AQA A2 Literature - &quot;Love through the Ages&quot; wider reading

i'm also doing this exam and i dont even know what to do...so confused

Reply 2

Well to be honest, I don't know if this is the right way to go about revising for the exam.. but you've got to remember that only 30%/40% of your reference during the exam should be dedicated to your wider reading - that is what has been stated under the mark scheme. Thus, you should concentrate on the 'unseen extracts'. Anyhow. I have been collating all my wider reading texts (2 prose, 2 poems and 2 dramas for each) into a table subcatergorising them into 'types of love' i.e. unrequited, forbidden.. etc. Then I have added columns to analyse their form, structure and language - BECAUSE this is what is needed to be concentrated on - also an extra column for quotations. You must remember to try to make some comparison between these texts and highlight the fact of love THROUGH THE AGES - therefore, TIME is a very important point to address. However, you may choose to go about this a different way and find a smaller group of texts that easily and suitably relate to different types of love ranging in their contextual periods, because many prose, dramas and poems do freely exhaust multiple types of love. Looking at one past paper specifically, I think this Janurary's, the 'pains of love' was highlighted in the unseen extracts, and to be honest this paves an easy route to several types - obsession, unrequited, forbidden... the list goes on.

Quick question... how do you analyse the 'structure' of prose extracts?

Thanks :smile:

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 3

Original post by meowoofbaa

Well to be honest, I don't know if this is the right way to go about revising for the exam.. but you've got to remember that only 30%/40% of your reference during the exam should be dedicated to your wider reading - that is what has been stated under the mark scheme. Thus, you should concentrate on the 'unseen extracts'. Anyhow. I have been collating all my wider reading texts (2 prose, 2 poems and 2 dramas for each) into a table subcatergorising them into 'types of love' i.e. unrequited, forbidden.. etc. Then I have added columns to analyse their form, structure and language - BECAUSE this is what is needed to be concentrated on - also an extra column for quotations. You must remember to try to make some comparison between these texts and highlight the fact of love THROUGH THE AGES - therefore, TIME is a very important point to address. However, you may choose to go about this a different way and find a smaller group of texts that easily and suitably relate to different types of love ranging in their contextual periods, because many prose, dramas and poems do freely exhaust multiple types of love. Looking at one past paper specifically, I think this Janurary's, the 'pains of love' was highlighted in the unseen extracts, and to be honest this paves an easy route to several types - obsession, unrequited, forbidden... the list goes on.

Quick question... how do you analyse the 'structure' of prose extracts?

Thanks :smile:

i have also done that. but i'm a bit shaky on the form and structure part :frown:

. what texts have u done? we have done
-Enduring Love
-Mrs Dalloway
-Much Ado about nothing
-A streetcar named desire
- Moll Flanders
-Chaucer-the franklin's tale, the wife of bath, knight's tale
-the virgin and the gipsy
-the handmaid's tale
pride and prejudice

and lots of poems

Reply 4

FORM LANGUAGE STRUCTURE.doc22.5KB

Original post by angelvicky

i have also done that. but i'm a bit shaky on the form and structure part :frown:

. what texts have u done? we have done
-Enduring Love
-Mrs Dalloway
-Much Ado about nothing
-A streetcar named desire
- Moll Flanders
-Chaucer-the franklin's tale, the wife of bath, knight's tale
-the virgin and the gipsy
-the handmaid's tale
pride and prejudice

and lots of poems

Wuthering Heights - Bronte
'Tis a pity she's a wh... (yeah, lol) - Ford
The Millers Tale - Chaucer
A Woman Of No Importance - Wilde
Cat On A Hot Tin Roof - Williams
On Chesil Beach - McEwan
Rebecca - Du Maurier
Othello
Hamlet
Much ado about nothing

Lots of William Blake poemmms and others, i.e. Christina Rossetti, Andrew Marvell, Ben Jonson, Heaney etc.
Personally, I really enjoy the works of Wilde, I would reccommend it.
There's also a lot of extracts in the little orange 'love through the ages' book if you've got that.

That's MORE than enough :-)
I'll attach something that's quite helpful, I just found it while googling - it's quite helpful when trying to analyse form structure language.

