Anyone in need of English help...

Heya all you amazing people.

I’ve seen a lot of posts going round TSR where people are confused or want support with English, both Literature and Language, or just would like someone to read through their work...... so I wanted to create a thread where I can help any of you guys out with your English needs.

A little about me, I’m a Year 10 going into Year 11 GCSE student, predicted both 9s in Literature and Language, and just generally someone with a huge passion for English. It’s my dream to complete a degree in English Literature and spend the rest of my life dancing with words, because words can be powerful, magic and I want to use them to help people, raise awareness, inspire.

And so welcome to this thread, you are, whatever your experience with English has been, completely welcome here. You, yes, you reading this, are an incredible person, and I would love to help you out with whatever your English needs....

‘For it would seem - her case proved it- that we write, not with the fingers, but with the whole person. The nerve which controls the pen winds itself about every fibre of our being, thread the heart, pierces the liver.’ - Virginia Woolf, Orlando

hi! what sort of format would you suggest using to answer the various different exam questions. i understand what we are being taught, but my teachers are yet to teach us how to answer exam questions. i used to enjoy English so much, but since moving to secondary, i find myself struggling with it, as I've always been in the top sets, meaning we're given the bad teachers as they assume we already know everything. I'm trying to improve my predicted grades, as the ones I've been given I'm not happy with.

I’m in year 11 so about to get my results, and my result are high in everything except English language, as my creative writing really isn’t great (apparently I tend to make scenes sound too static 😳). Please could you give any tips on how to write a descriptive that doesn’t sound too drawn out or so?

hi
i don't need any help but just wanted to say thanks for creating this thread and helping others out

if i came across this last year i defo would've used it

Hi what are the best revision guides for english?
I'm studying:
Inspector calls
Macbeth
Love and Relationships anthology
Jane Eyre
Thanks! Also would you mind giving me feedback on work???

Heya all you amazing people.

I’ve seen a lot of posts going round TSR where people are confused or want support with English, both Literature and Language, or just would like someone to read through their work...... so I wanted to create a thread where I can help any of you guys out with your English needs.

A little about me, I’m a Year 10 going into Year 11 GCSE student, predicted both 9s in Literature and Language, and just generally someone with a huge passion for English. It’s my dream to complete a degree in English Literature and spend the rest of my life dancing with words, because words can be powerful, magic and I want to use them to help people, raise awareness, inspire.

And so welcome to this thread, you are, whatever your experience with English has been, completely welcome here. You, yes, you reading this, are an incredible person, and I would love to help you out with whatever your English needs....

‘For it would seem - her case proved it- that we write, not with the fingers, but with the whole person. The nerve which controls the pen winds itself about every fibre of our being, thread the heart, pierces the liver.’ - Virginia Woolf, Orlando

Do you have any analysis for “a taste of honey” quotes from a character called Helen:
“We’re all at the steering wheel of our own destiny”
“I don’t expect the monkey to answer”
“I’m a cruel, wicked woman”
“He spends his money like water. Oh I’m so excited”
“I should have got rid of you before you were born”
“Have I ever laid claim to being a proper mother?”
If you don’t mind, later I’ll add more quotations from other characters so you can help me with some!

Okay so, firstly I’ll link a few resources I found which offer some useful analysis and then I’ll run through each quote with my own analysis. And of course feel free to add more quotations or other questions etc, I’m more than happy to help


https://www.litcharts.com/lit/a-taste-of-honey/summary (exploring this website has some useful parts)

https://www.coursehero.com/lit/A-Taste-of-Honey/quotes/

‘We are all at the steering wheel of our own destiny’
There are two ways you could look at this, in the more motivational sense, or as something revealing a certain regret, wishing for change in regard to a past life. This quote is a metaphor, and a clever one. What is a steering wheel? Well it is something that gives direction, but also requires you to direct it, it’s almost like this quote is suggesting a paradox; we follow the direction of life, but in the same sense are led by the actions of other people, or the swaying of our own opinions or bias. This quote also builds on a certain sense of control, there is the control of the direction of the steering wheel, but sometimes, similarly to the unpredictability of a road, life can throw curveballs causing you, although you are in control, to need to change direction. So while we have control, it can be irregular. You could also infer this to hold the theme of responsibility, destiny is a big concept, almost an unimaginable one, yet there is a certain almost oxymoronic idea of control linking to how she says we are in control of our own incomprehensible and uncontrollable destiny - this could suggest this of holding a certain sense of a fable like moral, that are actions, good or bad, can control our future, or as something which connotes how the future is solely in our hands, we are in charge of what we do - it is our responsibility.

‘I don’t expect the monkey to answer’
Automatically the tone of this comes across negatively, ‘monkey’ is a animal usually referred to within language as something that causes mischief, doesn’t do what it is told. The link of the ‘don’t’ and ‘monkey’ hold a certain parallel of disregard, maybe for an opinion or idea; ‘don’t a verb automatically cutting of and shutting down the wish for a response, the following ‘monkey’ seeming to create further disregard. It almost also like she does not think the person of value enough to answer and have a voice, showing her automatic negative opinion and unwillingness to listen in this situation.

