Original post by JayJay-C19
So, I did Edexcel English Language and English Literature. For Literature we did:
The Merchant of Venice (coursework only)
An Inspector Calls (coursework only)
Of Mice and Men (examination)
Great Expectations [ew, abhorrent book] (examination)
Edexcel pre-released Poetry Anthology: Taking a Stand (examination)
English Literature applies what you learn in Language about the way characters are put across by the writer, paying attention to the language used. English Literature is undeniably hard, however, you don't need to have read the texts very well to get a high mark. I couldn't finish Great Expectations, it was awful. Yet I got A's and the odd B on every essay.
Poetry, I find, is the most exciting part. The examiners are looking for originality of thought. Let me give you an example:
"A bat is born
Naked and blind and pale.
His mother makes a pocket of her tail
And catches him. He clings to her long fur
By his thumbs and toes and teeth.
And then the mother dances through the nightDoubling and looping, soaring, somersaulting—Her baby hangs on underneath.
All night, in happiness, she hunts and flies.
Her high sharp cries
Like shining needlepoints of sound
Go out into the night and, echoing back,
Tell her what they have touched.
She hears how far it is, how big it is,
Which way it’s going:
She lives by hearing.
The mother eats the moths and gnats she catchesIn full flight; in full flight
The mother drinks the water of the pondShe skims across. Her baby hangs on tight.Her baby drinks the milk she makes himIn moonlight or starlight, in mid-air.
Their single shadow, printed on the moonOr fluttering across the stars,
Whirls on all night; at daybreak
The tired mother flaps home to her rafter.The others all are there.
They hang themselves up by their toes,
They wrap themselves in their brown wings.
Bunched upside down, they sleep in air.
Their sharp ears, their sharp teeth, their quick sharp facesAre dull and slow and mild.
All the bright day, as the mother sleeps,
She folds her wings about her sleeping child."
This was what we had in our examination. An example of a point I made that would be considered original: "the poem has 30 or so lines and this could be used to represent the life expectancy of the child bat which ties in with how the poem it structured, going from birth/waking up to death/falling asleep"
They're the sorts of things you'd need to comment on and use continues embedded quotation.