What changes in the Extension 2 Major Work in the 2024 HSC English syllabus

New syllabus (first HSC 2027). This page follows the English Extension 11-12 (2024) syllabus. If you are sitting the 2026 HSC, use the older Major Work and Reflection pages on this subject instead. See what's changed.

The headline changes

The Major Work remains the centre of Extension 2, but the 2024 syllabus changes the rules around it. As we read the published specification, there are three changes that matter most to a student.

1. Shorter limits for each form. The new limits are:

NESA lists seven forms. Check the NESA Major work requirements for the exact rules of your form.

2. No Reflection Statement. The old course required a Reflection Statement alongside the Major Work. The new specification lists none. Instead you keep a Major work journal as part of the course (see below), and the thinking you once poured into the statement goes into the work itself. The online exam can also ask you to reflect on creative choices, so the habit still matters.

3. A different weighting. The Major Work is marked out of 20 and converted to 60. It is paired with a 40-mark online exam on Author and authority, for a total of 100 marks. The Major Work is still the larger share of the course.

What the shorter limits mean

A shorter limit is not a lower standard. It is a tighter container, and the work has to fit it with no spare material. Three practical consequences follow.

Concept must be sharper

In a 3,500-word story or a 1,500-word poetry collection, there is little room to explore an idea slowly. Decide early what your work is about and what it is arguing or exploring. Write that concept in one sentence and test every scene, poem or section against it.

Control matters more than scale

A short work succeeds by precision. Each choice of word, image, shift of voice and ending carries a greater share of the whole. Revision becomes cutting and sharpening, not extending.

Form must earn its place

Audio, script and multimedia forms have time limits, not word limits. A 10-minute podcast or a 5-minute multimedia work will feel complete only if you plan to the clock. Time yourself early and often.

What replaces the Reflection Statement

With no Reflection Statement to explain your choices, the work must make its own case. A reader, listener or viewer should be able to find the concept without a guide. Build this in:

• A clear controlling idea that is visible from the opening.
• Deliberate form. Be able to say, in your own head, why this form and not another. If you cannot, the form is probably decoration.
• Evidence of your investigation. Your reading and viewing should be visible in the craft: the way a writer of poetry controls line and silence, or the way a critic handles secondary sources.
• Your Major work journal. The syllabus requires you to keep a Major work journal that records every stage of the composition process: research and analysis, and critical, imaginative and speculative reflections. It is not submitted to NESA and is not marked, but your supervising teacher may draw on it, along with observations and discussions, as evidence that the work is your own. Your school will also have its own requirements, such as a student declaration, so follow its dates and forms.

Choosing a form under the new limits

Here are questions to help you choose.

• Short fiction (3,500 words). Can your idea be carried by one or two scenes and a strong ending? Short fiction rewards a single pressure and a controlled point of view.
• Creative nonfiction (3,500 words). Is your idea rooted in real experience, investigation or a recreated past? NESA's suggested territory is life writing, investigative journalism or an historical recreation or representation.
• Poetry (1,500 words). Is your concept one that benefits from a sequence of related poems? A sequence needs variety of form and a clear arc.
• Critical response (3,000 words). Do you have an arguable thesis that is bigger than a school essay? Three thousand words is enough for one sustained argument, not several.
• Script (15 minutes). Is your idea dramatic, with conflict in a shared space? Read the script aloud with a timer to test the length.
• Podcast (10 minutes). Does your concept depend on sound, voice and silence? If not, a podcast is only a recorded essay.
• Multimedia (5 minutes). Does the idea depend on layers of image, sound and text working together?

Why the exam does not shrink the Major Work

It is easy to think that a 40-mark exam makes the composition less important. The opposite is true. Sixty of the 100 marks come from the Major Work, and it is also the part of the course you control most completely, because you choose the concept, the form and the standard of the finish. Use the exam to keep your reading and analysis sharp, and use the Major Work to show what you can make.

Timeline thinking

Because the limits are shorter, there is a temptation to start late. Do not. Short works need more drafts, not fewer. A reasonable pattern is: concept and form decision, a full first draft, a cutting draft, a polish and a read-aloud or watch-through. Confirm your school's own due dates.

Common traps

• Compressing a longer idea into the new limit rather than choosing an idea that fits.
• Treating the end of the Reflection Statement as a loss of the need to think about form, or skipping the Major work journal.
• Writing to the old limit and cutting in a panic near the deadline.
• Assuming the exam reduces the importance of the Major Work.