Structuring Your Devising Log: Formats and Length Limits

Most of the marks are not the performance

Devising is worth 80 marks. The devised performance itself is 20 of them. The devising log is the other 60. That is three quarters of the component sitting in a document, and you get to choose what that document is made of. There are four formats, each with its own ceiling, and the ceilings are not measured in the same units as each other.

Three sections, 20 marks each

The 60 log marks are split into three sections. They carry exactly the same marks as one another.

Four formats, four ceilings

Carrying the wrong number across

A student is doing a written log with audio and video clips. They have been told the log limit is 2500 words and are working to that. What is wrong?

• Nothing, 2500 words is the limit for every format
• Their format allows 1500 words plus 12 minutes, so 2500 words is a thousand too many
• Their format has no word limit at all
• They should not be mixing written work with clips

The four ceilings

Worth learning as four pairs rather than as a list of numbers. Notice what each one counts.

How many words are left?

A student is using the written format with audio and video. They have written 1200 words so far. How many more words may they write?

The three sections

Which two of these are true about the log sections?

• All three are worth the same number of marks
• Analysis and evaluation is worth as much as responding to the stimulus
• The response to the stimulus is the most heavily weighted
• The log is worth the same as the devised performance
• The word ceiling applies to each section separately

Equal sections, one budget

The three sections are worth 20 marks each, and the ceiling applies to the whole log rather than to each section. Put those two facts together and something follows: if one section takes up half your words, it is taking words from two sections that are worth exactly as much as it is. Decide the split deliberately rather than letting it happen, because the mark scheme does not reward the section you found most interesting to write.

Planning the log

Put these four into an order that leaves you the most room to change your mind.

• Choose the format, and write down which ceiling it carries
• Divide the ceiling across the three sections
• Draft each section inside its share
• Check the whole log against the ceiling before you finish

One student, choosing a format

A student is a set designer on their devised piece and has a lot of drawings. Written alone would mean describing images in words, which is expensive at 2500 words for the whole log.\n\nThey choose written with annotated visuals. That gives 15 sides of paper, so the drawings can appear and be annotated, with up to 2500 words across the whole thing. The split: they give roughly a third of the pages to each section, because the sections are worth the same. The choice took ten minutes and was made before any drafting, which is the only time it is free.

Which two break their ceiling?

Four of these logs are inside their limits. Tap the two that are not.

• Entirely written, 2400 words
• Entirely audio and visual, 17 minutes
• Written with annotated visuals, 12 sides, 2100 words
• Written with audio and video, 1800 words and 10 minutes
• Entirely audio and visual, 14 minutes
• Written with annotated visuals, 15 sides, 2500 words

The formats in a paragraph

An entirely written log may run to _____ words. A written log with annotated visuals may run to _____ sides of paper. A written log with audio or video is capped at _____ words together with _____ minutes. The log carries _____ marks in total.

Fifteen sides, and words too

A student using written work with annotated visuals fills 15 sides of paper and counts 2800 words across them. Are they within the limit?

• Yes, because 15 sides is the limit and they are on it
• No, because that format also caps the words at 2500
• No, because annotated visuals are capped at 12 sides
• Yes, because the word cap only applies to entirely written logs

Justify the format

A format choice is a decision about your material. Choose the option in each gap.

A log to fix

Somebody in your group asks you to look over their devising log before it goes in.

• They are writing with audio and video clips, and working to a 2500 word target.
• They have spent most of their words on the response to the stimulus and have very little left for analysis and evaluation.
• They ask whether they can switch to the entirely audiovisual format now that the writing is nearly done.

Plan a log

You are about to start a devising log and most of your evidence is written notes and a few photographs. Write your plan for the log.

• Name the format you would choose and the ceiling it carries
• Say how you would divide that ceiling across the three sections, and why
• Name one thing that would make you choose a different format instead
• Do not describe the devised performance itself, which is marked separately