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Adv Higher English


Sam 45

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Anyone else doing this subject? Trying to write my dissertation (2 S's or 1 - you see the problems i have) and completely stuck for what to write. Read 'The Outsider' and 'Young Adam' for it. The Outsider was absolutely awesome i thought, Young Adam was good but not as good as The Outsider.

Anyone got any tips for writing these as i dont have a clue?

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Anyone else doing this subject? Trying to write my dissertation (2 S's or 1 - you see the problems i have) and completely stuck for what to write. Read 'The Outsider' and 'Young Adam' for it. The Outsider was absolutely awesome i thought' date=' Young Adam was good but not as good as The Outsider.

Anyone got any tips for writing these as i dont have a clue?[/quote']

Do you not have to read three texts? I did anyway.

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I did Adv. English last year. The dissertation was the worst part of it, but we each got assigned tutors, ie. one of the English teachers. They helped alot, but maybe one reason we got them was because there was only 3 people in the class.

Firstly, you should look at the sort of things the books have in common, write them down.

If you can, try and find study books to accompany the books you read. If you can't find any, it doesn't really matter. I hardly used mine at all.

When you've found the sort of themes to compare in the books, try and think of a topic which you could waffle on about for 5000 words. It takes a bit of thought, but will help you in the long run.

I read, "Snow Falling on Cedars" and "East of the Mountains" by David Guterson. Really good books actually.

But it can be done with 2 books. Maybe you should ask your teacher for some sorta assistance. Up to you.

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I would say general tips for a comparitive essay would be to mix up the two books in your essay, don't write about one then the other then compare them afterwards. Pick something you can compare the two books on, and write about both books in the same paragraph. Then on the next paragraph, pick another way you can compare them and do the same. I think when you do it this way, it improves the flow of the essay.

And regardless of what you think of the two books, try to keep your essay objective and do your conclusion based on what you've written as opposed to what you think. Sometimes, you might stronly believe one answer, but find it hard to express. Sometimes when you look at your essay, you'll realise it suggests something different to what you believe, so for the sake of integrity, you want to go with what you've written, or it looks like you've just rambled and haven't supported your arguments properly.

What I've written looks like rambles and I'm giving advice on essay writing. I had to do a lot of essays at uni, so I know what I'm saying works, even if it looks unlikely.

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I hate Adv H English, probably because I passed the critical essay part 50%, and failed the other bit by just 2 marks. I worked my ass off for the final exam which I'm positive I did better in, yet I didn't even get a D. Appeal didn't work. And my Disseratation was damn good.

I think they mark Higher and Adv H too harshly. I know a lot of people who are good at English who got low grades

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It helps if you have a teacher who teaches you according to the SQA marking guidlines. E.g., writing essays with the proper structure, and all that jazz.

I quite wanted to do AH English this year, but I couldn't fit it in. Plus, then I'd have three dissertations, and I'm struggling with just the two.

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It helps if you have a teacher who teaches you according to the SQA marking guidlines. E.g.' date=' writing essays with the proper structure, and all that jazz.

I quite wanted to do AH English this year, but I couldn't fit it in. Plus, then I'd have three dissertations, and I'm struggling with just the two.[/quote']

I did 3 dissertations for 6th year. Was a struggle, but I managed to get them all done eventually. Modern Studies, English and RMPS, fun, fun, fun.

Always best to plan out what you will be writing, then pad out from there.

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Anyone else doing this subject? Trying to write my dissertation (2 S's or 1 - you see the problems i have) and completely stuck for what to write. Read 'The Outsider' and 'Young Adam' for it. The Outsider was absolutely awesome i thought' date=' Young Adam was good but not as good as The Outsider.

Anyone got any tips for writing these as i dont have a clue?[/quote']

Your best bet is to outline the themes of both books, write about the characters, don't write too much about the plot because they hate that and then contrast the two books and just say what they have in common and what they don't. You might also benifit from another text especially given that The Outsider is pretty short.

If you have Mrs Milne then don't bother asking her because she knows nothing.

xxx

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I've been meaning to try and get a copy of it back' date=' along with the poetry and stuff if I did, I'll let you know if I do.