‘I’m a cruel, wicked woman’
The feelings between Jo and Helen in this exchange demonstrate this idea of ambivalence, Helen in particular holding contradictory feelings of an almost double sided nature. This quote automatically comes off as a certain snide remark, not meant with any emotional intent, the referral of a person to themselves as cruel and wicked, something unlikely and uncommon. That being said there is an idea of a certain hidden message, an ambiguity. ‘Cruel’ and ‘wicked’ are strong negative lexical choices which create an automatically negative impression, but also suggest this idea of a certain powerful evil, or horrible actions from the past. ‘Wicked’ in particular, connotes this idea of manipulative cruelty in turn relative to the snideness of the remark. Contextually also, ‘cruel’ and ‘wicked’ are not words traditionally associated with women or feminist behaviour - suggesting a colour of character unlike that of standard, or out of the ordinary.

‘He spends his money like water. Oh I’m so excited’
There are two parts to what you can infer from this quote so let’s break it down. The first part, ‘spends his money like water’ is firstly a simile and you could infer a suggestive and slight annoyance. Water itself, is a liquid, something you have very little control over, and this thus seems to be replicable of his foolish and sometimes irresponsible spending of money. Yet at the same time, this certain lack of control seems to excite her, it makes her feel young and happy to have this level of freedom; suggesting this has been something she hasn’t experienced for a long time. There is also this sense of short lived disapproval at his use of money, suggesting a mature sense of an older woman, yet at the same time she creates this paradox to an excitement from it, a joy only youth can bring, this experience helping bring back this feeling to her.
``
‘I should have got rid of you before you were born’
This completely opposes any sense of maternal care, holding this disregard for life, both before the birth, and now the horrible oppressive tone to the person whose life she is talking about. ‘Rid’ a strong verb holding negative connotations of the idea of removal and unwant again linking back to this idea of a lack of care for life and purpose.

‘How I ever laid claim to being a proper mother’
It suggests this idea of a mother not accepting her role, her responsibility in the growth of a life. It holds this idea of diversion to the place of family, the writer herself similarly holding idea of unconvention. This quote immediately seems to hold an idea of a ‘proper’ mother as opposed too what Helen believes she has been. It’s almost like the writer here is playing with stereotypes, and exposing a certain dysfunction that can occur in a unique family, yet at the same time, this quote holds a certain idea of regret, the tone suggesting Helen couldn’t say she has done all the right things for her child, certainly not being able to fit the category of a ‘proper’ mother. This ‘proper mother’ also creates a certain sense of ambiguity and open to interpretation in the regard of what one believes as proper. However the main flavour of this quote, lies in the route of how in the past, she seemed to hold his belief she had done right yet now things seem different, actions and events causing a change in opinion, a mould she can’t fill - could connote a certain length of regret or neglect to certain inferable extent.

Hope some of that was useful and I’m happy to discuss further and help with anything else

Thank you soo much!! For the quote “we are all at a steering wheel of our own destiny”, What might someone else think? like the contrast between people of today and what century this novel was written/published because I don’t know what else I should include but that people of the 20th century view Helen as irresponsible in regards to looking after her daughter

Hiya, okay so for English I recommend the CGP revision guides, they are full of useful info and are easy to carry about etc while still containing all the content you need and work with all exam boards. In the photos below, excluding the Love and Relationships workbook, I only have the text guides - these have all the content you need, but if you like the practise style and questions, then I would suggest getting the workbooks as well.

The websites:

- GetRevising.com (offers you the ability to see other peoples’s revision, find notes on certain topics, make your own etc)
- Seneca (questions and quick content - very useful as a revision tool)
- Quizlet (allows you to practise quotes and facts etc)

..are also very useful, especially for finding info and for revision



The Snap revision guide I have for Inspector Calls came with the play when I bought it and is also extremely useful, for quick revision etc. Also the AQA book in the photo, is just an anthology of the L&R poems. I know you also are doing Jane Eyre, I’m doing Christmas Carol so I have the CGP textbook for that which is why I didn’t include it but you can also get one online for Jane Eyre.

Below photos just give you an idea of what some of the pages are like. Hope that’s useful.

And also, of course I can give you some feedback on your work, just send it to me and I’m more than happy to read through etc.

Thank you so much! I've heard that cgp guides aren't very useful as a lot of people say they aren't very detailed compared to other ones so i'm a bit confused now! Would you still say they have enough analysis or are they more of a brief guide? (would you recommend them compared to mr bruff for example??)

Okay so, people have said this to me before, but all of my friends and teachers etc use and recommend these guides. The thing with revision and revision resources, is that it all depends on how you use them and this is key. I would never solely use one textbook as the basis of my revision, or gathering information; in the same way you would research for a project, I would research when I revise, because there is so many little extras and notes you can find online and different perspectives from different people on different websites. These textbooks provide and cover, for english, everything you need, yes it isn’t always into a huge level of depth, some sections are more of an overview, but in my opinion it provides what you need and is a stable source of revision, as in it gives you the knowledge you need, so I wouldn’t say they are a brief guide, more a stable solid guide.

Compared to Mr Bruff and that, I wouldn’t compare them, because I would use both Mr Bruff and the revision guide, because both have different points and similar points etc. If I’m not making sense, what I mean is that, those guides are ones loads of people use and recommend, including myself, but I would never just use them, I would always then watch a Mr Bruff, then do a Google search on that topic etc. Because there’s always little different points on random websites and that when you put it all together is a full revision,but the guides themselves provide a good strong basis for you to develop off. They have a good, solid level of analysis and you can come back to them for clear and concise revision, but also embellish them by using a combination of other revision resources.

Im really sorry if I confused you, I probably should have added in some of what I said above prior, so I apologise, I just personally find those guides really useful, solid, got the information I need, and then I can go beyond etc, if that makes

Oh no it’s ok! Thanks so much
could you possible give me some feedback on work if that’s ok??