English Composition

randomfella

Do u know which type u are doing and how are u preparing?

I'm doing Short story/personal story/narrative. Doing a few character sketches, thats all i can think in terms of preperation.

baby*cham*bell

personal or article. learnin off a few facts n figures (refugees, drinking ect) and watching the news/ reading papers.
i cant do those bloody narritives, my mind runs away with me before i can put any sense on the story!

Waltons

I'll be doing short stories because I love 'em!
My best advice would be to take out 5-8 minutes before you start writing to plan out what you're going to say. That way it's all there on the page if you forget and it works well as a template if you wish to change something, rather than changing half way through the piece. If the plan's there as well you only need to flesh it out and if the worst happens and you run out of time, the examiner will be able to see where you were headed with the piece.
Granted if it's a 'Tour de Force' piece and you didn't finish, they SHOULD be giving you the marks anyway but you wouldn't want to be relying on either getting a really fair examiner OR writing a 'Tour de Force' piece. At least if you have a plan there's a better chance of you getting marks if something does go wrong. If nothing goes wrong at least you've got a reference point of what you're going to write!

randomfella

'tour de Force' ? Come again?

I always find it difficult to end the story effectively. I agree the plan works wonders. Personally i lose the best ideas as i write thats why i need the plan as a reference point.

Tip -> spend a longer writing your first paragraph. Its the most important. It immediately illustrates the standard you are at and helps create a good impression. Others argue that the concluding paragraph is most essential, suppose they both are important.

Waltons

A Tour de Force essay essentially means an absolutely amazing essay

the smiley one

oooo I think I'm going to do descriptive or arguementative one....the two you need absolutely no knowledge whatsoever for.....well, besides your creative knowledge.....yep I'm a lazyass...



ps, Waltons, love the sig (and love the song even better...)

Rredwell

Hi all,

Our teacher has not prepared us for Paper One at all. She has never taught us any of the techniques required for either Section I or Section II. The class is f****d: people will fail.

I am not preparing for it, except for reading my daily Irish Times as ever. I am leaving it all til June 8th: I perform great under stress in super-quiet English exam conditions.

So, any of you who thought you had crazy strategies -- ayez de l'espoir!

Gone West

yep, our teacher started doing p1 a full 2 weeks ago. We had about 3 classes on it, thats all. Still, if you have half a brain, you will pass p1, its all intelligence, not knowledge.

the smiley one

yeah, ditto we never prepared for the exam per se, but we've read lots of articles and pieces of writing, formed opinions of style, picked out main points...our teacher is cool - he prepares you for stuff without ever making it feel like you are preparing for an exam...so I always think I haven't done stuff...but I have....neway he's supercool...

You know for the descriptive stuff, does anyone how much of a story is "allowed" in it? I have one that I did before and its basically the journey for the doors of the hospital to the second floor...is that ok do you think? How much more would you get away with?

Cannibal Ox

Sometimes for narrative they give you a phrase like "the black dress" to put into your story and that's it, so it's worth writing one or two stories out now and getting some feedback on them till your sure it's top class material (you could post it on the Creative Writing forum here for some feedback)
Then just stick the phrase into your pre-written story. It's worth doing it, if you feel you've done well for P1 it'll take away the stress from P2 and you'll probably do better for it.

BraveheartGal

we've done nothing for paper 1

i intend writin a short story, cos its the only one i can
im really good with emotional stuff and description
but my problem is it takes me aaaaaaaaaaages to think of an opening

i never plan
i attempted to in the mocks, but my story ended completely different
i didnt actually know how it was gonna end, i jus wrote it without thinking
not the smartest thing i know

*Angel*

BraveheartGal wrote:

my problem is it takes me aaaaaaaaaaages to think of an opening

same

BraveheartGal wrote:

i never plan
i attempted to in the mocks, but my story ended completely different
i didnt actually know how it was gonna end, i jus wrote it without thinking
not the smartest thing i know

same, and then I ended up half way through the story not knowing where the hell it was going...

I HATE writing essays, I'd prefer to write information style but the problem is you really need to know alot about what you're writing about otherwise it ain't gonna work.