Ensuring you’re not left behind in A Level English

Filling in the gaps

There are five Assessment Objectives on which you will be examined for AS and A level English Literature (see blog of 9.9.15). You need to be up to speed on every one of them.

Most of you will be taught courses by teachers who have done English degrees. They will be well able to help you understand a variety of critical approaches (AO5), show you how linguistic patterns shape your responses to texts (AO2) and help you become familiar with – and confident of using -  accurate terminology to express your views (AO1).

All of that equates to 62.5% of all the marks you might score in your exam.

But there are a couple of areas that even well-educated teachers may be unaware of, which together add up to over a third (37.5%) of marks awarded –

• They may have gaps in their knowledge about the culture which produced texts and for which they were originally created (AO3 – worth a quarter of all your marks)
•  They may not recognise how frequently literary texts reference other texts (AO4 – worth 12.5% in the exam)

Topical example

In an editorial of a UK paper recently, the columnist commented on the understanding that people have of the migrant crisis and how it has been shaped by one picture:

‘Did we not know, had we not read, that migrant children drowned? What happened to the written word?’

How many of your teachers would know that the journalist was echoing another literary text which commented on people’s faulty understanding (AO4):

‘Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?’

If you – or your teacher – can tell us what the columnist was alluding to (without googling the answer!), email us at info@crossref-it.info and praise will be heaped upon you in the next blog.

If you - or those educating you - are stumped, it looks like you might need the help that www.crossref-it.info can offer!