One for the Teachers

It’s that final December slog for English teachers – getting through the text before the end of term, setting the assignments, writing reports, helping with the school production, covering for absences, rehearsing for the staff ‘skit’, preparing readings for the Christmas concert and final assemblies – oh, and maintaining a personal life!

It’s at times like these that any extra help is welcome. As you get more tired so your brain gets fogged and coming up with inspiring lesson ideas becomes ever harder. You probably already know that NATE’s associated Teachit! website contains a range of ideas and practical support. You may not yet know that there are some new teaching resources on www.crossref-it.info.

The two most recently featured texts are now accompanied by free, downloadable worksheets. Written by an experienced Head of English, these cover a range of themes and approaches to ‘Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ by Thomas Hardy and the ‘Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale’ by Geoffrey Chaucer. You can use them to create a series of lessons, or just take individual aspects and link them in to existing work. Just what you need when the brain fog threatens to swamp you!

Please let us know how you get on and feel free to contribute your own tried and trusted suggestions!

The world of Chaucer

Whichever part of The Canterbury Tales you may be studying for A Level English, you will discover helpful information about the world Chaucer inhabited and for which he wrote, at www.crossref-it.info.

A recent addition to the site is The world of Chaucer. It provides answers to intriguing queries like why death seems to play on people’s minds. It helps explain the weekly routine of medieval life. If you need to make sense of the expectations of women in the era, you can read about courtly love and women’s economic status.

Although there were significant shifts in society as a result of the Black Death, one of the key concerns in medieval society was keeping harmonious social order. This was founded on the idea of there existed a ‘chain of being’ which predetermined a person’s ‘position’ in life. This ‘chain’ started with God at the top, as the creator of all life, and ended with stones at the bottom. Take a look at The world of Chaucer > Making sense of the intangible world > The chain of being for more info.

Within human society, deference was to be paid to those in authority because it was believed that they had been raised to that position by God, who had ultimate authority. Each person’s status, or ‘degree’, needed to be recognised. Those who rose ‘above their station’ were regarded with unease.

We might baulk at such a concept today, but the actual economic and social difference between the wealthy and the poor was far narrower in medieval times than the extreme gap between the rich and poorest in most western societies which exists today.

Things ain’t wot they used to be

Change is something we’re used to. Our grandparents’ experience of being a teenager was probably very different to what it is like today. Life as reflected by Hollyoaks is a world away from the radio programmes, books and magazines they read.

The A Level syllabus you are studying has built into it a concern that students really grasp how texts are the product of their times. But how much do you really need to know to make sense of an author’s output?

• It helps to find out what were the key events of the era
• The tangible world of transport and technological advances, political change and social upheaval affected how people survived
• The intangible world of philosophy, faith and ideas shaped people’s expectations about life – expectations shared by both author and reader
• The existing literary world influenced how any text was received by its original and subsequent audiences

www.crossref-it.info has focussed on all these areas to help students get the most out of literature created in other eras. You don’t need to spend too long reading the material before it starts to make ‘difficult’ works seem much more accessible.

Some things don’t change

So some things are very different. What does not change however, is what writers throughout the ages have chosen as their subject matter: human nature. Love and anguish, greed and fear, the desire for power and protection – English Literature is full of human struggles we can identify with whatever times we live in.

Change in life and language

It seems like 21st century life is already quite different to 20th century life. Who, in the 1990’s, would have recognised any of the following:

Tweets and twitters that have little to do with birds
9 and 11 that have more significance than being 3² and a prime number
A bluetooth unseen by any dentist

These terms don’t just illustrate that our language is shifting at a mighty fast rate, but that our lifestyle and worldview is too.

Getting to grips with the past

If all this has happened just in the last ten years, imagine the changes compared to a 100 years ago (the era of Thomas Hardy, writing in Modern English), 400 years (Shakespeare, using Early Modern English) or even 640 years previously (Geoffrey Chaucer, a Middle English author)! The further back you go, the greater the cultural differences are.

Thank goodness for sites like www.crossref-it.info.

Halloween just got serious

The celebration of all things spooky has just passed and for many it is seen as ‘a bit of harmless fun’. Certainly the shops have enjoyed their vastly increased profits as people dip into their bank balances for ever more grotesque rubber masks and spangly witches outfits!

But there are those who take it very seriously – either in opposition to the dark arts or in support of them. For the latter, there is the allure of hidden power over others, whilst those against are alarmed by the influence of the occult and the manipulation that it implies.

An enduring tale

Through the centuries the myth of ultimate power gained by a bargain with the devil has worked powerfully on the human imagination. The most spectacular account in English Literature is that penned by Christopher Marlowe, a contemporary of Shakespeare.

Dr Faustus is appearing on a number of A level English exam syllabuses this year. It is a potent story of the ascendancy of a young student’s search for ultimate knowledge, which ends in horror. The opportunity to see this drama on stage makes the tale even more dynamic.

See it now!

Marlowe’s text was written for a public convinced of the reality of angels and demons, reflecting the contemporary Christian worldview. To help students get to grips with the play, and explain all the allusions, www.crossref-it.info is preparing a guide on it which will appear next term.

