GCSE Bitesize revision audio scripts
English
Writing to argue, persuade or advise
Typical questions and the general approach
Writing to argue
Writing to persuade
Writing to advise
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Writing to inform, explain or describe
Typical questions and the general approach
Writing to inform
Writing to explain
Writing to describe
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9
10
12
Reading poems from other cultures
Typical questions and comparing poems
Keywords and writing about language
Poetic techniques and quotes
Search for My Tongue by Sujata Bhatt
Presents from My Aunts in Pakistan by Moniza Alvi
Half Caste by John Agard
Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in
a Mercedes by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Unrelated Incidents by Tom Leonard
Nothing’s Changed by Tatahkhulu Afrika
Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker
Night of the Scorpion by Nissim Ezekiel
Hurricane Hits England by Grace Nichols
Vultures by Chinua Achebe
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15
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18
19
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24
26
27
29
30
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Reading non-fiction and media
Typical questions and types of text
Opinions and facts
Genre and audience
Purposes of a text
Language
Presentation
Answering the questions using Gap and List
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Exam tips
Preparing for English exams
Top tips
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Writing to argue, persuade or advise: Typical questions and the
general approach
This audio bite is about typical questions and the general approach.
ALIX:
Writing to argue, persuade or advise sounds quite complicated,
but it isn’t really. You only have to answer one of the
questions, so you can ignore anything that seems really difficult
and pick the one you feel happiest with. But don’t rush things –
you have plenty of time to decide which question you’d do best
at. For example, listen to where Eliot goes wrong here…
ELIOT:
I was looking at all these questions when I saw this question
about football – I love football, so I started writing about my
favourite team. After about ten minutes I stopped and looked
again at the question – it was all about persuading pupils at my
school to take up other sports besides football. So everything
I’d written was a waste of time.
ALIX:
Eliot made quite a few mistakes there. Firstly, he chose too
quickly – he should have read all the questions properly. He
also didn’t study the question he had chosen. He should have
underlined the key words so that he knew exactly what he had
to do. The key words should have been obvious – he was
supposed to write about other sports, he was supposed to write
for pupils at his school, and he was supposed to be persuading
them to try something new.
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ELIOT:
Yeah, as soon as I read the question slowly and highlighted the
key words, I knew what to write about.
ALIX:
If he had planned a little as well, he would have been able to do
much better. Your plan doesn’t have to be very complicated – it
could be just deciding on a topic for each paragraph. Eliot?
ELIOT:
My first paragraph could be about the range of sports you can
see on the TV, such as swimming, athletics, boxing and rugby.
Then in my second paragraph I’d write about how good
swimming is, and in my third I’d write about athletics. In the
next paragraph I’d write about some of the people at school
who do other sports, like Sam who does karate, and Karim who
goes to a kickboxing class. Finally I’d convince them that
there’s a lot more to life than football and they should give one
of these a go.
ALIX:
That’s far better. Eliot is showing he understands the question.
He knows the subject, he knows the people he’s writing for and
he knows the purpose too. We’ll go over purposes later but the
other thing you need to know is the format – what the piece
looks like. For instance, a magazine article usually looks
different to a leaflet or a letter.
ELIOT:
Each question tells us about the format and there is nothing in
the exam to catch you out. In fact, most questions are aimed at
people like us. They might be about choices we have to make,
or problems we face, or just about school, family or friends.
ALIX:
So when you are writing to argue, persuade or advise, read all
the questions very slowly. Do not choose something that seems
difficult just to impress the examiner. Instead, choose what
seems the most straightforward for you.
Then highlight the key words – underline them, colour them in,
or circle them. Understanding the question is important –
anything else you write about won’t get you any marks.
Plan your paragraphs. This will give your writing structure and
makes sure you’re sticking to the question. It also makes you
think about your subject, audience and the format. And leave a
little time at the end to check it through and correct any
mistakes you spot.
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Writing to argue, persuade or advise: Writing to argue
This audio bite is about writing to argue.
ELIOT:
If you choose to write an argument in the exam, you’d think it
would be straightforward. You’ve had loads of arguments with
friends, so you shouldn’t need any advice about how to go
about it. But exams are different. You are not writing one side
of an argument, you aren’t just telling someone they’re wrong
and saying what you think.
ALIX:
In fact the other side of the argument won’t be heard if you
don’t write it. So you have to give a balanced argument. That
means you need to write about the ideas for something, and the
ideas against it. And you need to come to a conclusion, saying
what you think about it all.
ELIOT:
That’s not too difficult. Suppose the question you’ve chosen is
to write a magazine article about whether footballers are paid
too much or not. In your plan write down both sides of the
argument (even the bits you don’t really agree with).
ALIX:
For instance, on one side you could say that they deserve to get
a lot of money because they work hard, they make money for
the clubs, their agents often take a lot of what they earn and
their working life is short.
ELIOT:
On the other side, you might write down that they don’t need
all this money, they don’t do important jobs like nurses and
doctors and they spoil football by making it so expensive.
ALIX:
Once you have this plan, you can start writing. You need to
include all the ideas you can, and show reasons why different
ideas might be good, but you must come to a conclusion at the
end. Eliot?
Yes, it’s important to give examples and evidence for each
point – anything from something you saw on TV to what your
friend told you. But it’s also important to link the ideas
together.
ELIOT:
ALIX:
The easiest links are using words like ‘but’, ‘because’,
‘however’, and ‘therefore’ – these words force your readers to
compare ideas. They also help you to argue, because you can
make the ideas you like stronger, and the ideas you don’t like
weaker. And this helps you reach a conclusion. Like this…
ELIOT:
Some pop stars make millions of pounds a year because they
are really good and work hard. In fact, a recent TV programme
showed one group working over 60 hours a week and spending
most nights away from home. However, do they really deserve
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to earn 200 times more than a nurse? The nurse will also work
long hours, often at night as well. But the nurse deals in life and
death, not just songs.
ALIX:
This sounds good because it includes evidence and links the
ideas together. It makes it a good argument, because it’s
obvious which side we should agree with. And that’s important
– if you are writing to argue, you must lead your readers to a
conclusion – never let them decide for themselves.
ELIOT:
So, a good answer must give both sides of the argument. Plan
your answer carefully and think about all the points that could
be made. For example, you might have to write a speech
arguing whether people should give money to charity or not.
It’s easy to write one side, but think about the negative ideas
too – is the money wasted? Does it go to the wrong people?
Then give evidence and examples in your writing. This makes
the ideas seem better and shows that you have thought about
your essay.
Link the sentences, paragraphs and ideas together with words
like ‘so’ or ‘however’. And make sure you come to a definite
conclusion and that you tell people what they should believe.
Writing to argue, persuade or advise: Writing to persuade
This audio bite is about writing to persuade.
ELIOT:
Persuading people should be easy – it’s about giving them ideas
and deciding for them. The thing is, you’re making them agree
with you.
ALIX:
Just imagine you wanted something from your mum – you’d
tell her all sorts of things, not exactly lies, but you’d make her
feel that she should do what you want.
ELIOT:
You could start by using feelings and emotions, so pick your
words really carefully. Let’s see what Alix can do…
ALIX:
Mum, I really need to go to the leaver’s do. Everyone will be
there, and if I don’t go, I’ll be letting all my teachers down.
ELIOT:
That’s not a bad start, is it? Then you can say the same thing
again, and again, and again … just so that she won’t forget it.
ALIX:
And I’ll be letting my class down, but most of all I’d be letting
Mr Wilkinson down, and you know how nice he’s been.
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ELIOT:
Then you could add a few reasons why it’s such a good idea –
that means you talk about all the benefits, like this:
ALIX:
And if I go, you’ll be able to have a bit of peace on Friday
night. It’ll hardly cost anything because we’ve got a school
discount, and I’ll be able to wear that dress I got last year. And
Sandie’s mum said she’d pick us up at the end.
ELIOT:
You can do even more, because you have got to make someone
else believe you. One thing is to ask rhetorical questions, which
you don’t really have a choice about answering. Alix?
ALIX:
So mum, do you really want me to sit at home moaning for the
rest of the term? Do you want me to let the whole school
down?
ELIOT:
And Alix has started to exaggerate too – she’s going a bit over
the top. She can’t really moan all the time until the end of term.
But she’s right about exaggerating – you need to make your
persuasive writing strong. You are selling your idea, so you
must be positive and only write about the good bits. Think
about the reasons you chose something…
ALIX:
I got this phone because it sounded really good, and the man in
the shop told me it was ideal for me.
ELIOT:
The salesman here was using another persuasive technique – he
addressed people directly.
ALIX:
You can do the same in your writing, using words like ‘you’ or
‘we’ because it makes your readers feel important. When you
use ‘we’ it even sounds like you know what they think, you’re
speaking for them and you’re on their side.
ELIOT:
And that’s what you should be doing in all your persuasive
writing – getting people on your side. So remember, persuade
people by using feelings and choosing strong words, such as
‘starving’ instead of ‘hungry’.
Repeat ideas so that they won’t be forgotten and just talk about
the positive bits so it sounds better.
Include some rhetorical questions, like ‘Do you want to do well
in your exam?’ – if you are listening to this audio clip, the
answer’s bound to be ‘yes’, so pick questions which push
people to agree with you. And as I’ve said a million times, you
can exaggerate a little if you want. And you can make it
personal by using ‘you’ or ‘we’.
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Writing to argue, persuade or advise: Writing to advise
This audio bite is about writing to advise.
ALIX:
There are always one or two questions asking you to give some
advice. It might be advice about how to look after a pet, or lose
weight or even how to do well in exams.
ELIOT:
And you’ve probably read loads of problem page letters as well
– about anything from living with acne to coping if your
parents get divorced.
ALIX:
The thing is, advice follows a pattern or model, and if you
remember the pattern, it’s much easier. Let’s imagine you’re
giving advice to someone going on a first date. In your plan
you’d have a list of the information you’d give them. For
instance, ideas about how to ask them out, where to go or what
to wear.
ELIOT:
Once you’ve got that, you can decide what goes in each
paragraph. The easiest way is to put it into the order it happens
– so asking someone out comes before deciding where to go. At
this stage you are just dealing with information – for example,
you could include a list of chat up lines, or add a list of things
not to say.
ALIX:
Once you’ve got all the information and ideas, you need to
make some of the sentences into orders. You are telling them
what to do, and what not to do, like this.
ELIOT:
Always be interested in the other person. If you really like
them, look directly at them a lot. However, don’t stare or they
might think you’re mad.
