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AQA A2 English Literature 2016 - Love Through The Ages. Official Thread

For all that need all the help they can get for next years A2 exam. Let's start a study group..

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Reply 1
Avatar for CSL123
CSL123
14
What advice would you give a year 12 starting A level literature?
What literary devices do you need to know for poetry and novels?
How do I structure essays?
Is wider reading necessary?
Reply 2
Avatar for j0ydivision
j0ydivision
OP
7
Original post by CSL123
What advice would you give a year 12 starting A level literature?
What literary devices do you need to know for poetry and novels?
How do I structure essays?
Is wider reading necessary?


My number one piece of advice would be to READ WIDELY and keep a reading log! It gives you a wider perception and makes you consider different viewpoints (and there's also nothing better than analysing an insanely good book). Basic poetry/literary devices are all that's needed, as AQA are looking more for how you understand and approach the text and how it links to your wider reading, rather then just device spotting (trust me it got me an A!!) AQA states there's no specific essay structure, but look at the mark scheme and just make sure you get all the AO's into your essay's. Good luck AQA English Lit are notoriously unpredictable, (stay strong u can do it) x
Original post by CSL123
What advice would you give a year 12 starting A level literature?
What literary devices do you need to know for poetry and novels?
How do I structure essays?
Is wider reading necessary?




Read all your texts, know them inside-out.

There's loads of literary terms you will encounter, but there's a dozen so you need to research that on your own.

Structuring essays depends on the mark scheme and what the question is asking you to do.

Wider reading is a necessity in making sure you understand the wider context of your reading. Yes, you probably can find out what was poverty like in the latter stages of the Victorian era by finding a ppt on the internet. Or you can read a Charles Dickens' novel and discover it that way. The latter way makes you more adaptable for reading different texts in terms of length, author, context, difficulty and sophistication. Your language/literary interpretation, appreciation and your writing style will definitely become more confident and controlled if you read around your subject. I'm at uni and I'm still finding this to be true.

You should make the most of it.
I've found all these helpful links for this module :smile:
Hope they help!

AQA resource pack: here Includes a short video, past papers and example answers
Useful list of wider reading here
TSR resource: a great overview of the texts
John Donne poetry mindmap

Edit: I'll keep adding things as I find them :h:
Hi everyone, I'm studying this too :h:
What texts is everyone doing for their coursework?
Original post by CSL123
What advice would you give a year 12 starting A level literature?
What literary devices do you need to know for poetry and novels?
How do I structure essays?
Is wider reading necessary?

Wider reading is most definitely necessary, especially as one of your exam questions will ask you to refer to your wider reading! :yes:
Reply 7
Avatar for oswalds
oswalds
14
Original post by CSL123
What advice would you give a year 12 starting A level literature?
What literary devices do you need to know for poetry and novels?
How do I structure essays?
Is wider reading necessary?


As well as language in poetry and novels, make sure you are commenting on things such as the structure and form of a text as well, looking at things like chapters, rhyme schemes, perspectives. Also look a how the audience would react to a text, not only a current audience, but the audience when the text was published. For this it's really good to have some context about the era.
For structuring essays, one of my teachers told me this last year. I don't know how relevant it will be for the new spec though.
P- Point
E- Evidence (A quote)
D- Device (Like metaphor, alliteration etc.)
A- Analysis
L- Link (Link it to your wider reading)
Wider reading is really good to have, especially if you have lots that you can dip in and out of when you're trying to compare. It's not a bad idea to read some extracts of books as well, but don't fully rely on these. I know my AQA text book had loads, and you can buy some anthologies of them on Amazon.

Original post by Gingerbread101
Hi everyone, I'm studying this too :h:
What texts is everyone doing for their coursework?


I'm doing Othello, A View from the Bridge and The Picture of Dorian Gray for mine, and basing it around obsession/deterioration. What are you doing for yours? :smile:
Original post by oswalds

I'm doing Othello, A View from the Bridge and The Picture of Dorian Gray for mine, and basing it around obsession/deterioration. What are you doing for yours? :smile:

Antony and Cleopatra, Enduring Love and The Great Gatsby, focusing on obsession and destructive love :yep:
Original post by Gingerbread101
Hi everyone, I'm studying this too :h:
What texts is everyone doing for their coursework?


I'm probably doing Othello, The Kite Runner and Death of a Salesman, though the play choice may well change. I'm dreading this coursework, particularly because I know the word limit will be hell. Last year, for one of my coursework pieces, I went nearly a thousand words over at one point (leading to serious cutting down), and I expect I'll have to go through the exact same process again this year.

