Combined Revision Blog

 A SIMPLE 'HACK' IS TO ALWAYS MAKE REFERENCE TO WHAT THE AUTHORS WERE TRYING TO SAY. Both authors criticise the onset of advertising, both criticise expectations of marriage and relationships, both criticise the class system, both criticise the power held by the wealthy. If you remember this and ALWAYS make reference to these facts in your paragraphs, you will always have something to compare. Have a look at this for example: Imagine your question is 'How do the writers present their attitudes to dreams?', start by thinking about their overall message... Both writers criticise marriage within their texts, which reveals how the DREAM many people have about getting married is a facade> Both writers show criticism of the class system in their texts which shows how foolish people are to DREAM about anything more from life.> Both writers criticise the intrusive nature of advertising which reveals how people in their contexts are being missold DREAMS in order to keep th...

 You MUST use make LOTS OF REFERENCE to what he AUTHOR/WRITER was trying to say with their writing.

 Remember, you MUST answer on SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL in BOTH sections of the exam.

 Key scenes in Gatsby   Chapter 1 – Introduction of Tom ‘Cruel body, capable of enormous leverage’ Introduction of the women, on a couch, the ‘only stationery object in the room’ and how Tom traps the wind. Gatsby reaching out to the green light (out of reach, beyond him, consumed by it)   Chapter 2 – Myrtle’s treatment of George. Ghostly semantic field, walks through him etc -            Myrtle’s arrival at the flat. ‘slice out of a cake’ ‘tapestried furniture’ ‘too big for the apartment’. -            Nick – ‘within and without’ -            Tom breaks her nose ‘with an open hand’ foreshadowing her demise and showing that there is no such thing as generosity to the lower classes. It always comes at a price.   Chapter 3 – The entire arrival at the party, but particular focus on the ‘floating round of cocktails’ metapho...

  HOW TO ANSWER SECTION B – THE BASICS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT – *You must refer to THREE of Larkin’s poems. NO MORE THAN FOUR AS A MAXIMUM. *You MUST include POETIC TERMINOLOGY as part of your essay (rhyme, metre, rhythm, enjambment, caesura etc) *You must always tell the examiner where about your quote is from (which poem, which chapter etc) Make sure you KEY WORD the question, as it is ESSENTIAL that you answer the question directly. If it says to discuss how the writers present attitudes to RELATIONSHIPS, for example, then EVERY POINT must relate back to RELATIONSHIPS. If the question is about MONEY, then every point must relate back to MONEY. It is that simple. Include the following in your intro: *Introduce ‘The Whitsun Weddings’, stating that it was written by Philip Larkin in the mid 20 th  century, and that it tackles themes such as social marginalisation and critiques societal expectations regarding relationships. *Make a sensible comment about CONTEXT (such as, ‘Larkin ...

  Here is a simple guide for answering section A THE BASICS FOR TOMORROW’S EXAM!! Your questions are on SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL. You must answer on SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL in BOTH SECTIONS OF THE EXAM! You should spend about 1hr 5 mins on SECTION A, and you should aim to write an introduction plus about SIX analytical paragraphs. You should spend about 1hr 20 on SECTION B, and you should aim to write an introduction plus about FOUR COMPARATIVE PARAGRAPHS (These will be longer than the paragraphs in section A as they are comparing two texts – Gatsby and Larkin). HOW TO ANSWER SECTION A – THE BASICS As it is unseen, carefully read everything you are told and make sure that you are confident about what its GENRE, AUDIENCE and PURPOSE are. Make sure you KEY WORD the question, as it is ESSENTIAL that you answer the question directly. If it says to discuss how the author reveals the FEARS, for example, then EVERY POINT must relate back to their FEARS. If the question is simply abou...

  The key scenes I've told you to focus on IF YOU NEED THIS LEVEL OF STRUCTURING are as follows: Keller's 'porches' monologue on P30 because it shows appearance vs reality, Keller's views on guilt and responsibility, Capitalist ideals, the failure of the American dream (that it only matters how things look), and also heavily hints to the audience that Keller will meet his downfall. Keller's 'don't make a murderer out of him' speech on Page 32 - for many of the same reasons, but also as it gets the audience to consider their own views on guilt and responsibility, and whether they might have done the same as Keller - remember, this was first performed just TWO YEARS after WWII so think how the audience would be feeling. Chris' 'loot' speech on 35-36 - Because it covers capitalism, family, loyalty, responsibility, generational tension and various other themes. Keller and Kate's 'be smart' section on Page 40 as it shows hypocrisy,...

