Verbs

Using Better Verbs

Some verbs, like ‘said’ can be a bit boring and we can use a lot better ones that tell the reader more.

Look at all the ways we can say how things are said below:

yelled                     whispered                    cried

exclaimed             retorted                        shouted

informed              assumed                       believed

laughed                 called                             suggested    

remarked              sniggered                      warned

scolded                 demanded                    predicted

replied                   questioned                   grumbled

agreed                   begged                          announced

repeated               muttered                      sighed

...and lots more!!  Just think how the meaning of something changes depending on how it is said.

Formal Letter

(Address Here)

(Date Here)

To whom it may concern [or Dear Sir/Madam],       [or Dear (name if you know it)]

I am currently a (enter job role here) at (enter company here) and (enter job description here). I am solely responsible for (enter responsibilities here) and have achieved outstanding results at (give example of something you’ve done well). I also (give an example of something important you do here).

I also have over (time) experience as a (job role) and I have been advised that your establishment is a reputable one and I am very interested in working with you.

I would be much obliged if you could agree to meet with me to discuss the possibility of taking me on to work at your company as I would be an asset to any department and it would further my career as I am hoping to become a (job role here).

I look forward to your response.

Yours Faithfully,  [or Yours Sincerely if you know their name],

(Signature Here)

(Name here)

Process Types

material processes  convey how one participant affected another eg. 'kidnapping' and 'mistreating'.

mental processes convey the mood eg; ‘delighted’ and ‘celebrated’.

verbal processes relay information from speakers eg. 'said' and 'speculated'

The audience can usually be determined by the material processes as ‘molesting’ and ‘kidnap’ which are aimed at adult readers are changed to ‘mistreating’ in articles aimed at younger readers.

Many mental processes  provide a human angle on the piece and appeal to the reader’s emotions.

Verbal processes are reliant on witness statements. Halliday’s research that shows that ‘say’ is the most common verbal process in the news register.

Lexical Chain

A Lexical Chain is a series of words that are related and therefore give the text it's theme, for example:

judge--court--guilty--conviction--sentence--bail--trial--innocent--jury

This lexical chain would clearly be in a text about a trial.

Exam Techniques

Exam Techniques

READING THE INSTRUCTIONS

Make sure you look at the question closely

Look at the time it tells you to take on the question so you plan your time sensibly

Spend 5 minutes making an essay plan

Pay attention to the word limit if there is one. Try to stay within 20% of what it tells you

Look closely at what you are asked to do. Is it asking you to compare, contrast, describe etc

Look closely at the style you are asked to write in eg. report, magazine article, persuasive style

Are you being asked to write for a particular genre eg. Teenagers, small children, OAPs

OPINION QUESTIONS

You may be asked to write about your opinion such as a news report where you argue for or against a statement eg;

 ‘Footballers are paid too much money’. Write a short article of about 300 words for your school magazine in which you argue for or against this statement.

Look at the question paper to see if it gives you any tips of what to write about and make sure you include them all in your answer.

Use persuasive language to make your point.

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

Read all of the questions before you pick one and choose the one that gives you the most opportunity to gain marks; not just the one that seems easiest at a glance.

QUESTIONS ABOUT A CHARACTER IN A NOVEL

This is a common type of question in Literature. An example would be;

‘How is Ralph changed by his experience on the island in Lord of the Flies?’.

Here you would write about what Ralph is first like when he gets to the island.

How he responds to other characters and events

How the writer portrays Ralph-

·         use of language to describe him,

·         how other characters respond and interact with him,

·         the situations he is in and how he responds

·         What does the writer want Ralph to represent

Here to gain extra marks it is important you delve further in to the character of Ralph and look at what the writer’s intentions are with regards to the portrayal of Ralph and how the writer achieves this.

COMPARISON QUESTIONS

This is an area where many people lose marks. They fall in to the trap of writing about one thing and then the other but do not make explicit links and comparisons between the two.

In your essay plan make a list of similarities and differences of the pieces. Look at what is written, how it is written and what the writers wanted to achieve. This will score you extra marks.

As you make a point about one novel/ poem/ character say how it is similar or different to the other one eg;

In (poem one) the poet is writing in her native tongue in parts and the words are written phonetically for the reader to understand. This can be seen in line (line here) where the poet writes; (quote here). This is similar to (poem two) where the writer also uses phonetic spelling of her language (quote here).