The main bit was on 'On the Road', 'Howl' and Gregory Corso's 'Marriage'.[/quote']

I haven't read the latter. Couldn't have any interest in the beat generation and not the read the first two though.

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AH English dissertation, what a hellish experience. What I understood from the SQA guidelines is that they want two or three books which follow the same theme, preferably by the same author, because people end up linking up books which apparantly don't go too well together. So, in principal, the usual Tolkein or Austen, who do the whole trilogie thing (or almost). My personal impression of this is that creativiity is generaly not wanted, and regurgetated (sp? )stuff is the norm. But my advice is do what interests you because 4000 words on something you can't get into or don't fully understand is not good, read around the subject etc. If you know a bit of French then please try and read The Outsider as L'Etranger, it should add something to the whole project. Even if you don't understand every single word, you may well appreciate the idea of style better.

I may end up being on of the very few people who retake AH English. Hooray :rolleyes:

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i did, let me quote: 'A Comparative Literary Analysis of the Presentation of Madness in The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Girl Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen and Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho.'

probably would have picked something different if i was doing it now, but i really enjoyed writing it at the time(is that sad?) but thats probably because i liked the books...

I would recommend 19th C russian literature, dostoyevsky, turgenev etc, interesting stuff, good themes, not many people will do it. But yeah get a good start this xmas holiday, so many people leave it to the last minute, and thats just a waste because you need lots of time to make it quality, hell yeah!

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my mate submitted this essay for the imaginative piece:

Trust Yourself

Steve Hutz was a man composed of few emotions but one of these was hatred - hatred for the people who had made his life a living hell.

After the rape and subsequent murder of his girlfriend Katie, the attackers then used the same bloody hammer to knock Steve unconscious. This resulted in a coma lasting just over 7 months, he would have been dead had it not been for the curiosity of his neighbour. The day he woke from his seemingly eternal coma was the same day as the trial of the infamous Scorpio brother murders and these were the first words he would hear upon awaking. The TV splurted the news quickly and Steve caught a glance of the accused brothers. He immediately recognised them although the initial confusion of this strange location had made him momentarily forget the incident that caused his coma. He recognised them as the men who broke into his house on that awful night. The memories came flooding back like a river that had just burst its dam.

He remembered the blood, the screaming, the agony and the feeling of slow motion as it all fell into place. The single blow of the hammer to the side of his head penetrating a vital flow of blood causing his condition. He sat upright ripping several cords and tubes from his exposed body and dropping them without care. By this point several doctors had noticed his recovery and were quite amazed. Steve only had his mind set on revenge, nothing else, no love, no care, only his hatred and a dark sense of humour, a sickness inside.

He demanded to be let out of the hospital. The doctors insisted that his mental state was questionable, despite this he was allowed to return to his home. He couldn't bring himself to see the bathroom where the murder took place, he couldn't bring himself to remember his girlfriend for these thoughts would hamper the progress of his revenge. He needed a plan, a plan to make the Scorpio brothers suffer so much more than he did. He sat down in his bedroom and booted his laptop whilst pouring a vodka to ease his nerves slightly. He discovered that the Scorpio brothers were set to appear in court the next day. This would be his opportunity, his only opportunity.

Stumbling into his lobby he picked up the phone and slowly dialled a number, taking a moment after each individual number for some insignificant reason. The phone rung for a while. Just as he was about to hang up a voice answered.

" Hello, who's this? " The voice spoke almost softly

" Wayne, " Steve continued. " I just woke up, I need your help, I need you to get me on the Jury for the Scorpio case tomorrow. Just do this for me, this one thing."

Wayne had known Steve since childhood and they had gone their separate paths. Steve had followed his dreams of music stardom and found out that it's not as easy as AC/DC make it seem. Wayne, however, graduated from Law school and was now a highly regarded and highly paid lawyer working for whoever gave him a good price. Steve took a bullet for Wayne after a misunderstanding turned into gang warfare on a drunken night several years back, Wayne owed him.

" It's great to hear you Steve, I'll get you on that jury, don't do anything.. " his voice trailed off " that I won't be able to get you out of. "

" Thanks friend, I'm not promising anything though, they need to pay for what they did.. " Steve put the phone down and headed down to his basement.

