English Literature Paper 2 Revision booklet. This paper is worth 60% of your total grade in English Literature

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Hortense Sparks
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1 English Literature Paper 2 Revision booklet This paper is worth 60% of your total grade in English Literature It is 2 hours 15 minutes in length It has three sections: Section A An Inspector Calls Section B Poetry Cluster Section C Unseen Poetry part a and b Answer the questions on these texts only.

2 Section A An Inspector Calls Answer ONE essay question from a choice of two. It is marked out of marks for the essay 4 marks for SPAG (spelling, punctuation and grammar which includes your sentence construction) Spend 45 minutes on the essay

3 Usually, not always, as you can see below, there will be one question on character and one on theme Specimen Material questions: How and why does Sheila change in An Inspector Calls? How does Priestley present some of the differences between the older and young regenerations in An Inspector Calls? What do you think is the importance of the ending of An Inspector Calls?

4 Approaching the essay: You must plan your essays and take a maximum of five minutes to plan. You are aiming to write a clear, conceptualised, thoughtful, developed and analytical response which explores the question critically. Not too much to ask for eh? So, let s define the key words in the mark scheme first: Level 6 (grade 7-9) Convincing - is the Latin word for "to conquer." causing someone to believe that something is true or certain. Critical - expressing an analysis of the merits and faults of a work of literature Exploration - thorough examination of a subject. Think of an explorer, they discover things that others do not by searing unfamiliar territory thoroughly. Analysis detailed examination of the structure of something. Judicious well judged. Conceptualised to form and idea and interpretation of something. Level 5 (grade 6 and 7) Thoughtful Developed Considered well reasoned Examination a detailed inspection Level 4 (grade 3 5) Clear understanding Explained Level 3 (grades 2 and 3) Explained structured comments

5 How to answer the question: If you are fortunate enough to have a question on construct (sophisticated for character) then you could approach the question thus: 1) Who are they? What do they symbolise? Purpose or function? Where do they fit into the play s structure? Link with props? Context? Role? CONSTRUCTS NOT CHARACTERS. 2) What have they done? Attitude towards Eva? social class/ generation. You need a quote which is analysed for language/structure and includes terminology. 3) How do they respond in terms of taking responsibility? Quotes - Language/Structure/ Terminology 4) Attitude to the Inspector s identity 5) Audience response 1912/45 Approaching a question on theme is more challenging because there is more to deal with. Whatever you do, you MUST GUARD AGAINST simply re-telling the story as this is what tends to happen when you have a theme question. Many students simply tell the examiner what each construct did rather than analyse Priestley s purpose in creating constructs that did this. If you do select a theme question then there are two ways to approach it: 1) Either select two contrasting constructs to discuss as this will narrow your scope and approach it as above 2) Consider how that theme (example responsibility) relates to the three main themes of the play: gender, generation and social class. Key phrases to include: The challenge that you have with the current GCSE is that you are marked on your ability to demonstrate understanding of the effects of the writer s methods on the audience and an examination of these methods. Let s clear up what methods mean methods means the WAY that the writer communicates his ideas so in the play the way Priestley communicates ideas about responsibility. He does that through the language that he gives certain constructs, the way that he structures the whole play, lines, exchanges between constructs, length of speeches, props used and places mentioned and when key information is revealed to name a few.

6 All this depends on your ability to grasp the really difficult and very mature skill of realising that the characters are not real people and are not characters. They are CONSTRUCTS ( think of a construction site, a building site, the characters have been CONSTRUCTED or BUILT by Priestley for a REASON or PURPOSE to SYMBOLISE something to the audience, to make the audience think about something including their own actions, perhaps to recognise elements of themselves in specific constructs) You must make connections between the text (An Inspector Calls) and the context. You must discuss the role of men/women, the distinct boundaries and division between the classes in your answer. You must grasp that whilst working class women were trapped by their gender because of low income that many upper class women were emotionally trapped by their gender because they were not given a voice within their own family and many were not valued as individuals. A different type of suffering. Once you have grasped that then you can examine/analyse/explore the writer s methods because you have, what I like to call an OVERVIEW and one of the central ideas in any work of Literature is being able to see how it relates to the outside world: moving from the general (world) to the specific (the text) and vice versa. So, phrases that I enjoys seeing in your essay are ones that clearly demonstrate to me that you grasp this concept and, actually care about the essay, in other words that you have ENGAGED with the essay topic. Here s how you do it: Priestley s purpose here is It is significant that Priestley chooses to Priestley uses the Inspector to Priestley cleverly uses Gerald as a tool to force the audience to consider... Priestley has structured the play like this because.. It is interesting that It is noteworthy that The sinister use of the verb peeled by the writer here.. The importance of the use of the patronising noun girl cannot be overlooked here Use alternatives for suggests: infers, has connotations of, the audience can deduce, this symbolises.