However, there is the chance to see a powerful and very accessible version this November and (probably) again in 2010. Visit www.saltminetrust.org.uk for details.

Your view of Halloween will never be the same again ...

Aiming to do English at university?

You made it!

Congratulations to those of you whose results enabled you to make it on to your chosen degree course! Now you have had time to recover from Freshers’ Week, we hope you are enjoying your studies.

If you find yourself plunging into the mysteries of Piers Plowman or the medieval pageant plays, with the benefit of hindsight, you can now appreciate how helpful it was if you were lucky enough to encounter Middle English at A Level.

You want to make it!

However, if you are taking A’s right now, and struggling through Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales for the first time, it might not seem that way! Middle English takes a bit of getting used to. Plurals and possessives are different and the spelling of words can be pretty fluid.

Actually, one of the best things to do when faced with a page of Middle English text is simply to read it aloud – it often makes the meaning clearer and you can start to get a sense of the humour and energy in much of Chaucer’s writing.

Help is on hand so you can succeed

The keen eyed among you will have spotted that www.crossref-it.info has got a new Chaucer text online – The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale. It is full of notes and background info to help you get to grips with a text which was as scabrous in its time as The Thick of It is today. Chaucer paints a wicked portrait of his narrator, whose corruption puts modern political scandals in the shade. Yet at the same time we are able to appreciate his audacity and persuasive sales ‘patter’.

It may be in Middle English, but this medieval tale has a contemporary punch!

Tougher than you thought?

Six weeks into your course, you may be realising that A Level English is more demanding than you thought it was going to be! Suddenly there are whole texts to get through at speed, rather than individual scenes, and you need to grasp far more than plot and characterisation.

We’ve noticed at www.crossref-it.info that lots of people are coming for help as they encounter the Metaphysical poets. These contemporaries of Shakespeare and Webster wrote some amazing and memorable poems. Many of them are either arguments to persuade their beloved into bed, or debates with God as the poets struggle to submit to him. Sometimes there is quite a cross over between the two!

An alien world

Both types of poem are tightly woven with images which need unpacking. They were written within a society that expected women to be chaste until they married (though not men!), and was convinced of the reality of God, heaven and hell. The poets could take for granted that everyone understood these ideas and the language associated with them – terms which today might seem alien.

If you regularly get this blog you’ll know that Crossref-it.info exists to help students confronting this sort of information. Handy pop-ups deal with unfamiliar words and concepts and everything a student needs to know about the poem is explained simply and clearly.

But don’t take our word for it. Check it out yourself.

The Brontë sisters in the media

Recently, we focussed on Charles Dicken's work and how this has been portrayed in different ways by the media. To complement this, we thought that we would continue our blog today by concentrating on how the Brontës' work has been interpreted by film, stage and audio productions. Charlotte, Emily and Anne's works remain some of the best known and most loved work in fiction and they have found their way into a variety of productions.

Some of the most recent gems include:

Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (BBC, 2006)

Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (ITV, 2009) - check it out on the Brontë Blog as well!

Charlotte Brontë's Villette (Serial for BBC Radio 4, 2009)

It is worth noting that we posted an entry on Jane Eyre back in March, click here to read about Symbolism in Jane Eyre http://crossref-it.blogspot.com/2009/03/symbolism-in-charlotte-brontes-jane.html

There have been so many Brontë adaptations and hopefully there will be a lot more to come. Are there any that you have particularly enjoyed?

Charles Dickens in the media

Charles Dickens is one of the most well-loved authors of English literature. His novels are great reads even today, featuring suspense, crime, complex characters and unique insight into the social injustice that haunted Victorian Britain. In many ways, his works still speak into our time. So it should come as no surprise that his works have been popular among film makers.

Some of the most recent adaptations include:

• Oliver Twist (2005)
• Bleak House (2005)
• David Copperfield (1999)

Another fairly recent BBC project is an adaptation of Dickens' Little Dorrit. The BBC website contains plenty of information on the characters, cast and author.

Of course, if you want to go more in depth, check out the excellent Charles Dickens resources on Crossref-it.info:

• Charles Dickens biography
• Dickens' Great Expectations study guide with plenty of material on the context he was writing in.
• Read, search and study Dickens' Great Expectations at texts.crossref-it.info

What are your favourite Dickens adaptations?

Tess of the d'Urbervilles

New on Crossref-it.info: Our Tess of the d'Urbervilles text guide! Containing all the usual sections (A Timeline, Thomas Hardy biography, Context, Synopses, Narrative, Characterisation, Themes, Imagery and symbolism, Structure, Critical analysis and Exam and Essay help), this free resource will help you get to grips with the text.

Getting good A-Level results is proving harder by the year as competition heats up. So make sure you have the edge by making use of this excellent, academically verified text guide.

As always, we would love to hear any thoughts or comments on the book, the author, the text guide or Crossref-it.info generally. If there is anything you find particularly useful about this text guide, do let us know!

>> Tess of the d'Urbervilles at Crossref-it.info

Introducing: texts.crossref-it.info

Welcome back from the summer break! The Crossref-it.info blog is back and posting again, and we aim to bring you the latest and the greatest - English literature musings, essay and exam tips, and, as always, new product features.

