Some Admin: Marks So Far

This is the provisional and rather disorganised list of marks so far. Everyone must do at least two assessed pieces of work, so if you have only one, I need another from you quick. If you have already sent me something which I have not seen, resend it WITH WIP IN THE SUBJECT LINE AND YOUR NAME AS PART OF THE FILENAME. I will not accept files called 'story', wipstory', 'my story' and other nonsense and you know why. If you've dropped out, tell me that too.

Also: big reminder. You will have to present an ADDITIONAL FINAL STORY at the end of term. This is not part of internals, but of the end sem. It should be at least a thousand words, and at the most two thousand. I've just found out that classes end on the 5th of November, and we reopen on the 24th, so we have just ten days to finish up and present. Today we'll discuss the final stories.

Amrita Kar 7
Arijit Sett 7
Arnab Chakraborty 5
Debjanee Chakrabarti 5 + 7
Pramita Ray 4
Aparna Chaudhuri 8 + 9
Nibedita Sen 8
Zeeshan Islam 9
Rajdeep Pal 6 + 7
Soumi Sarkar 6
Ananya Adhikari 5

Debalina Chowdhury 4.5
Anurima Sen 8
Debopama Das Gupta 6.5 + 7
Diya Sinha 7
Ahona Panda 8.5 + 9
Shamim Akhtar Molla 8 + 5
Antoreep Sengupta
Malini Chakraborty
Ishan Dasgupta 8 + 8
Roopkatha Banerjee 4.5 + 4

Sorry about the weird formatting, but I can't remember the html code for tables.

Question paper 2009

Enjoy!


Writing in Practice
Time: 2 hours Full marks: 30
Answer any one question. All questions carry equal marks.

1. Here is a character’s curriculum vitae. Using all of these facts, make up additional details, personal quirks and life events to create a backstory for the character, taking care to fill in the holes in her history.

Name: Shamim Durrani, Age: 38, Height: 5’7”, Weight: 55kg, Distinguishing marks: scar on right knee from fall from a horse at fourteen when out riding with father in the mountains of Peshawar. Place of birth: Peshawar. Parents: big landowners in Peshawar, father killed in a riot, mother remarried widower with two younger children. Relationship with stepfamily cordial but distant. Place of residence: Amritsar. Education: Mathematics honours, diploma in chartered accountancy from private college in Chandigarh. Marital status: Unmarried, has a boyfriend who has moved to Dubai whom she hasn’t seen for a year. Income: 6.5 lakhs per year. Occupation: freelance stock market trader; has set up a small firm of her own, breaks even but yet to hit the big time.

2. Create a plot outline choosing one character, location, mood and object from the lists below. You may add other elements and characters, but the four things you choose must figure prominently. State your four choices at the head of your answer.
a. Characters: anaesthetist, construction worker, policewoman, cabaret artist
b. Locations: swimming pool, coral island, soup kitchen, car park
c. Moods: suspicious, frustrated, vengeful, exalted
d. Objects: keyring, boarding pass, lipstick, wheelchair

3. In each of these passages, two characters are implied. Choose any one passage and make up names and backstories for each of the two characters implied by the passage.

a. Her slippers lay by the bed, one slightly at an angle to the other, as if she had just stepped out of them while dancing and vanished into thin air. I raised an edge of the curtain, but the room beyond it was empty. From somewhere, I could hear the sound of water running.
b. She rummaged nervously in her bag for the pass card that would allow her to enter his inner office. He always hated her to be late; he’d rung her this morning at six am to remind her to be on time. Today the Ukrainians were coming to clinch the deal on the soft-nosed repeater rounds and the double-barrelled automatic cannon. She’d worked all night on the papers; her shoulders ached, and the expensive carpet sucked at her feet.
c. He stuck his head out of the open door and winced as the wind tore at his hair. The urn with her ashes was clutched in his right hand. As the helicopter danced on its column of air, he opened the urn and let the dark dust fly out upon the wind and fall towards the glittering ocean below. Goodbye, my love, he thought. I kept my promise. Nothing will ever imprison you again.

Marks

By popular request, I'm posting the marks here. Please supply me with your roll numbers. The classification is not exact for soem of the stories, especially the late submissions.

