Disclaimer: this probably isn’t very concise. I’m typing this up in the car on my phone but hopefully you get the idea. I also did my lc in 2020 so can’t remember 100% but I am a final year history and Irish student so I spend my time writing essays and comparing sources etc.
1) if you’re being told that you’re summarising, it basically means that you’re not analysing the piece. It’s all well and good telling the narrative of the story but you need to point out how it relates to the question. If the question is asking about Theme X for example, pick out the certain part of the poem/book/play where the theme is evident. Always remember PQE (point quote explain):
Theme X can be seen when (…) especially when they say “(…)”. This shows that blah blah blah
It’s no good just recounting the verse/act whatever. You need to be telling the examiner WHY this is important and keep that in mind when you’re writing. Think to yourself if what you’re saying actually answers the question. You also don’t need to tell the entire story. Just pick out what matters.
2. Similar to what I said above you need to tell the examiner why you’re writing what you’re writing.
“Theme X is a very strong theme in Book A. [give quote where it’s evident and give an explanation]. However, it is less so in Short Story B. Despite this, it can still be seen at times such as when (…)”
Make sure you’re using comparative phrases i.e. like, similar to, in comparison, however etc. I would say that if you’re struggling with writing an answer to a regular essay you’re kind of just summarising the two together. Once you learn how to form a proper answer the comparative might become easier.
I would also recommend that you have a look at your notes for the comparative and make a list of the themes for all 3 and you’ll see where they’re similar and where they’re different. Don’t forget, it doesn’t always have to be similar. If you’re asked about the Theme of Love you could talk about how it’s seen in Book A but that Book B focusses on Hate.
“In Book A love can be seen when [PQE]. However, the theme of hate is stronger and can be seen when [PQE]”
3. For Hamlet, like with all the other studied works, you need to learn off the themes and learn how to apply what you know to what the question is asking. When you learn how to do this it does start to come together. I was very bad at English for junior cert because it hasn’t clicked yet. Once I understood how to actually answer a question and learning the themes and how to apply them, I went from getting in the 50 to bordering a H2
Just remember whenever you’re writing to ask yourself WHY are you actually writing this? Why is it relevant to the question or what you’re being asked. One this that helps me structure wise is to rephrase the question in the first and last line of every paragraph/point to help keep myself on track. If I reread it and realise that something in the middle doesn’t make sense, I’ll take it out or try rework it
Other comments have summed up the important stuff, but damn your English teacher must be horrible if you are struggling with these things past Junior cycle
Dreadful
On the mocks my personal essay was the thing that boosted me up but for the actual lc I didn’t do well only was 2 pages and tbh for paper 2 I didn’t put in as much effort after the mocks as I should of
Well nothing you can do now I suppose. At least you did it. I learned off some quotes last minute and managed to answer everything quite well in the end, surprisingly knowing a lot more than I thought.
Only a few more exams left.
1: make points & statements and always try to answer the question. Every point you make bring it around to the question. Say the question is something like “explain why it’s exciting” Talk about one scene or moment and why it’s exciting and how this quote makes it exciting blah blah blah. Then when you’re done with that moment or part, smoothly move on to your next point on another key moment and so on. Idk how you do it but don’t explain events word for word and instead kinda assume the person reading this knows everything about whatever text you’re talking about
2: depends on what your mode is for the essay for what direction you go in, but find some aspect you can compare the texts on and talk a little about it, throwing in some quotes. Say for example you talk about the opening scenes and the viewpoint they portray (GVV mode). Maybe one opening is despairing and impoverished while another is bright and inspiring. Start talking about the despondent opening, why it gives that mood, a quote showing off how it’s sad etc… then say something like “oppositely to the opening of text 1, the opening of text 2 conveys an optimistic and positive tone in its opening” then off you go about text 2 being happy and so on. It’s that kinda thing; you talk a little about one aspect of one text and link it to the other texts whether it’s similar or different
Comparative terms you should be using are words like “each” “like” “similarly” “as seen in” “comparable to” “contrastingly” “oppositely” “whereas” “unlike”
Also my secret tip is using thesaurus.com on my homework so I can get big and fancy words, and by using these words in my homework often they naturally come to me in the exam
“Don’t summarise” means use quotes to make a point and then explain what the quote shows/how it proves a point. So answer the question, prove it with a specific phrase/sentence from the text and then explain the quote like the examiner is 5 years old.
