Here to help with Advanced English

Starting out

Welcome to all who are starting a new course in English at AS / A2 / Undergraduate Level! Many of you are sixth-formers, a month into your new course and probably already experiencing the significant change of academic rigour compared to your studies so far. It’s about this time that the first AS/A2 essays are being set and the rubber really hits the road!

To help you make the huge step up from GCSE, if you go to Successful study you will find lots of helpful guidance about getting to grips with different genres and advice about how to approach A Level standard essay writing.

You will also know by now what set texts you are studying and may find a range of them covered at Detailed text guides.

Here’s what one A level student wrote to a member of the Xref team this summer:

I remembered your email about Crossref-it and I just wanted to say a HUGE thank you for pointing me in that direction, it's been SUCH a huge help. I emailed my class and teacher saying how useful it had been, and that they might like to look at it, and they all emailed back saying it was a complete life saver. 

I used The White Devil and Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience. The context sections were AMAZING because they really related to the texts in a way that you could use the information to illustrate a point in the exam. Also, everything was so concise and well-worded that I didn't have to spend ages trying to figure out what in particular they were referring to and how that tied in with themes etc.

Sharing the good news is just what we like, so please be as generous as this student was in letting your mates know that they don’t have to struggle alone.

Going further

Meanwhile, many undergrads are just about recovering from Freshers’ Week and now engaging with their first lectures and seminars. Crossref-it material isn’t designed to sustain you as you develop your critical faculties at degree level, but for first year undergrads it can be a life saver!

Suddenly you are expected to make sense of texts in just one week rather than a term of teaching, and to have a grasp of a much wider literary scene. That’s when the Crossref-it.info Aspects of Literature and Writers in context sections really give you a head start.

As another student told us:

Great for studying. So much information. Wish I had discovered it earlier! Will continue to use it all throughout university. :)

We’re sure he won’t be the only one!