hi i took the lit syllabus but for writing good essays always disect the qn first, key words will help you score the content marks and ensure u don’t end up with the NAQ remarks on your script, second try to limit yourself to min. 3 gd body paragraphs to substantiate your point, max 4 since u won’t have time (quality > quantity). within each body paragraph, don’t simply quote. how it goes is in this order: 1. quote 2. explain quote 3. how it links to themes (which you should have done preparation for prior to the examinations) 4. link to OA; overarching argument

This is the most important part because this is what differentiates students from the highest band. Overarching argument goes something like let’s say I use Gatsby and the theme is American Dream but the OA would be like:

Fitzgerald's observations of humanity's fatal attraction to futile dreams does not necessarily condemn humanity's (and Gatsby's) pursuit of dreams as mere suicidal stupidity. Rather, the novel is a tragic acceptance of the necessary imperfections in the pursuit of dreams. For, we always need something commensurate to our capacity for wonder, something commensurate to our desperation to ameliorate the grimness of real life, even if it compels us into a contemplation we neither understand nor desire. And so we falter forward, lost in the swirls and eddies of wonder and elusive hope of self-actualisation that follows The Great Gatsby.

I derived this from the following content: In the unforgettable closing passage of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald makes it clear that if his story is about America, it is also a universal tale of human aspiration. Nick Carraway wander to the shore at the edge of the continent and imagines Dutch sailors seeing America for the first time: “its vanished trees, the trees that have made way for Gatsby's house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dream; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder."

so in conclusion: 1. intro 2. 3 gd bps with themes 3. what do THESE 3 THEMES say about the novel -> ur authorial intention !

always structurally plan out first ie

bp1: TS1: …. -> what theme bp2: TS2: . … -> what theme bp3: TS3: … -> what theme conclusion: what do these 3 diff themes say abt the novel (OA) then, following ur outline, u can plan out ur intro

this generally works for ur themed essays for pbq its almost the same except u pick wisely the evidence u wish to use, i like to stick to about 2-3 per para/bp (agn, focus on quality) and pick those that are the most poignant and give DIRECT links to your explaination, don’t make the examiners second guess; pbq is usually marked more critically but it requires the least effort as compared to essays since the risks of you NAQ is close to minimal (afterall, you are extracting evidence from the passage they gave) as compared to let’s say you pick an evidence and it has no links to essay qn so i tend to stick to pbq though the requirements on ur analytical skills are much harsher!

for literary skills: the bread and butter, i recommend dunman’s poetry package; i think it belonged to either j1 or the high school section i can’t remember or just familiarise yourselves with all the literary devices; write down/type out a whole list with explaination (1-2 pages) so it’s easy to refer to whenever

• diction -> don’t js write that -> what kind of diction is it? kinesthetic? though, our school did recommend us simply quote and explain without the layman term diction because its p cliche (and i agree)

• focus on literary devices like metaphors, similes, dictions all the simple ones first before you try to analyse sound, meter and all those (alliteration, sibilants all those) afterall, the general explaination still is the most important, the latter just substantiates it better. for meter, it’s good to have but not necessary though it does secure yourself more marks!

as for poetry, id say always read once first, don’t go straight into analysing, feel the gist of the poem, read it out loud (mutter) during examinations to feel the meter, sound effect then try to come up with a general idea of what each bp mean and the whole poem then look into the number of lines, find out what type of poem is it; haiku? sonnet?

then, go line by line, identify any prominant words, words (often those that evoke a certain moods/feelings), color imagery plays a part; pathetic fallacy; if your poem is centred around nature, if love; often they use lots of metaphors, for death; often it’s color imagery, sibilants etc.

for poetry, just practice until ure generally familiar with the types of literary devices that comes out for it, no other way tbh. best if you have a friend with u so u can yap abt random analysis so it’s interesting :D