ALIX:
The ideas sound fine, except so far it’s just a list of orders. If
you carried on like that, it would get a bit boring. So now you
need to add some softer sentences – sentences which guide
people, using words like ‘should’, ‘can’, ‘could’ or ‘might’.
Listen to what Eliot comes up with.
ELIOT:
You ought to go somewhere quiet so you can chat easily. You
could go to the cinema, but you shouldn’t pick a film the other
person won’t like. Why don’t you choose a romantic comedy?
ALIX:
And Eliot’s added a question too. Questions are a good way of
giving advice – they lead people without telling them they have
to do something.
ELIOT:
Your advice should also be friendly and reassuring. Make sure
that everyone can follow it – for instance if they are sixteen, it’s
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no good telling them to buy a sports car to impress someone.
And it should be easy to read, so you can use things like bullet
points and headings – these break up the ideas and make them
easier to remember.
ALIX:
Writing good advice means remembering a pattern or model. If
you want to see lots of examples, look in almost any teenage
magazine. The first thing you need to do is plan the sort of
information you need to give the other people. You should have
lots of information to give them – if you can’t think of any
ideas, you are doing the wrong question.
Then you need to put ideas into order, perhaps one or two in
each paragraph. Make some of the ideas orders, like, Do not
watch TV when you are revising. Take short breaks every half
hour.
Then make other ideas into suggestions, with questions and
words like ‘ought, should, and can’. For example, Why don’t
you revise with a friend? You should revise in a quiet place.
You could make a revision plan.
And remember to make your advice useful and easy to read. In
the exam you’ll usually be writing for people like you, so don’t
try to impress them, just suggest what they need to do.
Writing to inform, explain or describe: Typical questions and the
general approach
This audio bite is about typical questions and the general approach.
ALIX:
Writing to inform, explain or describe tends to mean you are
writing about facts and your experiences. For instance, you
might have to write about a place you know, or something that
happened to you in the past, or describe an event. Because of
this, you need to choose your question very carefully – it must
be something you feel happy writing about.
ELIOT:
And it must be something you know a lot about. The questions
usually let you choose exactly what you’ll write about. For
instance, you could choose your school, or your home, or one
of your friends. Whatever it is, you need to plan carefully what
to include before you start writing your answer.
ALIX:
You start by choosing your question, highlighting key words
then making a short plan. It’s best if you plan paragraph by
paragraph, making sure your writing has a direction.
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ELIOT:
Yes, paragraphs are really important – it’s one of the things
examiners are looking for and let’s face it, it’s not difficult to
start a new paragraph for every new point or so.
ALIX:
Once you’ve got the information and the plan, you need to start
writing. The first thing to consider is your format – what should
the piece of writing look like? For example, is it a letter, or a
speech, or an article? An easy way to think about it is to
imagine holding it at arm’s length. If it’s a newspaper article,
you should be able to see a headline and clear paragraphs. If
it’s a formal letter, you should be able to see the ending with
something like ‘Yours faithfully’ and a signature.
ELIOT:
Once you’ve got that sorted, you need to make your writing
interesting and accurate. Start by changing the length of your
sentences – you could have two long sentences, then one short
one. You don’t need to stick to a pattern, but you do need to
vary your sentences. You should also read what you’ve written
every few minutes to make sure it makes sense.
ALIX:
Another way to add interest is to use words like ‘because, but,
since, so, either’, or ‘consequently’. These will link your
thoughts together and make your ideas come alive. These are
also words that examiners are on the look out for.
ELIOT:
Then think of the detail you need to give. Imagine you have to
write about the place you are in now – what does it look like?
Is there anything interesting? This is what Alix came up with.
ALIX:
In the corner, on an old set of drawers, is a little white and
green frog, lying on its back and smiling at me. The stuffing’s
coming out at the side and it’s missing an eye. It’s only a cheap
toy but Jamie won it at the fair last year and whenever I look at
it I think of him. My frog prince.
ELIOT:
Alix’s paragraph gave lots of detail and brought the place alive.
She obviously knows it well, can imagine it in her mind and
can write it out so others can imagine it. And that’s what these
questions ask you to do – to write about your experiences.
So read the questions very carefully and choose something you
know well. Once you’ve highlighted the key words, make a
plan using all your ideas and divide it into paragraphs. Keep
looking at your plan as you write your answer.
Make your writing interesting by checking it, changing the
length of the sentences, using words like ‘because’ and giving
lots of detail.
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Writing to inform, explain or describe: Writing to inform
This audio bite is about writing to inform.
ELIOT:
When you are writing to inform, there are all sorts of possible
subjects. But you won’t be asked to write about something you
don’t know or understand. For instance, you might have to give
information about a place, such as where you live or your
school.
ALIX:
Or you may have to write information about a person, such as
your best friend, your favourite teacher or a famous person.
ELIOT:
So pick something that you really are interested in and know
something about. It’s no good picking the latest pop star if you
only heard about them last week – there are bound to be far
easier people to write about, like this:
ALIX:
Natasha – she’s my best friend. She’s about my size. We hang
around together. We like the same music. We’re planning on
going on holiday together in the summer.
ELIOT:
Those ideas might not seem like a lot, but they’re fine to get
going. Alix just needs to add some detail:
ALIX:
Natasha’s my best friend. She’s a bit smaller than me but we
wear the same size clothes and we sometimes swap. In fact the
first time I really noticed her was at a school disco, and we both
had the same top on, from Topshop.
ELIOT:
That sounds better. She uses words which contrast, like ‘but’
and ‘both’. It’s kept interesting and gives us lots of information.
After you’ve thought of this sort of detail, you can try to link
the paragraphs together – it’s much better than having ideas in
a random order. It sounds difficult, but it isn’t.
For instance, your information could be about changes through
time. So if it was about someone in your family, you’d write
about things as they grew up. Or if it was about the
environment, you could write about how it seems to get worse
over time, using ideas like this:
ALIX:
ELIOT:
Now more people have cars, so there’s more traffic and
pollution. We use more energy, with lots of things plugged in
around our homes. Children also seem to have lots more things,
like video games.
ALIX:
It would be easy to expand these ideas into separate paragraphs,
and into a good answer. You could link your ideas in other
ways, such as dealing with the most important information first.
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Or even write about something as if you were walking around
it.
ELIOT:
So if you had to write some information about your school,
imagine going from room to room, or from building to
building. This will help you remember the different subjects
and teachers.
ALIX:
Or imagine walking through the town centre – you’ll get lots of
ideas about what information you could write about.
ELIOT:
So when you are writing information, it’s really important to
pick your question carefully. If you don’t really know much
about something, you won’t be able to tell your readers much
either. So think hard, write down your ideas and choose the one
you know the most about.
Then link sentences together. You can use easy words, like ‘so,
and’, or ‘because’ as well as difficult ones, like ‘however,
despite’ and ‘in conclusion’.
You need to link your ideas and paragraphs as well. For
example, you could look at changes over time, or at contrasts,
or write about things in the order a visitor would see them.
Remember – when you are writing to inform, you should
always be telling the reader about something, or someone.
Writing to inform, explain or describe: Writing to explain
This audio bite is about writing to explain.
ALIX:
When you write to explain, you should be doing two basic
things. You should be giving information about the subject, and
you should be answering the questions why, or how, or what.
It’s this second bit that seems odd – it might be easy to say
what your favourite TV programme is, but not so easy to say
why it’s your favourite.
ELIOT:
But that’s what the exam asks you to do – you must explain
something. So you need to plan carefully and get as much detail
as possible. For example, if you really like EastEnders, make a
list of reasons, like this:
ALIX:
Most of my friends like it, so we talk about it at school. I fancy
one of the lads in it, and sometimes the stories are things that
happen to friends of mine. It also makes me think about what
I’d do if I was in that situation.
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ELIOT:
That’s not a bad start. There are four basic reasons, but so far
it’s not really an essay. It’s just a list. But if you take each
reason separately, you could add lots of examples and detail,
like this:
ALIX:
I fancy one of the lads in it. He’s got a lovely smile and loads
of girls in my class think he’s great. He’s a bit cheeky and he
seems to get away with murder in the stories. He’s often in the
paper too, and I had a free poster of him because I collected
some tokens. I’d watch anything he was in.
ELIOT:
A paragraph like that isn’t difficult to write. All Alix was doing
was filling in some of the details and talking about things she
already knew really well. You need to do the same. You need
to develop each paragraph so that you give examples and
information to go with your reason. You can even go further
and explain a lot more, like this:
ALIX:
Sometimes the stories are things that happen to friends of mine.
This makes you believe that the people are real and not just
actors. Like the time when there was a story about someone
stealing some money from their mum. Jodie in my class did
this, and she got found out, just like in the programme. In a
way, it taught me never to do anything like that, and that’s why
it’s such as good programme.
ELIOT:
The question you have might look a bit more difficult than this
– it could be about a difficult choice you made, or choosing a
holiday for a friend, then explaining your choice. Or even
choosing a number of birthday presents for your family, and
then giving your reasons.
ALIX:
Whatever it is, the basic idea is always the same - you plan
your information into paragraphs, then add interesting detail to
the reasons. So for a present for your younger sister…
ELIOT:
I’d get Katie, my sister, a camera phone because she’s always
calling her friends, she loves taking photos, she’s always
hogging our phone at home, and it’d make her feel safer when
she’s out.
ALIX:
Again there are four main reasons here, and if you added
examples, each could become a full paragraph. So when you’re
writing to explain, plan as much as possible. Give information.
Give reasons. Keep thinking about why, how and what.
And add detail – it’s no good just having a short list. So put
each idea in its own paragraph. Then add examples and as
much detail as you can. It’s fine to use stories about your
friends or family too – this isn’t just filling up the page. It
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makes your explanation clearer. It also makes your writing
more interesting and more personal.
Writing to inform, explain or describe: Writing to describe
This is audio bite is about writing to describe.
ALIX:
Writing to describe sounds easy – the questions are
straightforward, like describe someone you know well, or
describe a favourite room. But there is a knack to getting it
right. Firstly, you need to give lots of details. Secondly, you
need to make it interesting for others to read.
ELIOT:
It’s a bit like drawing a picture, the details you provide are like
the different shapes and colours. And the more details you
write about, the clearer the picture is.
ALIX:
One way to do it is to think of our five senses. What you can
see, what you can touch, what you can smell, what you can
taste and what you can hear. You won’t want to use all of these
all of the time, but the senses can be very useful. For example:
ELIOT:
The door creaked open and I immediately smelt the musty
dampness. It was horrible. I reached for the light switch but my
hand found a thick cobweb which stuck to my fingers.
