Honours English

brianthebard

PurpleFistMixer wrote: »

But Macbeth has witches.

Aw dude I totally forgot!!! Macbeth owns Othello./

lilmissprincess

I was in a production of Macbeth so i was praying we'd get it...*jumps around with happiness*...I like the novel its ok("The Secret Life of Bees"), but i hate my teacher, she's not exactly brilliant.....she has poetry answers from six weeks ago still to be corrected...

phasers

regob wrote: »

wat are you doing

right now it's poetry, which is probably one of my least favourite things ever

EamonnKeane

Pfft. 4ish for the personal essay, with biggish writing. Everything else at least 3.

I did 7 for the essay, 5 for everything else, but I don't know if that'd be necessary for an A1.

Piste

The secret life of Bees is a very good book, but a little too "to kill a mockingbird"-esque for my liking, racism gets terribly boring after a while. So I;m glad our English teacher has picked the Life of Pi for us to do, I read that a few years ago, it's a great book.

ZorbaTehZ

Piste wrote: »

racism gets terribly boring after a while

LMAO.

PurpleFistMixer

Piste you know that ain't true.

(Though after doing Roll of Thunder... and then To Kill a Mockingbird, one can tire of that particular theme.)

Crania

Single Text: The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Absolutely loved it, thought it was a great play. We read the book, went to see the play live in the Abbey in May and watched the movie. Always had an interest in this period in American history and this play only increased it.

Comparative Texts:
As you Like It-Shakespeare. Didn't particularly like it but then I don't enjoy Shakespeare.
The Remains of the Day-Kazuo Ishiguro. While most people in the class didn't like it, I quite enjoyed it. Nothing actually really happens in it, which is probably why most of the guys in my class didn't like it-no sex, drugs or violence! But I just thought it was a nice story about a man reminiscing on his past. I think it's a nice change sometimes when there's no violence and things like that.
Strictly Ballroom-Baz Luhrmann. This was the movie we did, I hated it the first time I watched it. I thought it was silly, badly-made film with poor acting and a terrible storyline. But it was only when we started discussing it and analysing it that I began to realise that it was those very qualities that make it such a great film.

I really do enjoy English, love to read books and poetry and stuff. I wouldn't be the best at it, but I'm not too bad at it either. I have no trouble with the Single Text, Poetry and the Comprehension/Fuctional Writing. It's the essay and the Comparative that I have my troubles. With the essay, I tend to lack imaginative ideas. While with the Comparative I find it hard to link the three texts.

Nanaki

actually loving English, one of my best subjects atm!
heh, for my summer test I wrote two essays for the comparitive on The Poisonwood Bible, My Left Foot, and Philadelphia Here I Come.
Now, I stared out of the window for most of Philadelphia, and I've read 181 pages out of over 600 for The Poinsonwood Bible, and I still got 85% betwwn the two essays!!!!

straight_As

Antamojo wrote: »

Linguistics are not my strongest point but I'm stilling doing all honours
I'm more of a maths and science person

I think that the course isn't doing itself any justice
As my teacher says "I'm teaching a course, not English", which I think sums it up

All those quotations are held melting
And the fact that you have to write the essay about 7 pages long
They're expected us to write one A4 page in 12 mins!

One A4 page in 12 minutes, my JC teacher would be fuming.
For the JC, our teacher told us that we were expected to write at least 3 pages for each studied question on paper two. That's at least three pages in 22 minutes. I believe that works out at about 1 page every 7 mins 20 secs. On top of this, between 16 and 20 quotes were required for each section.
I heeded the warning and practiced writing VERY VERY fast.
In the exam I actually wrote over what my teacher had instructed for each section (16 pages for paper 1 and 18 pages for paper two). It worked out well. I think about a third of people in my class got an A in the exam.
Anyhow, the moto of the story is that if you put 1 A4 page in 12 minutes vs 1 A4 page in 7 minutes 20 seconds it doesn't seem that daunting.
(I do, however, realise that your A4 page will more than likely need to and be of a far higher quality than JC level)

JC 2K3

I got an A2 last year.

On Paper 1 my Comprehension Questions were about 2.5 pages, my Functional Writing was 2.25 pages and my Essay was about 4 pages.
On Paper 2 my Single Text answer was 3 and a bit pages, my Comparative was 2.5 pages and my Poetry answers were 1 and ~3 pages respectively.

It's about quality, not quantity, kids.

Randomness

JC 2K3 wrote: »

I got an A2 last year.

On Paper 1 my Comprehension Questions were about 2.5 pages, my Functional Writing was 2.25 pages and my Essay was about 4 pages.
On Paper 2 my Single Text answer was 3 and a bit pages, my Comparative was 2.5 pages and my Poetry answers were 1 and ~3 pages respectively.

It's about quality, not quantity, kids.

i got an A1 last year and i 100% agree with JC 2K3 above, please don't think you have to write 8 pages of an essay or something stupid like that.

Quality not quantity all the way:D

SligoBrewer

I don't mean to resurrect threads but my friend and I went to see Philadelphia, Here I Come on Wednesday night as we have it for our comparative and it's an absolute fantastic play when you see it live. I'd imagine that just reading it out would be boredom as there's so much movement and such and also the Public and Private characters of the main character is superb but different. Any other views on the play?