 I've put some real past responses from our students on Teams so you can have a look at what they wrote and how they did.

  I have not proof read this and I did it in timed conditions. This took about 35 minutes, so you have far longer to produce something similar. What I found was that it really helped to know quite a few of these quotes in advance so that I wasn't wasting time searching through the book. I think this is a good example regarding the amount written, the level of analysis and terms used, and links to context. Have a read and see what you think... ‘All My Sons’, a mid-20 th  century play by Arthur Miller, is a work which concerns itself with many themes which are often prevalent in American literature such as the fulfilment of the American dream, and what that means to the individual. Within this particularly important context of the post-WWII period, Miller uses his characters to explore how the war has affected the priorities of the characters within the play, and specifically utilises some of the father/son relationships to accentuate this theme. This scene comes at an extremely...

  Typical Exam Questions:  ‘All My Sons’ Answer/plan as many of these as you can. We will be going through some of the tougher ones in class too.   1.  Extract: Joe/Chris exchange (Act 1 pp.15 – 18 from “Sit down,  Dad.”  to  “I’m a pretty tough guy”)   Using this extract as a starting point, and with reference to other parts of the play, discuss how Miller presents conflict/tension within parent-child relationships.   In your answer, you must consider Miller’s use of linguistic and literary features and relevant contextual factors. (25 marks)   2.  Extract: Ann/Sue exchange   (Act 2 pp.43 – 46 from ‘I think it’s mostly that whenever I need somebody to tell me the truth’ to ‘There’s not a person on this block who doesn’t know the truth)   Using this extract as a  starting point , and with reference to other parts of the play, discuss how Miller conveys the  differing attitudes of his characters towards the Keller...

 To write a successful intro, you need to do the following things: 1. Begin by stating where the extract is from and why it is so significant. This helps to demonstrate your overall understanding of the play. 2. Add context to the play by saying when and why it was written. This shows that you understand its purpose. 3. Begin to answer the question very basically. This shows you have keyworded the question and you know what you're doing. This extract s taken from the end of Act 2, just after Keller's guilt has been revealed to Chris. This is an extremely significant part of the play as it shows the audience the extent to which Keller has been hiding his true self, even from those who think they know him best, and the lengths he has gone to in order to look after his own image. The play was written by Arthur Miller in the immediate aftermath of WWII in order to allow Miller a platform to voice his criticism of capitalist culture and wartime profiteering. Within this play, Stage ...

 1. Learn the EXPECTED features of each genre. Refer to these in your INTRODUCTION and use them to discuss if the text is similar to what you would expect from the GENRE. 2. Look at the voices I have pointed out. Write down any you think I have missed. 3. Find QUOTES from each text to go with the voices I've found. 4. Try writing example paragraphs where you analyse these voices.  5. Find your own UNSEEN texts to analyse next to the anthology texts.

 

  Structure for the Anthology/Unseen Essay Introduction: *Start by introducing text A (unseen). Say what genre it is, what its main purpose is and who its main audience is. *Make a statement about what you would expect from the genre. *Then, using comparative language… *Introduce text B (anthology text). Genre, purpose, audience. *Comment on genre.. *Anything interesting about context that you can remember too….   Writing your paragraphs: Remember VOICE!!!!! (You can use other words for voice, like tone, but you MUST make sure that your analysis always comes back to VOICE in some way.) *Write a comparative  topic sentence  that brings both of the texts together by pointing out some sort of interesting similarity or opposition. (Find about 4 of these and you’re fine) (In terms of what you can compare: Similar voices, similar techniques, similar contexts, similar points of view OR interestingly opposing voices/techniques/contexts). *Analyse Text A using evidence, unpac...

 *Exam is 2hrs 30mins long.  *Section A will provide one of the anthology texts at random (which will be printed in a source booklet), and an unseen text from a different genre (also printed in the booklet. *The two texts will share some kind of thematic similarity. *Write an intro, about 4 comparative paragraphs, and a conclusion *For Section B, find the ALL MY SONS question, and don't answer on any of the other plays. *The question will provide an extract from the play. Provide an introduction, two paragraphs on this extract, and 3-4 on other parts of the play then a conclusion. *Split the time relatively equally. At most, spend 1hr 20 on section A, and 1hr 10 on B. Both sections are worth 25 marks, so treat them with equal importance. Relax!