should I drop to OL English?

leavingcert problems

I feel very unprepared for English and I feel that my standard of writing is weak. I got a D3 in the mocks. This is a sample of a comparative question I wrote. Please give me some advice/ feedback, I'm at a loss what to do!

The cultural context of a text introduces us to the world which forms a backdrop to the entire narrative. An awareness of the characters and their attitudes and values increased my understanding and my enjoyment of the three texts. The texts which I have chosen to study are: the novel, 'How Many Miles To Babylo?', by J. Johnston, the play, 'Sive' by JB Keane and the film 'I'm not Scared' directed by Gabriele Salvatores.

'HMMB' is set in Wicklow at a time when intense political conflict surrounded the Irish National Movement. At the beginning of the narrative we see Alec Moore, a young Anglo- Irish Protestant, forming a controversial friendship with Jerry Crowe, a Roman Catholic peasant. Their friendship was shockingly unacceptable at the time and their different social upbringings become an obvious obstacle in their friendship. Jerry wisely remarks, 'Your lot would care. My lot too if it came to it. One's as bad as the other'. As predicted, Alec's mother, Alicia, a manipulative, abusive woman, fails to rise above her deeply embedded attitude towards the peasant class. In a key moment, we see her disgust at her son being friends with a 'person' from the 'village'. she quickly and cruelly nips their relationship in the bud: 'Well, no more Jerry. No Jerimiah. End to that. Yes.'. From examining Alicia's behavior throughout the text, I see evidence that attitudes are incredibly difficult to change.

In 'Sive', the prejudice of the Anglo Irish landowners against the Native Irish in 'hmmb' is replaced with a different kind of prejudice: the deeply ingrained, negative attitude of Mike Glavin, Sive's uncle, towards any relation of Sive's father. He is of the opinion that the Glavin name was dishonored by Sive's father fathering an illegitimate child and running off to England. his hatred towards the Scuab 'breed' is apparent in a key scene where he accuses Liam of entering his house, 'like a rat who saw the nest empty'. Like Alicia in 'hmmb', Mike is unwilling to put his prejudices aside for the happiness of his sole dependent. Again, I can see how attitudes and prejudices are sometimes too difficult to change.

Please help!!!! I'm panicking!!

leavingcert problems

Any advice at all would be great! Is it likely that I could fail HL English?

spurious

What was the question for that answer?

leavingcert problems

'In any cultural context deeply embedded values and attitudes are difficult to change' discuss, or something to that effect! Please be brutally honest!

spurious

I have to go now, but I'll reply in the morning, OK?

AtomicKoala

What did you get in that question? Assuming you addressed the question and wrote a decent amount, you must have done decently if you maintain that standard throughout. Where did you lose the marks?

English is highly subjective, which leads to quite mediocre marking in mocks I'd imagine. Based on that sliver I'd imagine you'll be fine though.

Colour Insanity

Take the mocks with a grain of salt. The highest grade in my school was a B3, and that was from a girl who's an award winning debate/essay writer, so :P

I wouldn't drop down. Higher Level English will definitely stand to you in later years.

Days 298

I do pass. I wasnt that bad at english it just wasnt worth the study for the return I would get. I havent learnt a drop. Read the books back in September. Learned the names of charachters before my pre and got a B waffling. Havent done anything yet for next wednesday. Im confident of passing. Its ridiculously easy. All poetry is printed on the paper too.

If you think you can get over 60 in higher think about a drop to pass. Youll get an A without even trying.

dee_mc

Was your comparative answer the one on which you scored lowest?
Did you generally achieve higher results in class and end-of-term tests in the past two years?
Did others comment that they felt the mock was marked particularly 'hard'?
Your standard of writing seems good: don't drop to OL based just on your mock result, take into account your marks and teacher feedback from the past two years. Speak to your teacher and ask for their honest opinion on what you should do.

thelad95

leavingcert problems wrote: »

I feel very unprepared for English and I feel that my standard of writing is weak. I got a D3 in the mocks. This is a sample of a comparative question I wrote. Please give me some advice/ feedback, I'm at a loss what to do!

The cultural context of a text introduces us to the world which forms a backdrop to the entire narrative. An awareness of the characters and their attitudes and values increased my understanding and my enjoyment of the three texts. The texts which I have chosen to study are: the novel, 'How Many Miles To Babylo?', by J. Johnston, the play, 'Sive' by JB Keane and the film 'I'm not Scared' directed by Gabriele Salvatores.

'HMMB' is set in Wicklow at a time when intense political conflict surrounded the Irish National Movement. At the beginning of the narrative we see Alec Moore, a young Anglo- Irish Protestant, forming a controversial friendship with Jerry Crowe, a Roman Catholic peasant. Their friendship was shockingly unacceptable at the time and their different social upbringings become an obvious obstacle in their friendship. Jerry wisely remarks, 'Your lot would care. My lot too if it came to it. One's as bad as the other'. As predicted, Alec's mother, Alicia, a manipulative, abusive woman, fails to rise above her deeply embedded attitude towards the peasant class. In a key moment, we see her disgust at her son being friends with a 'person' from the 'village'. she quickly and cruelly nips their relationship in the bud: 'Well, no more Jerry. No Jerimiah. End to that. Yes.'. From examining Alicia's behavior throughout the text, I see evidence that attitudes are incredibly difficult to change.

In 'Sive', the prejudice of the Anglo Irish landowners against the Native Irish in 'hmmb' is replaced with a different kind of prejudice: the deeply ingrained, negative attitude of Mike Glavin, Sive's uncle, towards any relation of Sive's father. He is of the opinion that the Glavin name was dishonored by Sive's father fathering an illegitimate child and running off to England. his hatred towards the Scuab 'breed' is apparent in a key scene where he accuses Liam of entering his house, 'like a rat who saw the nest empty'. Like Alicia in 'hmmb', Mike is unwilling to put his prejudices aside for the happiness of his sole dependent. Again, I can see how attitudes and prejudices are sometimes too difficult to change.

Please help!!!! I'm panicking!!

Is that the whole answer? What you have there is pretty spot on but you need at least 4-5 more headings eg attitudes to violence, influence of the church, role of men/women, attitude to war, attitude to family life etc.

spurious

Firstly, if you wrote that answer yourself you can write and are well able for HL English. As thelad95 said, it's too short an answer for HL and needs some comparisons under other aspects, but what is in it shows you are more than capable of answering the question.

Secondly, speak to your teacher and see what he/she says. They are the person who has been correcting your work all along. No teacher ever wants to see a student fail. If they advise to stay in HL, stay there and just prepare some more points on each work.

Thirdly it's always worth sticking with HL English. Depending on what you do in college, a writing standard equal to HL may be needed, so it's better stick with it now.

leavingcert problems

Thanks very much for feedback! I continued the answer under the heading religion but ran out of time. Time management is a huge problem of mine. In our class we never actually practiced writing, it was more her photocopying from 'less stress more success'.I asked my teacher what she thought and she just laughed said 'ya poor thing' and walked off.. I've been getting D's pretty consistently over the past 2 years, and whenever I asked the teacher for some constructive criticism she'd be like 'ah just brush up on you're punctuation and that will bring you up' !!!!!! She is incredibly frustrating. I think I'll see how it goes now, thanks very much again!!

TimeToShine

You won't fail English with that standard of writing anyway.

One big run on sentence full of comas that needs to be changed but it looks grand otherwise.

Bonbon1995

Does anyone have an A1 answer on Kingship and like Banquo? Happy to trade an A1 answer I got in Lady Macbeth!