'Recycling' Composition Short Stories?

stainluss

Whats the policy on recycling the storyline of a story you have heard written for LC English?
Can you get any marks taken off in the off-chance that the examiner had read one like that before? (i.e. if its a recogniseable and rare storyline?)

Just to be clear, it would just be the storyline thats familiar. It would be your language, dialogue, etc?

dambarude

Sounds a lot like plagiarism to me. Obviously some stories are going to be similar, when there are 50000 odd doing the same exam, it's bound to happen. But intentionally setting out to copy somebody else's work might leave you in trouble . I don't know what the protocol is, but if it was pretty blatant I'm sure they'd do something about it.

implausible

Nothing wrong with it. However, it must be well-written to get the marks under L for Language and C for Coherence and if it isn't relevant to the question asked, you're doomed to failure as you're down in P for Purpose and down in everything else.

An example is last year's HL paper, which asked students to "write a story in which a photograph, or series of photographs, plays a part". A lot of students picked one of the pictures, factored a person in the photo into their prepared short story and only managed Cs and Ds in this section, even though the stories may have been well-written. You have to answer the question asked.

stainluss

dambarude wrote: »

Sounds a lot like plagiarism to me. Obviously some stories are going to be similar, when there are 50000 odd doing the same exam, it's bound to happen. But intentionally setting out to copy somebody else's work might leave you in trouble . I don't know what the protocol is, but if it was pretty blatant I'm sure they'd do something about it.

No lines in the two essays would be the same. Just the basic outline of the story.

dambarude

stainluss wrote: »

No lines in the two essays would be the same. Just the basic outline of the story.

If that's the basic outline of a story that somebody else wrote, it is plagiarism. If you're reproducing one of your own stories, that's perfectly fine however.

This topic was discussed on the Leaving Cert Countdown programmes that run on 2fm a year or two ago. The English exam commentator said that he once had the surprise of reading one of his own short stories rejigged by a candidate in an exam. It doesn't matter if you change the wording, if the plot and characters are the same, it's copying.

You'll hear all about plagiarism when you reach university. It's taken very seriously in most colleges, and it shouldn't be different for the LC.

gant0

your not really allowed but if you wanna chance it the odds of getting away with it are in your favour!!...What are the chances that a story you copied was read by the same examiner as the examiner who marked the original since there are 50000+ students doing the exam and the fact that even by some miracle you manage to get the same examiner,theirs a chance they wont even remembner!!!

implausible

dambarude wrote: »

This topic was discussed on the Leaving Cert Countdown programmes that run on 2fm a year or two ago. The English exam commentator said that he once had the surprise of reading one of his own short stories rejigged by a candidate in an exam. It doesn't matter if you change the wording, if the plot and characters are the same, it's copying.

That may very well be, but there is still nothing wrong with it as regards the Leaving Cert. The state exams commission tells you to "mark each story on its own merits", so regardless of whether you've seen it before, you have to mark the story as a piece of work in its own right.

I've seen the story where the woman goes to her school reunion, meets with the guy she was rejected by in school and then reveals that she was a man more times than I care to remember:rolleyes:

Lawliet

deemark wrote: »

I've seen the story where the woman goes to her school reunion, meets with the guy she was rejected by in school and then reveals that she was a man more times than I care to remember:rolleyes:

Heh random

So basically, you could theoretically plagiarise a famous short story, word for word, and as long as it's relevant to the question, you'd get full marks?

implausible

Lawliet wrote: »

So basically, you could theoretically plagiarise a famous short story, word for word, and as long as it's relevant to the question, you'd get full marks?

Theoretically, yes. However, if it's a very famous one, like 'The Sniper' for example, it's obviously not going to get full marks under Purpose, as one of the criteria is originality. Once you're down marks in P, everything else goes down. There's nothing wrong with using some of a storyline or the setting from a soap or film, as long as you answer the question and the whole thing comes together well. The student still has to be able to spell, use good grammar, use paragraphs, create tension and character and make sure that the short story is relevant to the title.

stainluss

deemark wrote: »

Theoretically, yes. However, if it's a very famous one, like 'The Sniper' for example, it's obviously not going to get full marks under Purpose, as one of the criteria is originality. Once you're down marks in P, everything else goes down. There's nothing wrong with using some of a storyline or the setting from a soap or film, as long as you answer the question and the whole thing comes together well. The student still has to be able to spell, use good grammar, use paragraphs, create tension and character and make sure that the short story is relevant to the title.

Cheers for the info! Actually helped a lot! The one i had in mind isnt really famous but its god enough!

thanks:)

theowen

Would it be a good idea to float about some creative writing sites and learn off paragraphs of nice descriptions and similiar stuff you could slot in any essay?

implausible

theowen wrote: »

Would it be a good idea to float about some creative writing sites and learn off paragraphs of nice descriptions and similiar stuff you could slot in any essay?

It's always a good idea to read examples of good writing, but I can't say I'd advise learning off random paragraphs of description, you'll end up with a disjointed writing style. Phrases, good vocab, nice similes and metaphors -yeah, learn these off.

Tbh, if you're weak at short stories (and most students are), avoid them like the plague. Students always do far better on the discursive/argumentative essays.