General feedback
Students should:
- specifically address all parts of the question using a strong personal voice
- clearly engage with each element of the question
- demonstrate a conceptual understanding of the text in relation to the question
- explicitly evaluate the extent to which the statement is true of their prescribed text throughout their response
- develop a strong, sustained personal response to the question
- apply knowledge of the module to inform their interpretation and shape their response
- demonstrate an understanding of how context, form and language contribute to the critical value of their prescribed text
- support their argument and evaluation with detailed and considered textual details
- demonstrate sustained control of language and ideas appropriate to purpose, form and audience.
Question 2 – Prose Fiction – Jane Austen, Emma
In better responses, students were able to:
- create a strong line of argument line of argument and personal voice that shaped a detailed and balanced analysis of the integrity of the text, purpose and context
- skilfully explore the values and historical context of Regency England
- clearly articulate distinctive stylistic features of a Bildungsroman text
- evaluate how the language features of the text alter or expand the audience’s perceptions of dependency
- demonstrate a critical understanding of varied forms of dependency
- demonstrate an understanding of social and historical context and how this supports their personal understanding of the author’s representation of dependency to alter and expand the reader’s understanding.
Areas for students to improve include:
- demonstrating an understanding of form as central to how ideas are communicated
- moving beyond generalised statements about dependency and into a more detailed discussion and analysis of the idea across form and context
- evaluating language and stylistic features of the text and how they help fulfil the composer’s purpose.
Question 2 – Prose Fiction – Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
In better responses, students were able to
- demonstrate a conceptual understanding of the question
- perceptively explore the ideas of duty considering Dickens’s purpose and context
- provide a discerning selection of textual examples to support an integrated line of argument
- demonstrate their altered understanding through Pip’s understanding of duty
- clearly identify the symbolic nature of the protagonist’s maturation as a mechanism to critique societal norms
- clearly and critically identify and define specific expressions of duty to build a line of argument, including moral duty, society’s duty, familial duty
- engage with the author’s social and historical context and shape a response that understands the nuanced representation of duty related to the protagonist’s Victorian values and attitudes
- discuss a range of textual features that were well selected and shaped insightfully for the question
- use well selected examples to support a strong line of argument and personal voice focused on the question.
Areas for students to improve include:
- developing a response that moves beyond generalised themes, characters and motifs
- demonstrating how the form and the author reflect the contextual concerns of Dicken’s social and cultural tropes
- structuring a sustained argument around specific expressions of duty
- sustaining a clear personal voice
- moving past the characters and narrative of the text to evaluate the composer’s purpose and message to his audience
- focusing on all aspects of the question, including the altered and expanded idea of duty.
Question 2 – Prose Fiction – Kazuo Ishiguro, An Artist of the Floating World
In better responses, students were able to:
- shape a conceptual argument that put forward how both Ishiguro and Ono challenge and conform to tradition(s)
- skilfully explore the contextual values of the composer (Japan post WWII), Thatcherism in 1980s England and America of the1980s
- clearly articulate Ishiguro’s personal voice and purpose by moving beyond an exploration of Ono to consider Ishiguro’s concerns
- support their ideas through a detailed and discerning selection of textual examples
- confidently discuss notions of tradition in values, art and family in terms of the shift and its impact on character
- incorporate use of significant motifs (for example, Bridge of Hesitation, Floating World, setting) to incorporate clear understanding of textual integrity and Ishiguro’s purpose to challenge ideas of tradition
- engage with the question in a genuine way that spoke to the different ways tradition was presented in the novel
- synthesise contextual information with analysis and well selected relevant textual evidence in a skilful manner
- analyse how features of the form, for instance the unreliable narrator, were in themselves a break with tradition.
Areas for students to improve include:
- understanding of narrative voice, structure and style of storytelling
- acknowledging the symbolic aspects of the text, including the title ’Floating World’
- developing ideas beyond a superficial discussion of contextual factors (for example, post modernism, Thatcherism, 1980s America and Japan post WWII)
- exploring a broader range of novelistic devices to consider Ishiguro’s style/aesthetics, such as the use of the unreliable narrator, explaining how Ishiguro constructs and utilises character as a way of exploring tradition
- provding a wider range of evidence beyond the characterisation of the protagonist
- understanding how generations within a family provide a microcosm for exploring changes in attitudes to tradition.
