Ok, So you are going to want a general walk-through for the essay. You know this already. There is no way around the fact that it is a BIG essay. Remember, if you follow the timings I have outlined in an earlier post, you should have between 60-65 minutes to write it. THE QUESTION WILL PROBABLY ASK YOU HOW THE CONVENTIONS OF THE GENRE, OR ANOTHER RELATED ASPECT OF THE GENRE, HAVE CHANGED OVER TIME. WHATEVER IT ASKS YOU, YOU MUST ANSWER THE QUESTION DIRECTLY AND SIGNPOST YOUR ARGUMENT BACK TO THE QUESTION IN EACH PARAGRAPH. Got it? Sorry if that looked a bit shouty, but it's pretty much the most important thing on the exam so take note. So...make sure you do the following things: 1. Read the blurbs for each texts and highlight any key words that will give you clues about the content of the text. Often, you will see clues to do with the class, social position, age of writers etc. 2. Aim to find FIVE key points in each text which directly answer the question. ie, if the question asks...
You have to be very perceptive when it comes to GENRE – you have to show the examiner that you understand that different genres follow different rules and conventions. The VERY FIRST thing that you need to do is to set yourself a mini-brief by detailing which features and conventions you are going to include. This is like the recipe/buying ingredients stage of baking a cake. If it gives you a really unusual genre, and there’s no way around it (ie, the other question is even worse) then you simply use your common sense. For example, write a section of a short story where a battle is taking place during a mass-war. Brutal imagery, clear enemy who we are supposed to dislike, semantic field of weapons and destruction, ß I have no idea if these ARE key conventions of the war-literature genre, but they certainly SOUND sensible to me, so I’m going to use them as my mini-brief. Now, I will feel a lot more confident in putting my writing together. THE SECOND th...
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