Urgent English A1 help!

[chileanbob]

Hey all,

I wanted to know who could offer some structural [how to organize], time management [1 hr planning and 1hr writing?], thematic[one work discussion, then the next work?], treatment of works [side by side comparison? listing? etc] or other kinds of advice for paper 2 English on Monday? I'm shooting for high marks!

Thanks.

Oh! I almost forgot, how does one mention references that will yield high marks here if you can't really provide page numbers. Also, how do you avoid plot summary? And are there any examples involving more short story/novel based paper 2s for English?

Thanks again!

[Sandwich]

Hey all,

I wanted to know who could offer some structural [how to organize], time management [1 hr planning and 1hr writing?], thematic[one work discussion, then the next work?], treatment of works [side by side comparison? listing? etc] or other kinds of advice for paper 2 English on Monday? I'm shooting for high marks!

Thanks.

Oh! I almost forgot, how does one mention references that will yield high marks here if you can't really provide page numbers. Also, how do you avoid plot summary? And are there any examples involving more short story/novel based paper 2s for English?

Thanks again!

Okay, structurally, you want to base your whole thing around your question (like.. the theme or aspect the question picks out and then how that applies to your plays/novels/whatever you did, leading up to a summary of your final response to the question). Time management-wise, I'd say 15-20 mins for planning followed by writing. (EDIT: This totally depends on how long it takes you to come up with stuff, obviously you want to have enough content to write the essay so there's no point in only planning for 15 mins if you don't have enough to say as a result!).

IMO because they give you a theme, you just pick out how that theme/whatever comes up in one of the works you studied, and then you should move on to a contrasting work, where the theme was presented differently and that'll help give your essay coherence as you enter a compare and contrast-type situation. So work by work, but you should put a spin on it so it all ties in together.

As for references, you want close textual knowledge aka learning quotes from each work you think you can slot in. If you can pick quotes with some language analysis potential that's a great idea. Learn quotes which'll give you some idea of the author's style and which encapsulate any key themes within what you've studied. I'd say 5-6 quotes per thing will see you through-- as you're writing the essay, you can make your points specifically to fit with the quotes you've memorised

Only mention the plot where it has relevance to the theme, in order to avoid summarising plot. I don't do the story ones, I do the drama ones instead, but say if the question was about comedy versus tragedy, I'd mention anything tragic or comic in the plots and stop there. Anything you say which isn't supporting your argument and your response to the question is redundant. If a small amount of setting in context is required, mention only key details-- like who is related to who, briefly why they've done something etc. as appropiate.

Does that help?

Edited May 9, 2009 by Sandwich

[Vvi]

That helped me at least, I'm doing drama too and I had no idea how many quotes to learn. Now I do, only reading my texts aren't so fun because they're about rape/torture/ethics and philosophy (none of which are my favourtie things in the world).

[zYvy]

Okay, structurally, you want to base your whole thing around your question (like.. the theme or aspect the question picks out and then how that applies to your plays/novels/whatever you did, leading up to a summary of your final response to the question). Time management-wise, I'd say 15-20 mins for planning followed by writing. (EDIT: This totally depends on how long it takes you to come up with stuff, obviously you want to have enough content to write the essay so there's no point in only planning for 15 mins if you don't have enough to say as a result!).

IMO because they give you a theme, you just pick out how that theme/whatever comes up in one of the works you studied, and then you should move on to a contrasting work, where the theme was presently differently and that'll help give your essay coherence as you enter a compare and contrast-type situation. So work by work, but you should put a spin on it so it all ties in together.

As for references, you want close textual knowledge aka learning quotes from each work you think you can slot in. If you can pick quotes with some language analysis potential that's a great idea. Learn quotes which'll give you some idea of the author's style and which encapsulate any key themes within what you've studied. I'd say 5-6 quotes per thing will see you through-- as you're writing the essay, you can make your points specifically to fit with the quotes you've memorised

Only mention the plot where it has relevance to the theme, in order to avoid summarising plot. I don't do the story ones, I do the drama ones instead, but say if the question was about comedy versus tragedy, I'd mention anything tragic or comic in the plots and stop there. Anything you say which isn't supporting your argument and your response to the question is redundant. If a small amount of setting in context is required, mention only key details-- like who is related to who, briefly why they've done something etc. as appropiate.

Does that help?

Hey thank you for the advice! That was quite helpful, actually.

I'm trying to get high marks too and I haven't been studying for english at all. Probably the worst decision I ever made. Aghh.

Thanks again