*is tearing her hair out*
It's March, and I've only just finished reading Spring by Ba Jin, and I have not a CLUE what I'm going to write about.
I've read the sample essay in the research based essay guide (luckily, one was actually about Spring), but i've also read the examiner's remarks, and lots of them say that there isn't enough research blah blah blah. But the sample essay in Spring didn't have any research either?!
I'm so confused about what I'm going to write about. I can't think of anything I can write about that I'll fit into 500-1000 words.
Do they expect you to quote from the book? Draw parallels between the book and society at that time? Draw parallels between the writer and the characters? Talk about the reflection of the author's family and the family in the book?
I just don't know, and I'm really panicking now, because I really want to get some form of a good mark.
And I don't even want to think about the reading and translation. How complicated will they be? I've been trying Justin Wu's book "Advanced chinese thingymabobber" And I can't do any of the harder reading questions... well, I can, but I can only get 6/10. And as for the translation.... I don't even want to go there. Are they likely to give words way "out there"? Because each time we do a translation, I always know the random words which they give you for vocab, but can't get any of the simple expressions... Any idea how I could practice? I've run out of translation material too.. Didn't have that much to begin with..