ALIX:
It doesn’t have to be scary, but it should add to the detail and
there’s no reason why you can’t use your senses to describe all
sorts of things. For example, what could you hear in a
supermarket? What things would you see on the school bus?
What could you smell at the seaside?
ELIOT:
A second way to add detail is to imagine you are a camera.
What you are writing about is a series of photos you have
taken. So imagine you are describing a party you went to, the
first ‘photo’ is taken before you go in, like this:
ALIX:
I could see lights shining brightly from Shaun’s house and I
could hear the muffled music from the end of the road.
ELIOT:
And another ‘photo’ is taken when you are watching some girls
dancing, like this:
ALIX:
There were three girls, about 16 years old, wearing flared jeans
and hippy tops. The tallest, with long blonde hair and a silly
pair of pink sunglasses, was trying to do the dance from an
Austin Powers film.
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ELIOT:
Alix has given lots of detail here. But she’s also made it more
interesting by carefully selecting what she describes. For
example, it would be boring to know exactly what the dance
was, step by step, or every single thing the girls were wearing.
But what Alix has described gives us a clear image of them.
The other thing she’s done is just describe what she saw. Many
people make the mistake of telling a story – they want to write
about what they did at the party. If you do this you are not
answering the question and you won’t spend much time
actually describing the scene.
ALIX:
So when you are writing to describe, remember to stick to the
question you’ve chosen. And remember that it is the detail that
counts. You need to paint a picture with this detail, so give as
much information as you can.
Use your senses as much as you can. The easiest ones are what
you see and hear, but don’t forget what you touch, taste and
smell.
Try to take snapshots of the scene in your mind. You could do
one ‘photo’ for each paragraph and so you cover a number of
different things.
Don’t try to describe the obvious things in great detail. Instead,
look for any interesting and unusual detail - there is always
something you can find - and make absolutely sure you
describe that.
Reading poems from other cultures: Typical questions and
comparing poems
This audio bite is about typical questions and comparing poems.
ALIX:
When you are doing the poetry section in the exam, pick which
question you do carefully. You won’t have studied all the
poems – they are divided into two groups and most classes just
study one group. So go for poems you know. The question will
usually tell you one of the poems you should write about, and
let you choose the second one. Like this:
ELIOT:
Compare the ways in which poets describe a place in Blessing,
and in one other poem.
ALIX:
So you need another poem in mind which deals with place. It
sounds difficult. But there are lots to choose from. For
example, Presents from My Aunts, or Nothing’s Changed, or
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Hurricane Hits England. In fact, the whole set of poems is
about different places. So you shouldn’t struggle too much.
And then the question usually has some bullet points, like this:
ELIOT:
Write about what you are told about the places, the language
used to describe these places, and what the poets think about
the places.
ALIX:
You should answer these questions. They are really meant to
help you – so instead of guessing what to write about, you
know you should say something about the place, about the
language in the poems and about the poets’ attitudes – what
they think.
ELIOT:
So if you chose Nothing’s Changed, you could write about how
the place was full of weeds, but in the middle there were two
places – a cheap café and an expensive restaurant. You’d give
all the details about these three, then write about language.
ALIX:
For instance, the poet uses lot of contrasting words to describe
the places, such as the ‘single rose’ in one, and the ‘spit’ on the
floor in the other. He also repeats the word ‘glass’ or ‘pane’ to
show the invisible barrier between people.
ELIOT:
And finally you’d deal with his attitude – he’s angry and he
can’t see that it’s going to change soon. Now that’s a very
quick version – you’d have to write a bit more than that. You’d
also have to compare it with the other poem.
ALIX:
You can compare the two poems as you go along – if you were
writing about the first point, you’d add that in Blessing, the
place is very different. It’s very dry but also full of life when
there is water.
ELIOT:
You don’t have to compare as you go along – you can write the
bullet points about the first poem, and then compare it with the
second. Both ways are fine.
ALIX:
You need to look for things which are similar, so use words
like ‘and, also, both, like’, and ‘similarly’.
ELIOT:
And look for things which are different, so use words like ‘but,
unlike, however,’ and ‘alternatively’. There is more
information about individual poems in other audio clips, and
you can also look at the GCSE Bitesize website for extra ideas.
ALIX:
So pick your question carefully, making sure it’s a poem you
know and an idea you can answer. You should write about a
second poem, so again make sure it’s one that has something to
say about the question.
14
The bullet points are a guide to help you, so answer them all.
Make sure you compare the two poems, looking for anything
which seems the same, and anything which is different.
There are more ideas in the other audio revision bites.
Reading poems from other cultures: Keywords and writing about
language
This audio bite is about keywords and writing about language.
ELIOT:
There is nothing difficult about spotting the key words in the
question. It’s in the first part, telling you to write about places,
or people, or traditions, or living within two different cultures,
or conflicts between cultures.
ALIX:
These questions might seem very different, but they all revolve
around the same group of poems, and they all have something
to do with culture. You won’t know what the exam questions
will be – we don’t either. Only the chief examiner will know.
ELIOT:
But we do know that the questions are about different cultures.
So they will be about particular places, so you should think
about the climate, the history and the atmosphere.
ALIX:
And they will be about different beliefs, so you should think
about the different people, their religions, traditions, politics
and attitudes.
ELIOT:
And often questions will be about language. Many of the
poems contain words which describe ideas which might be new
to us. For instance, one poem mentions Oya, the goddess of
wind. And another poem has a section written in another
language. Language is important because it is something that
we all use, but every community uses it differently.
ALIX:
Another reason for looking at language is that it’s often part of
the question – you are often asked to write about how the poet
uses language.
ELIOT:
At first this seems odd – they all use language, otherwise you
wouldn’t be able to read the poem. But what you need to do is
show you understand the choices a poet has made. One easy
way is to write about a word that isn’t normally used in
England – this shows that the writer is talking about a different
culture.
15
ALIX:
Another way is to look closely at the other words they use.
These words might give us clues to how a writer views
something, like this:
ELIOT:
In Vultures, the poet shows how the birds don’t seem to feel
any emotion by describing their eyes as ‘cold’.
ALIX:
You could also write about the type of English that is used. It
might have an unusual way of spelling words, and it might be
written in a particular dialect or accent, like this:
ELIOT:
Half-Caste uses a Caribbean dialect and accent. For instance
the poet writes ‘dat’ in place of ‘that’ and ‘wid’ in place of
‘with’.
ALIX:
It might be written out on the page in an unusual way, with
little or no punctuation, like this:
ELIOT:
In Two Scavengers, the poem doesn’t have clear sentences, full
stops or commas. Even the lines don’t all start in the same
place – some lines start on the left, some on the right and some
in the middle.
ALIX:
So read the question carefully and make sure you are answering
the question. Do not just write all you know about two poems.
The question will have something to do with culture – if you
are not too sure exactly what a word means, think about the
different ideas of culture, such as traditions, language, beliefs,
places and people.
You will usually have to write about language, so think about
particular words or phrases a poet uses. Then look at anything
which is a little unusual, such as the spelling, the accents, the
punctuation and the way the lines are printed on the page.
Reading poems from other cultures: Poetic techniques and quotes
This audio bite is about poetic techniques and quotes.
ALIX:
Many people get worried about poetry – they feel they must
write about lots of things they don’t really understand and use
lots of difficult words to describe these things, like this:
ELIOT:
In Search for My Tongue, there is an extended metaphor near
the end. This makes the idea easier to understand and the poem
is more descriptive.
16
ALIX:
That might sound good, but it isn’t. Eliot doesn’t tell us what
the metaphor is.
ELIOT:
Well, here it’s making a comparison between a language and a
plant, that’s why.
ALIX:
He also doesn’t tell us why it’s an extended metaphor.
ELIOT:
Oh, it’s an extended metaphor because the poet makes several
references – there is a stump, shoots, buds, and blossoms.
ALIX:
And most importantly, Eliot doesn’t tell us what the idea in the
poem is. You see, poetry is about ideas, it’s about
communicating a message, so you must always write about the
ideas. Once you’ve got the main ideas, you can show how the
poet uses language to express these ideas.
ELIOT:
The language might be about the words in the poem, or the
spelling, or how the lines are laid out. And then you can write
about the special techniques they use in poetry. It’s useful to
know some, but you need Alix’s golden rules first:
ALIX:
One - when you’re writing about poetry, it’s the ideas that
count the most. Two – only use the terms you understand,
because it sounds much, much better. Three – only use the
terms if they are helpful. For example, if there are no
metaphors in the poem, don’t write a whole paragraph about
metaphors.
ELIOT:
So metaphors are easy – they describe one thing as something
else. And similes describe something like or as something else.
So if we say the people came in ‘like swarms of flies’, it’s a
simile. Both metaphors and similes tell us about the imagery –
the pictures that the poem paints in our minds – so don’t forget
to write what the image is and why the poet chose it. In other
words, what does this add to the poem?
ALIX:
Rhyming is used in some poems, with phrases like ‘white key’
and ‘symphony’. This might give the poem a clearer structure,
and it often makes it easier to read out or remember.
And alliteration is when the same sound at the beginning of
words is repeated, like using the ‘D’ in ‘drizzle of one
despondent dawn’.
ELIOT:
And the other thing you need to do is use short quotes – it
shows you understand the poem. But many people make the
mistake of quoting too much, copying out several lines at once.
You should choose more carefully – often one word is enough,
like this:
17
ALIX:
In Vultures, the poet makes the scene focus on death and so
even the tree is ‘dead’.
ELIOT:
Just one word is used here, dead, but it makes the point. If you
listen to the audio clips on particular poems, you’ll see how to
use very short quotes.
ALIX:
So remember that you don’t need to learn lots of complicated
terms – what counts is understanding the main ideas.
You probably already know about metaphors, similes, imagery,
rhyming and alliteration – if you want to use any more terms,
make sure they are the right terms. And when you give an
example from a poem, make sure it’s a short example.
Reading poems from other cultures: Search for My Tongue
This audio bite is about Search for My Tongue by Sujata Bhatt.
ALIX:
Search for My Tongue is about language. A tongue is what you
speak with, but it also means ‘language’, so your mother tongue
is your first language. And the title, Search for My Tongue,
gives us the idea that it’s a person who’s lost their first
language, and they are trying to find it again.
ELIOT:
The poet’s mother tongue is Gujerati, spoken in India, where
she was born, but later she moved to America and then spoke
mainly English. So one of the ideas in the poem is that she may
be forgetting her first language – instead she talks to people in
English. And in the poem she talks about her feelings about
speaking two languages.
ALIX:
The poet starts by talking about having two tongues in her
mouth. Here she is using a metaphor – she means her two
languages. She says that one language doesn’t really know the
other and it’s as if she thinks differently in the two languages.
