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As english lit

Hi guys, can anyone please help me to analyse chainsaw versus the pampas grass by simon armitage and the gun by Vicki feaver. and if anyone can please give me some advice on how to do well in my As exams for English lit please, i i am détermine to get an A iv been getting E*s in essay lately. i think i need help on essay writing, if anyone can send their essay e.g high graded essay for me to see how i can improve.


thank you indvance
Can't say I've studied those texts but I have done AS English. I did Edexcel and got a high A. My overall tips which should be applicable for most exam boards are:

- always try to bring in different interpretations. For every judgement you make, think of the counter argument, and argue the relative strengths of each interpretation against the other.

- don't dump quotes into essays without elaborating on them. Every quote you mention needs to be backed up with analysis which forms an overall argument or judgement.

- make contextual links consistently. What would readers at the time the text was written have thought? Why did the author choose to write about this topic or in this manner?

- analyse form and structure as well as language. Things to think about:

Language: look at specific words and their meanings and connotations.
Form: what genre is the text? How does the text conform to the conventions of the genre?
Structure: what type of narrator is there? Why? How does the story unfold?

Hope this helps :h:
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by antigone-
Can't say I've studied those texts but I have done AS English. I did Edexcel and got a high A. My overall tips which should be applicable for most exam boards are:

- always try to bring in different interpretations. For every judgement you make, think of the counter argument, and argue the relative strengths of each interpretation against the other.

- don't dump quotes into essays without elaborating on them. Every quote you mention needs to be backed up with analysis which forms an overall argument or judgement.

- make contextual links consistently. What would readers at the time the text was written have thought? Why did the author choose to write about this topic or in this manner?

- analyse form and structure as well as language. Things to think about:

Language: look at specific words and their meanings and connotations.
Form: what genre is the text? How does the text conform to the conventions of the genre?
Structure: what type of narrator is there? Why? How does the story unfold?

Hope this helps :h:





Thank you very much for your help. And if you still have your work from year 12 if you could please send it to me so I can have a read and see how an A piece of writing looks like. I am determined to do really well. Please help me. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE
Original post by antigone-
can't say i've studied those texts but i have done as english. I did edexcel and got a high a. My overall tips which should be applicable for most exam boards are:

- always try to bring in different interpretations. For every judgement you make, think of the counter argument, and argue the relative strengths of each interpretation against the other.

- don't dump quotes into essays without elaborating on them. Every quote you mention needs to be backed up with analysis which forms an overall argument or judgement.

- make contextual links consistently. What would readers at the time the text was written have thought? Why did the author choose to write about this topic or in this manner?

- analyse form and structure as well as language. Things to think about:

Language: Look at specific words and their meanings and connotations.
Form: What genre is the text? How does the text conform to the conventions of the genre?
Structure: What type of narrator is there? Why? How does the story unfold?

Hope this helps :h



thank you very much for your help!!!!!! And if you still got some work from year 12, could you please send it to me, so i can see how a good piece of writing looks like

thanks in advance
I did AS OCR English Literature last year and got a high A. I haven't done those texts but can give you some general advice.

While reading through the texts (if you haven't done so already definitely reread the texts multiple times if you can) I highlighted key quotations and then wrote them down on a separate piece of paper (a quote bank). Rather than just listing them however I categorised them by theme. I did this for every text separately, using internet resources and revision guides to add more and then I highlighted quotes that allowed me to compare the texts (if your exam is not comparitive then this is not required).

I did the same thing for critics quotes too (this is increadibly useful and we were told having specific critics quotes would get us more marks than simply saying "a marxist interpretation")

I then spent as much time as I could trying to learn these quotes, doing my best to remember which theme or area of the text they referred to (as well as who wrote them for critics quotes). Just make sure to analyse them in the exam too!

To help with essay structuring try and look at one of the exemplar essays for your exam board (there should be some on the website) and highlight where that person has included each of AOs and try to do the same in your own writing. The most vital thing other than this is constant essay writing practice! Write as many essays as you can and get them marked by your teacher as often as possible This way you should get used to structuring the essay and get some idea of where you need to improve.

