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Today we looked at critical essays: the markers’ instructions from 2008 and some actual students’ essays. I gave out 10 essays and we looked at 2 and were surprised but (I hope) encouraged by the leniency of the marking.

If you weren’t there and would like these exemplar essays, do email me and I’ll send them as an attachment, together with the marks awarded. You’ll also find handwritten versions of these on the SQA website, under Services for Learners, NQ subjects (choose English), English Higher Critical Essay workshop – the marking instructions are there too.

I also, cruelly, made the class write a critical essay in the second part of the class, which wasn’t quite 45 minutes, so the homework is to finish it and do another one. If you weren’t there, please do this for next week, again in a strict 45 minutes. If you were in class, please try to do the other one at home; or any essay or close reading. If you email it to me then I can mark it in advance, but on the other hand it's better practice for the exam to use handwriting.

Here are the titles:

Choose a play in which a character is at odds with one or more than one of the people around him or her.

Show how the dramatist makes you aware of the character’s situation and discuss to what extent this led to a greater understanding of the concerns of the play.

and

Choose a poem which presents a character to whom you react with sympathy, dislike or laughter.

Show how the poet arouses this response from you and discuss how important it is to the overall impact of the poem.

Next week I’d like to have suggestions of what you want to do: go over texts? Do a class critical essay? Some more close reading?

The final week, the 13th, I imagine you might prefer to stay at home and revise, but I will be there as usual at 1.15 and available for any tuition on request, so do feel free to come then if you want. If no one turns up by 1.30, then I’ll go, but I’m happy to stay if anyone wants to discuss anything to do with English.

Vitamins and revision

Nothing interesting is going to happen from now on, I’m afraid, people! Today we went over in some detail the 2008 Close Reading. Please do/finish this for homework.

We also considered the language on the label of a Vitamin Water bottle. Remember to practise your analytical skills as you live your life between now and May 15. Read adverts, labels, leaflets, newspaper articles – anything – and look at the sentence structure, word choice and so on.

Next week we shall be looking at actual students’ essays and the SQA’s marks for them, and then doing a timed essay on literature. So come prepared! No more spoon-feeding…

Do some revision. Write some essays. Do not have any fun.

Happy Easter

Sorry that this is rather a late post.

In our most recent class, we mainly looked at two pieces of writing: one on garden birds and one on Wikipedia. The first was humorous and the second more serious; but both used sentence structure, word choice, imagery etc. Do pause in your reading over the next weeks and ask yourself the sorts of questions that the SQA does – just to give yourself confidence that you do, indeed, know how the question setters will have been thinking.

I’m writing this at home without my record of work with me, but I’m sure I must have given you homework. If not, download the 2008 paper from the SQA website (http://www.sqa.org.uk/) and do that – at least passage 1. But as well as this, you must revise – look at the Language Skills book if you’re at all uncertain about Close Reading, but also re-read the novel and the play and learn – well, I’d suggest four poems, ideally, off by heart and memorise what there is to say about them. Do also read my notes on the novel and the play and look up the internet – you’ll find lots of other things there, for inspiration and reassurance. Learn quotes: 10 per novel, 10 per play and lots and lots for the poems (which is why it’s easier to learn them off by heart, in my opinion).

And then do one or more essays from the past papers. Limit yourself to 45 minutes per essay and force yourself to ignore distractions. Remember, if you get the mark you need in a few weeks’ time you never have to do this again!

Remember too that you must be able to write about the literary techniques of the novel, the play and the poem without even thinking, when May 15 comes. There will be no time to sit trying to work them out from first principles: you’ll be too busy concentrating on answering the question.

See you on the 22nd. Have a good Easter.

A bit of a blank

I have a problem here: I'm sure I imparted some pearls of wisdom about something or other before we watched the second half of the film; but I can't remember what they were. A challenge to you: what did I say?? Do comment.

Then we did watch the rest of the film, , which despite its crackles, unconvincing accents and old-fashioned hairstyles I thought was quite evocative. I liked the very close-up camera shots as the film went on; they gave a real feeling of the claustrophobia of being crammed together in a small flat with all that tension. I also liked the way Eddie ran after the immigration van, yelling at Marco, and then turned to see all his neighbours lined up against him. But maybe it all just seemed convincing to me because it just reminds me of my youth: all those frocks and rickety chairs and everything in black and white...

Homework is passage 2 of 2007 about libraries (and you could also do passage 1, if you haven't) - and I would suggest that you also try a literature essay, your choice. If you don't have the past papers, last year's is on the SQA website - http://www.sqa.org.uk/ and go to Services for Learners, NQ subjects, drop down to English.

Watching the film

A very short blog today: we watched Act 1 of the very grainy, scratchy (but quite effective, I thought) black and white film of "A View from the Bridge". It was made in 1961 (though it looked more like 1861) so the clothes, set and so on would be quite authentic for the period. We'll watch Act 2 next week so if you don't want to see it, don't feel you have to come to class.

Homework for next week is the 2007 Close Reading, passage 2, about the digitisation of the Bodleian

and the boy sitting in the courtyard of Cambridge University Library. This is homework – and if you haven’t done the first passage yet then I’d be happy to get both together next week. Or not.

Not very inspiring...

Sorry – very boring lesson today going over the Close Reading prelim. Hope you now know why you didn’t get full marks. If not, ask me!

By the way, Matt has kindly given me a copy of the film of “A View from the Bridge”. It starts very differently from the play but soon morphs into a fairly accurate, word-for-word version of it. If any of you would like to comment, I’d be interested to know whether you would like to watch it at any point. Failing that, you could just tell me, of course, or email. Bear in mind that it's fairly old (1961), black and white and quite scratchy. However, if you haven't seen it, it would be a good and fairly restful way of revising the play. It lasts about 2 hours so we could do it over either 1 or 2 weeks. Or not.

Should you be enthusiastic enough to want your own copy, you could get it from http://stores.blowoutdvd1.com/-strse-23/A-View-From-The/Detail.bok

Homework – paper 1 of the 2007 Close Reading about Glasgow University Library.

Prelim paper 2

Not much to write on the blog this week, since the time was spent on paper 2 of the prelim. Hope you found it reasonably satisfactory. The questios were all actual exam ones from different years, though some of them were slightly tailored to match the SQA’s currently favoured wording. Remember, however, that in the actual exam in May, none of us knows what the questions will be, so there’s no guarantee that there will be a particularly suitable question for any of your texts. In fact I’d be very surprised if there weren’t reasonable ones for “A Patchwork Planet” and “A View from the Bridge” but... who really knows?. Fingers crossed.

As far as poetry is concerned, this is far less predictable. For any one poem – or even for any three or four – all we can say is that there might be a suitable question or there might not. Most people find poetry questions more straightforward than drama or prose ones, simply because there’s far less of the problem of which bits of the text to select for highlighting in your essay. However, because the poetry questions are usually much specific, you shouldn’t rely on being able to use one of them. Nevertheless I would try to have a few up your sleeve for use if the opportunity arises.

No homework. This will start again next week. From now on, we’ll be back to practising Close Readings and literature essays.

By the way, this blog is regularly visited by people in Brighton, Sheffield and Belfast. Can't imagine why, really - but hello to you.