She can’t use both together, so perhaps it’s like she’s a different
person when she uses the other language.
ELIOT:
Just like when you have to learn a foreign language at school,
or if you go abroad on holiday – you sometimes can’t really
explain what you want like you can in English.
ALIX:
And she finishes the first part by saying if you lived abroad,
your first language would die, apart from when you dream. And
suddenly the next part of the poem is in Gujerati. Which most
people in England can’t read or understand. So now we begin
18
to know how she feels when she is in a new country – she feels
lost, or she can’t communicate, or she feels an outsider.
ELIOT:
The last part is in English again, and it’s a translation of the
middle section. It is the dream she mentioned earlier, saying
that while she sleeps her mother tongue gets stronger and
stronger and becomes her first language again. The poet uses
another metaphor here – she compares her language to a plant
which grows, has veins, then buds and then the plant blossoms.
ALIX:
So at the start, she saw her mother tongue as something that
was rotting away, and at the end as something that was growing
stronger all the time.
ELIOT:
The middle part of the poem, in Gujerati, seems odd at first.
There is a guide in brackets about how to pronounce it, so we
can all have a go saying it, but most of us don’t understand
what it means. And the English version comes second, after her
mother tongue. So the poet again gives you an idea of how she
feels – you can make the sounds, but you still feel it’s all
foreign to you.
ALIX:
So the main idea in Search for My Tongue is that if you live
somewhere new and have to learn a second language, you
might feel that this new language is taking over.
Your first language seems to die away, but the poem suggests
that when you dream, your first language comes back and gets
stronger.
The poet might want us to think of more difficult ideas too perhaps that your first language is part of your culture. It is
your link to your family, your childhood, and it is the link to
who you are.
Because of this, you can use Search for My Tongue to write
about coping with change, or about living in different cultures,
or about your identity. You can also use it to show how
important language is.
Reading poems from other cultures: Presents from My Aunts in
Pakistan
This audio bite is about Presents from My Aunts in Pakistan by Moniza Alvi.
ELIOT:
Presents from My Aunts in Pakistan is about how the poet felt
when she was around 13 years old and living in England. Her
19
father was from Pakistan, her mother from England, and she
felt she didn’t really belong to either country, or either culture.
ALIX:
The poem starts with her thinking about the presents, mainly
clothes and jewellery, which her aunts sent her over the years.
These are from Pakistan and they are very different to what she
normally wears. They are very colourful, and she seems to like
looking at them. However, she doesn’t seem so happy to wear
them because they don’t fit in with the way of life in England.
ELIOT:
In fact, she even says she was alien in the sitting room – that
these presents felt completely out of place. And then she says
she longed for denim, as if wearing jeans would make her fit in,
and that she’d feel more English, and more at home.
ALIX:
Then she thinks about other things which they have in the
house from Pakistan, like a camel-skin lamp, her mother’s
jewellery and her salwar kameez, which is like loose trousers
and a top. Each of these brings back a strong memory.
ELIOT:
And each one has a strong contrast. For instance, the lamp is
cruel, but beautiful. Her mother loved the jewellery, but it was
stolen. She admired her clothes, but they didn’t impress her
friend.
ALIX:
Perhaps the best contrast is when she describes her clothes from
Pakistan as ‘radiant’, meaning they seem very colourful and
special. But her family in Pakistan seem more impressed by an
ordinary cardigan from Marks and Spencers.
ELIOT:
The poet writes this to show how she never felt at home in
either culture. Each culture seems to have different ideas about
what is good, or what is beautiful. And the things in her home
constantly remind her that she is a mixture of the two cultures.
ALIX:
The last part of the poem is when the clothes remind her about
sailing to England when she was young. Even then she seemed
unhappy – she cried on the way and when she arrived, she
played alone.
ELIOT:
Photographs give her an idea of Pakistan, but she hasn’t been
back since she left as a baby and she can only imagine what it
is like. She imagines the war that took place, and her aunts
wrapping up the presents they sent her, and finally she
imagines herself there.
ALIX:
She then says she is of no fixed nationality. She isn’t English,
she says she’s only half-English. And she isn’t Pakistani now –
in fact she describes herself as looking through fretwork at the
20
Shalimar Gardens, as if she’s an outsider looking at other
people through a fence. And realising she doesn’t belong there.
ELIOT:
So Presents from My Aunts in Pakistan is all about growing up
in two cultures. It uses the presents she’s been sent to make
contrasts between Pakistan and England. A lot of the poem is
about the young girl’s feelings – she likes the presents, but they
don’t really suit her. And the more she thinks about it, the less
at home she feels. At the end, it’s as if she feels homeless – she
is stuck between two very different places.
Presents from My Aunts in Pakistan has a lot to say about
identity and culture but you could also use it if you wanted to
write about change, a particular place or childhood experiences.
Reading poems from other cultures: Half Caste
This audio bite is about Half Caste by John Agard.
ALIX:
John Agard, the poet who wrote Half-Caste, is of mixed race,
with a black father and a white mother. He doesn’t want to be
thought of as half a person, which the term half-caste implies.
So the poem makes fun of the idea that mixing things is wrong.
It also carries a serious message about racism – we should not
judge people by their race, skin colour or culture. And we
shouldn’t use words that insult other people.
ELIOT:
The poem starts with an unusual idea – the poet is standing on
just one leg because he is ‘half-caste’. Then the poet makes a
number of comparisons which make the idea of half a person
more and more ridiculous. For instance, if a painter uses two
colours, is it a half-caste painting?
ALIX:
Or if someone plays black and white keys on a piano, is it a
half-caste symphony? And he says that because it’s often
cloudy in England, English weather must be half-caste.
ELIOT:
So by the end of the poem we know that this idea of being just
a half is silly. He really is a whole person, and other people
should treat him not as someone different, someone to look
down on, but as himself.
ALIX:
The comparisons in the poem are very clear. He picks out two
famous people, Picasso, a painter, and Tchaikovsky, a
composer. These are well-known and we can’t really believe
they only did something that was half good. He also changes
English expressions to include the word ‘half’ – so he only
offers us ‘half a hand’, shuts ‘half an eye’ and has only ‘half a
shadow’.
21
ELIOT:
These contrasts make fun of English culture. But the poet
shows he is proud of his own culture by the language he uses.
The poem is written in the language of his community, a
Caribbean dialect and accent. For instance he says ‘dat’ in
place of ‘that’ and ‘wid’ in place of ‘with’.
The spelling is also different, so he writes ‘you’ as ‘Y – U’ and
the grammar is non-standard as well. For instance, he keeps
saying, ‘Wha yu mean’ when in standard English we’d write,
‘What do you mean?’
ALIX:
On top of this, he uses very few capital letters and almost no
punctuation. So it’s sometimes not easy to see when a sentence
starts and when it finishes. This is probably because the poem
is meant to be performed – it’s not meant to be read silently.
It also has lots of rhymes, like ‘mean’ and ‘keen’, or
‘understand’ and ‘hand’. And it repeats words, especially the
word ‘half’ so it’s hard to forget what it is about.
ELIOT:
And at the end of the poem he wants us to look, listen and think
of him using the whole of our bodies. And if we do that, he will
tell us the other half of his story. So it’s like he’s telling us that
there’s more we should know, but we’ll only know it if we are
open-minded.
ALIX:
Half-Caste is about the use of a particular term to describe
mixed race people. It makes fun of this by using the idea of ‘a
half’ and applying it to well-known people, things and
expressions. These contrasts make the term ‘half-caste’
ridiculous.
There is a serious message here. People of different races and
cultures should be treated equally. This is made clearer by the
poet using non-standard English. He makes it easier for us to
remember his message by repeating ideas and words, and by
using rhyme.
Half-Caste has a lot to say about identity. Because of this, you
can easily use it to write about how individuals see themselves,
or about living in different cultures. It would also be an
excellent choice if you wanted to write about how language can
be used in unusual ways in poetry.
22
Reading poems from other cultures: Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two
Beautiful People in a Mercedes
This audio bite is about Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a
Mercedes by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
ALIX:
Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a
Mercedes is an unusual poem, but that doesn’t make it a
difficult one. It’s about two pairs of people meeting for a
moment in a busy city at nine o’clock in the morning. They are
strangers and never speak to each other. In fact they are only
near each other because they are waiting for the traffic lights to
change.
ELIOT:
The first pair are dustmen. They are finishing their working day
and going back to the depot. They are hanging off the back of
the dustbin lorry and looking down at a couple in a Mercedes
sports car.
ALIX:
These people in the Mercedes seem the very opposite of the
dustbin men. They are starting their day and seem rich,
successful and fashionable. And the poem seems to be about
two things. It makes lots of contrasts between the two pairs.
And it seems to criticise the society which makes the
differences between people so large.
ELIOT:
When the poet’s describing the dustbin men, it is often
negative, dirty and cheap. For instance, their jackets are plastic,
they are grungy (or mucky and grimy), and he calls them
‘scavengers’. We usually think of scavengers as animals that
live off whatever others leave behind, like vultures. And in a
way that’s what they are – they are paid to take away what
others don’t want. But they do an important job and we
couldn’t live without them.
ALIX:
The poet describes the couple in the Mercedes in a very
positive way. He wears a suit and her hair is nicely done, or as
he says it’s ‘casually coifed’. They look cool, and their car
shows just how rich they must be.
ELIOT:
But at the same time the poet also seems to criticise this couple.
He says it’s like watching an ‘odorless TV’ advert, so they
don’t look like real people and they sound too good to be true.
ALIX:
The poet then shows us how two of the men are similar. They
are the same age, wear sunglasses and have long hair. And of
course they live in the same city – they should be equal.
23
ELIOT:
This idea is made very clear at the end. The four people are
next to each other, but there is a ‘gulf’ between them - they are
living in different worlds.
ALIX:
One of the unusual things about the poem is that it doesn’t have
clear sentences, full stops or commas. Even the lines don’t all
start in the same place – some lines start on the left, some on
the right and some in the middle.
ELIOT:
This is done on purpose. The four people are together for a few
seconds and the poet quickly notes down some differences. It
also means that when you read it, you stop at different places,
and this might make you think about different ideas in the
poem, and what you think of modern life.
ALIX:
Two Scavengers in a Truck is about the differences between
people. It is set in America, but it could be about almost any
modern city. The poet shows how differently people are treated
– some people do horrible jobs with difficult hours and earn
very little; others seem to work far less but have lots of money.