The website ''helpmewithenglish'' is also very helpful.

forms of literature.doc34.3KB

Reply 5

lol i also found that and i've ordered the book...oh well we should use this thread to revise

Reply 6

Original post by angelvicky

lol i also found that and i've ordered the book...oh well we should use this thread to revise

Haha. Yeah, just use that book and i guess revise with your class and ask teacher or extra help?
Good luck :smile:

Reply 7

Original post by meowoofbaa

Haha. Yeah, just use that book and i guess revise with your class and ask teacher or extra help?
Good luck :smile:

lol thanks and you too :d. i'll need the goodluck to get d "B" i need in this exam :frown:

Reply 8

Original post by angelvicky

lol thanks and you too :d. i'll need the goodluck to get d "B" i need in this exam :frown:

what did you get for AS? and this coursework?

Reply 9

gt C for AS and i was 4marks off A for dis coursework

Reply 10

Original post by angelvicky

gt C for AS and i was 4marks off A for dis coursework

Ah nice. Well good luck! We've not been given our coursework grade for this one yet mm :frown:

Reply 11

For the wider reading, just like last year, i've just been reading absolutely loads of novels, plays and poems. Readings a hobby on mine anyways, so I just incorporate it into that and for revision i'll go through each book and make general points about its theme, historical context, language, structure, form etc. Plus, i'll try and do essay after essay to brush up on my exam technique.

Been reading everything from Shakespeare to Hardy to Burgess to the Bronte's :p:

but in school we've been doing..

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
The Millers Tale - Geoffrey Chaucer
Othello - William Shakespeare
Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller
Ghosts - Henrik Ibson
The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
(and of course, loads of poems)

not a substantial amount I don't think, but we've been encouraged to do lots of wider reading at home.

The thing i'm quite confused about is the second exam where you can include any wider reading (you're not just limited to discussing only prose, poem or play). Do you just talk about "love" in general or do you have to find a theme like the first exam question? Sorry if this sounds confusing.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 12

Melting Sugar.

14

I took the exam last year and would agree with the examiners report that sticking to topics held people back as the text we were given to analyse in the exam wasn't really any particular group so I guess a lot of people tried to twist it to be nothing it's not.

I hated this subject but really enjoyed the wider reading. :mmm:

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 13

Original post by meowoofbaa

Well to be honest, I don't know if this is the right way to go about revising for the exam.. but you've got to remember that only 30%/40% of your reference during the exam should be dedicated to your wider reading - that is what has been stated under the mark scheme. Thus, you should concentrate on the 'unseen extracts'. Anyhow. I have been collating all my wider reading texts (2 prose, 2 poems and 2 dramas for each) into a table subcatergorising them into 'types of love' i.e. unrequited, forbidden.. etc. Then I have added columns to analyse their form, structure and language - BECAUSE this is what is needed to be concentrated on - also an extra column for quotations. You must remember to try to make some comparison between these texts and highlight the fact of love THROUGH THE AGES - therefore, TIME is a very important point to address. However, you may choose to go about this a different way and find a smaller group of texts that easily and suitably relate to different types of love ranging in their contextual periods, because many prose, dramas and poems do freely exhaust multiple types of love. Looking at one past paper specifically, I think this Janurary's, the 'pains of love' was highlighted in the unseen extracts, and to be honest this paves an easy route to several types - obsession, unrequited, forbidden... the list goes on.

Quick question... how do you analyse the 'structure' of prose extracts?

Thanks :smile:

Loved your "English-y" use of thus haha :biggrin:

glad to see i'm not the only one who uses this all the time!

and good advice! :smile:

I think I might do this actually, once you've read what you need to read you an just organise your thoughts a little. But how would categorise texts with more than one theme? Also, what theme do you think we'll get this year, and what type of literature? Last summer it was prose so I'm predicting we'll get plays. Really hope its not poems because I can hardly remember the ones we've covered :confused:

Also, when writing about structure in a prose, I tend to emphasise the grammar quite a lot because it seems this is used far more in prose than in plays or poems. Even simple things like exclamation marks or hyphens can give you insight into the writers feelings because thats exactly what grammar is meant to do, turn words into speech in the mind. Even little things like a lack of full stops or short or long sentances can have lots of meaning :smile:

Also, I tend to talk about the transition of language at the start of the prose extract to the end as this is technically how the author has structured their points. For example, a first person narrative say, of somebody they love could start off happy but then as the prose develops, changes - if you understand what I mean? :p:

I think it is easier to look for structure in plays and poems so thats why you should look for the simplest of things in prose I think.

