Informal Introductions

Dear Reader(s?!);
My name is Amy. I am a Leaving Cert student, and I'm writing this blog with the aim of helping you and/or me to do the best you/I/we possibly can in the English exams. The plan of action is to systematically go through the English course, writing down and sharing almost every thought I've had in class and hoping it's in some way helpful. Ambitious? Yes. Unrealistic? Possibly. Presumptuous? Yes, completely and utterly, but dagnabbit, a girl's gotta try.

As I've said already, I'm a pupil myself, so this blog can only be helpful insofar as a peer's opinion can be. I am not an expert. If I am being irritating, confusing, or just plain wrong, please feel free to comment and tell me. This is meant to help me too; all of your opinions (excluding trollish ones calling me an acne- ridden prostitute) are welcome.

So, here's the plan of action;

1. I will provide my ramblings on our English course following a specific, certain, and structured plan (see below). This way, I can pretend to be organised.

2. I will sum up my ramblings into less verbose, more to-the-point bullet points, which will hopefully be useful to readers looking for a quick fix.

3. I'll provide a sample of answers I've written on that topic, giving you the mark I recieved and the comment my teacher gave me for it.

The Leaving Cert English Papers 1 and 2 are arranged as follows:

PAPER 1

> Comprehension- part A (50 marks), and part B (50 marks).

>Essay (100 marks).

PAPER 2

> Single Text- (60 marks) (Here Macbeth)

> Comparative Studies- (70 marks) (Here How Many Miles To Babylon, Sive, and I'm Not Scared)

> Unseen Poetry (20 marks), and finally

> Prescribed Poetry - (50 marks) (Thomas Kinsella, W.B. Yeats, Derek Mahon, and Elizabeth Bishop.)

I'll try to stick as close to this as possible, but I'm going to stick Unseen Poetry with the Paper 1 stuff- just because I think it's more of a composition answer than a studied one, and while techniques need to be learned, it's no more specific that the rules of speech writing, letter writing, or comprehending that we associate with paper 1.

Seven weeks. Around a million topics and sub-topics. Five other subjects to juggle. Zero qualifications. Readers, embrace yourself for the crashiest of all crash courses. It should be interesting, at least.

Thanks for reading, and please please PLEASE don't be afraid to comment. The first installment should be due in about half an hour, which will cover Unseen Poetry.

Yours,
Amy.