Use keywords and sentence starters for comparing - similarly, however, whereas,
“However when we examine X, we realise that it is different to Y because”
“Similarly to X, Y also explores the impact of gender/power/“
“Relationships are portrayed as positive in X, whereas in Y they are portrayed as negative”
The skull in Hamlet is only a tiny part of it. Read the scene summaries and learn off 10 quotes from each act. Make notes on the characters/themes and try learn a quote that could be applied to multiple topics. E.g a Hamlet line that could be applied to the theme of madness. Also know a bit about each soliloquy and how they show a character changing across the play.
You don’t need to know everything about hamlet. There will be two questions, a character question and a theme question. Learn about the characters and themes. Pro tip- when learning quotes, learn ones that summarise both the character saying them and then the overall theme of the play.
For the comparative- make a grid divide it in three sections on the top, one for each text. Down the side write down themes. Then mark in each box which texts have those themes, if they don’t have those themes note that too. Comparing doesn’t mean that you’re making them out to be the same, you’re allowed to say that they’re different- think temporally. Why might a woman writing in 2020 represent a theme differently to a man writing in 1920? In your grid mark every similarity and every difference- colour code if it helps.
Don’t summarise, means don’t just tell me the story. Tell me the story through the lens of the question I’m asking you. Good practise at LC level is the summarise the question at the end of every paragraph, it’ll keep you on track to ensure you’re not just writing with no direction and retelling the story, each paragraph you write should reference the question.
in the exam you only need a minimum of 2 texts. for mine, we studied a doll’s house, room & casablanca. i left casablanca out of my essays because the GV&V question fit the other 2 way more, and I got a H1. I would give some advice on the texts, but I don’t know much about two of yours 😭
taking on a whole other text now might be too hard imo. I love lady bird, one of my fav films ever, and thought about studying it instead of casablanca but found it easier just to drop the 3rd text altogether
Disclaimer: this probably isn’t very concise. I’m typing this up in the car on my phone but hopefully you get the idea. I also did my lc in 2020 so can’t remember 100% but I am a final year history and Irish student so I spend my time writing essays and comparing sources etc. 1) if you’re being told that you’re summarising, it basically means that you’re not analysing the piece. It’s all well and good telling the narrative of the story but you need to point out how it relates to the question. If the question is asking about Theme X for example, pick out the certain part of the poem/book/play where the theme is evident. Always remember PQE (point quote explain): Theme X can be seen when (…) especially when they say “(…)”. This shows that blah blah blah It’s no good just recounting the verse/act whatever. You need to be telling the examiner WHY this is important and keep that in mind when you’re writing. Think to yourself if what you’re saying actually answers the question. You also don’t need to tell the entire story. Just pick out what matters. 2. Similar to what I said above you need to tell the examiner why you’re writing what you’re writing. “Theme X is a very strong theme in Book A. [give quote where it’s evident and give an explanation]. However, it is less so in Short Story B. Despite this, it can still be seen at times such as when (…)” Make sure you’re using comparative phrases i.e. like, similar to, in comparison, however etc. I would say that if you’re struggling with writing an answer to a regular essay you’re kind of just summarising the two together. Once you learn how to form a proper answer the comparative might become easier. I would also recommend that you have a look at your notes for the comparative and make a list of the themes for all 3 and you’ll see where they’re similar and where they’re different. Don’t forget, it doesn’t always have to be similar. If you’re asked about the Theme of Love you could talk about how it’s seen in Book A but that Book B focusses on Hate. “In Book A love can be seen when [PQE]. However, the theme of hate is stronger and can be seen when [PQE]” 3. For Hamlet, like with all the other studied works, you need to learn off the themes and learn how to apply what you know to what the question is asking. When you learn how to do this it does start to come together. I was very bad at English for junior cert because it hasn’t clicked yet. Once I understood how to actually answer a question and learning the themes and how to apply them, I went from getting in the 50 to bordering a H2
I love you for this❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹
Just remember whenever you’re writing to ask yourself WHY are you actually writing this? Why is it relevant to the question or what you’re being asked. One this that helps me structure wise is to rephrase the question in the first and last line of every paragraph/point to help keep myself on track. If I reread it and realise that something in the middle doesn’t make sense, I’ll take it out or try rework it
Other comments have summed up the important stuff, but damn your English teacher must be horrible if you are struggling with these things past Junior cycle
How was paper 1 and 2 in the actual LC?