While the blog has been on a break, we have been working on a number of new features to the site, the first of which we would like to proudly introduce today:




Texts is an effort which enables you to read, search and learn about some of the books we cover on Crossref-it.info more effectively. We have uploaded the entire text of four books to start with (there are plenty more in the works).

This means you can easily:

Read the book: for instance, for convenient study, try having the text guide open in one browser tab while keeping the the book open in the other...

Search the book: Students might want to keep this feature from their teachers / teachers might want to keep this feature from their students...

Understand the book: Yes, some of the older books might not necessarily shy away from strange words. So when a difficult word appears, you may find that you are able to simply and conveniently hover over it for an explanation, just like in the text guides on Crossref-it.info.

We are working on features and more texts. Meanwhile, enjoy reading

• Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
• Charles Dickens' Great Expectations
• Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre
• Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Why is Hamlet so popular?

You may or may not find the play personally appealing, but the rest of the world and the acting fraternity certainly do! Of all the plays written by Shakespeare it is the one that generates the most performances with high profile actors (and consequent media coverage).

The most recent actor to generate column inches is Jude Law, who is proving to his critics that he can handle the huge range and complexity of the Danish Prince after the froth of chick flick offerings such as The Holiday. The production is currently running at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre until 22nd August (www.delfontmackintosh.co.uk), so try and get there if you can, even if you are not studying it. Watching any Shakespeare on stage is illuminating.

Last year everyone was raving about David Tennant’s interpretation of the role, full of angst and quicksilver wit. Even if you have seen a production before, it is fascinating to watch a new production and see how varying casts and directors can bring out so many different facets.

Haven’t yet come across the play? It always helps to get familiar with the plot and characters before you get to the theatre, so a quick trawl through the scene synopses at Crossref-it.info will fill you in. After watching a performance you can investigate the site further and see what the director chose to leave out as much as include (Hamlet runs at about five hours uncut!).

If you have been lucky enough to see a production of the play recently, why not let us know what you thought, so others can benefit from your insights?

Poetry - making sense of life

The power of words

After a year’s study of English Lit. I hope you have got switched on to the power of words. Words shape our culture, they define how we think – and when they have been carefully crafted by a poet, they have an amazing power to crystallise an emotion or situation.

The BBC has been running a significant range of programmes in its recent poetry season. One strand is ‘My life in verse’

• Last week Cerys Matthews (Catatonia) talked about the influence of the poetry and lyrics she heard around her as she grew up, and how that led to her own self expression
• The week before, Robert Mitchell (Peep Show, Mitchell and Webb) revealed how TS Eliot’s Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock connected with his sense of alienation after the death of his mother

Open up your mind

Now the revision season is over you might want to release the pent up concentration and give space to new thoughts.

Why not check out some poems that are not on your course and let the words and images sink into your psyche.

There are loads on the web to browse through and if you get stuck on any images, you can see if the handy explanations at www.crossref-it.info help make sense of it all.

Let the dynamite of poetry blow you away!

We've got survey results and a winner!

First of all, thank you to everyone who went to the trouble to fill in our recent survey. Here at Crossref-it.info we really want the resource to help you, so your feedback is very important to us!

One thing that becomes apparent from the survey is how varied the users of the site are. Many of you are students and many of you are teachers, but we also have people who are in higher education, retirees, people from different backgrounds and different parts of the world. In fact, the site has now been accessed from approximately 180 countries!

We were encouraged by some of the things people appreciate about Crossref-it.info:

• Many students appreciate the frequent revision tips and exam help. The site is being widely used to revise, for coursework, for help with essays and other homework.
  
• Many teachers appreciate the 'depth of information', the 'quality of analysis', the 'ease of use' and the 'regularity of updates'. We can't argue with that...

While we are encouraged by all this positive feedback, we did this survey mainly to find out how you think we should improve the site. We got lots of helpful feedback, the most common being that people want to see more material, more text guides.

We are certainly taking that to heart and will keep you posted on the progress we make. We are currently working on various guides, including ones on the poetry of Blake and Rossetti, Chaucer, Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. Also, we will be announcing a major new feature to the site in the coming months, so watch this space!

And, finally, the winner is: Emma from Nottingham! Congratulations! We are contacting you by email and will arrange delivery for your iPod Shuffle soon.

What does it mean to revise: An author’s methods of presentation?

How on earth do you prepare for an A Level Eng. Lit exam?
Welcome to the third in a short series about how to revise English successfully.

It is very likely that at least one of the questions you will face in the exam will focus on how an author presents his/her intentions within or across texts. How can you prepare for that?

The key aim of questions like these is to get you to focus not on ‘what happens’ but how the author has crafted the text in order to elicit a particular response in the reader.

There are basic areas to cover, regardless of the text. For each of the following:

• Try and make condensed notes / a mind map / list headwords
• Learn a quotation or specific example to illustrate.

Plot

1) With whom is a reader to identify – a 1st or 3rd person narrator, a particular character?

• How has the author achieved that sense of identification?
• How does it shape the reader’s perspective on the plot?
  

2) If there is a sub-plot

• What is its relevance to the main one?
• How are the main and sub-plots interwoven?
  

