Post a comment up here or Email me at andrew.thomson@queensferry.edin.sch.uk to let me know how you fared.

Well done for applying yourselves!

MrT

Make sure you get this right, troops! 🙂

If you’re asked about a particular sequence in a critical essay question…

You would usually discuss the significance of the key incident / key scene (for example, Gatsby’s reunion with Daisy) and this would include discussion of the sequence’s significance in terms of character development, plot, symbolism and of course theme / central concerns.  What do the characters do and say? What do these actions and words signify?  What elements of the setting are symbolic (the clock that Gatsby almost knocks over?).  Setting might be important in a key passage or sequence.
You would usually be expected to relate the sequence to your understanding of the whole novel or play’s central concerns/theme/s.  And usually you would at first discuss the context of the sequence (what leads to it?) and then at appropriate points you would discuss the consequences of the sequence for the characters / plot.

Scroll down to recent posts for examples of answers to questions like this in the drama section. 🙂

Keep going, gang.  You can do it.

MrT

Please look up meanings of words that are unfamiliar to you!  And try to use in sentences of your own.

Regards

MrT

I don’t have electronic copies of the example, so please come in to school to pick up your copy.  🙂

Troops, please find two further essay plans for ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’! 🙂

Streetcar Scene 10 Q Plan

Streetcar Tragedy Essay Plan

Troops, read this funny, angry and wise article by comedian David Mitchell.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/28/philip-morris-cigarette-ad-a-classic-case-of-smokes-and-mirrors

Where can you detect the following tones, or a combination of them?

Humorous tones: mocking, scathing, tongue in cheek, hyperbolic (exaggerating), sarcastic, ironic…

Critical tones: scathing, disparaging, critical, cynical, angry, pessimistic…

How does Mitchell create these tones?   Detailed reference to the text, please 🙂

Troops, read these two articles and try to find key ideas on which the writers agree.  🙂

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/21/sri-lanka-christians-religious-minorities-persecution

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/21/sri-lanka-attacks-christians-worldwide-persecution-silence

 

Buenos dias, troops.

Very enjoyable marking session this morning.  Highlights have been some very, very promising critical writing on Streetcar and Gatsby by Eilis, Joe and Abbie.  Analysis is gaining detail, strength and relevance!

Keep going, everybody.  You can do it.

See you tomorrow.  🙂

MrT

I’ve enjoyed reading your work over the last few days, troops.  This morning’s highlights were Greg’s observation that Mitch and Stanley only become sexually aggressive when Blanche is most vulnerable and her promiscuous past is revealed – highlighting the misogynistic/sexist/chauvinist society in which men feel that women with a history of sexual activity deserve to be punished through sexual violence; and Erin’s assertion that Streetcar suggests the truth of the world is that it is rough and brutal, and that we, like Blanche to an extent, romanticise it in order to believe it is kinder than it is.   Both compelling points.

Keep going, troops, and see you Tuesday when you can pick up marked work from me.   Keep refining your detailed explanations of texts’ central concerns.

Regards, MrT

This has been designed with a particularly thoughtful 10 mark Q.  Which poems would you pair with Assisi in the context of this question?  Why? Developed and detailed 10 mark answers only, please.

Keep going.   Thinking, preparation and practice are the keys to success, troops.

Assisi Higher Scot Text Practice  🙂

‘Hotel Room, 12th Floor’ Practice Exam Paper   🙂

Including FREE ten mark question on contrast in MacCaig’s poetry!

‘Brooklyn Cop’ Practice Exam Paper 🙂 

Keep training yourself up.  You can do it.  See my example 10 mark answer in a previous post (scroll down) if you want to see a model structure.

Found two cracking wee articles on the same topic, troops.

Read the articles on prisons and write a 5 mark answer to this question:

Question on both passages

9. Look at both passages.  The writers disagree about the effectiveness of jail sentences.
Identify three key areas on which they disagree. You should support the points by referring to important ideas in both passages.
You may answer this question in continuous prose or a series of developed bullet points.

Example MacCaig Scottish Text 10 Mark Answer

Study the structure and content of my answer, please.  Any questions, please add a comment or email me, troops.  Some key things to remember for 10 mark q answers: you need to make references (quotes, in this case) to texts, but at Higher you gain your marks through the analytical comments you make.  That’s  why I have made a minimum of two analytical comments in each of paras 2-5.   Para.1 is the commonality para., of course.

Practice papers to follow… 🙂

Higher Easter Tasks!

Streetcar Scene 11 Useful Quotations and Tasks

Streetcar Character Values Plan

Streetcar Final Scenes 9 and 10

https://www.understandingstandards.org.uk/Subjects/English/higher/portfolio/candidate3

Discursive or Persuasive essay class deadline for redraft: 06/03/19

Keep going.  You can do it!

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/26/terrified-warm-weather-global-warming-london

Streetcar Scene 4 – 7 Qs