The Student Room Group

English Literature Exemplars (from Mr Bruff and Mr Salles)

I've seen a lot of example answers from these two regarding the poetry comparisons but a lot of the exemplars don't include stuff like context/writer's intention or audience response, rather are just a bunch of perceptive ideas.
So do we not need to include all the other things to get 30/30?
Reply 1
Original post by *Incognito*
I've seen a lot of example answers from these two regarding the poetry comparisons but a lot of the exemplars don't include stuff like context/writer's intention or audience response, rather are just a bunch of perceptive ideas.
So do we not need to include all the other things to get 30/30?


It depends on the exam board that you are following because they have different marking criteria where some do/don't require context...Which exam board does your school follow?
We do AQA.
Original post by *Incognito*
I've seen a lot of example answers from these two regarding the poetry comparisons but a lot of the exemplars don't include stuff like context/writer's intention or audience response, rather are just a bunch of perceptive ideas.
So do we not need to include all the other things to get 30/30?


I did AQA. I included context, writer’s intention (a lot of writer’s intention) and audience/reader’s response, just like my teachers told me to. I got a 9

Also for writer’s intention, are you sure you’re not just confused? Any good English lit essay has writer’s intention. I also used Mr Salles (and Mr Bruff for particular themes) and they included writer’s intention. Mr Salles specially emphasises the importance of writer’s intention and to include it throughout our essay
Reply 4
Original post by Sha.xo527
I did AQA. I included context, writer’s intention (a lot of writer’s intention) and audience/reader’s response, just like my teachers told me to. I got a 9

Also for writer’s intention, are you sure you’re not just confused? Any good English lit essay has writer’s intention. I also used Mr Salles (and Mr Bruff for particular themes) and they included writer’s intention. Mr Salles specially emphasises the importance of writer’s intention and to include it throughout our essay


I guess at some schools context is taught as the history or the background for the text rather than writer's intention bcoz that is what happens at my school
Original post by Sha.xo527
I did AQA. I included context, writer’s intention (a lot of writer’s intention) and audience/reader’s response, just like my teachers told me to. I got a 9

Also for writer’s intention, are you sure you’re not just confused? Any good English lit essay has writer’s intention. I also used Mr Salles (and Mr Bruff for particular themes) and they included writer’s intention. Mr Salles specially emphasises the importance of writer’s intention and to include it throughout our essay


Trying to decide which revision books to buy for my youngest daughter for English- I’m looking at Mr Salles and Mr Bruff not sure which to choose.
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by kscgemini
Trying to decide which revision books to buy for my youngest daughter for English- I’m looking at Mr Salles and Mr Bruff not sure which to choose.


An Inspector Calls:
- Do NOT buy Mr Salles’ revision guide on Inspector Calls. I bought it, yet it was a waste of money because the whole thing felt disorganised.

I bought and recommend:

- “12 AQA GCSE English Literature A Star Exam Answers: Full Mark A star (Grade 9) answers” by Joseph Anthony Campbell. It had complex ideas and I memorised the key content of the essays

Romeo and Juliet:
I bought both Mr Salles and Mr Bruff for this. I’d pick Mr Salles’. Mr Salles had more complex ideas, more themes, a section for each character, etc. It was amazing. Very wordy though, but it was great.

A Christmas Carol:
I bought “A Christmas Carol: 12 AQA GCSE English Literature A Star Exam Answers: Full mark A Star (Grade 9) Answers” by Joseph Antony Campbell. Complex ideas and I memorised the key content of the essays

English Language:

- I bought “Mr Salles guide to 100% in English language” to help me with section A. I DON’T recommend, because it was useless. YouTube videos are more effective and useful for section A.
- I bought “Mr Salles guide to amazing storytelling”. I highly recommend for descriptive/story writing (Section B).
- I bought “Mr Salles guide to amazing descriptive writing”. I DON’T recommend, because I ended up referencing his storytelling guide more (even when doing descriptive writing instead of story writing). The storytelling guide contained both description + how to story-tell, which is what both descriptive and story writing require for AQA


These are all my recommendations for what worked for me and mini-reviews. At the end it’s you and your daughter’s choice :smile:


Unseen poetry
As unseen poetry, I didn’t buy any revision guides. Hell, I don’t think I even practiced/revised for it haha. I just went to lesson and listened, because unseen poetry is just analysis (what you learn in English language part A) and extremely basic comparisons skills.