In the example above you can see how the two poems have been contrasted/compared.  Use words such as ‘this is similar to’, ‘in opposition’ etc to compare the two. Look at similarities and differences and say why they are similar or different.  Do this as you go along- do not simply analyse one poem and then the other.

Use plenty of quotes to illustrate your point.

Romeo and Juliet Prologue

Romeo and Juliet Prologue. Each line is explained in modern English underneath.

ACT I

PROLOGUE

Two households, both alike in dignity,

Two households with the same reputation

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,

In Verona, where the story is set

From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,

From a grudge going back a long way now turns in to a new argument

Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.

Where people are killing each other

From forth the fatal loins of these two foes

The children of these two enemies

A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;

Fall in love and kill themselves

Whose misadventured piteous overthrows

Whose actions

Do with their death bury their parents' strife.

Stop their parent’s death once they themselves die

The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,

Their love is destined to end in death

And the continuance of their parents' rage,

Their parents continue to fight

Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,

Their parent’s fighting ends once their children kill themselves

Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;

The story takes two hours to tell

The which if you with patient ears attend,

If you listen carefully

What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

What you do not yet understand will be explained

Poetry Techniques

You need to show you can understand-

Descriptions

Ideas

Attitudes and tones

Techniques

Theme, Mood and Structure

Theme: The main idea or message conveyed by the piece.

Mood: The atmosphere or emotional condition created by the piece, within the setting. Mood refers to the general sense or feeling which the reader is supposed to get from the text. You can not say ‘the author uses mood’; you must say how they create mood.

The mood of Macbeth is dark, murky and mysterious, creating a sense of fear and uncertainty.

Structure: The manner in which the various elements of a story or poem are assembled.

In poetry, structure would look at stanzas, verses, etc. It would also include     

repetition- the poet may repeat certain parts of the poem

punctuation- the poet may have used little or no punctuation

rhythm- some poems may have no natural or fixed rhythm

rhyme- some poems may have an unusual rhyme scheme or none at all

USEFUL TERMS IN POETRY

Allegory: Where every aspect of a story is representative, usually symbolic, of something else.

Alliteration: The repetition of consonant sounds close together such as ‘Many men might make music’.

Blank verse: Non-rhyming poetry, usually written in iambic pentameter.

Most of Shakespeare’s dialogue is written in blank verse, though it does occasionally rhyme.

Connotation:  The emotional association with a word, eg the connotation of words such as ;’ dark’, ‘wet’, ‘damp’ would be negative such as representing evil or sadness.

Couplet: a complete thought written in two lines with rhyming ends.

Denotation: The exact meaning of the word without the connotations

eg. The heart as an organ without the connotation of love

Figurative language: Any use of language where the intended meaning differs from the actual literal meaning of the words themselves. There are many techniques which can rightly be called figurative language, including metaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification, onomatopoeia, verbal irony, and oxymoron. (Related: figure of speech)

The poet makes extensive use of figurative language, presenting the speaker’s feelings as colors, sounds and flavors.

Iambic pentameter: A poetic meter wherein each line contains ten syllables, as five repetitions of a two-syllable pattern in which the pronunciation emphasis is on the second syllable.

Shakespeare wrote most of his dialogue in iambic pentameter, often having to adjust the order and nature of words to fit the syllable pattern, thus endowing the language with even greater meaning

Imagery: Language which describes something in detail, using words to substitute for and create sensory stimulation, including visual imagery and sound imagery.

Metaphor: A direct relationship where one thing or idea substitutes for another.

Shakespeare often uses light as a metaphor for Juliet; Romeo refers to her as the sun, as “a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear,” and as a solitary dove among crows.

Onomatopoeia: Where sounds are spelled out as words; or, when words describing sounds actually sound like the sounds they describe eg ‘screech’, ‘bang’ etc.

Repetition: Where a specific word, phrase, or structure is repeated several times, usually in close proximity, to emphasize a particular idea.

Simile: An indirect relationship where one thing or idea is described as being similar to another. Similes usually contain the words “like” or “as,” but not always eg. ‘she jumped up like a cat on a hot tin roof’.

