Category: Revision Techniques

How to Revise English Literature

elishacarterLeave a comment

Hello everyone – long time, no see!

I thought I’d start off the year by sharing some of my advice on how to revise English Literature, based off what I tell my tutoring students inside, and outside of school. Although this is the Sixth form blog, these tips also go for GCSE, so feel free to use them whatever year you’re in.

I find it useful to split my revision into working on essay writing technique and memorisation of quotes, themes, structure etc so I’ll do the same for the tips.

Memorisation

Although at A level you don’t HAVE to memorise quotes, it does save a lot of time if you do, or if you remember key page numbers etc. At GCSE unfortunately you do have to remember your quotes!

  • Something that I find useful is making quote banks; these are tables that I sort my quotes into with a section for the quote, the location in the text and notes/analysis. I also make a different table for each theme and character. I find these especially useful for when writing non-exam-condition essays or making essay plans to find quotes, but I also find that just making these banks and analysing the quotes really helps me to get to know the texts better. All I would say is that I wouldn’t use this technique if you haven’t made them as you went along or if you don’t have much time; this technique works best to aid other revision and there are other revision methods that may be more beneficial if you don’t have much time.
  • I find that with English lit you collect a lot of ideas in your texts/ on paper but then forget about them if you don’t collate them into organised groups, so, I make a mind map for each theme, character or poem that we study and add in everything that I analyse or find about them. This is a great way to group everything together, however, if you find bullet points or something else works better for you then do that – the main thing is that you organise all of your theories and ideas.
  • Something that is incredibly useful to do and can save you a lot of time in the exam hall is making essay plans. By this, I mean coming up with or finding potential essay questions and planning them on flashcards, then loosely learning the plan so that when you get into the exam, whatever question comes up, you hopefully already know roughly what to talk about and don’t have to come up with a completely new plan on the spot.
  • To make sure that I completely understand the plot I create structure sheets for each play or novel that I study: for each scene or chapter I write a summary of what happened. This is useful for not only making it easier to find sections of the text, but it is also good to add a location of a quote into your essays to then be able to analyse its position in the text.
  • As well as analysing broad sections of the text, make sure to really closely analyse small sections of the texts such as important soliloquies or descriptive passages to make sure that in your essays you have a good balance of detailed analysis and big ideas.
  • Finally, just by rereading the texts multiple times you get to know the plot really well and notice things that others may not, helping you to make your essays stand out. I would recommend rereading the texts fully 3 times before your exam.

Essay Writing Technique

  • Firstly, the best way I find to improve my essay writing is to write essays whenever I could; the more you write the better you will get. I want to emphasise, you don’t have to write full essays every time! In fact, I would advise against it as really you can get as much writing one paragraph and seeing where to improve as you can writing the entire thing. Save yourself some time! Switch between writing timed essays and untimed essays where you take time to improve your technique using feedback from your most recent essays. Getting feedback is really important so ask your teacher to mark them and then act on what they say. Don’t just keep writing without improving how you write.
  • I can’t stress enough how important it is to plan your answer fully before you start to write your essay. Of course, your plan could change as you write but it is so important to start with a clear argument and points so that your essay is clear and cohesive, with a strong, developing and critical argument. I personally make mini mindmaps and brainstorm all of my ideas surrounding the question, then group the ideas together into paragraphs and finally number my sub-arguments as my plan, coming up with a strong argument and how it will have developed by the end.
  • When practicing writing essays or making essay plans, pick essay questions that you find difficult. This is important as it lessens the chance that in an exam you’ll be faced with a question that you find really hard to answer, but also you might find a niche idea that you wouldn’t have come up with if you had stayed in your comfort zone.
  • If you can, try to add in an original or niche point to make your essays stand out from the rest. This is a brilliant way of gaining more marks, however, make sure that the point completely makes sense with your essay and that you’re not forcing it just because it’s a good idea.
  • Finally, I find that, especially at A level, there are certain points you need to hit, specific ideas you need to include and key techniques you need to write about according to the mark scheme. Therefore, for each exam I take I go in with a mental checklist of things I need to include, that I scribble down with my plan and that I tick off as I write. That way by the end I know that at least I haven’t forgotten anything essential. For example, for ‘Othello’ this might be: form, structure, close language analysis, tragic hero, Machiavellian villain, soliloquies, embedded context, writer’s intentions, affect on readers through time etc. (Mrs Borrett sorry if I’ve forgotten some for now!!).

So, they’re all my tips for revising English Literature; I hope some of them are useful to you.

Hope you’re all doing well!

– Elisha

Writing a Romantics Essay

alezeditor1 Comment

Hello, everyone! This blog post is a write-up on Mrs Rendall’s lunchtime lesson on Romantics essays – good luck in your exams!

Romantic Notions

Your essay must be based on Romanticism, so I would recommend writing all of the Romantic notions that you can think of (which link to the title) during your planning time – ticking them off as you include each one. Romantic notions can be anything from religion to social actions, sublimity in nature or the metaphysical. Let the Romantic concepts of the individual, freedom and the imagination drive your essay, and use them as the basis of your analysis. Remember: the Romantics were revolutionary writers. Ask yourself these questions several times whilst writing your essay: ‘what is the poet trying to educate the reader on?’, ‘what change is the poet trying to ignite within society?’, ‘who does the poet blame?’.

