English Study Tips & Recommendations

IrishLassie26

Hi everyone!

I'm in 5th year now and our teacher is recommending that to study for the poetry question, we should write out an answer with all the points, techniques and opinions included for each theme. I'm not sure this would be a good learning method though.

I think that I am aware of how to write a properly structured english answer so I'm wondering would it be better to just find the quotes and maybe write a paragraph of bullet points summarising my points and opinions?

Can anyone else give me an idea on how you go about preparing your english notes or studying for english and is it effective?

Thanks for your help!

MomijiHime

I think the best thing you can do for English is read and write. Read the newspaper, novels, whatever, just make sure you're well read.

For poetry, I often research the poetry we've done online to get new insights onto it and to reinforce ideas our teacher has given us. Also, learn all the important lines in your poems.

carefulnowted

I'm in fifth year too, so my English study has been... basically non-existent

For poetry study, I usually take an A4 page for each poem. I'll write down a basic summary, the main themes of the poem, the techniques and style used and the most important quotes (the ones that back up many themes or are really hard-hitting). The internet is really handy for finding out other viewpoints on a poem's meaning, not just your teacher's or the book's.

As a general rule, reading is so helpful when it comes to English. Just read anything you can get your hands on, particularly classics. I find books by the likes of Charlotte Bronte etc improve my vocabulary without me having to put in much effort.

Hope this helped

Bazinga_N

MomijiHime wrote: »

For poetry, I often research the poetry we've done online to get new insights onto it and to reinforce ideas our teacher has given us. Also, learn all the important lines in your poems.

This is great advice! Finding new insights (and forming your own too) really helps you to understand the poetry. Understanding the poetry makes writing about it effortless. Having different opinions and insights to the rest of your class will really set your essays and answers apart too.

Try to learn to like your poetry if you can! It might sound impossible but if you can manage to be enthusiastic about the poems it makes them much easier to write about. :P

Personally, I like to write out a few bullet points on each poem. Just little snippets of things I want to try to mention in my answers along with a quote or two to relate to them. With these in my back pocket, I can usually just go ahead and write my essay then.