7 Please see my podcast on An Inspector Calls and the example essay attached as well as the mark scheme in this booklet. Remember that there are practice questions on page 2. Section B Poetry Cluster

8 As you have seen from the specimen paper questions, you will only be given one essay question and will have to deal with the question and the named poem that you are given on the day. You do have a choice in which poem you use to compare it with. The names poem will be printed on the paper, but the partner poem will not so you will be expected to know your partner poem. How to revise this part of the exam: Love and Relationships has fifteen poems in the cluster. The cluster can be divided into two: Family love Love between couples Family love: Follower Walking away Eden Rock Mother any distance Before you were mine Climbing my grandfather Love between couples When we two parted Sonnet XX1X Porhpyria s Lover The Farmer s Bride Love s philosophy Letter from Yorkshire Singh song

9 Winter Swans Neutral tones I would select two from each sub section and learn three quotes from each poem and the analysis for each Example When we two parted 1) I would use the contrast between the title parted and then the use of severed quite early on in the first stanza as a description of the pet s true feelings of despair at being rejected and then discuss the use of the very lyrical pace and rhythm and couplets which undermines this feeling of despair and infers that the poet is simply playing the role of the victim in order to gain sympathy from more women who would then start a relationship with him not believing that he is, in fact, complicit in the affair not being long term. That would count as one idea. I would move on from thinking that you need to have three quotes per essay. I would be looking at the idea of needing two ideas to compare and within that idea, I would have a quote which looks at language/form or language and structure as the two cannot be separated. Once you have done this for your four main poems, then you can begin planning essays before moving on to writing an essay. Remember: you have 45 minutes to write the essay and must plan for a maximum of 5 minutes. If you are aiming for the an essay which covers the key words from the mark scheme, as mentioned in section A, then you probably will only make two detailed and developed comparisons. It is worth 30 marks 2) Plan Remember that you are COMPARING TWO poems. Learn connectives for compare similarly, in contrast, dissimilar, both, whereas, however, Use comparatives words ending in ER and use LESS or MORE it is sadder, or more poignant

10 A useful tip that I have read about suggests that you begin your point of comparison with poem two by mentioning the main point of your paragraph on poem 1. You will see this in my example paragraphs. Compare the attitude of the speaker to their parent in Follower and one other poem from your cluster. 3) You are looking for a maximum of three ideas to compare Example: Comparing Follower with Before you were mine Idea 1: Speakers who feel distanced from their parent (my point is going to be how Heaney feels distanced from his father because he isn t as good as him at practical tasks, yet, in his own field, is equally as skilful) I am going to use the idea of turning the sweating team turned round And back into the land. I am going to look at language turn and the structure of the use of enjambment which literally gives us the idea of the horses turning because you turn to the next line with an enjambment. It shows the skill and precision of the father and the fluidity of the movement and also the skill of Heaney as a poet who can use enjambment to demonstrate the skill of his father through the skill of his own writing. I may also look at sweating to support the idea that it is a difficult task for both. Maybe the caesura to discuss the abruptness of the pace to show how maybe people don t realise the difficulty of one or the other or how similar the skills are. This will be compared with the idea that Duffy, in Before you were mine feels distanced from her parent and the poet uses Even then I wanted the bold girl winking in Portobello, somewhere in Scotland, before I was born. I am going to say that, like Heaney, Duffy feels distanced from her mother yet the sense of distance remains in this quote and is more poignant because the speaker feels as though her parent is deliberately keeping a parent of herself from the speaker and so the speaker can never fully know the parent. I would look at I wanted somewhere bold girl and I would discuss the idea that the mother is not the person that she was because of who she has to be now. I would look at the verb wanted and the idea of aching desire to be close with her mother who won t let her, the vague somewhere which supports this idea. The enjambment here suggests that this distance is ongoing and is not going to be resolved. You need at least one more idea to compare. Try to use a mixture of language and structure in your idea if you can.

