Associated Resources

• Improving Your Analyses.pptx

It is because we cannot see the reader that writing needs to be different from speech. A reader is distant and so we cannot notice any misunderstandings or loss of interest that occur as they read. This creates a need for clarity in writing that isn’t so important in speech. The style and structure we adopt for example needs to be more formal; and the need to create and maintain interest means that writing should be lively. In the case of school essays, the reader is the teacher or examiner who awards marks and a grade, something that can...

1. Introduction
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

Introduction

This short popular novel is a ghost story with gothic elements. The Woman in Black was originally published in 1983 and a successful cinema adaptation was produced in 2012 starring Daniel Radcliffe (directed by James Watkins with screenplay by Jane Goldman).

In an interview, Susan Hill described ghost stories as follows:

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• Non-Fiction and Media with notes.pptx

As part of your GCSE English exam, you’ll be asked to analyse and discuss aspects of the non-fiction and media text ‘genre’.

Genre

The word ‘genre’ suggests that a text type is easily identifiable by readers as belonging to a particular kind or type; in effect, we all ‘stereotype’ texts just as we do people but the effect is called ‘genre’ rather than stereotyping! Texts that clearly ‘fit’ a particular genre are called ‘generic texts’ and we recognise them because they show particular ‘genre conventions’ in...

Act 5

Act 5 scene 1

Brutus and Cassius make a military mistake.
Cassius regrets letting Antony live.
Octavius and Antony compete for control.

The final Act concerns the final conflict between the two sides and is compressed into 5 fairly short scenes.  Again Shakespeare compresses time for dramatic purposes.  There were actually 2 battles at Philippi and they were about 3 weeks apart.  Shakespeare merges these into one continuous battle and brings Antony and Octavius face to face with...

Act 4

Act 4 scene 1

Antony and Octavius plan their revenge.

This scene contrasts with the previous one in that the result of Antony’s victory over Brutus at the funeral is shown as political – the deliberate, cold-bloodied drawing up of a list of conspirators who must die.  According to Plutarch the list ran to 300 names. 

Antony’s opening line is flat and unemotional in contrast to the grisly subject.  Octavius and Lepidus then try to bargain for the lives of various...

Act 3

Act 3 scene 1

Caesar reaches the senate but is surrounded by the conspirators.
Caesar is stabbed by all the conspirators, finally by Brutus.
Antony meets the murderers and is given permission to speak at the funeral of Caesar.

This is the pivotal scene of the play.  The scenes in both previous Acts have been building to this moment and it provides the motives for the actions in the rest of the play.

Caesar is surrounded by the conspirators – Artemidorus and the soothsayer...

Act 2

Act 2 scene 1

Brutus considers the murder of Caesar.
Brutus reads one of the false letters and is visited by Cassius.
The decision is taken not to harm Antony or any of Caesar’s other followers.

The storm from the previous scene is continuing and Brutus refers to the darkness in the opening speech.  Darkness is symbolic in this scene – it represents the darkness and confusion in Brutus’ mind.  The conspirators arrive in darkness later in the scene which adds to the feeling...

This guide has been written to help teachers in their reading, preparation and teaching of the play. Julius Caesar can be taught as a part of several exam board English Literature units:

• AQA GCSE English Literature 4710 | Unit 4: Approaching Shakespeare & the English Literary Heritage
• AQA GCSE English 4700 | Unit 3 Understanding and producing creative texts
• OCR GCSE English Literature | 2.1 Unit A661: Literary Heritage Linked Texts
• OCR GCSE English | Unit A641 Reading literary texts
• Edexcel GCSE English Literature | Unit 3: Shakespeare and...

1. Introduction 
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

The Woman in Black & The Exam

You will be studying The Woman in Black in relation to your examining board – either AQA or OCR.

AQA English Literature

This novel is an optional text for Unit 1: Section A - Modern Prose or Drama. It is one of 9 texts prescribed for examination. You will be assessed in relation to A01 and A02.

AQA...

1. Introduction 
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

The ‘PEE’ Technique

When you write about The Woman in Black you must remember to use POINT, EVIDENCE and ELABORATE (the ‘PEE’ technique):

1. POINT – MAKE A POINT (i.e. a sentence that helps develop an answer to the essay or exam question).

2. EVIDENCE – FIND A SUITABLE QUOTATION TO SUPPORT THE POINT YOU HAVE JUST MADE –...

1. Introduction 
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

How to raise your grade?

Examiners’ advice about how to improve your grade when writing about The Woman in Black:

• Be relevant – this isn’t a test on everything you know about the text, only write about things that that relate to the question.
• Be sufficiently detailed – it’s better to give a lot of detail about a small part of the...

1. Introduction 
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

‘I had never been an imaginative or fanciful man and certainly not one given to visions of the future’ (p13).

Arthur is the main character and the narrator and the reader should be sympathetic to him and share his feelings. The effect and unwillingness of the discussion of ghost stories shows the reader he has been badly affected in...

1. Introduction 
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

Through Susan Hill’s choices of language she creates a fictional narrator, characters, settings and action and in this way explores her themes.

Her skill is to draw the reader into the fictional ‘story-world’ in such an absorbing way that we forget we are reading fiction and start to empathise, even sympathise, with the main...

1. Introduction 
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

This story is set in Victorian England. Knowledge of the social, historical and cultural context will help you understand the novel more fully.

Victorian society placed much more importance on motherhood than our contemporary society does. Motherhood was praised and celebrated as the highest honour that could be imparted on a woman....

1. Introduction 
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

The story has a conventional structure and is arranged by the use of chapters. The main storyline involving Kipps in the town of Crythin Gifford is set between 1900 and 1914 ( Chapter 2 - Chapter 11). Although the chapters are not numbered in the text you may find it helpful to remember them as follows.

Chapter 1: Christmas Eve...

1. Introduction 
2. Narrative Viewpoint
3. Structure
4. Social / Historical Context
5. Language
6. Top Ten Quotations
7. Exam Preparation
8. Using Quotations
9. Sample Exam Response

The narrator (and main character) of the novel is Arthur Kipps. Hill creates a believable fiction of a man telling us the story of a period of his life – his own ghost story.  Her technique is known as first person narrative. The use of the ‘first person’ tells us that the story will be told from Arthur’s perspective. This...

Click on one of the links below to download Steve Campsall’s PowerPoint on An Inspector Calls.

• An Inspector Calls.ppt
• An Inspector Calls.pptx

Associated Resources

• Discourse Markers Toolkit.doc
• Discourse Markers PowerPoint.pptx
• DISPLAY Discourse Markers.doc

A ‘discourse marker’ is a word or phrase that helps to link written ideas. These words are generally more formal lexical items that find little use in speech – which is perhaps why they do not always come naturally to students.

Discourse markers can be used, for example, to link ideas that are similar (e.g. the adverbs, also and similarly); and they can be used to link ideas that are dissimilar (e.g. however, alternately)....[ read full article ] »

Teacher’s Note

This first part of this EnglishEdu guide is aimed at students who are studying any Shakespeare play – but they can easily and profitably be adapted to suit any play.

The second part of the guide is an analysis and commentary of Act 3 Sc. 1 of Shakespeare’s play, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, with accompanying notes that are based upon ideas discussed in the guide’s first section.

• The notes accompanying Act 3 Scene 1 of the play are designed to work towards helping students who are planning their Controlled Assessment essay,...