A2 ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
ELLA 3 INTEGRATED ANALYSIS AND TEXT ADAPTATION
READING THE ARTICLES
INTRODUCTION
The sections of Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs set for the exam in June are; War, Politics, Race and Society, Sex and Body Image and Interviews and Icons.
There are 34 articles in Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs set for the exam in June. There are too many articles for us to study in class. Realistically we will be able to study in detail between 10 – 15 articles from the different sections of the book. Therefore to prepare properly and fully for the exam you will need to be familiar with all the articles set for the exam. And it will be your responsibility to read and make notes independently on these articles and know them as well as you can. This must be an on going work that should be done at home.
SOME BASICS
Make a note of the audience, purpose[s] and genre of the article.
Inform yourself of the relevant historical, political and social context of the article and the background of the writer. This will involve a little research.
READING and ANNOTATING
Identify the most significant facts in the article by underlining them and in the margin use a word or a phrase to sum up that important point. Use different words or phrases that are used in the article itself.
Also identify the most important opinions expressed in the article. These may be communicated by the writer or they may be views expressed by interviewees or others. Underline opinions and jot down in the margin a word or a phrase to sum up these opinions. Again you should use different words or phrases than those used in the original article.
Make a note of the sources of the information being presented, for example the author, a specialist or expert.
Identify the main sections of an article and give a title to each main section. You could also give a title to each paragraph.
Consider the different attitudes and values being expressed throughout the article.
NOTES and TEMPLATE
Once you have fully annotated the article you should spend a few minutes transferring your annotations to a separate set of notes. This will help you reflect on the article you’ve just read
This will also help to make your revision easier later on. It will also help you consider different recasting opportunities.
A further useful task is to notice and identify the different language, literary and rhetorical features of the article itself. This will inform your knowledge of the articles, help your general analytical skills and help develop the skills required for the exam comparison part of the exam.
RECASTING
Finally once you have read, made notes and annotated an article, you should consider the possible recasting tasks you may be asked to do in the exam. You could make up your own questions, plan a recasting task and make a note of some of the key linguistic and literary features you might use for such a text. Jot down interesting words and phrases you might use in the recast text and note the specific language feature you are using. This will help you think about a commentary.
