The English Miscellany

The poetry of Alexander Pope (1688-1744) is sometimes associated with a cramped 'classical' approach to the imagination. However, rhythmic life and energy are bound up in Pope's rhyming couplets. He has an ear for music and movement. In fact, he often speaks about dance or employs its as a metaphor. Rhythm and dance provide a rich vein of physicality. Like Dryden, Pope perfected his ability to hear the inherent musicality of words and their sinewy rhythmic potential. He is a master of the soft rhapsodic cadences of lyric and elegy as much as the harsh, rough music of snarling satire. Although many of Pope's poems present formidable challenges to modern readers it eill eb apparent that a judicious selection of extracts will repay close reading and recitation. Students should also attempt to write their own couplets as this creative process will enable them to understand the levels of subtlety and complexity that can be achieved. Alexander Pope's Essay on Criti...

The Place to find Exam Skills at work I hope that your exams (and your results day) have not been as traumatic as mine were at school. I still have minor nightmares about that day! In this blog, I take a look at the reasons behind exam success and failure. If you are coming to this blog having faced disappointment, do not despair. Help is at hand. There is a lot that you can learn in order to improve your performance . This blog will help you to start that journey I will be sharing my pesonal experiences, but you will also find that the research is informed by professional experience, rather than irrelevant educational theories. In my experience of 30 years of teaching English in Schools and in the University sector,  these are the most common reasons for poor results: 1.    Anxiety based on lack of confidence, poor planning and fear of the unknown 2.    Lack of familiarity with past exam questions 3.    Poor me...

When s tudent reader s s truggle with poetry, it' s often the relation s hip between s ound and s en s e that pre s ent s a high degree of difficulty. It' s very ea s y to be overcome by pitter-patter rhythm s and arcane name s for metrical technique s and poetic form s . But picking s ound pattern s may help to open up a variety of interpretation s . Thi s mean s s hifting from the identification of a local effect to the elaboration of more complex and nuanced s emantic po ss ibilitie s . The fir s t s onic ta s k for the critical reader involve s the s potting of s imilar s ound s s uch a s alliteration. A higher level of creative reading require s s en s itivity in order to link the s e s ound clu s ter s to the poem' s que s tion s , and it s an s wer s . A great poem hold s together, in tight compre ss ion, the different element s of form and technique, tone s and s tyle, form and content. Critical writing - the expo s ition and appre...

As we have noted in earlier blogs on this site, exam stress and anxiety is built into this mode of assessment. That's partly because the exam is typically a two or three hour endurance test in which you are deprived of home comforts and familiar supports. For many students exams present an image of clinical discipline and dehumanisation. Sitting exams may also cause you to revisit similar occasions in the past that involved a traumatic sense of disempowerment, defeat and failure. But despite the huge potential downside of exams presented in these terms they do mimic real life experiences where you may have to work under pressure, use your wits, or demonstrate that you can plan and manage your time. Exams are here to stay! Nonetheless, it will be helpful to recognise that there are some common anxieties that exam candidates experience. They may fear that there isn't a question that they can answer, or they may fear being seized with writer's block as they stare at a b...

Let's be clear: it is not incorrect to write 'he said' or 'she said.' In fact, it may be advantageous to let the dialogue do the work and to leave the specific manner or tone of speech to the reader's imagination. The reader often has an intuitive grasp of the flow of emotions. Close examination shows that there are many options if you want to replace the word 'said', but sometimes you don't need to use it at all. The word 'said' also preserves a potential ambiguity. Again this can be helpful in creative writing if you do not want to direct the reader to a specific interpretation. Why not trust the reader to unmask irony and double-meanings in the speech? Often, the writer who lacks confidence wants to fill in all the gaps . Sometimes it is better to be less busy, and to leave some space for the reader to work on the prose. Writing presupposes a partnership; it is not a dictatorship. The word 'said' can also be complement...