The poem uses language in an interesting way, so it would be a
good choice if you wanted to write about how language might
be used in different ways. You could also use Two Scavengers
if you wanted to write about different cultures, or politics, or
change, or about a particular place.
Reading poems from other cultures: Unrelated Incidents
This audio bite is about Unrelated Incidents by Tom Leonard.
ELIOT:
Unrelated Incidents is a poem about language. It’s about being
proud of the accent and dialect you speak, and how the
television often uses just one type of accent and ignores the
others.
ALIX:
At the start it doesn’t seem like a poem at all. It seems to be
someone reading the six o’clock news, but it’s not the normal
English accent. Instead it’s a Scottish accent, from Glasgow.
ELIOT:
And instead of politely reading the news, the newsreader starts
to call the listeners ‘scruffs’. He tells them that if he talked like
them, they wouldn’t believe what he said. He then says that
there’s a right way to talk and a right way to spell. And what
he’s doing is the right way for him.
24
ALIX:
And then he says that other people won’t know this truth
because they don’t talk like he does. And finally, instead of
ending the news normally, he tells his listeners to ‘belt up’. So
what is it all about?
ELIOT:
Well, the poet is from Glasgow and he’s making the point that
most of the media, like the television or radio, comes from
England. And the speakers usually have posh English accents,
like BBC newsreaders, so people coming from different regions
are ignored.
ALIX:
It can easily sound like he’s making fun of these announcers by
using his own way of speaking. He’s not actually reading the
news – he’s talking personally to the listeners, and at times he
insults them.
ELIOT:
But the poem can also be seen as serious. He is angry about the
situation and feels that it is a political decision. English culture
is so powerful that his local accent seems less important and
less truthful that even people from Glasgow are less likely to
believe him.
ALIX:
And if you read the poem a few times you realise he is right –
we find it funny to hear the news read out in this accent, but
only because we aren’t used to it. And it’s not fair that different
accents, whether in Scotland or elsewhere, are ignored.
ELIOT:
In order to make it sound like the Glasgow accent, many of the
words are spelled differently. For instance, ‘my’ is written
‘M – I’, and ‘true’ is written ‘T – R – O – O’. As well as this,
there are no commas and all the lines are very short. This
makes it look like an autocue, which newsreaders use.
ALIX:
But the newsreader in this poem also sounds very informal, as
if he’s talking to someone in a pub and not on national TV. For
example, he uses phrases like ‘yi canny talk right’.
ELIOT:
Unrelated Incidents uses language as its main topic. The main
message is that there is no correct way to speak. The poet
thinks that TV and radio commentators often speak with a BBC
accent, so many people in Britain feel ignored.
You’ll probably find the poem is funny, but the poet seems to
be making a serious point, that different cultures are pushed
aside.
Language is very important, so you need to write about
spellings and about how the reader uses informal words, like
‘scruff’. And don’t forget that it doesn’t use a lot of punctuation
and the lines are very short, like an autocue.
25
Unrelated Incidents would make a good choice if you wanted
to write about language, and how it can be used in unusual
ways. You could also use the poem if you wanted to write
about identity, or about different cultures.
Reading poems from other cultures: Nothing’s Changed
This audio bite is about Nothing’s Changed by Tatamkhulu Afrika.
ALIX:
Nothing’s Changed is about a man going back after many years
to an area he knew well in South Africa. The government had
been racist, so white people were in charge and black people
had few rights. But the government had changed, and the poet
hoped he would see a different society. Sadly, everything he
sees seems to be the same as it was. For that reason, he called
the poem Nothing’s Changed.
ELIOT:
The poem starts with him walking across waste ground. There
is nothing there but ‘hard stones’ and ‘weeds’. He realises it is
Area Six, the area he lived in and he gets angry as he
remembers how badly people were treated.
ALIX:
He spots a new building, some sort of expensive hotel. But he
says it ‘squats’ here, as if it doesn’t belong to the area. And it
just seems to be for whites – it’s too expensive for anyone else,
and it even has a guard to stop poor people getting in.
ELIOT:
When he walks away he finds a working man’s café, one that
whites probably don’t go to. It’s the opposite of the inn – it is
cheap and very basic.
ALIX:
And the poet realises for an instant that he feels exactly like he
did many years ago. When he was a young boy he was so angry
that he wanted to destroy things, to throw stones and even plant
bombs. But now his feelings might be different. He ends the
poem by simply saying, ‘Nothing’s changed’ so we can’t be
sure whether he’s just sad, or if he’s still angry, or whether he
thinks things will ever get better in South Africa.
ELIOT:
It’s a very personal poem, making use of contrasts between the
whites and the blacks in this area. But he never talks about the
people themselves – he only talks about the two places where
they eat, and the wasteland around these places. So in that way
he’s not angry at people, but at the situation. One of the key
points is this contrast.
26
ALIX:
For instance, the inn has imported things, like the ‘haute
cuisine’ food, from France. And everything about it is for the
rich whites – even the glass is a ‘white glass’ and there is a rose
on each table.
ELIOT:
The café is nothing like this – it has plastic table tops, it sells
‘bunny chows’, about the cheapest take-away food in South
Africa, and ‘you wipe your fingers on your jeans’.
ALIX:
And the rest of the area is just weeds and grass. As well as this
contrast, the poet also mentions ‘glass’ quite a lot. He uses this
idea to show the divide between the people. They can see each
other, and the poet can see in through the window of the inn.
But the two groups of people do not seem to mix or
communicate.
ELIOT:
We aren’t clear what the poet thinks about the situation now.
He must be concerned, because he’s written a poem about it.
But you’ll have to decide for yourself if he’s still angry or just
accepts it.
ALIX:
Nothing’s Changed is very much about life in South Africa.
But it’s also about people’s feelings when they realise they
can’t change the situation. So the message in the poem can
apply to many other places as well.
The poet feels strongly about injustice. He makes very clear
comparisons about the inn and the café. He also uses ‘glass’ as
a way to show how the population of South Africa is separated.
Nothing’s Changed would make a good choice if you wanted to
write about change, about different cultures, or identity or
particular places.
Reading poems from other cultures: Blessing
This audio bite is about Blessing by Imtiaz Dharker.
ELIOT:
Blessing is about water and its importance to our lives. The
poem is set in a poor area of India. It gets far hotter than in
England, but water is in short supply. And the poem tells us
how precious water is for the people there – they think of it as a
special gift. And that’s why the poem is called Blessing.
ALIX:
It starts with the idea of skin that ‘cracks like a pod’ and then
the simple line, ‘There never is enough water’. So we know
that it is very dry. And then the poet imagines what it would be
27
like having water slowly dripping into a cup. Its sound seems to
make it special, almost as if it came from a god.
ELIOT:
And then the poem suddenly comes to life – the poet describes
what it’s like when one of the pipes bursts and there is lots of
water pouring out. People run around collecting the water in
anything they can find. And the little children can’t believe
their luck – they are able to play in the water and they scream
for joy.
ALIX:
So in some ways it’s a very ordinary thing – if a pipe burst on
your road, you wouldn’t get all your neighbours frantically
running round collecting as much as they could. But of course,
in this area of India water is precious, and the poem uses
language to make this event very special.
ELIOT:
The first thing it does is use some religious words – so the
sound of the water is the voice of a god, the group of people is
described as a ‘congregation’, like in a church, and the poem is
called Blessing - a religious word describing a gift from God.
ALIX:
The poem also has a lot of imagery – like it’s painting pictures
in your mind. So at the beginning it talks about ‘skin’ – this
could be people’s skin, or it could be the ground, as if the earth
had a skin. And later on, it says that ‘silver crashes to the
ground’ – it’s not actually silver, it might be the water pipe or
the water. But using the word ‘silver’ reminds us how valuable
it is for the people living there.
ELIOT:
There are other images too. Near the end of the poem, the
children are playing in ‘liquid sun’ and this could make you
think of the happiness the water brings, like the sun coming
out.
ALIX:
The sentences also show how the poet views water. At the start,
when it’s very dry, the sentences are short, and nothing is
happening. It’s as if everybody is waiting for something.
ELIOT:
But later on the sentences are much longer. They flow over
different subjects, like the huts, the people, the pots and the
children. And this makes the longer sentences seem like the
water pouring out of the pipe.
ALIX:
The words the poet uses also show this difference – at the start
the water makes a ‘drip’ and a ‘small splash’. But later on there
is a ‘rush’, a ‘roar’ and it ‘crashes’.
ELIOT:
So if you choose to write about Blessing, don’t forget that it is
about water. But it’s also about what is important in our lives. It
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is set in India, and so would make a contrast with any poem set
in a particular place.
The use of language is important. It is not in a dialect and it
doesn’t use an accent, but it does use English in a special way.
It has religious words in. It uses lots of images. And it also uses
different sentences to help us understand how valuable water is
for this community. So you could easily use Blessing if you
wanted to show how language is important in some poems.
Reading poems from other cultures: Night of the Scorpion
This audio bite is about Night of the Scorpion by Nissim Ezekiel.
ELIOT:
Night of the Scorpion is set in an Indian village and describes
what happened when a scorpion stung the poet’s mother. A
scorpion sting is very, very painful – sometimes the sting can
kill. So people from the village hurry in with suggestions about
what to do. They try all sorts of traditional cures. Nothing
seems to work but the woman slowly recovers. So the poem
seems to be about the different reactions of the villagers to the
scorpion attack.
ALIX:
The poem starts by setting the scene – it had been raining and
the scorpion was hiding beneath a sack of rice. The woman
obviously disturbed it and was stung on her toe. But the poet
describes the scorpion as having a ‘diabolic tail’ – so the
scorpion’s not just an animal, it seems to be like the devil. It is
something that everybody in the village is frightened of.
ELIOT:
Then the poem describes the different ways the villagers want
to cure the woman. They chanted the name of God, hoping that
would stop the pain. They searched for the scorpion, thinking
that would help. They even clicked their tongues to stop the
poison hurting the woman. They also told her that her pain
would make her a better person.
ALIX:
But nothing worked – she ‘twisted’ and lay there ‘groaning’.
Her husband didn’t seem to believe in any of these traditional
cures, but he tried everything he could to stop the pain. He even
poured paraffin on the sting and lit it – but that probably just
made things worse. And a holy man came to help, but again it
had no effect. When the pain stopped, the woman only said that
she was glad it was her, and not her children.
ELIOT:
So the poem shows just how the whole community in the
village gathers to help – they all face the same danger and it’s
important that they stick together. But it also tells us a lot about
their culture. They seem to see natural events not as random but
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as being caused by things. So the scorpion is evil, and saying
the name of God might help to scare it away.