11 The first ideas in your actual essay would look like this: In Follower, the poet seems to feel a sense of insecurity because of his dissimilarity to his father who was had such skill with his horses. The father could make the sweating team turned round And back into the land. The inference being that the he was a skilful, masterful and talented person. The enjambment demonstrates the fluidity of this action by the father who is able to control these horses as a unit a team working together under his control and sweating, the verb demonstrating the work and effort made by the horses almost because they want to please Heaney s father. Yet, the fact that Heaney skilfully uses an enjambment to literally demonstrate the fluidity and ease of the turning of the horses, deliberately at this point in the poem, demonstrates his skill and talent as a writer and that the skill is very similar and that both parent and child are masterful in their respective fields. Heaney, seems to recognise this as the poem progresses. Whereas, Duffy s speaker, doesn t seem to recognise or move from childhood insecurity to a sense of confidence in the poem (see what I said earlier about mentioning poem 1 with poem 2?) Before you were mine when the lines Even then I wanted the bold girl winking in Portobello, somewhere in Scotland, before I was born. Are used, because here, the speaker seems to feel a desperate sadness that she has not been allowed to know the bold girl as her mother, that bold person has gone, it seems that she knows very little of her mother s previous life or talents as she was somewhere in Scotland. The indefinite, imprecise use of somewhere indicates this lack of knowledge and the enjambment makes it more poignant as it seems that this inability to turn their relationship and male it progress is an ongoing issue for the speaker and her mother.

12 Section C Unseen poetry

13 In this final section of the paper, you will answer one question that is split into TWO parts. Make sure that you answer BOTH questions. Part (a) will ask you to analyse an unseen poem Part (b) will ask you to compare the first unseen poem with a second. You have 45 minutes in total to answer both questions. However, the marks are split into two. Part (a)is worth 24 marks Part (b) is worth 8 marks So spend 30 minutes on part (a) and 15 minutes on part (b) How to approach revising for the unseen question: The examiners are looking for FRESH responses not a right answer. Another excellent question for you, so unload, unload, unload your artillery. The aim is to get the students to feel comfortable around poems and develop their ability to respond to them in individual ways. This is where the teaching of saying a lot about a little is needed. JUST GO FOR IT. This is a mixture of all elements from the paper. You must use terminology in your answer. You must analyse language/structure/form You must look at the speaker who is it? Are they reliable? You are asked to make comparisons. Most importantly, the examiners are looking for fresh/original answers which do not rely on spotting literary devices such as similes and just noting that they are there. Look for links between words (semantic field) like dew, cold, chill, ice and see if there is a pattern to when they are used: do the words get colder or do sizes get smaller. Look for concrete nouns and what they may symbolise: roads, pens, seasons, times of day, days of the week, doors, fire, mountains, rivers, sun, moon, flowers, events mentioned. Look for contrasts between old and young, past and present, how things were and how they are now, location, feelings, times, people, buildings, nature and industry, civilisation and

14 savagery, war and peace. Does a small contrast represent a bigger contrast? Old and young to war and peace? Approaching the question: 1)Read the poem and underline objects, places, people, items concrete nouns and think about their connotations. If there is a door in a poem, what does a door symbolise? where is it? Who uses it? 2) Underline and look for contrasts as a way into poetry. If there is sun in one stanza and darkness in another, why might that be? 3) Put a word against each stanza to summarise it to link your ideas together 4) Think about structure: verse length, rhyme, enjambment, caesura, ellipsis, internal rhyme, full stops, repetition, disruption to the pace, rhyming couplets, questions, anaphora, internal rhyme, Sonnet, sestet, Volta, octave, rhyming couplet. You only have to talk about 2 or 3 ideas in detail, just make sure that you have a lot to say about what you have picked, that you explore and go into detail about language/structure. Use the key phrases from section A It is interesting to note, the comic use of the oxymoron...

15 One final word: English Literature is about six skills. If you can do this, then you can do it. 1) Select the right quote to explore 2) Use terminology accurately 3) Analyse language/form/structure 4) Explore effect on the reader 5) Make comparisons when appropriate 6) Look at how the text connects to its context.

PiXL Independence. English Literature Student Booklet KS4. AQA Style, Poetry Anthology: Love and Relationships. Contents:

PiXL Independence. English Literature Student Booklet KS4. AQA Style, Poetry Anthology: Love and Relationships. Contents: PiXL Independence English Literature Student Booklet KS4 AQA Style, Poetry Anthology: Love and Relationships Contents: I. Multiple Choice Questions 10 credits II. III. IV. Poetic Techniques 20 credits