GCSE Edexcel English LiteratureTime and Place

1. Nothing’s Changed by Tatumkhulu Afrika2. Stewart Island by Fleur Adcock

Name:

Learning goals

AO2 - Language RAG ratingB F S T

Learning Can I identify a language technique that has been used to within a text and make a brief comment about it?

Mastering Can I show an understanding of language techniques and their effect on a reader?

Extending Can I analyse a range of language techniques, sustaining the effect on the reader?Can I evaluate the language and its effect on the reader?

AO2 - StructureLearning Can I identify a structural technique or a

technique specific to the form within a text and make a brief comment about it?

Mastering Can I show an understanding of structural techniques and techniques stemming from a particular form and comment on their effect on the reader?

Extending Can I analyse the use of structural techniques or techniques specific to the form and sustain their effect on the reader?Can I show a perceptive grasp of form and structure and their effect on the reader?

AO2 – Subject terminologyLearning Can I make an attempt to use subject

terminology?Mastering Can I use relevant subject terminology to support

my examples?Extending Can I use relevant subject terminology accurately

and appropriately to develop my ideas?Can I integrate subject terminology precisely?

AO3 – ContextLearning Can I show some awareness of the relevant

context?Mastering Can I make sound comment on the relevant

context?Extending Can I sustain comments on the relevant context?

Can I show an excellent understanding of context?

AO3 – Relationship between the text and its

contextLearning Can I offer some comment on the relationship

between a text and its context?Mastering Can I make sound relevant comment on the

relationship between a text and context?Extending Can I show detailed awareness of the relationship

between a text and its context?Can I integrate convincing understanding of the relationship between a text and its context?

AO3 – ComparisonLearning Can I offer simple comparisons and contrasts

offering obvious similarities and differences between poems?

Mastering Can I compare and contrast a range of points considering some the similarities and differences between the poems?

Extending Can I compare and contrast the poems effectively, considering a wide range of similarities and differences and supporting my points with relevant examples from both poems throughout?Can I offer perceptive comparisons and contrasts, considering a varied and comprehensive range of similarities and differences?

Lesson 1

Retention quiz

Subject terminology

1. What is an adjective?2. What is alliteration?3. What is imagery?4. What is metaphor?5. What is onomatopoeia?

Extension

Use the picture on the right-hand side to construct your own examples of the techniques above.

Apartheid

1. Who is this man? 2. Why is he a significant historical figure?

1 After the National Party gained power in South Africa in 1948, its all2 white government immediately began enforcing existing policies of3 racial segregation under a system of legislation that is called4 apartheid. In legal terms, apartheid had three main pillars:5 The Race Classification Act, which classified every citizen 6 suspected of not being European according to race 7 The Mixed Marriages Act, which prohibited marriage between8 people of different races.9 The Group Areas Act, which forced people of certain races into10 living in designated areas.

11 In the early 1950s Mr Mandela toured South Africa, organising 12 campaigns of mass civil disobedience to oppose this. Because of 13 this, Mr Mandela was charged under the Suppression of14 Communism Act in 1952, and received a suspended prison 15 sentence. He was later banned from public meetings and confined

16 to Johannesburg for six months. In 1955, Mr Mandela played a key17 role in writing the African National Congress’s Freedom Charter, 18 which stated that South Africa belonged ‘to all who live in it, black 19 and white, and that no government can justify or claim authority 20 unless it is based on the will of all the people.’

21 In 1960, 69 people were shot dead in a protest against the Pass22 Laws, which restricted the movement of people classified as black or23 coloured. Days later, the government declared a state of emergency24 and banned the ANC. Hundreds of political activists, including Mr25 Mandela were arrested and detained without trial.

26 Mr Mandela went on the run and travelled outside of the country27 looking for support, but was arrested in South Africa in 1962 and 28 was jailed for five years. Two years later, Mr Mandela was29 sentenced to life imprisonment for organising sabotage. He was 30 sent to Robben Island jail.

31 Whilst in prison the rise of the militant Black Consciousness32 Movement during the 1970s rekindled interest in Mr Mandela.

33 As the black townships went up in flames, an active worldwide34 anti-apartheid movement was growing, focusing on the express aim35 of freeing Nelson Mandela and his fellow prisoners. As the clamour 36 for change increased, South Africa became more isolated, business37 and banks refused to do business with it.

38 In 1990, the South African government, which had already begun to 39 water down some aspects of apartheid legislation, finally agreed to 40 open negotiations and Nelson Mandela was released from prison.41 He easily won the election in 1994 and became South Africa’s first 42 black president, by which time apartheid had been dismantled. 43 South Africa’s people were now equal under the law and could vote44 And live, as they wished.

1. In 1948 apartheid was enforced. What were the three main pillars of apartheid?

2. In what year did Mr Mandela tour South Africa and for what reason?3. Explain the punishment Mr Mandela received for organising his protest

campaigns.4. What did the Freedom charter state?5. What were the Pass Laws?6. In what year was Mr Mandela arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment?7. How did South Africa become more isolated as a result of apartheid?

