1. Essay Feedback Objective: to identify strengths and weaknesses of written essays

2. The Lovely Bones Please ensure you finish reading The Lovely Bones over the half term if you haven’t already.

3. A word on grading Do NOT feel disappointed if you get a D or an E. This is your first essay and lots of students who get Es (even Us) continue to get As in the exam with lots of hard work. This is new grading system for you and will take a little while to adjust to.

4. Terminology Highlight every time you have used a technical term in one colour e.g. hyperbole, imperative, verb, noun Have you used a good range of terminology?

5. PEE Am I giving supporting evidence for each point I make and fully elaborating? Swap with a partner if you’re not sure. Question: Are there any large chunks of your essay for which you haven’t been given a tick? If so, why? Do you digress/lack quotations?

6. Tentative Language Examples of tentative language: Perhaps … This could suggest … This may indicate What are the advantages about using such language?

7. Re-write the following sentence to make it as tentative as you can ‘Ray Singh is a rebel and a bad influence on Susie’

8. Using a range of linguistic and literary frameworks How many frameworks have you discussed in your essay? Are there any frameworks you feel less comfortable discussing? Are there any more you could integrate into your answer? Consider: LEXIS/GRAMMAR/DISCOURSE STRUCTURE/LITERARY DEVICES

9. Making your writing more sophisticated Are you: Integrating quotations? Using impeccable spelling and grammar? Varying the beginnings of your sentences? Using a wide range of connectives?

10. Target Now assign yourself a target for improvement/something to work on. What actions will you take to ensure you improve in this area? So if you want to improve terminology, decide how you will do this.

11. Independent Learning Honestly, how much independent learning do you do per week? What kind of things should you be doing? Do you realistically think you could commit to allocating some time for this to improve your performance in English? How might you do this?