DmanDmythDledge

Don't really mind English, probably my weakest subject but have an amazing teacher so could scrape an A if I put in loads of work. Only thing I hate is the poetry- it's so boring. I found John Dunne very good though. Adrianne Rich is awful.

Anyone have any tips for the comparative question? I find it difficult to make any proper points as you keep having to switch between the texts every 6 lines.

SligoBrewer wrote: »

I don't mean to resurrect threads but my friend and I went to see Philadelphia, Here I Come on Wednesday night as we have it for our comparative and it's an absolute fantastic play when you see it live. I'd imagine that just reading it out would be boredom as there's so much movement and such and also the Public and Private characters of the main character is superb but different. Any other views on the play?

Was thinking about going to see it myself. Enjoyed doing it in class but I'd imagine it would be much better to get a feel of it by seeing the two Gars.

tabouli

DmanDmythDledge wrote: »

Was thinking about going to see it myself. Enjoyed doing it in class but I'd imagine it would be much better to get a feel of it by seeing the two Gars.

There's a film of it that we watched instead of going to the play. You could look that up if you can't get to it.

Also, is it usual to only do 6 out of 8 poets? I know that that's the minimum you have to do, but surely it'd be better to let the students pick which poets they want to study themselves?

PurpleFistMixer

We're not even touching Donne or Larkin. Of course one can do a poet in their own time, but the teacher I'd say, would prefer to do the most accessible six, as opposed to spending time discussing a poet that only a tiny number of people may like/understand.

JSK 252

At this moment of time through this english discussion, the exam papers are being fabricated and constructed.

Twill be me next year...

Acid_Violet

I love english, my favourite and probably my best subject, can't get enough of it! Only problem is I'll probably have a few problems in the exam as I tend to waffle and go into too much detail.

artanevilla

If you work hard it's not a problem to know most of the stuff you need, it's getting it all down on paper in time and without your hand falling off.

Davidius

I never cared for English. I find subjects like History and Physics to be at least 1000 times more interesting. I don't find it particularly hard but it's certainly tough to try to put some effort into the homework simply because it's just too damn mind numbing.

We're on Macbeth at the moment and I have to say, Shakespeare really wasn't the writer everybody says he was. =/

philologos

paddy007 wrote: »

I'm doin honours english for the leavin cert. I hate english, the cultutal context and all that stuff a load of crap to b honest!. What does everyone think of it??

I find it woeful, what texts are you doing for it?

I'm doing My Left Foot, Philadelphia Here I Come, and How Many Miles to Babylon.

JC 2K3

I have some advice for anyone who wants to do well in honours English but finds it all a bit boring, can't see what's so good about Shakespeare etc. :

Lose the cynicism and that attitude ASAP. You don't get an A or B in English by thinking "What's the point of analysing literature so deeply?" or "Who cares?". If you're too stubborn to make the slightest effort to enjoy the English course and apply yourself to it you'll get nowhere.

philologos

straight_As wrote: »

One A4 page in 12 minutes, my JC teacher would be fuming.
For the JC, our teacher told us that we were expected to write at least 3 pages for each studied question on paper two. That's at least three pages in 22 minutes. I believe that works out at about 1 page every 7 mins 20 secs. On top of this, between 16 and 20 quotes were required for each section.
I heeded the warning and practiced writing VERY VERY fast.
In the exam I actually wrote over what my teacher had instructed for each section (16 pages for paper 1 and 18 pages for paper two). It worked out well. I think about a third of people in my class got an A in the exam.
Anyhow, the moto of the story is that if you put 1 A4 page in 12 minutes vs 1 A4 page in 7 minutes 20 seconds it doesn't seem that daunting.
(I do, however, realise that your A4 page will more than likely need to and be of a far higher quality than JC level)

This advice in relation to pages is a bit daft surely if peoples sizes in writing are vastly different, which in many cases they tend to be?

PurpleFistMixer

I like the cultural context question. It's simple. Don't even need to know what happens in the story too well. It's just.. "blah political tension blah" and all that.

JC 2K3

You guys won't have a question on Cultural Context though

PurpleFistMixer

I know. : (
But I can hope!

Davidius

JC 2K3 wrote:

Lose the cynicism and that attitude ASAP.

No.

You don't get an A or B in English by thinking "What's the point of analysing literature so deeply?" or "Who cares?".

Stranger things have happened.

If you're too stubborn to make the slightest effort to enjoy the English course and apply yourself to it you'll get nowhere.

Unfortunately enjoying something I don't like is beyond my capacity. Besides it's not like I don't make an effort to work at it I just find it hard to do so.

Nanaki

Is anyone else here doind Poisonwood Bible, Philadelphia and My Left Foot?
The Poisonwood Bible is ridiculous! over 600 pages with 5 separate narrators, which switch at different intervals, with no pattern, sometimes repeating the same event.
Fine for a novel on its own, but not for a comparative

SligoBrewer

ah i love english.

1huge1

Jakkass wrote: »

I find it woeful, what texts are you doing for it?

I'm doing My Left Foot, Philadelphia Here I Come, and How Many Miles to Babylon.

In case your interested

The Truman Show, Philadelphia here I come, Othello and Old School.