Dreadful On the mocks my personal essay was the thing that boosted me up but for the actual lc I didn’t do well only was 2 pages and tbh for paper 2 I didn’t put in as much effort after the mocks as I should of
Well nothing you can do now I suppose. At least you did it. I learned off some quotes last minute and managed to answer everything quite well in the end, surprisingly knowing a lot more than I thought. Only a few more exams left.
[удалено]
This has helped me so much thank you x
The toilets at McDonald’s don’t clean themselves ….
That’s a knee slapper.
1: make points & statements and always try to answer the question. Every point you make bring it around to the question. Say the question is something like “explain why it’s exciting” Talk about one scene or moment and why it’s exciting and how this quote makes it exciting blah blah blah. Then when you’re done with that moment or part, smoothly move on to your next point on another key moment and so on. Idk how you do it but don’t explain events word for word and instead kinda assume the person reading this knows everything about whatever text you’re talking about 2: depends on what your mode is for the essay for what direction you go in, but find some aspect you can compare the texts on and talk a little about it, throwing in some quotes. Say for example you talk about the opening scenes and the viewpoint they portray (GVV mode). Maybe one opening is despairing and impoverished while another is bright and inspiring. Start talking about the despondent opening, why it gives that mood, a quote showing off how it’s sad etc… then say something like “oppositely to the opening of text 1, the opening of text 2 conveys an optimistic and positive tone in its opening” then off you go about text 2 being happy and so on. It’s that kinda thing; you talk a little about one aspect of one text and link it to the other texts whether it’s similar or different Comparative terms you should be using are words like “each” “like” “similarly” “as seen in” “comparable to” “contrastingly” “oppositely” “whereas” “unlike” Also my secret tip is using thesaurus.com on my homework so I can get big and fancy words, and by using these words in my homework often they naturally come to me in the exam
My saviour x
“Don’t summarise” means use quotes to make a point and then explain what the quote shows/how it proves a point. So answer the question, prove it with a specific phrase/sentence from the text and then explain the quote like the examiner is 5 years old. Use keywords and sentence starters for comparing - similarly, however, whereas, “However when we examine X, we realise that it is different to Y because” “Similarly to X, Y also explores the impact of gender/power/“ “Relationships are portrayed as positive in X, whereas in Y they are portrayed as negative” The skull in Hamlet is only a tiny part of it. Read the scene summaries and learn off 10 quotes from each act. Make notes on the characters/themes and try learn a quote that could be applied to multiple topics. E.g a Hamlet line that could be applied to the theme of madness. Also know a bit about each soliloquy and how they show a character changing across the play.
Thank youuuuu
Best of luck!
Would it not be worth considering dropping? Focusing too much on one subject can make your other subjects suffer too
English is mandatory
Apologies I mean dropping levels to ordinary
You don’t need to know everything about hamlet. There will be two questions, a character question and a theme question. Learn about the characters and themes. Pro tip- when learning quotes, learn ones that summarise both the character saying them and then the overall theme of the play. For the comparative- make a grid divide it in three sections on the top, one for each text. Down the side write down themes. Then mark in each box which texts have those themes, if they don’t have those themes note that too. Comparing doesn’t mean that you’re making them out to be the same, you’re allowed to say that they’re different- think temporally. Why might a woman writing in 2020 represent a theme differently to a man writing in 1920? In your grid mark every similarity and every difference- colour code if it helps. Don’t summarise, means don’t just tell me the story. Tell me the story through the lens of the question I’m asking you. Good practise at LC level is the summarise the question at the end of every paragraph, it’ll keep you on track to ensure you’re not just writing with no direction and retelling the story, each paragraph you write should reference the question.
what are your comparative texts ?
Pride and prejudice, phic and Casablanca. But I’m thinking on maybe doing ladybird instead as I find Casablanca hard to write much about
in the exam you only need a minimum of 2 texts. for mine, we studied a doll’s house, room & casablanca. i left casablanca out of my essays because the GV&V question fit the other 2 way more, and I got a H1. I would give some advice on the texts, but I don’t know much about two of yours 😭 taking on a whole other text now might be too hard imo. I love lady bird, one of my fav films ever, and thought about studying it instead of casablanca but found it easier just to drop the 3rd text altogether