He grinned to himself as he lifted a loose floorboard beneath the staircase, a location so inconspicuous that no one would think of looking. He pulled out a green duffel bag from the secret compartment and dragged it upstairs into the light. He slowly unzipped the dusty bag to reveal a long metal object in a protective sheath, the vital part to his revenge.

A SPA20 automatic shotgun that he obtained through an old military friend. If only he had remembered about it when his house was invaded. The only reason he had it was because he thought it looked cool but he kept it hidden in the basement because Katie hated the idea of weapons.

His only problem now was getting past the metal detectors in the courthouse. Sitting in his armchair he considered his options for a moment. Feeling the leathery arms of the chair a thought popped up in his head. He made a return trip to the hospital where he had removed himself from earlier. He had to be quick. It was already 9pm and the trial was at 8 the next morning. Dressed in a Sonic Youth T-shirt he had found lying on his floor and a pair of jeans he wandered into the hospital with the intention of getting some painkillers for his headache. This was simply a ploy to gain access to his real goal. While the doctor left the room to get some graph results from Steve's coma, Steve scanned the room for a map. He pin pointed the location of the wheelchair bay and set off for it.

He entered the bay and saw row after row of wheelchairs. Grabbing a random one under his arm he left the room and quickly returned to the doctor's office leaving the wheelchair in a cubical where he would return to get it.

The doctor gave him some painkillers for his imaginary headache and wished him well. Little did he know the scheme that was brewing inside Steve's head. Not wanting to risk detection he left through a fire exit with the wheelchair in tow. Now all he needed was to conceal the shotgun within the wheelchair.

He returned home and used a variety of tools to weld a small container underneath the wheelchair, just big enough to fit the shotgun. He smiled once again, there was no way his plan could fail.

He downed the remainder of the bottle of vodka he had started drinking earlier and collapsed onto his sofa. Tomorrow would be a long day.

Waking up to see the sun glaring in his eyes, Steve groggily headed to the bathroom, the first time he had been there since the incident. This didn't strike him as significant until he looked at himself in the mirror. The emotions within him remain suppressed but only just. He reminded himself of the great justice that would be delivered. A voice-mail left by Wayne gave him all the details he needed for his Jury duty. Locking the readily loaded shotgun into place underneath the wheelchair he double checks to make sure that it isn't exposed in any way that might look suspicious. He confirms this and then chooses his finest looking suit, an expensive Versace outfit he received when Katie went on a trip to Italy.

" She said this would be the last and only suit I'd wear, " he murmured to himself. " The irony kills me "

Sitting down in the wheelchair he set his mind on the events that would unfold. His intentions were to make the brothers beg for their lives and then take them away. Nothing could go wrong, nothing. Rolling out of his house, he quickly became accustomed to the wheelchair almost as if he'd been using it his whole life. Making his way to the courtroom slowly, he planned in his mind what he wanted to happen. The ideal outcome would be the Scorpio brothers in several pieces scattered across the floor whilst Steve stood over their remains and looked down upon them.

Would they remember me? he thought to himself The guy they put in a coma, they were probably proud of it

Adrenaline was rushing through Steve like nothing he had felt before. He could taste justice like a summer fresh strawberry. The court doors were in sight, he looked at his watch, the hand swings past 12 and makes its long but gradual journey around the clock face, by the time its journey is finished Steve will hopefully have fulfilled his journey. Time was no longer a factor, he threw the watch to the ground possibly by accident, his journey was too great to be marred by time.

Hello sir, how can I help you? the warden at the desk blurted Ah I see, you are on the jury for the Scorpio brothers trial, well good luck, Im sure you wont need much convincing to see that theyre guilty as Michael Jackso

The guard continued talking but Steve had already stopped listening to him. His mind was like a beehive, constantly buzzing, never asleep for a moment, he couldnt afford to miss anything. Wheeling his way through the detector, the inevitable happened; the alarm went off. A quick explanation of the metal alloys in the wheel chairs construction in a calm manner managed to generate a sense of trust with the guard, and so Steve was let into the court.

