TIPS-DECEMBER EXAM

TIPS-DECEMBER EXAM -IB ENGLSH - UNSEEN COMMENTARY – MR C

Note - there will not be any questions on the three novels studied for the IOP. It's not necessary to revise them. The December exam will be an 'unseen' based on Paper 1 of the IB exam you will sit in May 2013. The IOPs will resume in January but will not form part of your December Grade.

·         Two Questions - You answer one only – Prose or Poetry

·         Prose may be fiction or non-fiction

·         Poetry is not described using these terms  - all poetry is to some extent autobiographical but it’s better to consider it in the same way as visual art, sculpture or painting or music. Poetry represents a creative work by the poet. Your literary analysis should be a personal imaginative response to the thought and feeling of the poem. These notes are meant to provide guiding posts in the process of writing your response. There is no 'answer' in this process, rather an exploration of title, structure, language, rhythm, themes and tone.

·         The voice in the poem may be that of the poet or of a persona created to tell a story

·         In “Telephone Conversation” you might say ‘the narrator/persona uses the first person pronoun “I” to describe a telephone conversation/consider the voice and the audience

Prose – 2 main genres – Fiction – novel or short story?  (Extract)

Non-fiction writing - examples include Autobiography – Brian Keenan’s “An Evil Cradling”

Also Travel writing “Travels in Borneo” Redmond O’Hanlon

How to do well in prose unseens?

STUDY THE ASSESSMENT CRITERIA (Rubric)                                                                           MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT EACH OF THE CRITERIA IS LOOKING FOR -

1.       Identify the genre

2.       Identify the narrator/ consider that the narrator may be a reliable or unreliable witness to the events described. If you are exploring an extract then total knowledge of the entire work is not expected but do focus on what is on the page in front of you. Evidence, that is relevant quotations in every paragraph garners marks - but quotes must be selected and woven into the fabric of your response.

3.       Always read the title at the end of the extract and refer to it in your introduction.

4.       Guiding questions are sign-posts for SL students and often give a clue as to the thought and feeling of the text.

5.       Visualise the text as a movie – OR slide show in the case of poetry. Take your time when reading the texts up to 20 minutes before you finally decide on which text to chose.

6.       Then use W/W/W/W/W

WHO –

WHAT-

WHERE=

WHEN- WHY-

FOR MAXIMUM MARKS USE TSLTT IN POETRY AND PROSE ANALYSIS

*HOW TO WRITE ABOUT LANGUAGE AND ITS EFFECTS? Here is a short example.

The last two lines of “To women as far as I am concerned” - a poem by DH Lawrence.

So if you want either of us to feel anything at all

You’d better abandon all ideas of feelings altogether.

 The final two lines acts as a conclusion to a series of statements – the poem is a form of argument or proposition regarding feelings and attempts by 'women' to define the indefinable, "feelings".          The word ‘abandon’ reflects a powerful choice by DH Lawrence to urge his lover to completely let go of the ‘ideas’ or attempts at rational logical reductionism of feelings.