ALIX:
We don’t have these beliefs in England and they could seem
silly – but many of us do odd things, like not walking under a
ladder, or avoiding the number 13. And if we had scorpions,
we’d probably invent lots of odd cures as well.
ELIOT:
The poet was probably young when the attack took place. It’s
full of information about what the villagers do, but also about
the boy’s attitude. At first he gives reasons why the scorpion
did it. Then he gets irritated by all the people coming. He’s also
frightened – the shadows the people make on the walls seem
like giant scorpions.
ALIX:
But he is also more and more concerned – his mother is in pain
and he keeps this dreadful picture of the paraffin and the ‘flame
feeding off my mother’. When she recovers at the end, he uses
her own words to show her love for her children.
ELIOT:
At first Night of the Scorpion doesn’t really tell us what the
poet thinks of his culture. Instead, it’s like a list of what people
believed in this Indian village, such as using the name of God
to cure people. It also reminds us of the suffering that people in
other countries have to go through.
But the poet does seem to believe in fate – that you can’t
change things in your life. The villagers, his father and the holy
man all try, but the only thing that works is time. So this would
be a good poem to use to write about the idea of change. You
could also use it to write about particular places, or to write
about childhood experiences. And of course, the poem tells us a
lot about another culture.
Reading poems from other cultures: Hurricane Hits England
This audio bite is about Hurricane Hits England by Grace Nichols.
ALIX:
Hurricane Hits England is about living in two cultures – the
poet comes from the Caribbean but lives in England. And the
poem is about one strong storm in England – much stronger
than normal – which made her think of the hurricanes in the
Caribbean. And then it made her think of her homeland – where
she was born. And she finally writes that ‘the earth is the earth
is the earth’ – perhaps she means that she is the same person
wherever she lives.
ELIOT:
The poem starts by describing a storm in the night on the south
coast of England. It was actually a hurricane, which is almost
30
unknown in England, and the poet felt it was frightening. But
she also felt reassured – it reminded her of where she was born,
because hurricanes are common there.
ALIX:
She talks to the hurricane, using names like ‘Oya’ and
‘Shango’. These reflect her other culture – they are names of
gods of wind and thunder. Then she asks why the hurricane
came here. It seems to be ‘old tongues’, or things she
remembers, which have come back in a new place.
ELIOT:
She describes the destruction – the electricity is off and trees
are uprooted. But somehow she feels happy and her heart is
‘unchained’. She says she’s following the movement of the
winds, and that this storm has changed her.
ALIX:
So the poem isn’t just about the storm – it’s more to do with
how she sees England. The poet writes about a ‘frozen lake’
which the storm breaks. So she’s been set free – she now feels
closer to England than she did before. And she probably feels
closer because she realises ‘the earth is the earth is the earth’ –
it is the same world we live on, and we are all connected
together in some way.
ELIOT:
The poem uses images and metaphors to make its ideas come
alive. So the wind is a ‘howling ship’. This makes us think of
the noise, but also that the wind is going from place to place.
Which is what the poet did when she moved to England. And in
her mind she has moved back to the Caribbean.
ALIX:
The poet also asks a number of questions. Some of them seem
to be for the hurricane, but others are more like questions she’s
asking herself. For instance, asking why her heart is unchained.
This shows her confusion – she is confused about the storm,
and who she is – she is living in a foreign land and doesn’t
really feel close to the place.
ELIOT:
The poem makes this confusion stronger by using
contradictions, like saying the storm is ‘fearful’ but it’s also
‘reassuring’. Or saying something is the ‘blinding illumination’
– it lets her see something, but at the same time it stops her
seeing it.
ALIX:
Hurricane Hits England tells us what it is like to be living in a
different culture. It also shows how natural events, like a storm,
can affect us.
It uses images, questions and contradictions to show the effect
of the storm, and to show the poet’s reactions.
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It would be a good choice if you wanted to write about living in
a different culture, or about two different cultures. You could
also use it if you wanted to write about change, because the
poet changed where she lived, and the hurricane changed how
she viewed the world.
Reading poems from other cultures: Vultures
This audio bite is about Vultures by Chinua Achebe.
ELIOT:
Vultures seems difficult at first. But it’s such a good poem,
with such strong ideas and images, it’s worth reading several
times. And it’s really nothing to do with vultures - it’s about
love, and evil. The main message is quite frightening because
the poet suggests two things – that even the most horrible
people and animals can show love. And that perhaps this love is
the thing that makes them so horrible.
ALIX:
It starts with a description of two vultures in a tree. They sound
disgusting – picking at the eyes of a corpse. But at the same
time they love each other. And the poet tells us how strange it
is that love can exist amongst all these dead animals that the
vultures are eating.
ELIOT:
The poem suddenly swaps to a completely different subject – it
talks about the second world war in Germany. The Nazis used
concentration camps to kill millions of people. And the poet
imagines the commander of the camp on his way home from
work. He has spent the day killing and burning bodies so he
smells of ‘human roast’ - but he stops off to buy his children
some chocolate. He obviously loves them, and they love him.
ALIX:
And this is where the poet asks the question – should we be
happy that people who do terrible things (like killing so many
people) still love their friends and family?
ELIOT:
Or is it because these people love their family so much they
will protect them in any way they can? Even going as far as
killing hundreds of thousands of people. The poet doesn’t
answer the question – you have to decide for yourself. And
when you realise that the poet lived through a civil war in
Africa, and saw what dreadful things people did, you realise
how important the question is.
ALIX:
But he isn’t really writing about Africa, or Germany, or
vultures. He is writing about evil – about the terrible things
people do. And he writes the poem in a timeless way – he
sometimes doesn’t use tenses. For instance, he writes ‘a vulture
32
perching’. And this makes us think that these evil things still
happen – they are a normal part of life. And the news does
seem to be full of terrible events, like terrorist bombings.
ELIOT:
The poem is full of images, most of them horrible. So the birds
perch on ‘broken bone of dead tree’ and have ‘cold telescopic
eyes’ – as if they are constantly looking for dead bodies. And
death is everywhere – the ‘fumes of human roast clinging’ to
the commandant’s ‘hairy nostrils’.
ALIX:
These images use metaphors – writing things which aren’t
actually true. For instance, a tree doesn’t have ‘bones’, it has
‘branches’. But the comparison makes the ideas stronger –
death really is part of this world. There are many other
metaphors, so love is a ‘tiny glow-worm’.
ELIOT:
Most of the ideas are negative, but the commandant is called
‘Daddy’ and the vultures sit ‘affectionately’ next to each other.
It is perhaps the images and contrasts that make the poem so
effective.
So Vultures carries a very strong message. It is
about love and evil in the world. It doesn’t really tell you what
to believe, but it suggests that love can be found everywhere,
and that evil might exist because of love.
The images or pictures in the poem are very strong. They are
usually about evil, and there is little here about love.
Vultures would be a good choice if you wanted to write about
particular places, cultures, politics or things that seem wrong or
unfair. It would also be a good choice if you wanted to show
how language can be used in a poem.
Reading non-fiction and media: Typical questions and types of text
This audio bite is about typical questions and types of text.
ALIX:
This part of the exam is all about reading – you’re given some
texts to read, usually just two texts, and some questions to
answer about them. So the first thing to do is … well, I
wouldn’t start by reading the texts!
ELIOT:
Yes, it seems odd, but Alix is exactly right. You have to answer
the questions, so start by reading these. They usually tell you
what the texts are about anyway. So if you had a question like
this:
33
ALIX:
Sharon is writing a letter to her friend, Hanifa. Read lines 3 to 9
closely. List three opinions from these lines that Sharon has
about animals and animal rights.
ELIOT:
We haven’t read the actual text yet, but we know who these
two people are, that one wrote a letter, and what the letter
seems to be about. We also know that lines 3 to 9 are the
important ones.
ALIX:
Now it could be that on line 2 in the passage there’s a really
difficult phrase, like ‘expressions of self pity’. You don’t quite
understand it. And it would be easy to panic and feel you really
don’t know what to do next. But it’s not part of the question. In
fact, you’d only see it when you’re skimming through looking
for the answer to the first question. And so you can ignore it,
because it’s not what you’re supposed to write about.
ELIOT:
So even if it seems is bit weird, try to go for the questions first,
and ignore things which you don’t need. The questions tend to
be similar each year – they start by asking you to find things in
the text. Like finding three opinions in the letter, or finding
some facts in a leaflet.
ALIX:
Then there’s usually a question asking you to explain
something that’s in the text. For instance, you might be asked
what examples a writer has chosen, and why they chose these.
ELIOT:
This means you’re not just copying from the text, but
understanding why it was written like this. The last two
questions usually focus on particular bits of the passages. You
might have to write about the purposes of a text, its audience
and its presentation – such as its use of pictures. Or you may
have to say how the writers use language.
ALIX:
And you won’t know what the passages will be on. You might
get all sorts of subjects, from scuba diving to pop music, from
collecting stamps to growing plants. You aren’t expected to
know the subject, because all the information you need is in the
passages.
ELIOT:
But you are expected to know how texts work, how they are put
together. There will be a media text, such as a newspaper
report, a magazine article or a leaflet. So you need to know
about things like purpose, audience and presentation.
ALIX:
So when you start, concentrate on the questions and don’t be
put off by difficult words in the passages.
You normally have a number of questions. At first you just
have to pick out information. Later on you must explain why
34
something is used. There are lots of different subjects you
could be asked about, but all the information you need is in the
passages.
There are longer questions on audience, purpose and
presentation, so listen to the audio clips which deal with these.
If you’ve got time, you could also go on the internet, maybe
visit GCSE Bitesize online to get some more ideas.
Reading non-fiction and media: Opinions and facts
This audio bite is about opinions and facts.
ELIOT:
The first question often asks you to write about opinions and
facts. Now this sounds easy. For instance, ‘Elvis Presley is
dead’ is a fact. But ‘Elvis’s music is great’ is an opinion – some
people like his music, others don’t.
ALIX:
Now it’s unlikely your question will be as easy as this. For a
start, you’ve got to find the information in the passage
somewhere. Then you’ve got to work out if it’s a fact or not.
Have a go at this one:
ELIOT:
Every year, hundreds of thousands of calves are separated from
their mothers within four days of birth.
ALIX:
Fact or opinion? Well, can you prove it? If you can, by looking
at evidence or other information, then it’s a fact. And what
Eliot said is a fact – you can look it up on the internet or in an
encyclopaedia. Have a go at another:
ELIOT:
Separating calves like this is cruel. It is done only to provide us
with cheap milk.
