in the sport of football, and to persuade them to change their policies by increasing the pay for female athletes. For my presentation, I adopted the persona of an accomplished female athlete, as I felt this perspective could shed light on the inequality women endure in the sporting industry. Using a frustrated and outraged tone, I shared anecdotes of my persona’s experiences with sexism in her career, combined with statistical data to convey the prevalence of these experiences among many female athletes. I also addressed the audience directly as I delivered a series of rhetorical questions designed to highlight the hypocrisy of this inequality in Australian sport.’