8. In what year did Mr Mandela become South Africa’s first black president?

Tatamkhulu Afrika

1 The poem ‘Nothing’s Changed’ is an autobiographical2 experience post-Apartheid. It details the poet’s return to an 3 area where he used to live called District Six. Once a multi-cult4 ural neighbourhood, this area was declared a ‘whites only’ zone5 during the 1960s. Tatamkhulu Afrika (1920-2000) was born6 Mogamed Fu’ad Nasif in Egypt to an Egyptian father and a 7 Turkish mother, and came to South Africa as a very young child.8 His parents died of flu and he was forced to change his name as 9 he moved between foster families. As a member of Mandela’s 10 African National Congress (ANC) party, Afrika was arrested for 11 terrorism offences in 1987 and banned from writing or speaking 12 in public for five years. This was when he adopted his fifth and 13 final name, Tatamkhulu Afrika (‘Grandfather Afrika’) under which 14 he continued to write despite the ban. After the dismantling of15 Apartheid, the poet expected to find a freer society, but was angry16 and disappointed to witness continuing inequality and injustice, 17 mainly due to the affluence of the white minority population. In 18 South Africa areas that segregated non-whites off from white 19 communities were known as townships.

1. What type of poem is ‘Nothing’s Changed’?2. When was District Six declared a ‘whites only’ zone?3. Why was Tatamkhulu arrested?4. What is the significance of his name do you think?5. What does the term ‘townships’ mean?

Extension:

Do you believe Africa is a changed place today or do you think it is still a case that ‘nothing has changed’?

Lesson 2

Vocabulary: segregation, apartheid, sabotage, militant, rekindled, autobiographical, affluence, townships

Retention quiz

Subject terminology

1. What is an oxymoron?2. What is pathetic fallacy?3. What are personal pronouns?4. What is personification?5. What is sensory language?

Extension

Use the picture on the right-hand side to construct your own examples of the techniques above.

Nothing’s Changed

1 Small round hard stones click2 under my heels,3 seeding grasses thrust4 bearded seeds5 into trouser cuffs, cans6 trodden on, crunch7 in tall, purple-flowering8 amiable weeds

9 District Six.10 No board says it is:11 but my feet know,12 and my hands,13 and the skin about my bones,14 and the soft labouring of my lungs,15 and the hot, white inwards turning 16 anger of my eyes.

17 Brash with glass,

18 name flaring like a flag,19 it squats20 in the grass and weeds,21 incipient Port Jackson trees:22 new, up-market, haute cuisine,23 guard at the gatepost,24 whites only inn.

25 No sign says it is:26 but we know where we belong.

27 I press my nose28 to the clear panes, know,29 before I see them, there will be30 crushed ice white glass,31 linen falls,32 the single rose.

33 Down the road,34 working man’s café sells35 bunny chows.36 Take it with you, eat37 it at a plastic table’s top,38 wipe your fingers on your jeans,39 spit a little on the floor:40 it’s in the bone.

41 I back from the glass,42 boy again,43 leaving small mean O44 of small mean mouth.45 Hands burn46 for a stone, a bomb,47 to shiver down the glass48 Nothing’s Changed.

1. Identify the poet’s use of alliteration in stanza 1. Explain how the use of alliteration helps to convey the poet’s emotion at the start of the poem. (L)

2. What effect does the use of asyndeton have on the tone of the poem from the outset? (S)

3. Why does the poet start stanza two with the short sentence ‘District Six’? (S)4. Explain why the colon has been used in the lines ‘No board says it is: But my

feet know’? (S)5. The poet has created a list and used the conjunction ‘and’ at the start of lines

12, 13, 14 to connect the ideas in this list. Explain why you think the poet has done this. (S)

6. Identify the technique used in line 18 and explain what the poet is trying to convey through the use of the technique. (L)

7. Explain how the personification used in line 19 helps to convey the poet’s anger. (L)

8. Compare the adjectives use to describe the ‘whites only inn’ and the ‘working man’s café’. Explain what you learn about the two eateries. (L)

9. Explain how the imperatives in lines 38 and 39 help to convey the poet’s frustration. (L)

10. Explain the significance of the adverb ‘again’ in the phrase ‘Boy again.’11. The poem is structured using short staccato sentences. Explain why the

poet uses short sentences. (S)

Extension

How has the poet used language and structural techniques to convey to the reader that segregation is still rife?

POINT What language or structural technique has been used to convey that segregation is still rife?

EVIDENCE Textual reference using quotation marksEXPLANATION What does the quotation tell you?FOCUSED EXPLORATION

How has the language or structural technique helped to convey the idea that segregation is rife?Extension: Offer multiple interpretations. ‘It could suggest this…it might suggest that…’Extension: Link to contextual knowledge

EFFECT How would a reader respond to this?

NB: In the exam, you will need to write one paragraph on a language technique and one paragraph on a structural technique

Lesson 3

Vocabulary – amiable, incipient, haute

Retention quiz

Subject terminology

1. What is a simile?2. What is symbolism?3. What are verbs?4. What is caesura?5. What is a colon?

Extension

Use the picture on the right-hand side to construct your own examples of the techniques above.

