DETAILED KNOWLEDGE OF CONTENT SENSITIVE INFORMED PERSONAL RESPONSE WRITER’S CRAFT = USE OF - LANGUAGE - STRUCTURE - FORM UNDERSTANDING OF “MEANING” = - TEXT - CONTEXT - SUBTEXT (deeper ideas + attitudes) Who, what, when, where, how, why? Sequence/shape/ building blocks /map of text? The nature of drama /poetry/novel? Conventions? Newness of this one? Tone/register lexis/connotation/ links/patterns/ symbolic thought? Overview + detailed focus + link/pattern ideas = PLENTY SHORT QUOTATIONS How does that reflect or critique social issues/values of the time? What does this writer care about AND think / feel about that? What kind of picture of life does this text seem to present? CON = “with”. What social ideas came along with this writers’ words? SUB = “below”. What ideas are running below this writers’ words? TEXT = a presentation of words and experience – not 100% “real”. FORM = a shaped experience? What is the function of shaping our ideas and experience like this? Use your feelings and imagination. Base thoughts on relevant concepts + accurate info. What do YOU think about the topic? ATQ ! ! ! IGCSE Responding to Literature INFORMED at A-level = building on existing critical opinion Essays?!

An essay is… where you take a stance on a topic given, outline your stance clearly and explore subtly, conversing all the while intelligently with your reader, exercising your reasoning on theirs. See: The Independent “Viewspaper” daily. Francis Bacon Montaigne Zadie Smith And please note that none of them, nor any of the literary critics in the Library write using P.E.E.

In an exam, you have to be able to THINK… swiftly understand the topic focus, recall and/or rediscover ideas and details, use divergent thinking to make new ideas about the topic, based on these details, then use convergent thinking to select, group and order your thoughts, …BEFORE writing down your thoughts, opinions and judgements, convincingly and clearly.

To P.E.E. or not to P.E.E.? Human beings don’t THINK in P.E.E. When last did a fully formed P fly into your mind when asked a question? Instead, we THINK by: NOTICING things first, EXPLORING their significance, delving into complexities, GENERATING IDEAS which are potentially coherent, TESTING AND EXPLAINING by referring back to what we noticed, which becomes our EVIDENCE. So a really useful WRITTEN paragraph WILL have: a clear topic or point at the beginning (the famous P) evidence within it, to base our ideas on (the first E), it WILL explore and explain our ideas (the second E). We must EEP BEFORE WE PEE and not be LIMITED!

Why bother with homework essays? a)Get a grade? b)Persecute students? c)Generate insight by thinking through ideas? d)See patterns in the text and make ace notes? e)Train self to make mindless essay-like objects? f)Practice thoughtfulness and self-expression? Outside exams we can use essays to: 1.Learn to think around a complex topic, using technical and conceptual tools to understand a text – EEPing! 2.Get to know the writer’s ideas in the text better. 3.Generate our own ideas, as well as building on others’. 4.Make detailed notes that are great for revising from. 5.Practice conveying our genuinely clever thoughts, concisely but with depth, in ordered, complex writing.

But Miss… how shall I actually “do” my homework essay?

1.Unpack the question – what ideas about the text or life are in there? KEY WORDS. 2. Brainstorm - any potentially relevant idea/bit of text. Recall, plus look at notes + text. SPIDER + Q? 3. Group ideas – can you group/link anything? NB type of text (form). LABEL SPIDER + PARA LIST. 4. Develop ideas – run through text. Bits of craft/groups of details support? ADD TO PARAS. 5. Order ideas – is there a thread or way of organising your main thoughts? CONSIDER FLOW 6. Check the question again…then write, using plan. You can re-draft to say what you really mean.