Slant rhyme: also known as near rhyme, half rhyme, off rhyme, imperfect rhyme, oblique rhyme, or pararhyme. A distinctive system or pattern of metrical structure and verse composition in which two words have only their final consonant sounds and no preceding vowel or consonant sounds in common.

Paragraphs

When to use paragraphs in general

change of topic

a change of viewpoint

a change in time or place

change in the character speaking

When to use paragraphs in a story...

when the story moves forward in time

when the story moves backward in time (e.g. a flashback)

when there is a change in the place where  the action is happening

when a different character gives their point of view

when a new character joins the story

every time a different character speaks.

A Christmas Carol Key Quotes

Scrooge

Scrooge never painted out Old Marley’s name. There it stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door: Scrooge and Marley.

But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grind- stone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.

External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him.

Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, ‘My dear Scrooge, how are you?

‘Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.’

What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ‘em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you?

‘Every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.'

I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry.

‘If they would rather die,’ said Scrooge, ‘they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.

Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; and having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the rest of the evening with his banker’s-book, went home to bed.

‘Remember it.’ cried Scrooge with fervour; ‘I could walk it blindfolded.’

‘Why, it’s Ali Baba.’ Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy. ‘It’s dear old honest Ali Baba’.

To hear Scrooge expending all the earnestness of his nature on such subjects, in a most extraordinary voice between laughing and crying; and to see his heightened and excited face; would have been a surprise to his business friends in the city, indeed.

Then, with a rapidity of transition very foreign to his usual character, he said, in pity for his former self, ‘Poor boy.’ and cried again.

During the whole of this time, Scrooge had acted like a man out of his wits. His heart and soul were in the scene, and with his former self. He corroborated everything, remembered everything, enjoyed everything, and underwent the strangest agitation.

Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me, by an altered life.’

‘I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.

Scrooge regarded every one with a delighted smile. He looked so irresistibly pleasant, in a word, that three or four good-humoured fellows said,’ Good morning, sir. A merry Christmas to you.’

He went to church, and walked about the streets, and watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows, and found that everything could yield him pleasure.

Marley

Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail.

‘I wear the chain I forged in life,’

‘In life my spirit never roved beyond the narrow limits of our money-changing hole; and weary journeys lie before me!’

‘No rest, no peace. Incessant torture of remorse.’

‘Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!’

‘At this time of the rolling year,’ the spectre said ‘I suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode!

‘No rest, no peace. Incessant torture of remorse.’

Not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused! Yet such was I! Oh! such was I!’

Without their visits,’ said the Ghost, ‘you cannot hope to shun the path I tread.

The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley’s Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together; none were free.

Fred

‘A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!’ cried a cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge’s nephew, who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his approach.

His face was ruddy and handsome; his eyes sparkled…

‘Come, then,’ returned the nephew gaily. ‘What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough.’

[Christmas is]…’a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys’. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!’.

‘Don’t be angry, uncle. Come! Dine with us tomorrow.’

‘I want nothing from you; I ask nothing of you; why cannot we be friends?’

‘Because I fell in love.’

‘I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute.

I’ll keep my Christmas humour to the last.

His nephew left the room without an angry word, notwithstanding.

‘He’s a comical old fellow,’ said Scrooge’s nephew,’ that’s the truth: and not so pleasant as he might be. However, his offences carry their own punishment, and I have nothing to say against him.’

‘He has given us plenty of merriment, I am sure,’ said

Fred,’ and it would be ungrateful not to drink his health. Here is a glass of mulled wine ready to our hand at the moment; and I say, ‘Uncle Scrooge.‘‘

Bob

The clerk in the Tank involuntarily applauded. Becoming immediately sensible of the impropriety, he poked the fire, and extinguished the last frail spark for ever.

in came little Bob, the father, with at least three feet of comforter exclusive of the fringe, hanging down before him; and his threadbare clothes darned up and brushed, to look seasonable; and Tiny Tim upon his shoulder.

‘Mr Scrooge.’ said Bob; ‘I’ll give you Mr Scrooge, the Founder of the Feast.’

Tiny Tim

Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a little crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame.

‘God bless us every one.’ said Tiny Tim, the last of all.

‘I see a vacant seat,’ replied the Ghost, ‘in the poor chimney-corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die.’

He told me, coming home, that he hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and

blind men see.’