Writing in Practice	Char	Elem	Pic	Word	Plot
Anomitra Biswas	8	8	8	8	8
Anway Mukhopadhyay	7.5	8	8	8	7
Agnibho Chakraborty	6.5	7		7
Pallabi Gupta	7	6	7	6
Monidipa Mondal	8	8	7	8.5
Sharad Saumya Majumdar	8	8	7.5	8
Shayeari Datta	8.5	7	7	7.5
Malini Bhattacharya	6	6	7	6
Arijeet Mondal	6	6.5	6	7
Rituparna Sengupta	7	8		7
Pujarini Sen	6.5		7	6.5	6.5
Sristi Ghimiray	5		5	6	6
Promit Basu	7		6	6
Mrinalini Sen	7		7	6.5
Soham Bose	7	7		7

2008 question paper

I think I forgot to put this up. For your delectation:

Writing in Practice

Answer any one question. All questions carry equal marks.

1. Here is a character’s biodata. Using all of these facts, make up additional details, personal quirks and life events to create a backstory for the character.

Name: Radha Karmakar, Age: 33, Height: 5’4”, Weight: 55kg, Distinguishing marks: scar on right hand. Education: History honours, diploma in textile design. Marital status: divorced, one child. Income, 2.5 lakhs per year. Occupation: sales executive in a small jewelry manufacturing firm. Residence: near Shyambazar Metro station. Place of birth: Cooch Behar. Ex-husband: Army officer.

2. Create a plot outline choosing one character, location, mood and object from the lists below. You may add other elements and characters, but the four things you choose must figure prominently. State your four choices at the head of your answer.

• Characters: Stone mason, Railway engine driver, teenage drama queen, werewolf,
• Locations: Roof of skyscraper, river gorge, flower market, bedroom
• Moods: Tranquil, frustrated, curious, despairing
• Objects: Loaf of bread, shoe, rubber duck, tractor

3. Complete this piece of dialogue:

‘So,’ he said, looking not at her but at the road outside the window, ‘we finally meet.’

‘Finally,’ she agreed, fidgeting with the menu. ‘Do you like tandoori?’

‘Can’t stand it.’

‘Well, that’s one thing we have in common. Let’s order Chinese.’

His Blackberry beeped. She caught her breath, but he waved a hand. ‘I can’t turn it off because my boss will yell, but it’ll keep for an hour or so. So tell me, how long have you been living in this city?’

The waiter arrived to take their orders. When he left, she said, ‘Look, there’s no need to pretend. We both know why we’re here. Let’s skip the small talk.’

‘Agreed,’ he said, and looked her in the face for the first time.

4. Rewrite this passage, giving the scene emotional colour. Invent the details you need to add, such as colours, sounds, sights, objects, activity, people and animals, smells, etc, but do NOT introduce a plot or principal characters.

The stalls are being set up for the fair. Bundles of merchandise lie around. People are hurrying to get ready. The fair is to be held on a low hill outside the town. The Ferris wheel is being set up. Many musicians, dancers and entertainers come to the town for the fair. A magician is pitching his tent. Kids lounge around watching. It has rained the night before, but today is sunny. Winter is coming and there is a nip in the air.

Presentations

PLEASE NOTE: These presentations are open to everyone to come and listen. Please join us and listen to some corking stories.

Yes, now we come to the final chop: who will present on which day?
So far this is the list:
Additions and alterations in red

Day 1: Wednesday 11 November 3-5pm
Anomitra Biswas
Anway Mukhpadhyay
Arijeet Mondal
Sristi Ghimiray
Pallabi Gupta


Day 2: Friday 13 November 3-5pm
Promit Basu
Sharad Saumya Majumdar
Shayeari Datta
Monidipa Mondal
Malini Bhattacharya

Day 3: Wednesday 18 November 2009 3-4pm
Mrinalini Sen
Pujarini Sen

Your name will only be on this list if you have completed your quota of class assignments. I'm not taking any more submissions, so please don't come and beg and plead. There is NO WAY you can write three class assignments and a final story by tomorrow. Seriously.

If there are any problems with the time, please tell me NOW.