It's been a while...

Hmmm, can we see oppositional structure here?

I'm sorry - you've probably been crying every night, pawing at your screens, saying "Why? WHYYYYY hasn't he updated? WHHHHYYYYYYYY?", and then going back to your lolcats or Beyblades, or whatever you youngsters do for fun.
Anyways, expect to see a good few updates before the year is out, starting with this one, that includes your homework!

So, in the English workroom (cue lightning flashes, thunderclaps, howling wolves etc) we decided that one of the things we should make you explicitly aware of is the number of terms that we expect our C and above candidates to use. To this end, we jotted down a list of terms that we reckon you should be aware of, and ideally be able to use in your Eng Lit exam. You can find that beast here. So, what we want you to do is to pick ten - any ten at all. Find out what they mean, and then, think about how they might be related to any of the texts that we have studied so far (treat each poem as an individual text). After that, try to write a sentence about a text that includes the definition that you have been studying. If you want, you can fill in this form here (make sure you download it locally to your machine first, mind - File-Download, or just press Ctrl+S).  I'd also like you to get your two best examples, and include them on this open edit document. (Although it looks the same, you should find you can edit and change this one. Don't worry if your term has already been done; the more examples the better!)

Any problems, then drop me a line or come and see me. This is due in Monday 26th, but if you email me at 11pm on Sunday night then you might be out of luck...

A Level?

If you are thinking about A level language for next year, and you've got a few spare minutes kicking about now you have finished your exams, then you might want to check out this book - David Crystal's 'A Little Book of Language', and it's in the library (I've also got my own copy if anyone wants to borrow it). It's written by David Crystal, who is really famous in English language circles, and it is really, really easy to understand.

It gives an introduction into nearly all of the topics that you'll study at AS (such as how people use language when they use technology, how men and women use language differently, how people use language to show they are in charge, or to exclude people from a particular group.... I could go on, but you get the picture).

I don't want to go on, lest I bore you, but trust me - if you want a flavour of what A level language looks like, then check it out.

An Inspector Calls - Introduction

Since we'll be looking at 'An Inspector Calls', a useful starting point might be to explain the difference between left and right wing viewpoints, and the ideas behind  them. Although this infographic isn't perfect, it does give us a good starting point for discussion. Have a look at this, and see if you can start to see any of Arthur Birling's ideas represented here (or the Inspector's, for that matter). If you struggle to read the infographic, then it will be worthwhile checking it out on the original website, that can be found by clicking here.