Sorry for the rambling haha! :p:

Reply 14

Original post by Melting Sugar.

I took the exam last year and would agree with the examiners report that sticking to topics held people back as the text we were given to analyse in the exam wasn't really any particular group so I guess a lot of people tried to twist it to be nothing it's not.

I hated this subject but really enjoyed the wider reading. :mmm:

Totally agree with you on that haha! :p:

Are you talking about exam A or B that people shouldn't stick to one topic? :smile:

Reply 15

Melting Sugar.

14

Original post by xelarose

Totally agree with you on that haha! :p:

Are you talking about exam A or B that people shouldn't stick to one topic? :smile:

I didn't mean they shouldn't stick to one topic, I mean they shouldn't waste time worrying if the extract doesn't fit into any of the topics they've studied - which is why studying texts rather than topics would be better.

Reply 16

Original post by xelarose

The thing i'm quite confused about is the second exam where you can include any wider reading (you're not just limited to discussing only prose, poem or play). Do you just talk about "love" in general or do you have to find a theme like the first exam question? Sorry if this sounds confusing.

The theme is given to you in the question.
E.g;
2 Read the two extracts (Item C and Item D) carefully, bearing in mind that they were written atdifferent times by different writers and are open to different interpretations.Write a comparison of the ways in which "forbidden love" is presented in these two extracts.

:smile:

Reply 17

Original post by meowoofbaa

The theme is given to you in the question.
E.g;
2 Read the two extracts (Item C and Item D) carefully, bearing in mind that they were written atdifferent times by different writers and are open to different interpretations.Write a comparison of the ways in which "forbidden love" is presented in these two extracts.

:smile:

Oh for both questions? :smile:

thanks!

Reply 18

Original post by xelarose

Loved your "English-y" use of thus haha :biggrin:

glad to see i'm not the only one who uses this all the time!

and good advice! :smile:

I think I might do this actually, once you've read what you need to read you an just organise your thoughts a little. But how would categorise texts with more than one theme? Also, what theme do you think we'll get this year, and what type of literature? Last summer it was prose so I'm predicting we'll get plays. Really hope its not poems because I can hardly remember the ones we've covered :confused:

Also, when writing about structure in a prose, I tend to emphasise the grammar quite a lot because it seems this is used far more in prose than in plays or poems. Even simple things like exclamation marks or hyphens can give you insight into the writers feelings because thats exactly what grammar is meant to do, turn words into speech in the mind. Even little things like a lack of full stops or short or long sentances can have lots of meaning :smile:

Also, I tend to talk about the transition of language at the start of the prose extract to the end as this is technically how the author has structured their points. For example, a first person narrative say, of somebody they love could start off happy but then as the prose develops, changes - if you understand what I mean? :p:

I think it is easier to look for structure in plays and poems so thats why you should look for the simplest of things in prose I think.

Sorry for the rambling haha! :p:

Haha. Yeah I think I do this too, looking for the simplest of structures in prose extracts, but really getting a lot out of them.. I think in my coursework I wrote an entire page speaking about something to do with wuthering heights and it was so minor, but I could speak for aggges about it.

Oh and what type of literature do I think will come up on the first 2 extracts, well, my teacher went to one of those AQA meetings were they give the people hints to what is going to come up in the next few years' papers or whatever, and I think ... If I can remember correctly that because last years summer paper, and I quote "was so dreadful" they may be a bit kinder (PSHH AQA is never!) anyway, I think my teacher said that the first 2 extracts A&B will remain to be poems because , personally i think this is easier...easier to analyse as it is unseen. If it is prose my brain will auto switch off by the length of text when i see it! But i'll get back to you on this one, just incase i'm remembering incorrectly. Ha.

Reply 19