Poetry

As for the 15 poems that you have to memorise and compare, AQA let our year not do that due to how behind we were because of covid. I can’t recommend anything for that, but Mr Salles’ youtube videos for the 15 poems are top notch (I checked before I knew we weren’t doing the 15 poems)
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by Sha.xo527
An Inspector Calls:
- Do NOT buy Mr Salles’ revision guide on Inspector Calls. I bought it, yet it was a waste of money because the whole thing felt disorganised.

I bought and recommend:

- “12 AQA GCSE English Literature A Star Exam Answers: Full Mark A star (Grade 9) answers” by Joseph Anthony Campbell. It had complex ideas and I memorised the key content of the essays

Romeo and Juliet:
I bought both Mr Salles and Mr Bruff for this. I’d pick Mr Salles’. Mr Salles had more complex ideas, more themes, a section for each character, etc. It was amazing. Very wordy though, but it was great.

A Christmas Carol:
I bought “A Christmas Carol: 12 AQA GCSE English Literature A Star Exam Answers: Full mark A Star (Grade 9) Answers” by Joseph Antony Campbell. Complex ideas and I memorised the key content of the essays

English Language:

- I bought “Mr Salles guide to 100% in English language” to help me with section A. I DON’T recommend, because it was useless. YouTube videos are more effective and useful for section A.
- I bought “Mr Salles guide to amazing storytelling”. I highly recommend for descriptive/story writing (Section B).
- I bought “Mr Salles guide to amazing descriptive writing”. I DON’T recommend, because I ended up referencing his storytelling guide more (even when doing descriptive writing instead of story writing). The storytelling guide contained both description + how to story-tell, which is what both descriptive and story writing require for AQA


These are all my recommendations for what worked for me and mini-reviews. At the end it’s you and your daughter’s choice :smile:


Thank you for the tips, my daughters books are Animal Farm, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Macbeth.
Original post by kscgemini
Thank you for the tips, my daughters books are Animal Farm, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Macbeth.

Ahhh, we have nothing alike! Oh well, at least we have the English language part in common
Original post by Sha.xo527
Ahhh, we have nothing alike! Oh well, at least we have the English language part in common


Yes, I’ve taken notes from the English Language tips thank you ☺️
By the way, one AMAZING Youtuber for Macbeth is Mark Birch.
I saw his analysis for Macbeth a few months ago and it was very in-depth as well as perceptive. I urge your daughter to try him, because YouTubers are free after all

I’m pretty sure he also does a revision guide (“15 key quotations”, of which he bases his videos on- there’s the full revision guide but he doesn’t base his videos on that). It’s your daughters choice if she likes his Macbeth content and therefore wants to buy the “Macbeth 15 key quotations” guide. I haven’t bought it therefore can’t recommend it, but I just know he based his videos on that guide
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by Sha.xo527
By the way, one AMAZING Youtuber for Macbeth is Mark Birch.
I saw his analysis for Macbeth a few months ago and it was very in-depth as well as perceptive. I urge your daughter to try him, because YouTubers are free after all

I’m pretty sure he also does a revision guide (“15 key quotations”, of which he bases his videos on- there’s the full revision guide but he doesn’t base his videos on that). It’s your daughters choice if she likes his Macbeth content and therefore wants to buy the “Macbeth 15 key quotations” guide. I haven’t bought it therefore can’t recommend it, but I just know he based his videos on that guide


Thank you very much for this recommendation, I’m going to direct it over to her to look at. I really appreciate it!