3) What is the impact of presenting events chronologically / non-chronologically?

• What is the impact of any time frame on the presentation of the plot?

Narrative perspective

1) Who is telling the story and how close is the reader to him/her?
2) At what pace do events unfold – how has the author created that effect?
3) Is there direct authorial comment and/or does tone / irony / mood guide a reader’s response?

Patterning

1) What themes brought to the fore? (See previous blog in series)
2) How are imagery and / or symbolism used?
3) Are there repetitions / echoes of:

• Events
• Locations
• Family structures?
  

Description

1) How would you characterise the author’s descriptive techniques?
2) What kind of language is employed when – to what effect?
3) How do these techniques create:

• Character (see previous blog in series)
• Location and atmosphere
• Drama, tension / suspense?
  

As you cover these ideas you always need to keep in mind the intentions of the author.

What on earth is del.icio.us?

Perhaps you have been using Crossref-it.info for a while now and have been finding it useful for your exams, essays and home work. And perhaps you have been bookmarking some of the pages for future reference.

But the annoying thing is: whenever you access the site from a different computer, the bookmarks aren't there and you have to try and find where you left off last time.

Well, if that is you, then there is good news! There are a number of ways which will really make things easier for you! Here are a few methods you could try:

1. Before you start your session, sign in. Signing in is free and quick. And it means that, the next time you access the site and sign in, it will tell you which pages you viewed in your previous session.

2. You could use del.icio.us: What on earth is del.icio.us, you ask? Basically, just click on the "del.icio.us" link at the bottom of almost every page on the website and it will let you "bookmark" the page on http://del.icio.us . You can bookmark any website on del.icio.us, which means that you have always have access to your bookmarks (wherever there is an internet connection, that is).

3. Along with del.icio.us, we support a number of similar services. Just take a quick look at the bottom of most pages on Crossref-it.info - we've tried to make this as straight forward as possible for you!

4. And, finally - if you really like a page, or think a page is particularly useful, then we would love it if you shared your enthusiasm with others by digging it. Spreading the word, so to speak. Again, the Digg button can be found at the very bottom of most pages on the site.

What does it mean to revise: Themes?

How on earth do you prepare for an A Level Eng. Lit exam?
Welcome to the second in a short series about how to revise English successfully.

It is very likely that at least one of the questions you will face in the exam will focus on how an author presents one or more themes within or across texts. How can you prepare for that?

There are basic areas to cover, regardless of the text. For each of the following:

• Try and make condensed notes / a mind map / list headwords
• Learn a quotation or specific example to illustrate.
  

Selected theme:

Within a text

1) Identify the theme’s emergence – instances of its recurrence
2) What imagery is associated with the theme? Does this create a particular mood?
3) How is the theme worked out through the plot / narrative arc?
4) In prose, do any relationships between characters illustrate this theme?

Across texts

How is the theme dealt with differently in comparative texts?

• Look at 1 – 3 above

Author:

How does the author ‘use’ this theme – what ‘meaning’ does it represent?

• How is the theme outworked to support this (include imagery and mood)?
• Are there direct authorial comments that guide the reader’s interpretation of the theme?
  

Reader:

1) Do you have a personal response to this theme – has it made you reflect on aspects of contemporary life?
2) Are you satisfied with how the author has ‘used’ the theme?

Always keep in mind that themes are highlighted by an author to serve the purposes of the text.

Last chance to win a free Apple iPod Shuffle

We recently offered our readers a great chance of winning an iPod Shuffle.

While we originally set the deadline for the 20th of May, we are now pleased to announce that we are extending it for one more week! So - fill in our survey by Wednesday the 27th May and you have a good chance of winning (and it really helps us to know what you think about the website).

How does this work?

It will only take you a minute to fill in our quick one-page survey. And as a small thank you, one of the participants, selected randomly, will win a free silver Apple iPod Shuffle!

To qualify you need to:
1. Complete our short survey by Wednesday 27th May 2009.
2. Enter your email address when prompted, which needs to be the same email address used to register at Crossref-it.info (if you haven't done that yet - register now for free)
3. We will contact the winner by email and announce the result on the blog.

Click here to fill in our short survey.

Thank you for your feedback.

What does it mean to revise: Characterisation?

Revision for subjects like History and Biology seems pretty straightforward; if you get your head around some significant facts and marshall your evidence, you are likely to do well. But how on earth do you prepare for A Level Eng. Lit?

Welcome to the first in a short series about how to revise English successfully.

It is very likely that at least one of the questions you will face in the exam will focus on characterisation (how an author presents a character). How can you prepare for that?

There are basic areas to cover, regardless of the text. For each of the following:

• Try and make condensed notes / a mind map / list headwords
• Learn a quotation or specific example to illustrate

Selected character:

1) The character’s narrative arc:

• How s/he is introduced
• His/her story/development through the novel
• The character’s own new perspectives by the end (what s/he has learnt)

2) His/her physical appearance and the language s/he uses (register, syntax)

3) His/her relationships with others in the text

4) The imagery associated with him/her.

Author:

1) The author’s attitude to the character – discerned through

• 2 and 4 above
• Differences in perspective
• Tone used describing that character and direct/indirect judgements on him/her (authorial intrusion?)
  