Question 2 – Poetry – T S Eliot, T S Eliot: Selected Poems
In better responses, students were able to:
- shape a conceptual framework that incorporates Eliot’s own ontological journey in terms of his identification of personal and social entrapment (first four poems) and his ultimate spiritual salvation as the antithesis to this entrapment
- demonstrate a perceptive understanding of Eliot’s Modernist context and how it influenced his stylistic approach
- explore how Eliot’s ideas and approach engage audiences beyond his own time
- integrate context in an authentic and purposeful manner
- make conceptual links between poems to demonstrate their understanding of textual integrity
- weave context, well-selected textual evidence, analysis of language and form and personal voice into a response based on entrapment as well as how it altered and expanded their personal views
- present a thoughtful interpretation of what entrapment can mean, or look like, for the individual in the context of modernity
- demonstrate an understanding that the poems are a cohesive suite to portray an holistic understanding of the text and Eliot’s context to make connections with how their own understanding of context has been influenced
- present their understanding in a clear and cohesive response.
Areas for students to improve include:
- selecting most relevant poems and evidence to suit the question
- demonstrating an enhanced understanding of Eliot as a Modernist poet and how this influences the construction, content and language of the text
- responding directly and conceptually to the question to distinctly evaluate entrapment and how the reader’s understanding of entrapment has been both altered and expanded
- demonstrating an understanding of Eliot’s personal transition and how this is reflected in his poems
- referencing accurate and relevant contextual details
- making meaningful connections between poems rather than treating them separately
- sustaining a line of argument which addresses the whole question
- analysing distinctive features of form and engaging with the purpose of techniques.
Question 2 – Poetry – David Malouf, Earth Hour
In better responses, students were able to:
- demonstrate a perceptive understanding of Malouf’s context and purpose
- critically evaluate the enduring value and significance of Malouf’s insights into the shared experience of what it is to be human exploring the ideas of connection
- provide an integrated discussion based on a discerning selection from Malouf’s poems
- use language skilfully to discuss and evaluate the poetry
- demonstrate understanding of connection through exploring the poems as a suite using ideas such as connection to the natural world, connection to spirituality, alternative ways of thinking or worldviews, connections to past and present
- fluently link the examples and language forms and features of the text to the composer’s purpose
- demonstrate an authentic personal voice explaining how the ideas presented altered and expanded their understanding
- skilfully analyse form and context.
Areas for students to improve include:
- demonstrating deep understanding of the poems to ensure that textual evidence is insightful and well chosen
- demonstrating an awareness of Malouf’s central concerns and an understanding of his poetic approach
- developing a personal voice and evaluating the way these poems have altered and expanded their understanding
- providing a sustained analysis of the significance of form on the idea of connection
- using detailed textual evidence that is linked to the question rather than technique driven
- providing a clear focus on the module and Malouf’s poems as a suite
- sustaining a clear and coherent response that genuinely addresses the question.
Question 2 – Drama – Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House
In better responses, students were able to:
- demonstrate an understanding of how context, form and language contribute to the critical value of their prescribed text
- clearly articulate the effect of context on the construction of the play
- explicitly analyse and evaluate the ways Ibsen’s language and dramatic choices altered and expanded their understanding of survival
- critically analyse characterisation and the differing ideas of survival
- critically discuss textual features and form, including dramatic techniques to support their line of argument
- discuss the social milleu and its influence on the playwright
- sustain responses with skilful use of language to address all aspects of the question.
Areas for students to improve include:
- demonstrating an understanding of the importance of form and the writer’s context on how ideas are communicated
- providing a discussion of dramatic form, analysis of techniques and relevant quotes to support the line of argument
- demonstrating an understanding of how the text provides an enhanced understanding of the concept of survival
- developing a personal voice to express how their idea of survival is altered and expanded
- using clear expression and language to address all areas of the question.
Question 2 – Drama – Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood
In better responses, students were able to:
- demonstrate an understanding of the module informed by a deep knowledge and understanding of the text as literature and evaluate why this gives it enduring integrity
- appreciate the form and understanding of how irony and humour create nuanced meaning
- include detailed reference and analysis of the radio play form, specifically looking at aural features
- incorporate specific contextual detail, including the writer’s biographical context and real world events
- use an authentic voice to demonstrate how the idea of disconnection altered and expanded their view
- demonstrate how the post war context impacted on society’s sense of disconnection
- critically explore how characters demonstrate disconnection with each other and society in general
- sustain responses with skilful use of language to address all aspects of the question.
