The Secrets of Success

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The Secrets of Success
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HOW TO USE QUOTATIONS

• One of the secrets of success in writing
  essays is the way you use quotations. There are
  five basic principles.
• Put inverted commas at the beginning and end of
  the quotations
• Write the quotation exactly as it appears in the
  original
• Do not use a quotation that repeats what you have
  just written
• Use the quotation so that it fits into your
  sentence
• Keep the quotation as short as possible

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Quotations should be used to develop the line of
thought in your essays. Your comment should not
duplicate what is in your quotation.

• For example
• Margaret ends by saying that she has no friend
  on earth I have no other earthly friend
• Far more effective is to write
• Margaret ends by saying I have no other earthly
  friend
• However, the most sophisticated way to use the
  writers words is to
• embed them in your sentence
• When the Duke says that he gave commands, then
  all smiles stopped together we are shocked by
  his ruthlessness

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HOW TO CONSTRUCT A RESPONSE

• The examination board is looking for three basic
  things
• The different approaches to the topic specified
  by the question (e.g. death, love, emotions,
  parent and child attitudes etc.)
• The different language styles used by the poets
• The different intended effects on you the reader
  of each poem
• If you focus on these three things in your
  answers you will be successful, however difficult
  you find writing exam answers on poetry.

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TAKING THE QUESTION APART

• Before you start to write anything, look at the
  question carefully, and identify the important
  bits.
• Compare the ways poets present powerful emotions
  in at least four poems you have studied. Write
  about Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy, one poem by
  Simon Armitage and two poems from the Pre 1914
  Poetry bank.
• Write the question in your books and underline
  the important bits.

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• Compare the ways poets present powerful emotions
  in at least four of the poems that you have
  studied. Write about Havisham by Carol Ann
  Duffy, one poem by Simon Armitage and two from
  The Pre 1914 Poetry Bank.

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• Powerful emotions is what your answer must be
  about, which means you can write about any kind
  of powerful emotion not just the obvious one!
• Compare the ways is what you are instructed to
  do. This means you must write about the ways the
  poets use language
• Four of the poems if you write about fewer than
  four you will lose marks

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• CHOOSE THE POEMS THAT YOU WILL USE TO ANSWER THE
  QUESTION

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HOW TO SELECT THE POEMS

• In the exam, one poem from one of the two modern
  poets, or from the pre-1914 selection, will be
  nominated in each question and you will be free
  to choose three other poems for the purpose of
  comparison.
• You must write about at least one poem from each
  of the modern poets. At least two other poems
  must be chosen from the pre-1914 selection.

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• For example
• Education for Leisure (Carol Ann Duffy) is
  named and described as disturbing. A possible
  pairing would be with Hitcher (Simon Armitage)
  because
• Both are dramatic monologues
• Both feature violent and frustrated
  characters/speakers

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• Now you have chosen your two modern poems, you
  need to make your pre -1914 choices. If you feel
  the form is going to be your guide, then The
  Laboratory would provide you with the
  opportunity to analyse contrasting techniques
  within the dramatic monologues. This would also
  enable you to compare and contrast the different
  styles poets adopt for male and female speakers.
  The female speaker in The Laboratory is very
  different from the other would be killer in
  Duffys Education for Leisure.

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• Finally
• Another pre 1914 monologue that is related to
  the violent and disturbing theme could be The
  Man he Killed by Thomas Hardy. Here the
  perspective of the speaker is very different from
  the others, thus offering further opportunities
  for contrasts to be made.

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SAMPLE ESSAY PLAN

• To help with your planning and revision, we are
  going to look at a sample essay plan. Remember,
  this does not represent the only answer to the
  question. This is merely a suggestion and
  remember that it is only an outline!

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QUESTION

• Compare at least four poems from those you have
  studied where strong dislike for another person
  is shown. Write about My Last Duchess by Robert
  Browning, one by Carol Ann Duffy, one poem by
  Simon Armitage, and one other poem from the Pre
  1914 Poetry Bank.