2) Changes in attitude / sympathy – ultimate assessment of character.

Reader:

1) Be aware of your personal response to the character – have you found the hero / heroine attractive – annoying - funny?

2) Are you satisfied with how the author created the character

• Are they believable (2D or fully rounded) – or more significant for the role they play in the text’s ‘meaning’?
• Do you have other criticisms about the characterisation?
  

Always keep in mind that every character is simply a literary construct, created by an author for the purposes of the text.

The Collar by George Herbert

We want this blog to be fun to read. Occasionally, we are thus posting short literary 'snippets'. Today's 'snippet' is a poem by George Herbert - The Collar. Enjoy!

I struck the board, and cry’d, No more;
I will abroad.
What? shall I ever sigh and pine?
My lines and life are free; free as the rode,
Loose as the winde, as large as store.
Shall I be still in suit?
Have I no harvest but a thorn
To let me bloud, and not restore
What I have lost with cordiall fruit?
Sure there was wine,
Before my sighs did drie it: there was corn
Before my tears did drown it.
Is the yeare onely lost to me?
Have I no bayes to crown it?
No flowers, no garlands gay? all blasted?
All wasted?
Not so, my heart: but there is fruit,
And thou hast hands.
Recover all thy sigh-blown age
On double pleasures: leave thy cold dispute
Of what is fit, and not forsake thy cage,
Thy rope of sands,
Which pettie thoughts have made, and made to thee
Good cable, to enforce and draw,
And be thy law,
While thou didst wink and wouldst not see.
Away; take heed:
I will abroad.
Call in thy deaths head there: tie up thy fears.
He that forbears
To suit and serve his need,
Deserves his load.
But as I rav’d and grew more fierce and wilde,
At every word,
Methought I heard one calling, Childe:
And I reply’d, My Lord.

For synopsis, commentary and a discussion of the themes and language of this poem please go to Poem analysis > The Collar

If you have a suggestion as to which poem you would like to see as the next 'snippet', please do let us know by leaving a comment...

Want a free silver Apple iPod Shuffle?

Here at Crossref-it.info we do our best to try and ensure that you have access to a helpful, academically credible and free English literature website.

Needless to say, we want all that hard work to benefit you. Which is why we would really like to hear what you have to say: what you like or dislike about the site and how you think we should improve things.

It will only take you a minute to fill in our quick one-page survey. And as a small thank you, one of the participants, selected randomly, will win a free silver Apple iPod Shuffle!

To qualify you need to:
1. Complete our short survey by Wednesday 20th May 2009.
2. Enter your email address when prompted, which needs to be the same email address used to register at Crossref-it.info (if you haven't done that yet - register now for free)
3. We will contact the winner by email and announce the result on the blog.

Click here to fill in our short survey.

Thank you for your feedback.

Education in Victorian England

Education was not universal before 1870 and many, particularly in the new industrial slums, were unable to read or write. Private schools were usually the reserve of the wealthy and grammar schools accepted some pupils from poorer backgrounds, but only boys. While some churches worked together to set up elementary schools, and trade unions set up adult education classes, the situation, generally, was pretty dire.

Education in Jane Eyre is quite a dominant theme: Jane Eyre herself attends a charity-run school, and later becomes a governess, entrusted with Adèle's education. The school Jane Eyre attends, Lowood School, is said to be a reflection of the school Charlotte Brontë herself attended.

While Charlotte Brontë's experience in school can be seen influencing her work, Charles Dickens' experience of not being in school arguably has the same effect on his works. Dickens, who was sent to work in a Blacking Factory at the age of 12, was nonetheless able to receive an education and can thus be considered fortunate. But the plight of children who did not receive an education and were being used for factory labour is a definite influence in his work.

More information on Education in Victorian England can be found by following this link. Tip - try typing 'Victorian' 'Education' into the Crossref-it.info search - you'll be surprised at the wealth of information at your fingertips!

Critical approaches to literature

One of the key things that makes for a successful A Level English Lit answer is the sense that you have personally engaged with the text, that it has affected your own perspective.

At the same time however, you need to show awareness that others have come to the work from a different angle – the interpretations of other readers mentioned in Assessment Objective 3.

At this level, you don’t want to get too bogged down with analysing critical approaches, but you do need to grasp the main ideas involved.

Crossref-it.info has an easy to understand introduction to the main ways in which critics have interpreted texts, particularly how these interpretations have developed over the last 30 years. Individual text guides contain sections dealing with critical approaches that arise out of the specific work, but it you want a useful overview, try exploring the various pages in the Critical approaches to literature section.

Your job is then to note down how each approach might affect the way you engage with the text you are studying and ask:

• Does it help you understand the text in a new way?
• Do you agree with this sort of interpretation?
• Does it change your personal perspective?
  

Remember, the examiner wants to know that you have thought for yourself, but can support each of your views with evidence.

Charlotte Brontë and her sisters

Charlotte Brontë was born in 1816 in Thornton, the third of six children. She was born into a literary and intellectual household and the children were encouraged to read and take an interest in the world.

