Reflective commentary
The commentary is worth a third of the marks for this
unit, and is a very important part of the coursework.
One way to work towards it is to interview each other
about each completed piece you write, which has the
potential of being included in your folder, using
questions like the ones below.
Interviewing
Give the questions to the writer in advance so they can make some notes for the
answers. Then interview your writer.
1.
What led you to write this piece? Did the idea come from a workshop, from your
reading, or did it occur to you as a result of something else, such as art, music,
personal experience?
2.
How did you work on this piece to develop it? Did you plan or write as you went
along? Did you spend time thinking about it before you started writing, or did
you plunge straight in?
3.
Do you work in a journal or notebook or go straight on to the computer? How do
you think your chosen process helps?
4.
Did you research anything for the work? How did you go about that? How helpful
was your research?
5.
What were you hoping to achieve by writing this piece? Do you think you
achieved it?
6.
What feedback did you get on your piece? How did you respond?
7.
How many drafts did you do and what were you trying to achieve in the redrafts?
8.
What were your influences? What published writing did you read to learn the
techniques you used in the piece?
9.
What published writers do you most aspire to be like and why?
10. Did you learn anything from writing this piece that will improve your future
work?
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
Interviews could be recorded either with a video camera or
just sound, and a selection played back to the class.

These interview notes should be kept safe, and then
referred to when writing the final draft of the commentary.
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Reflective commentary
Professional writer interviews
Professional writers are often interviewed by others, and these interviews can often be
found online in blogs or recordings.
Working in groups, each member should watch one of the videos and report back on
what they liked about the piece and what they learned from it.
a. www.thewhitereview.org/interviews/interview-with-paul-muldoon/
b. www.bbc.co.uk/archive/writers/
c. unmapped-project.co.uk/video.htm
d. www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/m_r/plath/orrinterview.htm
e. www.oprah.com/entertainment/Maria-Shriver-Interviews-Poet-Mary-Oliver
f. www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=24331
g. www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=24185
h. whatever.scalzi.com/2006/04/27/10-things-teenage-writers-should-know-aboutwriting/
i. writerjobrien.wordpress.com/2014/07/04/interview-with-an-author-martinmalone/
© www.teachit.co.uk 2016
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Reflective commentary
Writing your own reflective commentary
There are several ways to approach this and there is no set way to do it. However, there
is a word limit of 1500 words, so there is no room for padding.
1. Look through all your notes and reviews and select the ones which refer to the
work you have decided to include in your coursework folder, across the two
different genres.
2. There are two strands (assessment objectives) which you are marked on in your
reflective commentaries:
AO3: Demonstrate critical awareness of personal writing processes,
reflecting on the relationship between ideas, aims, development and
technique.
3. To address this strand, you need to consider where your ideas came from, how
you went about writing and redrafting the relevant pieces, what you hoped to
achieve and what techniques you found helpful.
AO4: Respond to existing published work as a source of learning,
stimulus and creative strategy in producing own writing.
4. To gain good marks for this AO, you need to discuss the relationship between
published writing and your own work, for example, did you learn a technique from
a writer which you went on to use in your own work? Did you get the idea from
one of your pieces from watching a film or hearing a piece of music? How did that
feed into your own work? This could be plot, character, setting, atmosphere etc.
5. You do not have to deal with these strands separately. But once you have drafted
your commentary, a useful exercise would be to highlight comments you think
relate to these strands. You could also swap with a partner and highlight each
other’s strand comments. It is as helpful to get peer feedback on your reflective
commentaries as it is on your creative work.
6. Write your commentary using first person. Where necessary, quote from your own
work. Be as specific as you can. Comments like ‘I got the idea to tell the story
mainly through dialogue by reading Raymond Carver’s story ‘Popular Mechanics’’
is always more interesting and mark worthy than ‘I read a few short stories’.
Remember too that this part of the coursework deserves as much
care and thought as your creative writing!
Good luck!
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