Brins' Guide To Higher English (Essay)

Brins' Introduction To

Higher English

In the Scottish Examination System, Higher-level English is a subject which brings about much dread at the moment. I don't know why this is, but the SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) seems to have decided to make it harder in recent years due to too many people passing.

The result, as Rob has found out two years in a row, is a flawed exam, brought about by a flawed course.

In the (revised) Higher English exam, there are two parts:

1) Interpretation/Close Reading (they actually can't seem to decide which one to call it) - reading two, separate essays, and then answering questions on them.
2) Critical Essay - writing two essays on two separate texts you've read and studied in class over the year.

The interpretation is fair enough. It's the second part which hacks at the English course down the centre, and in a very untidy fashion.

Why is it so hard to write two essays on texts you've had a whole year to study? Good question.

A) You've got 1 hour 30 minutes to do it - that's 45 minutes per essay. Not a lot of time at all. If, like Rob, you have trouble writing quickly - let alone keeping a constant flow of writing to thinking and planning - you'll have no choice but to either rush the essays or leave one unfinished.
B) The actual year of learning consists of a lot less learning than you'd expect. Let me delve into this.

You spend a year, in class, reading your three texts - a poetry, a prose (novel), and a play. Reading with the teacher, you analyse such things as characters, themes, symbolism, issues, relationships, hidden messages, and so on. During this, you'll do essays on the texts in class, so you can prepare for the exam. The teacher will mark them, you'll get them back, and you'll continue. That sums up the foundations of the year's learning, although you may branch off onto other things like worksheets, lessons on famous writers, whatever, but this is the grand plan.

What you don't do, is learn how to write your essays. Although, this probably depends on the teacher. That's the real problem, and one which I feel the subject of Drama faces too - there is not a tight enough reign on the subjects - not enough official, mandatory SQA materials, and too much freedom for teachers to do what they want, at the expense of proper teaching.

Rob complained about how the one thing he wanted to see - nothing else - was a model essay. Not a few 'handy pointers' on how to write an essay. They do teach you that - make a point, back up with evidence from the text/quote, then comment on it - but you never find out what the benchmark is for the essay; what you should be aiming for, exactly what you need to do to get the marks.

If you can write an essay and get good marks, good for you; you're okay. But what if you can't...?

Again, depending on the teacher, you either get your essay back swamped with corrections, problems, and solutions/writing tips (which will annoy you, but will prepare you well for your exam), or you'll get a few ticks here and there, and a sentence at the end: 'good points made, but needs more depth'.

If you get the latter, then you have every reason to wonder: that's fine, I've not got enough depth. I need to improve my essay-writing. Now, how do I do that?

Too late, you're off onto studying your text again, and doing your next essay - which you will do equally badly in.

If you don't have a good teacher, and you can't write successful essays, and you can't find out what you're doing wrong, I'm afraid that you will have a very hard time in Higher English.

I can't offer to solve the English system; I sincerely hope that the number of good, dedicated English teachers outweigh the bad ones; but what I can do, having fluked the subject with top marks last year, is give you my advice on essay writing. If I can find one of my old English class essays, I'll be sure to post it up here. Now, let's get onto the guide.

Brins' Guide To Higher English

There are two ways to write an essay: either you plunge straight into writing it, haphazarding your way through with whatever points come into your head to raise; or, you calmly consider an overall plan to the thing, which may take time to write, but you can follow it confidently through your writing without getting stuck with writer's block (beware: this can happen very easily, try to keep a constant flow of writing throughout).

Now, my plan when it comes to making English essay plans is to be as succinct as possible. Remember, you need to score out the plan for handing in, plus you're the only one who will ever read it. However, withdrawing from the plan now, you need to understand the next part of my winning Higher English formula:

The 'Self-Contained Essay Unit', as I just named it right now. I'm sorry, but there's little way around doing good, solid revision if you aim to use my method for passing. But STOP RIGHT THERE!! This revision does not involve rereading any of your texts at all, and it is nothing more than simple thinking and memorisation. How easily you can do this may depend on your teacher, who may or may not facilitate learning with work/help-sheets.

This 'essay unit' is what makes the essay go from impregnable to very soft. To begin making them, you need the following:

1) English Past-Papers (Get at least 3; you can buy special books of them from 'Leckie & Leckie'. Check your local bookstore for them, or search online and you may be able to order them)

2) One or more of the texts you'll be using to answer them

3) Ideally, in the case of the Prose/Play, have as many sheets from the teacher which contain quotes as possible.

If you know you've got all them, let's move on: what to do is read the past paper's Essay section. Check all the questions that come under whatever your book is (e.g. Prose, Poetry, etc.). [Under construction]

My style is to just sit and contemplate the question as such - understand what it's asking, but more importantly what self-contained essay units you can use for it. Also consider how you must convey said units to work for the question. You can sum this up in the plan in extremely broken English, and use parts of quotes you will use in the essay too! That way you won't forget them.

This system of planning results in a plan that takes up 3-5 lines (in my fairly large handwriting), and about 1 minute to do (no exaggeration).

This article will be continued again later, and its length will depend on the demand for my guide. I'd love this to get spread across the internet for Scottish students; trust me, they need it.

  ¶ 12:36 pm