I know why there are limits, but at times it feels like AQA delights in our struggling.
Original post by doctorwhofan98
I'm probably doing Othello, The Kite Runner and Death of a Salesman, though the play choice may well change. I'm dreading this coursework, particularly because I know the word limit will be hell. Last year, for one of my coursework pieces, I went nearly a thousand words over at one point (leading to serious cutting down), and I expect I'll have to go through the exact same process again this year.

I know why there are limits, but at times it feels like AQA delights in our struggling.

I know the feeling :lol:
By the end of the coursework last year, I was actually really pleased with mine so hopefully it will go the same way again :awesome:
Hiya I am just starting my english A2 coursework today. My texts are Tess of the d'Urbervilles, enduring love and Keats poetry and I am going to base it around love... any ideas for my title which has to include a quote from an outside reader?! I was thinking destruction or idealised love? Thanks!!
Has anyone got any good prose/drama/poetry about patriotic love? I have to find examples across all the time period but I'm struggling.
Original post by doctorwhofan98
Has anyone got any good prose/drama/poetry about patriotic love? I have to find examples across all the time period but I'm struggling.


This should be easy. Any world war 1 texts.

Birdsong, My Boy Jack, Oh! What a Lovely War, (look through the Oxford Book of War Poetry), there's loads of that.

Obviously not any WW1 texts, but just type in "ww1 patriotic literature" or something similar in a search engine and you should find plenty.
Original post by libby.2015
Hiya I am just starting my english A2 coursework today. My texts are Tess of the d'Urbervilles, enduring love and Keats poetry and I am going to base it around love... any ideas for my title which has to include a quote from an outside reader?! I was thinking destruction or idealised love? Thanks!!


I've only read Enduring Love. You could look at both; something like "explore the way idealised love has a destructive force on characters" or "discuss the ways destruction is presented through idealised love."

If you need anymore help, send me a message.
Original post by Gingerbread101
Hi everyone, I'm studying this too :h:
What texts is everyone doing for their coursework?



I'm doing 'Measure for Measure', 'Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf', and 'Lolita'.

I don't know if this year's going to go well, my teachers are more into the classics, and It's really difficult to engage with them enough to write a good piece about them, plus love is one of those topics that just doesn't inspire good writing in me....

Anyone else uninspired or is it just me?

For some reason I also cannot get my brain to focus on converting my ideas from notes to full paragraphs - this coursework is going to be difficult....
im doing King Lear,Sons and Lovers,Purple Hibiscus(Second time reading it so anyone need any help with this illl be glad to help),the homecoming and poetry
Original post by ZoëC
I'm doing 'Measure for Measure', 'Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf', and 'Lolita'.

I don't know if this year's going to go well, my teachers are more into the classics, and It's really difficult to engage with them enough to write a good piece about them, plus love is one of those topics that just doesn't inspire good writing in me....

Anyone else uninspired or is it just me?

For some reason I also cannot get my brain to focus on converting my ideas from notes to full paragraphs - this coursework is going to be difficult....



These are amazing texts! Don't worry about the teachers, just make sure you work closely with assessment objectives and focus on writing what's potentially going to be a very unusual and interesting essay :smile: Love is only uninspiring if it's approached in a cliched way, just find an aspect of love that interests you. I wrote my uni dissertation on Lolita/Nabokov and my lecturer hated it and hated the ideas but I still ended up with a good grade because I approached it in an unusual way
really enjoy this topic, but my teacher hasn't even picked our third coursework text :/ kind of annoying as i do want to start reading/researching around it (or at least have the ability to do so haha)

so far we've read the great gatsby which i LOVED and now we're doing othello which is a bit more difficult to grasp as we're going through it so quickly but it's interesting
Original post by faggstagram
really enjoy this topic, but my teacher hasn't even picked our third coursework text :/ kind of annoying as i do want to start reading/researching around it (or at least have the ability to do so haha)

so far we've read the great gatsby which i LOVED and now we're doing othello which is a bit more difficult to grasp as we're going through it so quickly but it's interesting


I hate TGG! I studied Othello for this coursework! We went through it quickly but it's quite easy to understand (in comparison to other Shakespeare's work).

If you need help with Othello or Shakespeare in general, message me. I'm studying a Shakespeare module at uni atm, so yeah :smile:.

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