IB ENGLISH STANDARD
DETAILED STUDY
OTHELLO – FEEDBACK FROM WRITTEN COMMENTARY
Here are some general feedback notes on the Othello commentaries you’ve done. In general I was impressed by the responses I’ve had in. I used the oral commentary criteria to mark this work. But I think this worked well.
Although I set a 1500 word limit to the commentaries you must consider that the actual commentaries at the end of the year are 10 – 15 minutes long. You should also remember to say a lot of things about a little quotation. This exercise is slightly artificial but the overall skills required for this exercise will help you with all aspects of this English course.
· It’s a good idea copying the extract you are going to write about at the beginning of your commentary. This was very helpful.
· Try and give a general and a more specific overview of the speech extract within the context of the immediate situation and the broader context of the action of the play.
· I realise I’ve put a word limit on this exercise however you should take every opportunity to write as fully as you can about a quotation you have chosen. This will be especially true for the oral presentation/commentary.
· Make every effort to refer to the genre of poetry as well as the genre of drama in your analysis. In what ways does the extract you’ve chosen engage with these two genres? Take every opportunity to tell the examiner that you are analysing poetry or prose within the broader genre of a play.
· Look out in the extract for example for dramatic tension created through conflict as well as broader poetic devices that reinforce emotional intensity and add to the attitudes and assumptions that inform and underpin the extract.
· Draw on a wide range of literary and dramatic effects in your analysis.
· Where it is appropriate link the extract you are analysing to other episodes in the play. Pick up on themes, characterisation, plot and patterns of language and imagery. Be careful not to become side tracked by this. The focus has to be analysis of the extract.
· It’s really important to select key quotations from the extract to comment on in detail. You need to be selective in your quotes. Choose quotes that you can say a lot about and choose quotations that are important because they further the plot and or develop character or theme.
What Next
Here are a couple of follow up activities based on this commentary.
1. If your marks came to below 20 then go back to the commentary you wrote and select one quotation you’ve already written about and jot down all the possible comments you could write about that one quotation. Then re-write the paragraph rewriting it again in full.
2. If your marks came to above 20 then choose another relevant speech from the play and write up one introductory paragraph [contextual] and one analytical paragraph choosing one relevant quotation.