The court was like an even bigger beehive compared to the one in Steves mind, a beehive of justice perhaps. Rolling into position he waited patiently for the trial to begin. Both the brothers were sitting on the bench, smug grins across their faces. Steve knew those grins would be wiped away oh so very soon. The trial had begun but Steves trial was coming to an end. At the peak of his adrenaline rush he reached beneath his metal decoy and slowly removed the embedded weapon. Leaping from the jury bench he fired off 2 bullets in succession at Hank Scorpio, one in the side of the head, one in the neck, killing him instantly. The pain and suffering disappeared, all the pain had gone away. Justice was being served and this moment was all that mattered. The beehive had been set on fire by young boys experimenting with the torture of summer. The court was in a shambles.

Time seemed to pass slowly for Steve; the significance of him disposing of his watch had somehow caused this although it was most likely the adrenaline. The final Scorpio brother, Marvin, lay cowering behind a desk. Reloading the shotgun, Steve spun around and fired a round off at the desk hitting Marvin in the leg. Slowly plodding towards his victim, preparing to make the final blow count, Steve paused for a moment. Something was wrong, something was very wrong.

Marvin looked down the gazing shotgun barrel, his final sight perhaps; perhaps something would save him, perhaps nothing would. Steve hesitated for a few seconds as he looked down at Marvin.

Y You killed her Marvin stuttered She gave you the blow to the head with the hammer, we were just simple thieves at that time looking for valuables to feed our crack habit

Steve was gone; the sense of time had gone. The sense of anything had gone, had the coma done more damage than he had first thought? His memory was full of holes regarding the incident, he just assumed that his wife had been raped and killed from his last memories as he woke up. The flood of evil coming through his mind was too much to bare. He saw the hammer again, female hands clasping its cold handle, he saw his own hands, around his lovers neck, not squeezing passionately. He was a boy again, killing insects, setting fire to beehives and watching the chaos ensue. He was a man now, he had taken his anger out on his wife after a drunken night, she didnt want him to violate her in that state and he didnt want to entitle her to object. It all made sense again, in the way it should have in the first place. The thieves had been blamed for the murder.. The thieves had nothing to do with the murder; she died by the hands of Steve. Before dying she had gathered the strength to hurl a nearby hammer to try and balance the pain he had caused her. In a way she had done more damage than she could have ever hoped. She had destroyed his mind completely with this onslaught of memory.

Standing in the courtroom once again he turned to the gasping audience that had gathered. He raised the shotgun to his mouth, like a child again, cowboys and Indians. The single shot ripped through the fluid in his skull piercing a dark hole through the other side. The evil had escaped, the murder, the death and the guilt. Justice had been delivered, at last.

howtf did he fail

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My teachers totally pushed the classics and seemingly safe choices, that is, stuff that has been written about by many a school child, and subsequently has plenty of secondary reading surrounding it. The stuff I regard as fairly generic like Val said. Having never read anything I regard as classic I wasn't hugely up for this and pushed myself through a few chapters from Hardy as recommended by my teacher. Boy, I could not relate to the characters or the writing style, and in the end I got my way and wrote about two contemporary novels "Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides, and "The Miracle life of Edgar Mint" by Brady Udall. One was written in 2000, the other 2002, so there was very little information about them other than a few book reviews out of newspapers, and this was a problem since quoting from secondary sources is a great way of showing a deeper interest in what you're talking about. The fact I had to explain myself to all 3 members of staff about why I disliked and have never chosen to read any of the books like "little women" or "pride and prejudice" that most girls seem to love, really got me thinking about what it was that I enjoyed about the books I picked from the shelves of Ottakers, and there was a common theme of first person narrative. They were all written almost like autobiographies, a single character narrating how they dealt with a strange life, or a traumatic situation be it discovering you're a hermaphrodite at the age of 13 or getting your head run over by a mail truck as a child. You can see me spieling away even now; because I felt I had to justify my choices I really got into it and was genuinely interested in what I was talking about. For my secondary reading I read books about child psychology, and the popularity of this autobiographical fiction reflecting the reality-tv obsessed culture we're in. Before I knew it had rambled through 5000 words of psychological ponderings.

....and so to my point. Pick books you want. If you go with classics then you'll be relying on your personality to shine through your words in order to stand out from the other hundreds of essays that have been written on the subject. Do try and scribble some stuff down early on, even if it seems pretty vague or irrelevant, you can whip these notes out a few months down the road and kid your teacher that you've been working on it. Get them off your case for a week or two.

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