I will be adding to this post over the next few weeks as you write the final draft of your essay. So it is worthwhile coming back to this post for more details over the next couple of weeks.
- Probably the single most important point to make at this point is to know the texts you are writing about well. You really need to know the texts really well. This requires reading them over again and again in an open, imaginative and positive way. Try and get inside the text. What attitudes and assumptions does the writer communicate through the text? Try and imaginatively engage with the thoughts and motivations of the writer. Your aim is to own the poem for yourself.
- It's important to summarise the main content of a poem when you analyse it. You will be showing the examiner you understand the poem and show how it relates to the theme of your essay.
- Likewise when you quote you should clearly identify the context of the quotation - where about in the poem does the quote you are using come from and what is taking place in the quote. Again this shows you understand the poem, the specific extract you are using and how it relates to the essay title.
- Make sure each paragraph you write links directly to the essay title. Don't make a point and analyse a quotation without making a clear and direct link to the essay title.
- I recommend that you start each paragraph with a topic sentence. A topic sentence is one that makes an observation or a comment about the two texts that directly links to the essay title. The topic sentence will enable you to discuss the similararties or the differences between the two texts.
- Analysing quotations should be embedded within the comments section of each paragraph.
- As you analyse quotations make sure that you use a wide range of analytical frameworks. These frameworks should include - poetic / literary frameworks this will include such concepts as phonological techniques such as alliteration, assonance, rhyme, onomatopoeia; as well as imagery, such as metaphor, simile and personification. You must also use language / linguistic frameworks - such as lexis which means words or vocabulary. Comment on low and high frequency words. Refer to synonyms. Refer to connotations and denotations of words. Refer to lexical fields - groups of words linked by key abstract concepts. As well as lexis you should also consider grammar, syntax and register.
- The purpose or aim of the two poets are quite different. Seamus Heaney's purpose in his poetry is to evoke the past. He is not just remembering the past. His poetry brings the past alive. He does this by using the senses and by using elemental language. Frost begins with personal and autobiographical experiences that use nature but his poetry goes on to make observations about existence - about being human. There are flashes of vivid descriptions but for Frost the main purpose of his writing is to make reflective points about life.
- I don't understand why students writing the essay on nature avoid the most obvious points. Heaney describes nature vividly. He does this by using sensuous language and elemental language. There are at least two possibly four paragraphs. Comparing Heaney and Frost's treatment of these two ideas.
- For students writing about nature you should consider the theme of nature as a setting. Consider the realistic, life like setting. Consider the detail. Heaney is evoking the past. Frost describes nature to make observations about existence.
- You must define and comment on the key word in the essay title. What do we understand by the term work? What does Heaney and Frost mean when they write about work? What is meant by the word 'nature'? What do Frost and Heaney mean by this concept? Remember both poets partly write about life on a farm. So comment on the treatment of nature on farms.
- Make sure you correctly record the titles of poems and writers. Poems should always be written using the title case. For example 'Blackberry-Picking', 'Death of a Naturalist,' 'Mid-Term Break'. Refer to the poets by using their surname, Heaney, Frost. Use the title case for writing out the title of the essay. And write the essay title in full.
- Instead of writing the word 'word' write the word class of the word you are writing about. Identify the word you are commenting on as - for example - a 'personal pronoun', 'concrete' or 'abstract noun', 'premodifying' or 'postmodifying adjective', 'comparative' or 'superlative', 'adverb' or 'verb', 'definite' or 'indefinite article', 'connectives'. This will make a really powerful impression on the marker and examiner.
- You must highlight and make very clear the contrasting points between the different writers. This may mean you have to repeat comparative points you make.
- Writing about symbolism immediately in poetry and prose shows that students don't know the poem or the text very well. It feels like an easy subject to write about but it's difficult to write well about symbolism. Writing well about symbolism only works well if you also write about other more straight forward features first like context and clearly identifying what the poem or text is about. You should also write obvious analytical points first. For example commenting on grammar, syntax, register, lexis and poetic techniques and there effects first of all.
- Begin each new paragraph with a topic sentence. Paragraphs that begin with a reference to writing style do not usually link back to the essay title. You must link all paragraphs back to the essay title.
- The purpose of the essay is to compare one writer with another writer. You should not devote any time to comparing a Seamus Heaney poem with another Seamus Heaney poem. Or a Frost poem with another Frost poem.