She did not have an easy life:

In 1821, at the age of 5, Charlotte lost her mother to cancer, leaving her father with six children aged eight and under.

In 1825, Maria and Elizabeth, Charlotte's two elder sisters, fell ill at Cowan Bridge school and returned to their home in Haworth, only to die. Charlotte and Emily were then also removed from the school.

In 1848, the year after Jane Eyre was published, Charlotte's sister Emily and her brother Branwell died, while her sister Anne died one year later in 1849. Charlotte herself died in 1855 - while pregnant with her first child.

Clearly she did not have an easy life. Yet, despite all the suffering and despite her short life, she managed to create a wealth of literature. Jane Eyre, The Professor, Villette, Shirley... Quite an achievement! Not to mention Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, and Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, which the three sisters collaborated on.

This truly was an extraordinary family. Their books can help us understand them, and equally, understanding them and understanding the context they lived in can help us appreciate their books.

For more information on Charlotte Brontë's life visit her biography section with timeline on Crossref-it.info.

Re-vision – or vision?

It is always scary when you finally respond to the pressure of looming exams, dig out your notes and then realise that they are not as complete / helpful as they need to be!

Revision is meant to be exactly that – looking again at work previously covered. But what to do when you find yourself looking at material for the first time?

At this stage, your teachers simply won’t have time to be wading through the basics – their job now is to help you pull it all together. Luckily, there are many web resources such as Crossref-it.info that provide helpful summaries of texts, scene by scene, chapter by chapter so as to remind you of how events fit together. Good ones should also pose questions that focus your thinking about the text.

In the new The Winter’s Tale guide, for example, you will find sections that give an overview of individual characters, as well as linking themes and sequences of images – great help if you are time poor.

For higher A Level grades examiners want to see that you can draw all your knowledge together into a ‘wide-ranging’ answer – backed up by specific examples too of course.

Full text of Jane Eyre

Is it not funny how we still cling to doing things the old way. I mean, who still sits around trying to revise while frantically trying to hold open two books - the text and the synopsis / commentary. Desperately trying to remember where they left off each time they go back and forth between the two books... The answer is probably: most people. As if revising for exams wasn't hard enough as it is!

Enter Crossref-it.info. In the Jane Eyre text guide, you can now bring up the full text of Jane Eyre with just one click in the red 'Related texts' box. Better still, instead of navigating away from the synopsis page, it simply opens an overlay box - when you're done reading, simply click on 'close' and you will find yourself right back where you came from - the synopsis page.

We are looking at rolling this feature out more widely across some of the text guides. Are there any texts you would particularly like us to cover? Either post a comment on the blog, or email info@crossref-it.info.

Back to school

The holidays are over, and it’s back for an intensive few weeks where your teachers will be pulling out all the stops to help you do your best in the exams.

Your best chances of success lie in attending these sessions rather than doing your own thing.

Every lesson is crucial:

• Many weeks’ worth of learning will be summarised so that you get the sweep of the whole text
• You get to go back over ideas covered earlier in the course and, with a better understanding, see how they can be applied in potential exam answers
• Disparate themes and images will be drawn together to make sense
• It’s a great opportunity to get help on areas you are not confident in
  

So, make notes like crazy, ask lots of questions and reflect on how far you have already come. This is a time for sharing knowledge, before hunkering down on your own during study leave.

If for some reason you do miss a revision session, if the text features on Crossref-it.info you’re in luck. Otherwise, get a friend to lend you their notes, but don’t be surprised if they don’t want to let them out of their sight for very long…

Death be not proud, though some have called thee by John Donne

We want this blog to be fun to read. Occasionally, we are thus posting short literary 'snippets'. Today's 'snippet' is a poem by John Donne - Death be not proud. Enjoy!

Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then;
One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.

For synopsis, commentary and a discussion of the themes and language of this poem please go to
Poem analysis > Death be not proud

If you have a suggestion as to which poem you would like to see as the next 'snippet', please do let us know by leaving a comment...

Reading around the character

Before things get too intensive in the run up to exams, try and make time to gen up on some secondary sources. This is the kind of wider information that will show you understand how the texts you have studied fit into the culture of their time. For example:

Jane Eyre – an extraordinary child

The thing about Jane is that she is a far richer child character than had appeared in literature previously. Children were rarely attributed with much psychological depth in the narratives of the seventeenth century and even in many nineteenth century novels functioned mainly as two dimensional subjects who served merely to affect the protagonist.

If you go to the Charlotte Brontë and childhood page you can see that there were conflicting ideas about the innate innocence or sinfulness of children. In that novel, Brocklehurst is convinced that Jane is a wicked child in need of reform, though both he and Mrs Reed mistakenly believe in the purity and innocence of their own little darlings!

The idea of the innocence of childhood was given impetus by the Romantics, but they too didn’t quite appreciate that an infant might be neither fully good nor fully evil, rather a rounded individual capable of personal choice and morality.

The first person narrative of Jane Eyre gave the story from a different angle – that of a young girl who was quite capable of perceiving injustice in the treatment meted out to her by adults. She calmly assessed those around her and made moral judgements about herself and them, in a way that simply had not happened in novels before.

