The Student Room Group
Reply 1
I'm pretty much in the same boat. The highest marks I've had is 19/25 for all three.

So if anyone has any info, I'd love some too, please :smile:


&, hellohellohellohello, how did you manage to get more than 19? - I don't mean that to sound the way it may sound, I'm just interested as I keep getting 19's now. - I guess its better than the 11 that I was originally getting :P
Reply 2
I honestly can't remember and no longer have any saved.

Christ, how am I going to manage at degree level? :p:
Reply 3
Hey,
I'm studying in England, so I don't know how much help this is, but poetry essays are pretty universal, so these are my tips:
Intro: Lay out your own view, and maybe use a little context about the poet (or poem/collection)
Main bulk of essay: Try to make a point (could be quite generalised) then support it from within the text, and then say how the text supports the point. Could be tone/diction/poetic technique (metaphor, assonance etc) If possible, try to make two or three points that are all linked to the quotation.
Conclusion: Not my best area, but I've found that if you can save one really good philosophical point until the end, it gets good marks. I've been told by a couple of my tutors that introducing a new point in the conclusion is a good idea, even if you don't expand it, as it shows you've still got more to say even though you're limited by time.
I hope this is helpful. Just out of interest, what poetry/poets are you studying?
I'm doing Phillip Larkin (miserable, he is...:smile: )
Kiz x
Reply 4
hellohellohellohello
lots of edwin morgan, norman maccaig, stuff like that:smile:

I love Edwin Morgan :biggrin:

We've been doing much the same stuff really; Liz Lochhead, Iain Crichton Smith. Which Edwin Morgan stuff are you studying?
Reply 5
The structure of your essay really depends on what the question is asking.

Introductions to Essays I write kind of come from a standard formula which doesn;t really change wether its poetry or drama or prose. (I wrote it out in another thread abotu higher english intros.)
If the question asks for how the writer develops one broad theme, cut this theme into sections (for example, Theme of love(In terms of Morning Song by Sylvia Plath) is broken down into, Value of the Baby, Celebration of the Baby, and Protection of the Baby.) If you explore each of these sub-themes within a paragraph using evidence from the text. Then summarise how these three tie together and give a personal response in the conclusion.

However, if the question requires a more linear approach, aka, how does the poet reveal their feeling or something similar then the essay would make most sense if you followed the poets line of thought(taking a stanza by stanza approach, however, be careful with this as supposedly examiners don't like it if you just do one paragraph for each stanza, so avoid saying "In stanza one" then "In stanza two" and so forth.)
Then similarly conclude with a breif outline of the writers line of thought and your personal response.

More technically within these paragraphs it makes sense to follow a similar kind of structure, there are tons of different ways to remember it such as Topic sentence - Evidence - Analysis // Statement - Evidence eXplaination - Your opinion.
Generally though, It makes sense to use a topic sentence for each paragraph suggesting at what you're going to talk about. for example I'd write:
"In the poem Plath uses oxymorons and metaphor to describe the value she considers the baby to hold" - This just helps you focus at the beginning of the paragraph.
Next its best to give evidence, but don't quote straight away, it helps to "introduce" quotes:
"Plath describes the "Flat Pink Roses" and "Dull Stars" in comparison to her child."
Then, you need to analyse this evidence:
"These oxymorons are used to show the worthlessness of something normally concidered to be beautiful and valuble such as a rose or a star. By describing it this way she suggests that her baby is much more worthy of attention than any star or rose could be."
You can't finish there! ALWAYS remember to link to task:
"This emphasises Plath's belief that the baby is incredibly valuble and this illustration of value shows Plath's love for her newbown child"
That is my preferred structure of most paragraphs with a little bit more in depth analysis and maybe a bit of padding. :smile:

In technical terms, when quoting poetry, you can quote line breaks and such as shown in the poem, or a single / can be used to show a line break, and // to show a stanza break.




Admittedly I'm not doing incredibly well in my essays. I never get above an 18 (If anyone can see why from this description PLEASE tell me! :biggrin:
Hope this helps in some way.(At the least it helps me understand my own structure clearly!)
Reply 6
The main difficulty with poetry essays is that it is so easy to get bogged down in technique and forget to talk about the theme. I've written two timed poetry essays this year and had 15/25 and 23/25 for them. In the second I structured my essay entirely around showing how the author's technical skill with words was conveying the theme. That meant that I could only quote a few times from each stanza because I could only relate a few uses of technique to theme (the poem was G.M. Hopkins' Inversnaid for those interested) which made the essay more difficult to write.

Remember that whilst technique must be more closely examined in a poem than in drama or prose, it is still there to better communicate the theme(s). That means that although any strong essay on poetry will need to have intense quotation and analysis of techniques it will also evaluate how the techniques communicate an aspect of the theme to the reader.
Has your teacher said whats holding your mark down, i.e. U/A/E?

A common mistake people make is that they state a technique and its effect then move on to the next technique. You have to address the question and tie in the themes of the poem. Its also a good idea to include personal response, especially if the the poem is based around a character.
Hi

I find that writing to a standard formula seems to work for me. Its taken a bit of work and sometimes need twisted a bit depending on the essay question

Introduction: pick out key words and use them, state name of poem and author - is good if you can provide back ground info eg year written. If question asks you to address something specifically then write a few sentences on it here, if you get what i mean. Then say what your paragraphs are going to be about eg: symbolism, characterisation and setting, write about them in this order!

Para 2: make point its symbolism para and say the items/things your going to write about eg (I know this is from Lord of the Flies is just of top of head) beast, conch and Piggy's glasses and address them in that order and make a summary sentence at the end of each one and try to keep using words from question as keeps essay focused

Para 3: do same for characterisation

Para 4: State why setting is important and that if it wasnt for particular setting/location then theme/issue that question is asking wouldnt of come to light. Keep with the summary sentences for each point

Conclusion: Look back at conclusion and point out that through poets use of: symbolism, characterisation and setting the issue/theme is explored/makes an impact on you etc

I know this is very basic but would be alot of typing to type up my whole structure.

I am getting 21 - 23 and have had a 19 but if anyone can tell me how to get to the 25's then i'd be very grateful.