AQA GCSE ENGLISH LITERATURE - Summer 2014 *OFFICIAL THREAD*

Argh, my memory is failing me

Yeah, it's better to help other people And it probably is helping you understand it more by explaining it all to others

I like it, though it's difficult to understand at first


Posted from TSR Mobile

Ah don't worry - a lot of them are quite tricky at first, but then once you analyse it and see it with your teacher you'll see lots of different techniques.

I'm doing Of Mice and Men, An Inspector Calls and Conflict Poetry. I detest English Literature haha

on all of those things I like reading and thinking about the interpretations, just not writing essays about it


Posted from TSR Mobile

Woo!
I like some of the poems and the themes in the novels are quite interesting but I agree the essay part is not enjoyable

Reading them all are really fun though I can't wait to stop having to do lots of English essays


Posted from TSR Mobile

Thanks loads, deserves a + rep

Yeah I prefer detailed notes too!! Could I possible see an example please? Stresses me out condensing everything! Thanks btw! I know loads of people do like, a paragraph on structure, a paragraph on language and one on meaning but I never find that fits anything in!?
Thanks so much for the advice!

Great idea everyone who wants to join can you please inbox me your number and I'll make a WhatsApp group unless of course you guys prefer Skype?

Yeah! I don't think I hate anything more than PEEL paragraphs..

I prefer whatsapp or kik bc I hardly use skype

Sorry but the Skype thing is already set up. I've added you to the chat

Posted from TSR Mobile

Yeah! I don't think I hate anything more than PEEL paragraphs..

There's a thread for this exam already? It's ages away!

I'm doing Of Mice and Men, An Inspector Calls and Character & Voice. Looking at this thread I think I'm the only one doing Character & Voice!



I NEVER use PEEL in English, even my teacher doesn't recommend it, it's too restrictive.

Really! My teacher makes it seem like if we don't use it we'd get an E :P

I am not taking the Unit 2 Poetry Across Time Exam, so I don't have many notes on the different poems, although I wouldn't mind reading any poems that you are struggling with, if you would find that helpful. However, when I did my Literature controlled assessment, I studied poems from the relationship cluster, so I do have some notes on those poems, if they'd be of any use.

However, with analysing poetry, where I think people go wrong is that they don't understand the poem and go straight into analysis, which is not a very methodological approach to analysing poetry. So the first thing that you should try to do before analysing a poem is to make sure you understand it. Once you've accomplished that, you can move onto the analysis.

When analysing a poem, there are three things that you should consider: language, structure and form. When you are writing about the language in a poem, you should try to write about the connotations specific words have and how they create mood and atmosphere. However, it's not just specific words that you can analyse; instead, you can analyse techniques such as alliteration, which is very common in poetry. Don't make an obvious comment about the effect of alliteration, such as the effect being that it is memorable. What you really want to write about is the letter that is being repeated and what sound it makes - a harsh, soft, violent or plosive sound. Plosives are highly common in poetry that is negative and plosives are simply harsh sounds - the 'b','d','p' and 't' sounds are the plosive sounds. If you have ever read Robert Browning's 'The Laboratory', you will remember these lines:

"Grind away, moisten and mash up thy paste,
Pound at thy powder, -- I am not in haste!"

This is a perfect example of where you can talk about alliteration. Here is what I would say:

Browning uses the alliteration of the 'm' sound to create the image of the speaker chewing these words with excitement as the prospect of her rival's death increases, causing the reader to interpret the speaker as malevolent, while the alliteration of the plosive 'p' sound that follows it creates a harsh sound on "pound" and "powder" which highlight how her excitement is driven by evil thoughts. The use of the word "powder" is something that we associate with purity, so the positive-connoting word choice that has a plosive nature highlights how the speaker will turn anything good into something bad for her own selfish desires.

When you want to analyse the structure of a poem, write about the rhyme scheme, line breaks, enjambement, punctuation, stanza shape and there are many other things that you can write about. With the rhyme scheme, you can comment on what the rhyme scheme is: is it a symmetrical rhyme scheme (i.e. ABAB), 'on-off' rhyme scheme, is there a rhyme scheme at all? Then comment on the effect of the rhyme scheme in the context of the poem. With line breaks, you might want to consider why the poet has chosen to have a new stanza after that particular sentence, and punctuation can be a great thing to talk about. For example, the poem 'Quickdraw', in the relationships cluster, has a full stop after 'Last Chance saloon', so with the 'Last Chance saloon' suggesting the end, the full stop also highlights this abrupt ending that the speaker has because he thinks he has lost the battle. Here's a paragraph that I wrote on the structure of Quickdraw:

Duffy embeds an irregular structure in the poem with the gun-shaped stanzas and lack of rhyme. The words "gun", "pellet", "trigger" and "bullets" are examples of words that Duffy uses from the semantic field of battle to highlight how the argument between the couple is like a cowboy fight, as if Duffy is trying to give the poem a universal meaning that relationships only result in pain, like the pain a battle will bring. The gun-shaped stanzas used emphasises the western imagery, but the fact that the stanza shape returns to normal in the final stanza causes the reader to interpret how Duffy might not be trying to criticise relationships, but, instead, highlight how if you stick together the power of love will make everything better. Additionally, the lack of a rhyme scheme highlights how this argument has taken the happiness out of the couple's relationship, but the internal half rhymes of "tone" and "phone", for example, highlight how as a result of the "phone", the relationship has been damaged, which could cause the reader to interpret how Duffy might be trying to show how modern technology is causing a fractured-nature in relationships.

Don't forget to write about if the poem is written in close focus third person, third person omniscient, second person, as a dramatic monologue or any other narrative form that I might not have listed. Obviously, don't write an entire paragraph on this, but link it with your analysis, or it might be something that you can use in your introduction: if it's a dramatic monologue, you can write about how this allows you to zoom in on the feelings of the speaker, whereas if it's third person omniscient you could write about how it zooms out on the feelings of everybody but doesn't allow the reader to see the feelings of the individual characters, and you can comment on the reason why the poet might have done this too. If you want to, you can even link this to the tense that the poem is written in.

When comparing two poems, try to compare their structure, language and form. Why might one of poets use a rhyme scheme in one poem but another not, even though it might have the same overall effect? The best way to compare is to use comparing words such as 'while', 'however', 'even though', 'likewise', 'alternatively' and so on.

Anyways, I hope that was useful. If you need anymore help, just ask.

on all of those things I like reading and thinking about the interpretations, just not writing essays about it


Posted from TSR Mobile

Yes, structures like PEEL are too restrictive and don't allow creativity. Think about how examiners will read that identically structured essay hundreds of times over - they're not exactly going to be very impressed.

You should also remember how PEEL only results in evidence being given once throughout your entire paragraph, and with the idea of PEEL, it's less likely to be embedded quotes that aren't over-long.

I'd say use it as a guidance for what your paragraphs should include, but don't let it restrict you: add your own features to the paragraph and let yourself be imaginative, because that is what examiners want to see.


Posted from TSR Mobile