English A1 Course Companion

[CommeDesEnfants]

I was just wondering how useful the English Course Companion is for me, at the end of Year 1, in HL. I have the biology one and I was thinking of getting the one for chemistry, and considering getting the English one along with it. What does it contain, exactly, that could benefit me, especially since English doesn't have a set syllabus of things that I need to memorize? I'd probably use it for my IOC, World Lit I and II, and my finals.

Thanks!

And yes, I realize my grammar kind of failed in the subtitle. T_T Whoops...

Edited May 22, 2009 by Tyrannitar

[__inthemaking]

It's not very useful in my opinion..my boyfriend got it and he never even really read through it. They have lots of passages by examiners about common mistakes made on the exam, what not to do, how to approach different questions, etc but most of it seemed to be either common sense or our teacher had already told us about it.

It could be beneficial for you though, especially if your teacher isn't very good.

[Vvi]

My school has the English course companion, although we didn't use it in class but I borrowed one from the teacher to read through before exams. I thought it wasn't bad, there's a whole section on analysing Shakespearean dramas (which I didn't read through because we didn't study any of his plays), and they have advice on how to prepare for your oral commentary (they show you examples of passges and how the student planned their commentary in the 20 mins), then they have good and bad commentaries from students over the years on texts. I liked it, it wasn't a bad book. I'd say get it, there's also advice on how to write your WLs and an English EE, and well as information on the IOP (Which you've already done, but still). They give you tips on how to write good introductions and show you examples, and tell you what kind of things to avoid writing in your commentary (like vague and empty sentences such as "Enjambement makes the poem flow", etc.)

[emmak]

I've been getting 6s and 7s in all of my English A1 HL papers... but I feel kinda nervous about the WLs and the oral commentary next fall. I'm assuming that you would recommend this book to review and learn more about those things? English is my mother tongue so I am hesitant about buying this, and how much it would help me.

[Vvi]

In the book, there are 12 chapters, divided into 5 main parts.

Part 1: The Commentary

1. Approaching literary criticism

2. Analysing poerty

3. Analysing prose

Part 2: Literary genres

4. Studying prose

Detailed study: Joseph Conrad

5. Studying poetry

Detailed study: Carol Ann Duffy

6. Studying drama

Detailed study: Shakespearean comedy

Part 3: World Literature

7. Comparative study (WL1)

8. Comparative, imaginative and detailed study (WL2)

Part 4: Talking about literature

9. The individual oral commentary

10. The individual oral presentation

Part 5: Writing about literature

11. Writing exam essays

12. The extended essay

There is also a glossary of all the literary terms, which is very useful. The detailed studies give you themes/motifs/symbols, as well as a short biography of the author and one of his/her works. I liked the range of poems/prose extracts that they give you in the book, they also have examiners' comments on the commentaries that were written by students in the book. They give you many suggested approaches to the IOP, examples of guiding questions for commentaries, examples of how students worked through their WL assignments and basically everything you need to cover the course.

In the chapter "Exam essays", they tell about revising quotes, time management, what to bear in mind when writing an intro/conclusion, what examiners look for,how your work is marked and so on.

However, it does cost about $40, so if you can convince your school to buy a few and to make photocopies for you/lend you the book before exams, that would be best.

[Sandwich]

We didn't get this Course Companion, but we had a copy of the OSC English A1 HL&SL revision guide in the school library which I looked at a couple of times, and it was really very good

Probably cheaper, too.

[CommeDesEnfants]

Hm, I was looking at a sneak peak at Amazon.ca, and it looks pretty decent. My friend got it from another friend and said it was kinda useless, but maybe I'll probably look into getting it; thanks for the input.