Today we are entirely up to speed with the idea that children have their own innate ‘voice’ – lots of U.S. sitcoms are devised from the perspective of the child protagonist, whilst entire holiday centres focus on it (think Disney resorts).

It is only when you place Brontë’s central character against the background of her times that you see how distinctive, even shocking, her original portrayal was. Briefly mention that in a relevant exam answer and you’ll be on your way to an A grade!

Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale - new text guide!

We are happy to announce the launch of a new text guide on Crossref-it.info! There is now a full text guide on the site for Shakespeare's A Winters Tale. One of the later plays of Shakespeare, it is a Romance play, and involves stories of loss and reconciliation, love and magical elements. It is a story that shows how faith, hope and unselfish love can overcome self-centred obsession and irrational jealousy. It examines important issues, such as:

• The relationship between parents and children, and between master and servants
• The question of what we mean by nature, and what is natural or unnatural
• The nature and significance of time
• The effects of suffering
• The place of humankind in the universe
• The extent and limitations of human power
• The nature and the significance of love in its various manifestations.
• These issues are addressed in scenes which bring created characters to life through the use of powerful language and extraordinary poetry.

The new text guide, (like all other text guides on the site) offers a Timeline, an Author section, a Context section, Synopsis and commentary, Themes and significant ideas, Characterisation, Essay and exam help, and more.

We do hope you will find this text guide really helpful for your studies - we always love to hear comments or suggestions! Either post your comments here on the blog, or send an email to info@crossref-it.info.

Are A-Levels getting easier?

You are unlikely to agree if you are in the middle of taking them! However, the problem for employers and universities is that, as more students come out with a raft of A grades, they don’t know how to select who is the best when places are restricted.

Two recent solutions are:

• Reducing the coursework component - partly a bid to return exams to clearer tests of an individual’s ability under pressure, as well as trying to cut the impact of ever pervasive plagiarism (aka cheating).
• Introducing A* grades and ‘high powered’ courses like the CIE Pre U

Faced with this, what can help you make it to the top of the pile?

• Prioritising study, rather than squeezing it around your social life, will mean you have a greater sense of how each subject fits together
• Making time to read around the central texts / information will give you a wider perspective and impress the examiner
• Using web resources designed to help at A Level can give you the breadth of info your teacher may be too pressured to cover. That’s certainly the idea behind Crossref-it.info which aims to give Eng. Lit students the edge over their peers.

Unfortunately, as jobs become more scarce, so more students will opt for higher education places, and the need to differentiate students becomes even more pressing…

How are you going to get yourself noticed?

Who is Henry Clerval?

Frankenstein's friend. The Monster's victim. A sword-wielding hunk with a goatee?

Perhaps. But if you are doing an essay on Henry Clerval or preparing for an exam, I would strongly recommend checking out a few alternative sources of information, such as:

• The Characterisation of Henry Clerval on Crossref-it.info
• http://www.english.upenn.edu/Projects/knarf/Chars/clerval.html
• Reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

How do you picture Henry Clerval?

Get going on A-Level revision...

Easter is coming up and with it that make or break A Level revision period. The hours you put in now will make the difference between scraping an E and hitting B or above. So be radical:

• Learn to cope with poverty as you ditch the Saturday job or at least cut your hours (going without for a few weeks now should mean better grades and therefore a better job / wage long term)
• Make an easy onscreen revision table that you can modify when you don’t meet every target (because, believe me, you will slip up) - but don’t spend ages making it pretty…
• Aim to do an hour’s revision each school/college day – yes, on top of the usual H/W
• On non-school days, divide the time into morning / afternoon / evening sessions and aim to allocate two out of three to revising
• If you have got gaps in your class notes, ask a friend or your teacher for backup info before the Easter break
• Vary the styles in which you learn: writing notes, creating mind maps, testing yourself or using on-line revision helps like Crossref-it.info are all useful ways of embedding vital information into your memory
• Pace yourself – make your breaks from work enjoyable so that your mind doesn’t get dulled
• Sort out your diet now – regular intake of Omega 3 fatty acids found in oily fish will improve your memory (whereas just eating fish fingers on exam day will have a limited effect…)
• Keep in mind why you chose your subjects in the first place - as a balance to what lies ahead, focus on how much progress you have already made since you started
• Believe you can climb the mountain of revision – as entrepreneur Henry Ford put it:
  

‘Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t, you’re probably right.’

William Shakespeare Timeline

We all know him, we all love him. Right? ...and most of us have (had) to study at least one of his works in school.

And yet, it can be hard getting an overview of his life. Pages like this are fantastic in helping us to delve into William Shakespeare's world. However, they do have a lot of text and are time-consuming to read.

What would it be like to have a time line which, with just one glance, gives an overview of Shakespeare's life, with a separate column for literary events and another column for political and historical events - so you can look at Shakespeare's life and his world at the same time?

And what would it be like if one could click on any event on the time line and subsequently get a complete literary / historical / biographical overview of the 9 years surrounding it?

What I am about to say might not come as a complete surprise: The amazing comprehensive Shakespeare time line exists and can be found here!

Enjoy it and, as always, let me know if you have any thoughts / comments or know of other, high quality related web resources...