ALIX:
Fact or opinion? Well it’s an opinion – you can’t really look it
up and get a clear answer – some people would agree with it,
some wouldn’t. Have a go at a few more:
ELIOT:
Hundreds of people die in car accidents in Britain every year …
ALIX:
Fact
ELIOT:
... and car companies have made cars safer …
ALIX:
Fact
ELIOT:
... but they should much more …
ALIX:
Opinion
35
ELIOT:
... because lots of young people are careless and won’t ever
learn how to drive safely …
ALIX:
Opinion. And now have a go at a longer passage. Listen
carefully and see if you can find two facts and two opinions.
ELIOT:
A recent study shows that over half of 16 year olds in England
have either tried a drug or have been offered one. Drugs can be
easily found almost anywhere in the country, and things are
only going to get worse. However, most teenagers who try
drugs will not become dependent upon drugs.
ALIX:
How did you do? If you aren’t sure, play that section again –
you should have two facts, and two opinions.
If you’re sure – well, the first fact is about half the 16 year olds
trying or being offered drugs, and the second is that most don’t
become drug dependent. And the opinions?
ELIOT:
The first is that drugs can be easily found almost anywhere. A
lot of people wouldn’t agree – you couldn’t go around a church
or a primary school and ‘easily’ find some drugs.
ALIX:
In fact the passage gives the impression that there are drugs
lying around all over the place, and that’s not true. The second
opinion is that things are only going to get worse – some people
would agree, but others wouldn’t. And trying to say what will
happen in the future is really difficult anyway, so this must also
be an opinion.
ELIOT:
So there’s usually a question asking you to find facts or
opinions. Check you are looking at the right passage. If you are
given line numbers, make sure you take the information from
the right part. If you don’t, then you won’t be answering the
question.
When you find the information, think carefully before deciding
whether it’s a fact or an opinion. If you can check the
statement, such as testing it somewhere, it’s usually a fact. But
if you can’t, and it’s the sort of thing people might disagree
with, then it’s probably an opinion.
Reading non-fiction and media: Genre and audience
This audio bite is about genre and audience.
ALIX:
In the reading section you are often asked to write about genre,
audience and purpose. It might be easier to remember this as
36
G – A – P, or ‘Gap’. We’ll look at purpose later on – right now
we’ll just deal with genre and audience. So what are they, and
why are they important?
ELIOT:
Well there are always questions asking you to explain the sort
of texts you have, and that is what genre means. You could
have the same basic topic, for example karate, but you might
have passages from different genres. So you could have
something from an encyclopaedia – it would be full of
information, like where karate started, and the different types of
karate.
ALIX:
Or you could get a leaflet through your door about a local
karate school. It would have far fewer facts, because it would
be trying to persuade you to join the club. It would make karate
sound great, but it wouldn’t tell you about any of the moves.
ELIOT:
Or you might find a book in the library about improving your
karate – it would have instructions about what to do and
diagrams of the different moves. But it wouldn’t tell you about
your local club.
ALIX:
So the genre is the type of text. The exam often has passages
which are from leaflets or books. But it can also have
something from a magazine, a newspaper, a diary or an internet
site. It could even have something from the back of a cereal
packet – so remember to pay attention to what you see around
you.
ELIOT:
And the audience is who the passage is aimed at. So you might
find a simple book about karate in a primary school library – it
would give young children some of the history of karate and
explain what people wear when they do karate. But it wouldn’t
show young children exactly how to attack someone in the
playground, or how to hit someone with a rice flail.
ALIX:
But if you read an instruction manual for people who do karate
– they might already be purple belts – then you’d find all sorts
of things about how to defend yourself – and some of them
involve breaking bones.
ELIOT:
In fact the idea of writing for a particular audience is pretty
straightforward – you probably wouldn’t tell exactly the same
jokes to your mum as you tell to your friends. And writers think
carefully about who they are writing for too.
ALIX:
The trick in the exam is to put these ideas together – to show
how a writer has chosen to write in a particular way, and for a
particular group of people. You might write something like
this:
37
ELIOT:
This passage is probably for children because it’s nice to look
at and easy to read. For example, there is a large picture of
someone dressed in karate clothes. Each bit of clothing is
clearly labelled, in Japanese and in English, so the children can
learn something interesting. There is also a box explaining a
little about Japanese writing.
ALIX:
And that’s a good start – Eliot’s talked about what he’s found,
who he thinks it’s for, and why it would suit them.
So think about the genre of the passage – what sort of style is
used? What does it look like? How is it put together? What sort
of information can you find?
And then work out who it is for – is it for people who know a
lot about the subject? Is it a set of instructions for them to
follow? Are there difficult words included?
Reading non-fiction and media: Purposes of a text
This audio bite is about purposes of a text.
ELIOT:
If you remember, Alix talked about G – A – P, or ‘Gap’. This is
a way of remembering genre, audience, and purpose. We
covered the first two of these, so now we’re going to deal with
purpose. Basically purpose is what the passage is trying to do,
so if we have a text like this:
ALIX:
Cows are usually milked two or three times a day. On average
they produce 30 litres of milk a day, but they also produce
about 200 litres of gas.
ELIOT:
You know that it’s giving us information – the purpose is to tell
us things we probably didn’t know. A lot of texts inform. For
instance, you can find out what’s on TV by looking in most
newspapers. But texts also do other things, like this:
ALIX:
So there’s these three cows, one from Germany, one from
France, and one from England, and they all go into this bar…
ELIOT:
We’re not really listening to this for information – it’s part of a
joke, so its purpose is to entertain. Can you think of any udders
– sorry, any others?
ALIX:
Well a lot of texts are written to persuade people. For instance,
adverts in magazines are there to sell things like perfume,
38
shampoo or cars. And there’s no reason why we can’t use
persuasion to write about milk too, like this:
ELIOT:
Growing children need calcium, they need energy, and they
need vitamins. So what better than a full glass of fresh dairy
milk to start each and every day?
ALIX:
You can also write a text to instruct – to tell someone what to
do. And things like recipes are obvious examples of telling
people exactly what they should do, like this:
ELIOT:
Now pour half a pint of milk into a saucepan. Heat it up slowly,
stirring all the time.
ALIX:
You can also find texts which advise people – the passage
might have a few instructions but it mainly gives suggestions,
like this:
ELIOT:
If you are planning to get a tan, go carefully at first. You should
use a sun cream right from the start. If there’s no shade, you
ought to wear a hat as well.
ALIX:
And you can find texts which explain, which tell you why. So if
someone asked me why I liked EastEnders, I’d say something
like … the storylines are good. They seem to be about normal
stuff that could happen to anyone, but then there’s something
that’s so different, you can’t wait for the next programme to
find out what happens.
ELIOT:
So there are all sorts of purposes. And to make matters more
difficult, a lot of texts have more than one purpose. So a
newspaper story called ‘Football Star Spat in My Pint’ is more
than just giving information. It seems to be entertaining more
than anything else. And it might contain persuasion as well,
trying to make us believe how some of the stars behave badly
ALIX:
Your job is to spot the ‘Gap’ – sort out what the genre,
audience and purposes are, and then show how these are tied to
the language the writer uses.
ELIOT:
So remember ‘Gap’ – genre, audience and purpose. The
passages you get can have different purposes. You might have
something that informs, or entertains, or persuades, or instructs,
or explains. And you can have a passage which has more than
one purpose.
Give reasons for deciding on the Gap, and try to show how the
Gap affects features of the text, like the presentation and
language.
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Reading non-fiction and media: Language
This audio bite is about language.
ALIX:
The reading section always has at least one question to do with
language. Sometimes you are told what to write about – it could
be how a passage uses questions. But you are more likely to be
asked just about language, like this:
ELIOT:
How is language used in a Greenpeace leaflet to inform its
readers?
ALIX:
A lot of people have trouble answering these sorts of questions
- it's hard to know where to start. Let’s start by working out the
‘Gap’ – it’s a leaflet, with headings, sections, photos and
diagrams. It’s aimed at teenagers, and it seems to be a mixture
of information and persuasion – they want you to join
Greenpeace.
ELIOT:
So now you’ve got that, you know how to answer the question.
Just look at the text, and write about how the leaflet uses those
things, like this:
ALIX:
The leaflet makes the information easy to understand. It uses
clear headings, like ‘What are ancient forests?’ which are easy
to read. And the headings tell you at a glance what it’s all
about. The text is broken up into short sections, with one
section under each heading. Again, this makes it clear and
straightforward.
ELIOT:
So Alix has already told us quite a lot, but she hasn’t dealt with
any of the words yet. See how she does that next:
ALIX:
The passage uses quite simple ideas and words, such as the
forests are disappearing so quickly. When there are more
difficult words, there are examples to help. For example, when
‘species’ is mentioned, the passage tells us, ‘from bears to
beetles’. We all know what these are, so it’s easy to understand,
and it’s easy to see how wide the range is.
ELIOT:
This is getting really good, but is there anything else she could
add?
ALIX:
The leaflet also looks easy to follow. The difficult words, such
as ‘evolution’, are printed in bold, so they stand out and are
easy to look up. And there’s a diagram which shows what
happens to water – going from rivers to trees, to clouds and
then falling back down as rain. Diagrams are much easier to
look at than explain.
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ELIOT:
And that’s an excellent example. This one shows how language
is used to inform readers on a leaflet, but the question will
basically be the same each time – how and why does the writer
use language?
ALIX:
This means write about what you can find in the text and how it
fits in with the ‘Gap’ – the genre, the audience and the purpose.
ELIOT:
As well as ‘Gap’, there’s another word that might help you to
remember – it’s L – I – S – T, language, information, style and
tone, or ‘List’. Language is the sort of things you find in the
passage, but the ideas, the facts or opinions, is the information.
ALIX:
The style is what it looks like – is it full of bright colours to
make it eye-catching? Or is it serious, with lots of long
paragraphs? And the tone is tied to the attitude of the writer – is
it meant to be funny, or sad, or angry? The bits of ‘List’ all join
together – after all, you wouldn’t get a Greenpeace leaflet about
forests disappearing which was just meant to be funny.
There will be at least one question to do with language. You
should show how ‘Gap’ and language fit together. You can also
use ‘List’ - the language, information, style and tone, to help
you remember how to deal with the question.
Writing about language isn’t easy, so there’s more about using
‘Gap’ and ‘List’ in a later section.
Reading non-fiction and media: Presentation
This audio bite is about presentation.
ELIOT:
When we talk about presentation, or how something is
presented in a text, we are talking about what a text looks like.
You might think it’s not really important in English, but it is.
Often the questions ask you to write about things like the
colours used, or underlining, or even the photos.
