Category: English

Tips To Writing A Good Paper 1

Today, we practiced writing introductions for the Paper 1. I learnt if I am to write a good essay introduction, I must trust my instinct on what the pros or poem is about.

 

I am a bit of a perfectionist

  • trust insticts on what pro/poem is about, – sometimes I get stuck on this and as a result, I get fixatd and waste precious time
  • I am a little bit of a prefectionist, shouldn’t be fixated on a section for too long – just quickly jot thoughts down and move onto the next section so I can finish my essay on time

Sylvia Plath

For the past few lessons, my class and I have been looking at and annotating poems by Sylvia Plath, who lived from 1932 to 1963.

  • wrote about her internal struggles
  • confessional poetry as a movement: freeing, able to express ones self

Her poetry, possible lines of inquiry, themes, confessional poetry as a movement.

 

Planning For The HL English Essay

Text We Looked At:

  • Atonement
  • The Importance of Being Earnest
  • The Visit
  • The Worlds Wife
  • Home Fire
  • Antigone
  • Fun Home

 

Text Preference:

  • Atonement
  • The Importance of Being Earnest

 

Ideas For Line Of Inquiry:

  • Atonement:
    • Criminal Narrative:
      • The Villain – Paul Marshall:
        • McEwan seems to marginalise Paul’s criminality – not pursued or punished
      • The Victims:
        • Lola:
          • Lola is sidelined as a victim – Briony makes story about herself
          • Before the assault, Lola was a victim of her parents divorce
          • After the rape ….
        • Robbie:
          • Already victim of class distinctions – Emily Tallis doesn’t forgive him for getting a first from Cambridge
          • Falsely accused of crime he didn’t commit
        • Briony:
          • Victim of her emerging sexuality, inadequate parenting, biology, class and over imagination
        • Cecilia
          • Another victim of social obligation to her sister
          • Becomes an outcast because of her education
  • The Importance Of Being Earnest:

My Commentary On “Tony Harrison poem, ‘A Cold Coming’,”

1. What is the poem about?
This poem is about the retreating Iraqi soldiers, who were then trapped and bombed by the USA along the “Highway Of Death”
2. How does the poet shock the reader?:

  1. Describes the corps of the body – how it’s all charred to the bone, barely recognisable as the person it used to be
  2. Gives the corps a voice “Isn’t it your sort of pets task to find words for this frightening mask? Id that gadget that you’ve got records words from such scorched vocal cords, press RECORD before some dog devours me mid-monologue.”
  3. The author tries to give some perspective tot he opposing side – get to see through their eyes
  4. The author points out the fact that despite teh army’s being on opposing sides, they have a lot in common. If the soldiers were able to see similarities between each individual, they would have been able to see that they are not so different from each other and their is no reason to fight.
  5. Describes the gruesome deaths, how many people died on the “Highway Of Death”
  6. Describes the dreams of men returning home to their families or starting families of their own being crushed
    1. Shoes the heartbreak of the soldiers families when they learn they died and will never return home

3. How does the poet think Iraqi soldiers have been treated?

  1. Shouldn’t have had to die like that – “the best of fates is not to be” a philosophy made bleak for any but an Ancient Greek, …..when you see men brought to such states who shouldn’t want that “best of fates”
  2. May have been better not to have been born to spare them the pain
  3. Fighting for what they believed in, valued life4.
  4. Fighting to stay alive to make it back to their families

4. Can you identify poetic techniques used?

Rhyme, Similes, Metaphors, Symbolism, Oxymoron?

5. What is the poet’s view of this war?

  1. All war does is bring death and destruction
  2. The men fighting on both sides are the same
    1. They are both fighting for what they believe in
    2. They both have families or want to start families
    3. Both trying to stay alive and go home

6. What is the poet’s overall message?
I believe the poets over all message is that war is pointless, all it does is pave the way for more death, destruction and pain. Not just for the soldiers, but for their families as well. If the soldiers had managed to see past the war, both sides would have been able to see that they are the same, despite the reasons for fighting being slightly different. They both have families, friends, both went to school, both fighting for what they believe in, both made mistakes. In other words, they are human. If they had managed to see past the reason for why the war started and completely accepted each other for who they are and what they believe in, they could have gotten along, and their would be no point of the war starting. This goes for all wars, not just the one in the photo.

Guiding Questions: Antigone And Home Fire

In what ways does the author offer in sights and challenges into religious and cultural practices?

To what extent does the impact of the test shape our implicit perception of a troubling world?

How does understanding of contest (social/political/historical/cultural) influence of shape our understanding of the test and its implications?

How do elements of the contemporary novel shape out understanding of teh concepts within the text?

Practice Essay Feedback

1a) Include your question: Should have a clear line of inquiry though-out essay

1b) Consider incorporating one/a few of the course concepts into your line of inquiry

2a) Structure – Take The Time To Introduce Your Text: Introduce the test and the writer, contextualise it to show the reasoning your your line on inquiry

2b) Should be able to see a cohesive thread sewn through your essay (clear line of inquiry)

2c) Structure – Having Topic Sentiences That Answer The Question:

  • Don’t Mention Techniques
    • Eg: Schlink draws further on the idea of national guilt through the portrayal of the protagonists identities

2d) Structure – Be Selective: Only include moments which will help you answer the question

2e) See writers name throughout response. Assume reader knows the story. Don’t retell it

3b) Formatting Questions: Be consistant when talking about formatting questions. Quotations must be less than one line or indented

4a) Secondary Reading: Take it from reputable and relevant resources

  • Let the experts speak for you
    • Eg: Levi’s testimony has been described a covering  ‘humanity in extremis’ (Jacobson 2019)
  • Expand and challenge it
    • Eg: One Writer suggested that duffy’s collection was ‘remanism in the extreame.’ (Bagri 2020:17) This inflammatory assertion neglects the complexities of the collection.