Symbolism in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre

In January I caught the BBC re-run of Jane Eyre which I really enjoyed (again … OK, call me sad). One of the strengths of any filmed version is that it can make visual the images and symbols which run through texts such as Brontë’s novel.

In this adaptation

• Jane and Bertha were linked by the flowing red robe which swathed Jane in her imaginary desert and was hung from Bertha’s window: red for passion, red for danger, both ideas brought together with Jane’s incarceration in the Red Room as a child.
• The natural contrasts of harshness and comfort, cold and warmth, winter and spring, exposure and cosy firelight glow were emphasised via effective scenic photography and clever lighting of interiors.

To look at how Brontë used these ideas in more detail, the Imagery and Symbolism in Jane Eyre section on Crossref-it.info provides a discussion of Nature and Fire and light More difficult to convey is the symbolism associated with the central text Brontë could assume all her readers recognised – the Bible. Today many students aren’t familiar with the allusions and they are even harder to communicate on screen.

Click here for an explanation of the relevance of Adam and Eve to Jane Eyre, or investigate the following religious / philosophical context articles on Crossref-it.info and consider how Brontë drew on these ideas through the novel:

• Temptation
• Penitence, repentance, penance
• Parents and children
• Mission, evangelism, conversion
• Lost, seeking, finding, rescue
• Judgement
• Journey of faith, Exodus, pilgrims and sojourners
  
• Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve
  
• Forgiveness, mercy and grace
  
• Apocalypse
  

If you were a TV producer, how would you ‘show’ these concepts?

Also, for an excellent discussion of the show, take a look at this blog.

The Good-morrow by John Donne

We want this blog to be fun to read. Occasionally, we are thus posting short literary 'snippets'. Today's 'snippet' is a poem by John Donne - The Good-morrow. Enjoy!

I Wonder by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved ? were we not wean'd till then?
But suck'd on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers' den?
'Twas so ; but this, all pleasures fancies be;
If ever any beauty I did see,
Which I desired, and got, 'twas but a dream of thee.

And now good-morrow to our waking souls,
Which watch not one another out of fear;
For love all love of other sights controls,
And makes one little room an everywhere.
Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone;
Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown;
Let us possess one world; each hath one, and is one.

My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,
And true plain hearts do in the faces rest;
Where can we find two better hemispheres
Without sharp north, without declining west?
Whatever dies, was not mix'd equally;
If our two loves be one, or thou and I
Love so alike that none can slacken, none can die.

For synopsis, commentary and a discussion of the themes and language of this poem please go to Poem analysis > The Good-morrow

If you have a suggestion as to which poem you would like to see as the next 'snippet', please do let me know by leaving a comment...

Have you got a university offer?

• If you haven’t yet, don’t give up, but make sure you focus on putting maximum effort into getting the kind of results that will make you stand out come August. That way you are in with a chance at clearing or being accepted for the following year.
• If you have, well done! Now you just have to get the grades… No pressure!
  

So what will raise your game?

Remember that the people awarding you marks are human!

• They wince at txt spk, illegible handwriting or poor expression, plus students failing to answer the question.
• They enjoy answers that clearly focus on the relevant texts, whilst being able to set them within the bigger picture (25% of marks are allocated to contextual awareness). They want to see your involvement with what you have studied, not just the same tired classroom notes as fellow students.

For more info on creating a positive impression, go to www.crossref-it.info/articles/312/How-to-write-a-good-English-exam-answer. This website is strong on the ‘big picture’ elements which will impress.

Go for it, pace yourself and good luck!

What do you enjoy about Great Expectations?

Over at Book 'n' a Mug they have a wonderful little review of Dickens' Great Expectations. At times, in the middle of revision, it can be easy to actually forget the joy of sitting down with a nice mug of coffee and a good book.

If you are studying Dickens' Great Expectations then perhaps you are currently brushing up on your knowledge of imagery and symbolism, or narrative, or social / political context, or themes and significant ideas, or (...and the list goes on...)

So why don't you:

• Use the Crossref-it.info resources I've linked to above to help you study more efficiently, thus saving you time and a headache
• Take a deep breath and make yourself some coffee (or whatever is your preferred hot beverage)
  
• Sit down with the book and enjoy the process of reading it

...you might well find that this approach will not just make your revision less annoying, but also more fruitful!

So... What do you love about the book?

The World of the Victorians

You may just have brain ache by 9pm on a Sunday night, but if you can catch it, Jeremy Paxman’s BBC 1 series on looking at Victorian society through the pictures they painted is a great way of providing contextual information on any of the 19thC texts you are studying.

• If you have a note book handy, you could jot down the names of any memorable pictures that relate to a theme in your novel / poetry and potentially reap some real benefits in terms of exam results.
• Another idea is to go to the World of Victorian writers section on Crossref-it.info for handy articles about the impact of industrialisation, transport, education etc. on society
• Paxman’s series shows how Victorian society was heavily shaped and motivated by commonly held beliefs which were widely promoted, be it conventional Christian morality, free will or whatever. Some of these ideas are explained in more detail here.

Remember that 25% of the new A Level English Lit course depends on relating texts to the world in which they were created, so information like this can have a huge impact on your chances of success!