ALIX:
Most people find this easy. It’s usually done with the media
passages, because if you did it with a normal story, like a novel,
you wouldn’t have much to say. A novel will probably just be
presented in chapters and paragraphs, and that’s about it.
ELIOT:
But media texts are different. For example, a magazine advert
looks very different to a novel. And if you hold a media
passage up at arm’s length, you’ll see how it’s organised. For a
start, they often have headings in bigger, bolder type. Like a
newspaper with headlines like ‘Prince to Marry in August’.
You tend to read these headings first, so you can quickly work
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out what it’s about. The headings can also guide you, so you
might not read everything in a leaflet – just the bits you need to
know.
ALIX:
And the text is often written in different sections. So you can
have a heading, with some writing underneath, and then
another heading, and so on. This splits up the information – it
looks better, but it’s also quicker and easier to read – so if it’s
for children, it’s often in sections. And all newspapers are in
sections too, with the writing in columns and boxes.
ELIOT:
They also have photos or diagrams. So you might have the
picture of a pop star, or a car crash. These photos grab your
attention. They also bring the story to life and break up the
writing – that means that it looks less boring and easier to read.
But don’t forget that most photos have a caption – a sentence or
two explaining it – and you should include this in your answer.
ALIX:
You should also be able to notice other aspects too. For
instance, many media passages use colours. It makes a photo
look much better than black and white. But colours can also
represent other things. For instance, a lot of adverts use green –
it can suggest that something is natural, fresh or good for the
environment.
ELIOT:
Media texts often have logos too, which are ways of identifying
a company. So if you look at someone’s trainers, you know
instantly what make they are. And some logos mean other
things too – so if something is recycled, you get this little circle
with two arrows.
ALIX:
But presentation is also about how words are printed. For
example, you can make a passage look like someone’s
handwriting – by using a different font. Some fonts look very
modern, but others look old or formal. And you can split
information by putting it in bullet points.
ELIOT:
Or write words in capital, italics, bold, or underlined.
ALIX:
Whatever it is, you always need to write what the effect is –
does it make it easier to read? Does it make it stand out? Or is it
there to help the reader?
ELIOT:
It should be clear that presentation is important in media texts.
Look at the passage from a distance and you can spot things
like headings, sections, boxes, columns, photos, diagrams and
captions.
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Write about other things, like colours, logos and the way the
words are printed out. The key to a good answer is explaining
why the writer chose to use a certain presentation. Was it to
grab your attention, to create a special image or make it easier
to read? That’s what you’ve got to decide.
Reading non-fiction and media: Gap and List
This audio bite is about answering questions using Gap and List.
ELIOT:
In the reading section you are dealing with different texts, or
passages. You need to work fairly quickly, because you’ll be
covering several questions about the texts. Each question looks
for different things, so start by roughly estimating how long to
spend on each question. The paper will show you how many
marks each question is worth – and this is important to you.
ALIX:
Yes, a lot of people waste time writing far too much on the first
question or so. It might only be worth three marks, yet they
spend twenty minutes on it. And later on they only have fifteen
minutes to write about a question which is worth nine marks.
So divide up your time properly.
ELIOT:
And quite a few people forget about time all together. They
carry on writing an answer and forget there are other, more
important questions left. So stick to your plan – perhaps take
off your watch and check where you are in the plan every few
minutes.
ALIX:
Read the questions before you look at the texts. The questions
will tell you lots about the passages anyway, and the questions
are what you have to answer, and what you will be marked on.
ELIOT:
Highlight the key words – so underline them, or circle them, or
colour them in - this will make you focus on the question.
ALIX:
There will be some questions which seem difficult. They often
have bullet points and ask you to do a number of things. Take
your time – you’ve made a plan so you don’t have to rush. Go
through the ‘Gap’ ideas. So think about the genre – what sort of
passage is it? Then about the audience – who is it for? How do
you know? And then about the purpose, or purposes - what is
the passage doing?
ELIOT:
‘Gap’ is a good way to remember how to tackle the text. And
so is ‘List’ which is about language, information, style, and
tone. So language is basically what you can find on the page –
like the words and headings. Information is what the passage is
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telling you – is it made up of facts? Or does it have lots of
opinions?
ALIX:
That’s ‘L – I’, so we need ‘S’ and ‘T’. ‘S’ is Style, which is the
way everything is expressed – is it eye-catching? Is it
attractive? And ‘T’ is the tone, how you should treat the subject
– should you be angry, sad, or disgusted? Or should you be
interested and happy?
ELIOT:
If this doesn’t quite make sense, think of an advert for fast food
on the TV – people seem to be having fun, they all look like
models and they’re smiling all the time. So the advert fits the
purpose – it makes you want to go out and get some of this
food.
ALIX:
But if you don’t normally cook, and you decide to make
chicken korma and rice for your girlfriend’s birthday, you don’t
need lots of pictures of people grinning at you. You need lots of
facts, like what to buy, and you want clear instructions, so you
don’t make mistakes.
ELIOT:
So the reading questions are about understanding the passages.
You need to plan how long you’ll spend on each question, and
stick to your plan, so you make sure you cover all the
questions.
Read the questions before you read the texts. Check you
understand the questions by circling the key words. When you
are doing the more difficult questions, use ‘Gap’ and ‘List’ to
help you remember. And try to link the texts with the language
– show you understand what’s going on.
English exam tips: Preparing for your English exams
This audio bite is about preparing for your English exams.
ALIX:
It’s normal to feel a little worried before an exam. Some people
go into a cold sweat, some say it’s all right, and some even say
they’re not bothered. But we all seem to feel a little different
when we’re actually in the exam room.
ELIOT:
So the first thing to remember is that it’s normal to feel a little
weird, and if you prepare for the experience, the easier it is.
You could think of it as some sort of test, like a football match,
and so prepare like professional footballers:
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ALIX:
They don’t just start the game cold. They sort out everything
they need days beforehand. It’s all laid out, and they have
spares of everything.
ELIOT:
So you could make a list of everything you need, such as blue
and black pens, a ruler, a pencil and rubber – even bus money.
ALIX:
And they’ll study the other team for hours on end, watching
videos and even going to other matches.
ELIOT:
So listen to all the audio clips, go through old English exams
and questions, and look in revision books or on internet sites,
like GCSE Bitesize. These will show you exactly what you’re
up against.
ALIX:
Then professional footballers get to the ground early, so make
sure you plan your route and you’ve got lots of time – this is
one of the days when you cannot be late.
ELIOT:
And they’ll walk round the pitch. Some will go round several
times. But why?
ALIX:
Many players want to get a feel of the place – they will be
imagining themselves playing, and imagining themselves doing
really well.
ELIOT:
And you should do the same before the day of the exam. The
exam will probably be somewhere you know well, like the
school hall or a gym. But when it’s set up for an exam it will
look very different – there will be rows and rows of desks – and
it’ll feel very different to normal.
ALIX:
So try to go in the room beforehand, when it’s been set up for
the exam. It might be locked, or out of bounds, so ask your
teacher to take you round – they can hardly say no if you tell
them why.
ELIOT:
And once you’re in, sit down quietly and go through the exam
in your head. For example, you know you’ll have a question on
writing to inform, explain or describe. So imagine a question in
front of you, a question that you can do really well. So when
you leave the room, you know exactly how it feels, you can do
this, and you can do it well.
ALIX:
It might feel a bit silly, but it seems to work for lots of people
and many professional footballers spend time imagining taking
penalties, or corners, or scoring goals. There’s even a simple
trick that might work with you too:
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ELIOT:
You have to think of a time when you felt great – you did
something really good, and everyone knew how good you
were. Think of this time, and touch your index finger and
thumb together lightly. Try to do this a few times each day,
thinking about successful things each time. And when you get
in the exam, touch your finger and thumb together again – it
can remind you about how good you are.
ALIX:
So try to prepare for the exam. Don’t worry about it – do
something about it instead. Look through old questions. Visit
the room a few days beforehand. Imagine being successful.
Sort out exactly what you need for the exam day. Go early. And
keep positive - think about good things.
English exam tips: Top tips in English
This audio bite is about top tips in English.
ELIOT:
It sounds really silly – but one of the most important tips is to
read the question. Every year, thousands of people don’t. They
seem to write about anything but the question they’ve chosen.
It’s a waste of time – even the kindest examiner in the world
can’t help them. So make sure you’re not one of them.
ALIX:
A good way to make sure you understand the question is to
highlight words on the question paper. You can scribble all
over it if you like, because no-one else will see it. But it will
help you to focus on the question and write your plan. You
should, of course, write a plan for all of the longer questions,
like the writing and the poetry.
ELIOT:
And loads of people still don’t bother to help the examiner.
You should always write in the margin which question you are
doing. And you should always leave a space between questions.
If you don’t, the examiner has to spend extra time working out
what answer they are reading. If they’ve wasted all this time,
they’ll hardly be in the mood to give you the benefit of the
doubt when they come to deciding on your marks.
ALIX:
Another thing is that lots of people don’t bother to write in
paragraphs. It’s really easy, but it’s one of the things examiners
are looking for, so it can make a difference to your grade.
ELIOT:
And writing in sentences is important too. It is an English
exam, after all, and if you don’t use full stops or commas, then
you really can’t expect to do well.
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ALIX:
Examiners also like to see something different. They are going
to read the same answers to the same questions day after day.
So make your sentences interesting – put in a few short
statements or use some interesting joining words, like
‘consequently’. The examiners will have read loads of tedious
essays full of ‘and this, and then that, and then the other’, so
they’ll like your answer.
ELIOT:
And you can also tell them what you think. This is your chance
to make your ideas count. It also is a chance to write what you
think about other things, like the poems.
ALIX:
But be sensible and defend your ideas. Writing that Vultures is
‘gross’ or Half-Caste is ‘cool’ doesn’t really tell us anything.
And don’t be too negative – it might just be the examiner’s
favourite poem.
ELIOT:
Use your time properly – the exam paper will usually tell you
how long you should spend, so when this is up, switch to the
next question. And try to save a few minutes at the end to read
through and make any last minute changes.
ALIX:
And when you’ve finished, try to forget about it. There’s
nothing you can do anyway, so move on to getting ready for
your next exam. When you’ve finished them all, you’ll
probably feel a bit lost, so make sure you go out or arrange to
do something special with your friends after the exams.
ELIOT:
So here’s a run down of the top tips. Read the question,
highlight key words, plan your answers, write down the
question numbers with your answers, use paragraphs and
interesting sentences, try to be original. Time yourself and
work till the end of the exam. Check your work. When you’ve
left the room, forget about it. And plan something nice for after
the exams.
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