‘Explore’, not ‘Compare’

Where essays on Romanticism differ from the Poems of the Decade is that there is no need to compare and you will gain no marks through comparison. This can be difficult to hold together in the main body of your analysis, so here are a few steps to follow, which will guarantee a good mark:

  • Take evidence from the first poem and analyse it
  • Take evidence from the second poem to enforce/reveal further insight to your analysis
  • Bring these points together with historical context (the French Revolution, Equality between the classes, Colonialism, The Preface, Rouseau – even quote him if you would like)

“Man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains”

Jean-Jacques Rouseau, from ‘The Social Contract’

Romanticism, Analysis and Context

These three should never be far apart. Those aiming for the highest marks will do all three in tandem, making sure that their essay is well-rounded, well-written and well-rooted in Romanticism, Analysis and Context. These three compliment and inform each other, so seamless transitions between them will allow to engage with Level 4 and 5 of the mark-scheme.

For example: ‘the noun phrase “grey headed beadles” juxtaposes with Blake’s description of the colourful children, emphasising the detachment between the beadles and God – who Blake may be using the vibrancy of the children to represent (analysis). This might be a wider argument on the detachment between the Church and God. Could Blake be educating his reader of the disparity between religion and a truer sense of Christianity (Romanticism)? It could be argued that Blake is highlighting the gap between the great wealth and power of the Church and the poverty of the orphans during the Industrial Era (context).’

Poetic intention is always a good place to end a sub-argument, so constantly ask yourself those questions: ‘what is the poet trying to educate the reader on?’, ‘what change is the poet trying to ignite within society?’, ‘who does the poet blame?’

This technique also saves time, as it means that you can gain marks for all aspects of the mark-scheme in only a few lines. Because we only get an hours to write this essay, it is only necessary to write on two sub-arguments. That means an Introduction (outlining your intentions for the essay and your thesis – which is your main argument), two paragraphs on Sub-Arguments (both rooted in Romanticism, analysing the language, structure, meter and form of the text, alongside context) and a Conclusion. Best of luck!

Alexander Stephenson

Critic Quotes for Othello

These are some of the quotes I found most helpful to include in essays. You don’t have to remember them all, just ones that cover a range of potential arguments that you may make. Don’t forget that it’s just as important to argue against your critic quote as it is to include it in your…

by shurui

What is a Ghost Writer?

Hello everyone! We have a different kind of blog post for you today: an insight into a career in English. If you like this idea please let us know and we’ll try to put together more posts like this one, detailing other career paths. This post, however, is discussing what it is to be a…

by elishacarter

Closure

I live through a cage Of numbed skin. The past has made me so. My emotions, blocked. Tragedy, blocked. I am a shoulder. I am a hug. I am a smile. You have made me so. Your seventh age has come. Bleak and melancholy Quietly, you went. Softly. I imagine I can only imagine On…

by alezeditor

Poems of the Decade – Analysis

shuruiLeave a comment

Poems of the Decades essays require you to compare a poem you know with an Unseen. You don’t have to worry about context or critics because of the unseen element, so the best way to prepare is to make sure you have an adequate understanding of the anthology poems – particularly the key themes and techniques.

The Unseen poem will have been appropriately chosen for the two exam questions, so there will be plenty of obvious similarities as well as some subtle ones for high grade analysis.

There are several things you should address or at least note in these comparison essays:

  • Structure- are the forms of both poems the same? How do the beginnings and endings differ? It is important to talk about the entirety of the unseen poem to demonstrate adequate understanding. You could potentially structure your essay to analyse the poem in chronological order (P1 – beginning, P2 – middle, P3 – end). [Don’t go into the exam set on a formulaic approach though – the poem may not provide enough in each section to analyse for that structure of essay].
  • Language Techniques – this one is pretty obvious, but it’s important to identify techniques that are similar, no matter how subtle. Try to avoid negative comparisons (i.e. poem A uses X technique whereas poem B uses Y technique) unless the poems are addressing a similar theme using different techniques – in which case definitely analyse that.
  • Title – this subject does not need to take up an entire paragraph, but it may be worth mentioning. In a previous examiner report, the chief examiner stated how not enough candidates addressed the significance of the titles in either poem.
  • Form – it is unlikely that the unseen poem will be in an overly complicated form, however it would be good to be able to recognise a selection of common forms (e.g. sonnet, ballad etc.) and their typical purpose in case the opportunity arises to analyse it.

The following are analyses on the 20 decades poems (courtesy of Mrs R), I hope they’re helpful:

Read More »

Handmaid’s Tale – Analysis

shuruiLeave a comment

It is much harder to collate analysis for an entire novel than it is for poetry or drama. However, it will be very useful if you can create a few revision tools:

For example, create chapter summaries with key quotes from each chapter. When you come to revise, you can pick a quote from one of the chapters and practice doing some analysis and comparison with your other chosen text. Give yourself a time limit and see if you can create an essay paragraph based on your chosen quote.

Additionally, I found it useful (particularly for Handmaid’s Tale) to have a set of flashcards with 2-3 key moments from each chapter on one side and the chapter number on the other to test myself. You will save yourself copious amounts of time in an exam if you can recall in which chapter is a certain quote or event that you want to analyse.

The following notes I’m providing were taken from the York Notes Handmaid’s Tale Revision Guide. Revision Guide analyses are not exhaustive, neither are they overly detailed, so I would recommend combining these notes with the ones you already have – do not just rely on revision guides.

*I’ve also highlighted contextual information I thought would be helpful!

Handmaid’s AnalysisDownload