 

Goal: Write more words, don’t add to many rhetorical questions, focus more on the text, plan for each paragraph, add in context, use secondary resources.

 

What Does Success Mean? How Can It Be Achieved?

What is success? Success is when you accomplish a goal or aim. However, many people may not know defining success isn’t as easy as one may think, as Chetan Bhagat pointed out. What’s more is, you cannot succeed without knowing how to achieve big things.

 

Chetan Bhagat’s Background

 

Chetan was not always an author. He used to be a an investment banker and quit his job in 2009 to focus more on his writing. Overtime, his rising fan base and continued response to all his books made him feel like he was meant to do something more than just work in a bank.

 

“A top psychiatrist in Delhi told me that my impact on young minds is tremendous, and I have the power to influence them on how they live their life, if I want to take it. Hence, I should stop positioning myself as just a funny author. That conversation had an impact.” said Chetan Bhagat to the India Forbes Magazine.

 

Why He Wrote Five Point Someone and The Challenges Faced

 

Chetan had faced a lot of challenges when writing his first book Five Point Someone. One of the challenges he had faced when writing Five Point Someone was finding someone who would publish his book. He had to re-draft the manuscript 15 times before someone had agreed to publish it. All his hard work had finally paid off and the book had sold more than a million copies around the world.

“I keep motivating myself through articles, books and newspapers whenever I’m faced with a challenge” said Chetan.

 

In a talk Chetan had with my school, he had told us why he wrote Five Point Someone. “My goal is to reach maximum Indians via entertainment to influence them towards progressive society.”

 

“The final reason was trying to change the stereotype of an IITian – full of numbers, geeky and nerdy. We are fun people too, and if you read this book you will see why and what we are upto in those years.” said Chetan to the Q & A.

 

How To Achieve Big Things

 

On the 17th of January, Chetan had come to our school and said that you can’t succeed unless you know how to set clear goals and achieve big things. When setting a clear goal, it is important to think about the reasons behind that goal. Thinking about why you are setting the goal helps you define what success means to you. Whether it’s to become famous, have lots of money or helps to achieve an even bigger goal.

 

Finding the right group can help you complete that goal. Finding the right group means ‘to find people who are going to back you up on your goal.’ For example, imagine you love to eat lots of junk food, but you want to go on a diet as your goal is to lose some weight. If you surround yourself with friends who eat a lot of junk food when your on your diet, it is going to be a lot harder to complete your goal. You are most likely going to give up as by being around those friends, you were tempted to revert back to your old ways. Being around people who don’t support your goals make it a lot harder for you to complete them. However, if you surround yourself with friends who have the same goals, then you are most likely going to succeed as the temptation to eat junk food won’t be as high.

 

When completing a goal, you should have a detailed action plan. This way you can see if the goal is attainable or if it’s unrealistic. For example: imagine your a big person and your goal is to lose 10 kilos by easter. This would be an unrealistic goal as it takes a very long time to lose a kilo. It would take a lot longer than a month to lose 10 kilos. Having an action plan also helps to see the steps which can be taken everyday in order to complete the goal a step at a time. If unforeseen circumstances arise in the plan, it can always be modified where necessary in order to suit your needs.

 

There is no doubt setbacks will be faced when trying to complete a goal. But what’s important is trying to find a way to get back on after the setback. Imagine you want to cut junk food from your diet because you want to eat more healthily. You keep it up for a few weeks, until you are invited to your friends birthday party. There, you eat chips, pizza and cake. This is when the feeling of disappointment and failure can begin. Instead of dwelling on the mistake, this is the time to regain focus and get back on track. This will then lead to success.

 

Conclusion:

In a talk Chetan had with my school, he had asked us what success was. In truth, the meaning of success is different for everybody, whether it’s to be happy, having money, being famous, reaching goals, feeling accomplished or being satisfied. For Chetan, success means making a positive change in india. All his books address the problems in India. However, as Chetan said in the talk, “You have to define what success means for yourself before you can succeed.” He also mentioned in order to succeed, you need to know the steps to achieving big things. If they are not followed, it is likely you are going to fail in completing the goal.

 

Sources:

http://cfshealth.com/how-to-avoid-setbacks-with-m-ecfs/

http://entreprenura.com/tag/goals/

www.chetanbhagat.com/books/fps/qa/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chetan_Bhagat

https://fridaymagazine.ae/life-culture/people-profiles/my-goal-of-writing-is-to-create-change-says-author-chetan-bhagat-1.2169687

TWC2 – Transient Workers Count Too

TWC2 is an organisation which is supported by donations. They have volunteers of all ages. From students to those who have retired. Some of the volunteers have jobs. During the talk, I learnt that TWC2 (Transient Workers Count too) looks into the well-fair of transient workers. %70 of workers go to them because they are injured and %20-%30 come because of salary issues. I already knew the transient workers came here to try to provide a better future for their families. However, I didn’t realise that when migrants come to work in a different country, they often have a dept to pay at home. Sometime’s the’d go 2 to 3 months without being paid, but they couldn’t complain because they may loose their jobs. They can’t afford that. Their have been some cases where the migrants were able to change employers. However, they’re only given 2 weeks before they have to be sent back to their home country. I learnt that TWC2 tries to help them, but they are usually sent back to their home country because of the short period of time to find a new employer. TWC2 is trying to make a change to this. In fact, I realised they are trying to solve all the problems for the transient workers. It’s just taking some time.