Hope that helps and good luck!
Original post by JStimo
I did AS OCR English Literature last year and got a high A. I haven't done those texts but can give you some general advice.

While reading through the texts (if you haven't done so already definitely reread the texts multiple times if you can) I highlighted key quotations and then wrote them down on a separate piece of paper (a quote bank). Rather than just listing them however I categorised them by theme. I did this for every text separately, using internet resources and revision guides to add more and then I highlighted quotes that allowed me to compare the texts (if your exam is not comparitive then this is not required).

I did the same thing for critics quotes too (this is increadibly useful and we were told having specific critics quotes would get us more marks than simply saying "a marxist interpretation":wink:

I then spent as much time as I could trying to learn these quotes, doing my best to remember which theme or area of the text they referred to (as well as who wrote them for critics quotes). Just make sure to analyse them in the exam too!

To help with essay structuring try and look at one of the exemplar essays for your exam board (there should be some on the website) and highlight where that person has included each of AOs and try to do the same in your own writing. The most vital thing other than this is constant essay writing practice! Write as many essays as you can and get them marked by your teacher as often as possible This way you should get used to structuring the essay and get some idea of where you need to improve.

Hope that helps and good luck!





thank you very much for your time and advice I will definitely take it in. And you see if in the exam its a open book exam, do I still need to memorise the quotes?? and if you still have work the work tha you did when yu were doing your English lit could you please send them to me, so I can see .


thanks in advance
Original post by Benie Bopeno
thank you very much for your help!!!!!! And if you still got some work from year 12, could you please send it to me, so i can see how a good piece of writing looks like

thanks in advance


Sure! What texts do you do? I can send you some if we do similar texts :smile:

Do you do AQA?
Original post by antigone-
Sure! What texts do you do? I can send you some if we do similar texts :smile:

Do you do AQA?


unfortunately no, our exam board is edexcel, but I believe your work would definitely be useful to me anyway. What do you think?

:confused:
Original post by Benie Bopeno
unfortunately no, our exam board is edexcel, but I believe your work would definitely be useful to me anyway. What do you think?

:confused:


I have essays on:

The poems of Christina Rossetti
The poems of Robert Browning
The Road
The Kite Runner
Much Ado About Nothing (coursework)
Abigail's Party (coursework)

From AS. If you study any of those I can send you those essays. If you don't, I'll choose a random one and send you it :smile:
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by antigone-
i have essays on:

The poems of christina rossetti
the poems of robert browning
the road
the kite runner
much ado about nothing (coursework)
abigail's party (coursework)

from as. If you study any of those i can send you those essays. If you don't, i'll choose a random one and send you it :smile:



i've just checked on the spec and we're not doing their poems. And if know anyone who's doing the new 2016 alevel english lit can you please get me in touch with them. Thanks in advance. And yes please send me them all anyway so i can see the way you've structured everthing etc and please do choose a random one too . Thank you for your help so far. Much i appreciated from my heart
I did OCR and got an A in the coursework and exam.
- I think the most important thing you can do to guarantee yourself an A overall is to get as high as possible in your coursework.
- In terms of essay writing always structure your answer before you write it!!!!
- AO4 is also VERY important, examiners love it, so stick in any contextual knowledge you know, but be careful with poetry; don't always try to make connections with certain aspects of a poem as a reflection of the poets life unless you're 100% sure.
- Read lots of critical essays of the books your studying (AO3) and gather some useful quotes from them which you can use to back up or even go against your argument to show that you're also considering other perspectives, this shows a lot of wider reading. Maybe pick up a norton critical edition of the book your studying, which include some critical essays at the back.
- When you're using quotes, don't just stick in a bunch of long quotes, embed them!! This will make your essay flow much better and will also make it much easier for you if your exam board makes you memorise quotes as you then just have to learn certain parts of a quote.
- Look at the mark scheme examiners use to mark your essays and make sure you can tick off every single marking point in your essays.

Good luck :smile:

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