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POEM CHOICE

• My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
• Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy
• Hitcher by Simon Armitage
• The Laboratory by Robert Browning

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• Paragraph 1
• The first paragraph should present in general
  terms the way the theme of strong dislike for
  another applies to the four poems
• My Last Duchess shows the Dukes dislike of his
  former wife.
• The Laboratory shows the ladys dislike and
  hatred of the woman who has taken her lover from
  her
• Havisham shows the speakers dislike of her
  former lover.
• Hitcher is different to the others in that it
  is not about dislike related to sexual
  relationships. It shows the speakers dislike of
  the hitchers attitudes and philosophy of life.

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Paragraph Two

• The next two paragraphs should begin to develop
  the answer in a more specific way by focusing in
  more detail on the themes, the ideas, attitudes
  and feelings presented in the poem.

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• These could be
• The contrast between the male speakers In My
  Last Duchess and Hitcher, and their feelings
  of dislike. In both characters the feeling of
  dislike leads to a violent act that gets rid of
  the disliked or hated person. You could contrast
  the motivation of each character, arguing perhaps
  that the Duke is motivated by pride or vanity,
  the speaker in Hitcher by resentment or
  possible jealousy.

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Paragraph Three

• The Laboratory and Havisham feature two women
  who fantasise about acts of revenge on the men
  who have rejected them. In the former the speaker
  makes much of the effects of the poison upon her
  rival Brand, burn up, bite into its grace in
  the latter the hatred is more psychological and
  implicit I suddenly bite awake. You could
  expand on their different moods almost ecstatic
  at the opportunity to take revenge in the
  Browning poem, and grimly murderous Give me a
  male corpse in the Duffy.

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• In the next two paragraphs you could explore how
  the poets use language and form to communicate
  the feelings of dislike.

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Paragraph Four

• With My Last Duchess and Hitcher you could
  compare the ways a first-person persona is
  created. Both poets for example use the first
  person, yet the person addressed is different in
  each. In My Last Duchess it is the envoy with
  whom the Duke is negotiating the dowry for his
  next duchess in Hitcher the addressee is
  non-specific or just the reader. How do the
  speakers reveal themselves to the reader?

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• It would be appropriate to discuss the use of
  tone here. How do Browning and Armitage convey
  attitudes through the tone of phrases like He
  was following the sun from west to east
  (Hitcher)and She had a heart how shall I say?
  too soon made glad (My last Duchess)
• Both poets use a colloquial register to give the
  flavour of an actual speaker. Compare some
  examples from each poem.
• You might want to consider the use of enjambment
  in each poem, the way it allows the speech to
  flow on taking the reader with it.
• Both poets use rhyme. In Brownings case the
  heroic couplets never interrupt the movement of
  the narrative., and Armitage uses half and
  internal rhymes in similarly unobtrusive way.
• What other formal elements could you discuss
  here?

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Paragraph Five

• Like the other two poems a first person persona
  is created in each. The speaker in The
  Laboratory is addressing the old man as he
  mixes the poison. Therefore as in My Last
  Duchess a particular scene and situation is
  implied. Havisham and Hitcher, is not
  addressed to any specific person. Does the
  first-person narrative intensify the sense of
  dislike and hatred in the poem?
• The rhythm of The Laboratory seems to be at
  odds with its subject matter. Each Stanza
  presents a complete idea or stage in the
  narrative separately with a full stop at the end.
  How does this compare with Havisham, which
  does not have a rhyming scheme and has stanzas
  that are linked with enjambment?

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• The Laboratory and Havisham contain some
  strong sensuous imagery. Contrast the different
  effects of this, for example the colour imagery
  in Havisham reflects emotional states such as
  jealousy. In The laboratory there is the
  imagery of wealth and voluptuousness that evokes
  the social status and moral world of the spaker
  and her circle.

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Paragraph Six

• This paragraph could include some ideas about the
  cultural and literary context of the poems. The
  Browning and Duffy poems are all set in a
  previous time to which they were written. Does
  this influence the way we read them?
• Example The word spinster (Havisham) is hardly
  used today, and an unmarried woman is not
  stigmatised in the way she would have been in the
  nineteenth century.
• Is Duffy saying something about women in the
  past, or are the feelings expressed in the poem
  universal?

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Conclusion

• Conclude by summarising what you have argued, but
  try not to reiterate everything you have said in
  the main body of your essay. Refer to a key word
  from the question if you can this shows that
  you have answered it!

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Your turn!

• Now look back at your question. Check that you
  are happy with your choices and use what you have
  learnt to help you answer the question.
• GOOD LUCK!