The English Miscellany

Are you locked in the Library? It's the exam season again! Here are 16 practical tips and strategies to support study and revision work for exams: Short blocks of time for work A balanced workload between all subjects means variety  Days off work for leisure Writing down a list of reasons to be motivated Rewarding yourself for doing the hours planned Not starting to revise too late Summarising your notes Creating Mindmaps or other visualizations  Devising your own mnemonics or memory games Reading past exam papers Ensuring that you know what the examiners are looking for Doing timed answers and exercies Trying out model opening and closing paragraphs for essays Learning about 50 impressive words to use in discussions, arguments, or concepts Working with your teachers to explain what's not clear  Working with friends collaboratively in teams Dr Ian McCormick is the author of The Art of Connection: the Social Life of Sentences (Quibble Ac...

Why not create your own league table of writers with your class? This is a great opportunity for critical thinking and collaborative decision-making. Start by constructing a long or short list of writers/poets/novels/poems. Then discuss your key criteria for evaluation. Perhaps your scores will change over time? Poet and playwright Oliver Goldsmith’s “poetical scale” was originally published in The Literary Magazine in January, 1758. Genius        Judgement        Learning           Versification Chaucer                       16                    12                    10  ...

Summary of the AQA Exam Board Guidance on language work for A level (16-18 years).  For AS and A level, learners can analyse texts by exploring four functions of language: the expressive function – how a text represents its writer or producer and conveys their attitudes and values the experiential function – how a text represents people, institutions and events the relational function – how a text creates an ideal audience position, creating a power relation between producer and audience, and shaping the audience’s response the textual function – how texts create coherence and cohesion Linguistic Frameworks Phonological: alliteration, assonance, rhythm, rhyme the forms and functions of non-verbal aspects of speech Lexical-semantic: denotational and connotational meaning, figurative language, structural semantics (semantic fields, synonyms, antonyms, hypernyms, hyponyms), jargon, levels of formality ...

1. ATTITUDE Be interested in everything. If you know and experience lots of different things there is a point when they start to join up, or to link in some strange and delightful way. With a broad-based knowledge it is also more likely that you will be able to make informed and inspired guesses. These mindmoves are both enjoyable and stimulating. Give the topic/subject the benefit of the doubt. If you assume that you will be having a tedious experience while studying, your initial thoughts tend to be self-fulfilling. At first many topics are complex and they present initial barriers to entry. Similarly, anything unfamiliar may involve the shock of the new. Rather than turning away, take a leap of faith and keep going until you discover those satisfying moments of lucidity - these are the dawning lights of the understanding at work. Positive mental attitude - this means not basing your current work or your future expectation on past failures. Channel your antagonism effectiv...

A revision list of 103 key words to describe kinds of speech - please add other suggestions below. absurdity aestheticism affectation agility alertness antagonistic aptness archaic artificiality badinage banter belligerent. combative censure civility clarity clowning colloquy conceits courtier / courtly courtship decadence delicacy discourse dramatic effortless elegance epigrammatic erudition esoteric exchanges extravagance felicity fencing fluidity fooling frivolity funny gallantry ...

The witty banter and rivalry that we encounter in the plays of William Shakespeare or Oscar Wilde, or the novels of Jane Austen, often presents difficulties for students who are unsure how to write about it. It's not enough just to say that a speech is funny or humorous. Even 'witty' is at times quite vague given the complexity of rhetoric and style that characters had available to them. First, there are the professed attitudes to love and relationships. Typical roles taken up by characters include the scorner of love, and the woman who rejects her suitors. Whether the underlying motivation is authentic, realistic, or psychologically coherent and credible often matters less than the sheer pleasure to be had from the verbal battles that ensue. Second, audiences are expected to enjoy the 'badinage' of witty courtiers. This is an opportunity for malicious sentiments to be expressed with wit. Communication shifts in mood and tone from shrewdness and wisdom to ext...

Faith in the Western Tradition "The trials of the citizen now surpass anything that previous generations ever knew. Private and public propaganda beats upon him from morning till night all his life long. If independent judgment is the sine qua non of effective citizenship in a democracy, then it must be admitted that such judgment is harder to maintain now than it ever has been before." (Preface) Readers may be familiar with the 54-volume set called Great Books of the Western World. Women are entirely absent from this history, which was published in 1952. The choice of texts is based primarily on the ancient Latin and Greek classics; renaissance and enlightenment philosophy and literature, and some of the key texts on politics, history and science from the nineteenth century. Despite its American roots and sponsorship, only Herman Melville, William James, the "American State Papers" and "The Federalist" are featured from the native seats of lear...