English essay fail!

Hi everybody,
I used to be great at analysing and English as a whole was alright. However, we did an assessment today in English and I was around the bottom of the class, securing only about half marks. I'm so disappointed 😔 can you please recommend some websites I should go on? Also, how can I improve? I feel as if I've lost my talent. Really, really upset 😭

Reply 1

Connor27

Original post by Sabz152

I can probably help as an A-Level Literature student but I need some background info firstly:

1.) Was this a language essay or a literature one?

2.) What are studying for? GCSE? Just general year 7-9 stuff? Lit A-Level? Lang A Level or Combined A-Level?

3.) What was the topic of the essay?

4.) What was the teacher's feedback?

I'll give you my diagnosis if you answer these first, I haven't got much to go on from the original post.

Reply 2

Sabz152

Thanks for replying.
So I'm a GCSE student and I was sitting an assessment about how Jane eyre was presented as a strong female character in an extract and the rest of the novel. My teacher said I was too repetitive and picked out the obvious points. She said I did too much story telling.

Original post by Connor27

Reply 3

username1339858_

Don't let one little bump bring you down

Reply 4

username1339858_

Bbc bitesize might be useful?

Reply 5

Connor27

Original post by Sabz152

Well personally I didn't study Jane Eyre so can't give specific advice, but it sounds like you do AQA Literature as that's the spec I did at GCSE and there is a section in the unit 1 paper with the extract and then the text as a whole (mine was on "To Kill a Mockingbird.")

The key thing about "story telling" as you teacher put it is writing too much about the plot, obviously the plot is important to mention but don't spend 3/4 of the essay on it! Think about how the author uses particular descriptions and words to describe Jane and how that gives off heroic connotations. Also mention the context of the play: it's Victorian literature so her heroism is likely to be subtle as women were oppressed by the patriarchy in the Victorian era. Another key thing is to make sure you evaluate three points on the whole play in your part b, i.e. One paragraph on the opening section; one paragraph on a middle section and one paragraph on the ending.

As for part A extract; I know from experience some of these can be harder to write about than others, it may have been that you just got a difficult extract, just try to look for the more subtle points in there.

But as the other poster said; don't let it bring you down, it's one meaningless assessment and we all have bad days, hope the advice I gave helped though.

Reply 6

Sabz152

Thanks! I'll try and use this advice for my next assessment! :smile:

Original post by Connor27

The key thing about "story telling" as you teacher put it is writing too much about the plot, obviously the plot is important to mention but don't spend 3/4 of the essay on it! Think about how the author uses particular descriptions and words to describe Jane and how that gives off heroic connotations. Also mention the context of the play: it's Victorian literature so her heroism is likely to be subtle as women were oppressed by the patriarchy in the Victorian era. Another key thing is to make sure you evaluate three points on the whole play in your part b, i.e. One paragraph on the opening section; one paragraph on a middle section and one paragraph on the ending.

As for part A extract; I know from experience some of these can be harder to write about than others, it may have been that you just got a difficult extract, just try to look for the more subtle points in there.

But as the other poster said; don't let it bring you down, it's one meaningless assessment and we all have bad days, hope the advice I gave helped though.