Top Tips!
Know the texts, stay on top of reading!
Use quotations (textual and critical) to inform your arguments.
Watch adaptations, they can help visualise the text and can be used in essays!
Choose areas and ideas of the texts that you find interesting
Know Your Assessment Objectives!:
AO1 - Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using associated concepts and terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression.
Simplified: Your arguments surrounding the text, written clearly and effectively
AO2 - Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts.
Simplified: Analysis of language, structure and form
AO3 - Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received.
Simplified: When was the text written? What was society/literature like at that point? What influenced the writer? Why did they write this text?
AO4 - Explore connections across literary texts.
Simplified: What is similar/different between the texts?
AO5 - Explore literary texts informed by different interpretations.
Simplified: What have critics said? Are there any interesting Film/TV/Theatre adaptations you can mention? Can you use theoretical approaches e.g. feminist?
OCR English Literature has Coursework totalling 3000 words. You will cover 3 different texts written post-1900, with one text being published or performed post-2000 (these texts are usually determined by your teachers). This coursework is divided into 2 tasks:
Task 1: Close reading OR re-creative with commentary (approx. 1000 words)
This piece of coursework will usually be completed in Year 12 and is 8% of your A-Level.
This is assessed across AO1 (33%) and AO2 (67%)
You can choose between 2 different forms of this task:
Close Reading - a critical analysis of a section of their chosen text or poem. (3-4 pages of drama or up to 45 lines of poetry).
Re-creative - writing based on a selected passage of their chosen text or poem, with commentary explaining the links between your own writing and the original passage selected.
Tring School currently uses:
'Ariel' (Poetry Collection) by Sylvia Plath
Task 2: An essay on linked texts (approx. 2000 words)
This piece of coursework will usually be completed in Year 13 and is 12% of your A-Level.
This is assessed equally (20%) across all AOs - (AO1, AO2, AO3, AO4, AO5)
Essay Structure - clear, articulate and well-informed.
Must include contrasts and comparisons between the two texts, informed by different interpretations and understanding of contexts, quotations from secondary sources, whether contextual or interpretations and must be acknowledged by footnotes and a bibliography.
Tring School currently uses:
'A Streetcar Named Desire' (Play) by Tennessee Williams
'The Kite Runner' (Novel) by Khaled Hosseini.
The current texts may be substituted for others according to your teacher's wish. The choice of texts may in some cases be given to students.