English Paper 2

exiztone

Hey guys,
I'm doing my LC this year and I'm a bit worried because my English teacher isn't the best. There's something I don't understand, that she doesn't understand and avoids talking about it instead of learning herself. I need to know what 'General Vision and Viewpoint' is and how do I answer a question related to it.

My three comparative texts are: 'Amongst Women', 'Juno and the Paycock' & 'Witness'.

If anyone else here is doing those, what should I talk about and what comparisons should I draw in? Any advice would be great.

Cheers

Dandlion

I totally empathise with you i hav the exact same problem! my teacher avoids it like the plague -we spent about a day on it and she moved on ignoring our protests! whats worse is we havent really studied the other two modes in enough depth to write a proper answer! i think that perhaps the dept. of ed. should do some kind of inservice thingy for the teachers!!!

I dont know about ur school but are there other LC classes doing the same texts perhaps you could borrow their notes?? actually i should try that myself LOL

angeldelight

I did my Lc last year and had a really good teacher, but she said from a marking point of view you're much much much better off doing the theme/issue or cultural context Q as the boundaries for the literary style (Last year) and general viewpoint(this yr) are very blurred. Apparently students who do them think they've done really well but when they get the results they're disappointed. If you know your 3 texts well enough, you should be able to see a common theme (there must be some sort of link for ur teacher to choose that combination). The cultural context Q is quite easy, just look at differences in social class, roles of men and women, when was the novel/drama/film set, hierarchy in a household etc. Hope this helps a little

TheDoc

I do witness,amongst women and playboy of the western world. TBH my mocks start this week and I'm totally lost as to what to expect on each paper. I think though I have the jist of the comparitive, I just have to compare each cultures of the three studies, correct? My English teacher is excellent I just dont bother my arse.

angeldelight

Yes, if a cultural context Q comes up. You need to do it in a structured way though. Make sure you don't fall into the trap of re-telling the stories of the texts, you can presume ur examiner knows them. You waste time and don't get marks for it. You need to go through the texts and choose moments in the text that are important and focus on comparing and contrasting them. Use lots of linking words e.g similarly, likewise, also, as in .... etc. In ur 1st paragraph mention all 3 texts and in your last tie them together again. But in each paragraph in between try and mention at least 2....don't deal with 1 text then the next then the 3rd, try and mix it up a bit. Thats what my teacher told me last year anyways and I got an A1 in that Q in the LC Good luck with the mocks

exiztone

Thanks for the feedback. I'm naturally going to listen to someone who got an A1

The three comparative questions that come up for my year in higher level are:

Theme or Issue
Literary Genre
General Vision & Viewpoint

Now, I've done comparative questions before in class, but they've usually been worded in such a way that I could get away with saying anything... 'choose a moment from each text you've studied and compare' or something along those lines. But I've never really been able to differentiate between and of those three topics. Maybe somebody could explain what they are (in laymen’s ) individually and what types of things I should compare and contrast in relation to each question.

Thanks for the help.

angeldelight

Got an A1 in that Q, 84% overall....v v v frustrating lol thankfully didn't need it.

Ok tbh I don't know much about literary genre or general viewpoint. For theme/issue is there something like love or war or family or you can choose in each text? Then deal with how each text deals with it e.g. in mine it was love and 1 text was boring and predictable, one was interesting cause it was jane austen and relationships were v diferent then...not bein able to touch before marriage etc and the other one was a film where it was all very predictable again with soppy music... How the ppl grow with the love and stuff, it may seem like waffle but you have to know the text really well to pick up on as many similarities/differences as you can.

Sorry I can't help with the other 2, I prepared cultural context and theme/issue

Fast_Mover

wer doing "amongst women" and "playboy of western world" and "hamlet" as part of our comparitive.

Pre's startn monday...we only doing a theme and issue Q, we justed startd comparing them so my teacher said we'll only do the pre exam on playboy and amongst women.

my teacher so crap!!! we've only gotten to second act and thinks we sud answer a Q on it! ha!
dont even get me started on amongst women...really dont know wat going on...really need help/notes on it....coz dnt think il be gtn it from my teacher...lol!

regards all..

angeldelight

Notes on amongst women.
http://www.skoool.ie/skoool/homeworkzone_sc.asp?id=1235


Notes on Hamlet
http://www.skoool.ie/skoool/homeworkzone_sc.asp?id=354


Notes on playboy of the western world
http://www.skoool.ie/skoool/homeworkzone_sc.asp?id=1235


Notes on amongst women and playboy are pretty short but an overview might be better than nothing!

Caoimhe

Literary Genre is my mode of choice, its actually quite easy to do once you get it. I'm doing Playboy, Jane Eyre and Strictly Ballroom and I compare them under style of narration (omniescent/ first person/ etc), characterisation (the way a character is presented, i.e. camera angles in a movie, other characters' opinions of them, etc), symbolism (like JE has a lot of pathetic fallacy), humour (and how it's presented), and the creation of mood (like the creation of suspense in JE through the Gothic style).

I have no idea what GVV is though, my teacher "conveniently" forgot to do it with us...

Caoimhe

Go to http://www.skoool.ie/skoool/examcentre_sc.asp?id=1397 for sample answers.

exiztone

Theme or issue didn't come up in my mock. I was so angry. What is the point in being tested on something you weren't taught? Heck, I even came on here before my mocks started and asked what 'general vision & viewpoint' meant and how to answer it but everyone seems to be as clueless as I am. If the Board of Education is going to have a strict syllabus, they should at least make sure the teachers understand it for starters...

shivface

and ive been warned that vision and viewpoint is most likely to come up. fantastic. i'm doing of mice and men, playboy of the western world and il postino, but i get the feeling that my english teacher's gonna just give us notes to learn off so that should be ok

Pet

Learning notes, argh. That's not a good way to succeed in English you know..You need imagination. Instead of going with the same tired old rubbish, be completely abstract and bull**** about it, but back it up with quotes.

R.D

My English teacher won't go over the General Vision and Viewpoint either, instead she's focusing on the Theme or Issue question as well as the Literary Genre. Remember only two of the three will come up, so if I study these two well enough, one is guaranteed to come up - though I find the Literary Genre hard...

Caoimhe

I will use this opportunity to declare my SEETHING HATRED OF THE ENGLISH EXAM. I got it back today and I did really badly for reasons completely unknown to me. I thought I did really well but the cow who marked my paper marked me down on loads of things for no apparent reason. I ended up giving it to my English teacher to check over but I'm completely disheartened now. English is such an insanely subjective, its so unfair that if an examiner doesn't like your style they can take a load of marks off you. I'm screwed if I get the wrong examiner in June...

punky bruster

hey caoimhe,oh my god thats pure thick me thought i did really well in english,now im kind of crappin it-ahhhhhhhh h8 the LC!

Jane Doe

English paper 1 was so easy , well thats what I thought. Now I'm getting worried!We should boycott the mocks! They're such a loada crap!