Areas for students to improve include:
- understanding of the radio play form; its key micro and macro characteristics and purpose
- referencing the tone used by Dylan for different characters and how the language promotes characterisation
- developing a personal voice to show how their view was altered and expanded
- demonstrating understanding of Thomas’ context and the purpose of humour rather than just taking the plot at face value
- providing evidence beyond characterisation (for example, symbolic setting, patterns of imagery)
- developing ideas that go beyond thematic aspects of the play (for example, love and pleasure)
- developing a response that connects to question and their line of argument.
Question 2 – Film – George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck
In better responses, students were able to:
- demonstrate a conceptual engagement with the terms of the question in a well informed and thoughtful line of argument
- critically engage with the text as a film study showing a clear awareness of form
- weave analysis of film techniques supported by well-chosen textual evidence
- demonstrate a clear understanding of the dual context of the film, 1950s McCarthyism and Clooney’s contemporary context, as well as make relevant and insightful connections to their own worlds; this worked well in establishing a personal response on integrity
- use analysis purposefully, drawing out the ideas of the film and the full implication of these ideas, often juxtaposing the two time periods and contexts
- analyse both contexts of the docudrama and reflect on the intended impact on the audience
- critically demonstrate the subjective nature of truth and the way that this has been corrupted or abused via the media historically and contemporarily
- authentically use personal voice to articulate how the idea of integrity altered and expanded their view
- sustain responses with skilful use of language to address all aspects of the question.
Areas for students to improve include:
- exploring all elements of the question including altered and expanded and integrity
- demonstrating an understanding of how context, form and language contribute to the critical value of the text
- providing relevant detailed and direct comparisons of the dual social, political and cultural contexts of the film and its interpretation and dramatisation of history
- discussing form including a range of filmic techniques that are integrated in the textual analysis
- using personal voice to fully address the question
- moving their discussion beyond the 1950s setting of the text
- focusing on Clooney’s purpose as composer, rather than providing a character study of Morrow
- developing a response that connects to the question and their line of argument.
Question 2 – Media – Gillian Armstrong, Unfolding Florence
In better responses, students were able to:
- parallel the hybridised and multilayered form with the idea of deception
- discuss the key word deception both in reference to the nature of Florence Broadhurst’s character and the way that Armstrong uses form specific elements to represent the notion of deception
- reference contextual information that related to Broadhurst and/or Armstrong’s deception (for example, overcoming patriarchal attitudes to succeed)
- use a personal voice in a meaningful way to demonstrate how their views and ideas were altered and expanded
- presente their understanding in a clear and cohesive response.
Areas for students to improve include:
- engaging in a more detailed discussion of form and how it impacts the central ideas of the question
- developing a response beyond providing quotations of interviews looking to discuss the quality of these voices in relation to concept of deception. This might include, for example, analysis of re-enactment, filmic devices, and/or editing, and how they position audiences and shape meaning
- using an informed and articulate personal voice
- responding to the whole question
- developing a response that clearly connects to question.
Question 2 – Shakespearean Drama – William Shakespeare, King Henry IV,
Part 1
In better responses, students were able to:
- form a comprehensive discussion about dishonour using context, characterisation, dialogue, dramatic techniques
- provide a nuanced and complex discussion of dishonour arising from how notions of honour and dishonour were being reconsidered
- recognise Shakespeare’s Elizabethan context and purpose, leading to a discussion of how dishonour within the play is reflected to his audience which may include anxiety over Queen Elizabeth’s replacement
- provide a skilful discussion of the impact of the dramatic form and how Shakespeare’s construction of the hybrid-historical text shapes meaning
- provide a conceptual argument that moved beyond a simplistic comparison of Hal as dishonourable and Hotspur as honourable in terms of dramatic construction engage with all aspects of the question, to develop a personal voice and consider the value of the play at the time it was written and now by evaluating how Shakespeare influenced audiences or themselves (personal voice) to expand their understanding of dishonour
- provide detailed textual evidence from throughout the play.
Areas for students to improve include:
- focusing on the concept of dishonour in the textual analysis and how their understanding of this has been altered and expanded
- avoiding confusing honour and dishonour and showing a contrast between the two effectively
- providing a deeper exploration of form and a range of characters whose portrayal reflects or challenges their own understanding of dishonour. Avoid a simple argument that this character/action is honourable and this character/action is dishonourable
- clearly delineating between values of Renaissance and medieval contexts
- demonstrating a deeper understanding of how context influences both character and audience perceptions
- avoiding use of learned material about a different idea that does not mean the same as dishonour, for example, leadership. This restricts an exploration of dishonour.