Fleur Adcock

1 She was five years old when the big test came. Her parents had 2 come to England from New Zealand, where she was born. The 3 second world war was on the cards and they, good people that they4 were, meant to dig ditches for the war effort. They settled briefly in5 Sidcup, then evacuated their daughters to distant relations on a 6 Leicestershire farm.7 In England, Fleur found her spiritual home. Not to put too fine a 8 point on it, she loved the weather. The seasons were real and 9 distinct from one another. Winters were real winters with snow and 10 summers were real summers and the skies changed face a million11 times a day and, putting it in a nutshell, there were primroses. In 12 those first, halcyon days, she was a good big sister. Without a 13 mummy and daddy to fight for, there was nothing to be cross about.14 Being the first to read, she did the decent thing and read aloud to the 15 baby sister, good as gold. The worst she did was to charge a penny 16 each for making up a new William story. ‘William and Ginger went 17 for a walk. Just as they came to the old barn, William noticed…” And18 so on. She didn’t get nasty till later.19 They took her back to New Zealand after the war. The long journey20 home probably marked the end and the culmination of her 21 childhood. She and the little sister strung up curtains in one of the

22 ship’s nether corridors and put on entertainment for the other23 children. They wrote and performed a series of what they took to be24 hilarious plays centred on a Mr Tommy Ato and his wife Poppette25 who ran a hat shop. Tommy Ah-to. Tomato. She was 13. The26 series ran and ran. The children paid up. England got further and27 further away till all she had left was an abiding sense of loss and a28 bad case of homesickness.29 Five years later, she was sitting her finals at Wellington University,30 Pregnant, married, a shit-hot Latin scholar and fondly imagining she 31 was grow up. She had seen her husband across a crowded room 32 and snapped him up for his physical beauty. He looked like Gregory33 Peck only better, not as tall, alas, but divine. Exotic. Half 34 Polynesian. If she was obliged to live in Kiwi-land, she might as well 35 have the benefit. She fancied him ‘like mad’. He was a romantic 36 poet, published, acclaimed, successful, all the things she wanted 37 For herself. She wanted, yes, to be him. Instead she married him. 38 It was a long time ago. “Look,” she says, “nobody took you seriously39 in the 50s unless you had a bloke or were married or something. 40 You couldn’t get away from home, you couldn’t shack up because41 that was immoral. You weren’t anyone. All the things Sylvia Plath42 suffered from.’43 So suddenly there she was with a little house and a little mortgage,44 pushing a pram along the street where Katherine Mansfield lived,45 desperately pretending to be grown up. She had her poet, but he 46 had a wife. There was no more dressing up and going out having a 47 good time. She was a suburban housewife, bored out of her mind. 48 It was Catch 22. You couldn’t be an adult without a man and you 49 couldn’t be an adult with a man. And when she thought about it 50 properly she realised she didn’t really want to be him anyway. She 51 wrote a poem at that time, called The Lover. “Always he would52 inhabit an alien landscape,” it went, so everybody thought it was 53 about the poet’s hubbie. But it wasn’t. It was about herself, only in 54 those days you weren’t allowed to have female personas in poems.55 The marriage lasted five years. Somewhere along the way she got56 caught in flagrante with someone else, was as guilty as sin, had a 57 second son, dwelt peaceably a trois with the romantic poet’s 58 second wife for a spell, got a job and took off with her baby under59 her arm.60 She can’t believe she did this. How to put it? She was a child, 23 61 going on 12. She’d been brought up to believe fair was fair; a cake62 for her, the identical cake for her sister. There was nothing for it but63 to leave her first-born with her father. It seemed fair. It was that 64 bone-simple. She felt she had no more choice than if her child had 65 been snatched or had died. He would have the same parent, the 66 same home, the same bed, the same little tricycle, just a different67 mother.68 “I just don’t recognise the girl who did this,” she says, her voice

69 dropping like a stone. “I haven’t a clue how her mind worked. This 70 Is me sitting here now, I’ve grown cynical and I don’t know who she71 is. Only in bits. Her past and her memories I can see, but I don’t 72 recognise her in the mirror and I don’t like looking back on her. I 73 don’t admire her.” And, more in sorrow than anger, she concludes 74 that she is jolly glad to have got away from someone so, so… so 75 pathetic.76 At 23, then, with one small baby and a university lectureship to 77 bless herself with, she began to muddle through a facsimile of an 78 independent life. The city of Dunedin, where she worked, was “all79 laced curtains and Calvinistic disapproval,” and a divorced woman 80 was ostracised in respectable company. The poems she wrote in 81 those days, she thinks now, seem to have been written by someone82 pretending to be her. She had no idea how unhappy she was until83 one day she found herself standing by the wall in her kitchen,84 waiting for the kettle to boil, with unstoppable tears pouring down 85 her face. The enormity of it all hit her like a hammer. She had 86 relinquished her child, and all the rationalisation in the world 87 wouldn’t make it right. It was all wrong. Everything. Hopelessly 88 wrong. Her love affairs brought torment and obsession and guilt and89 going back to wives and attempted suicides and God knows what-90 all. Romantic idylls of the kind you imagine will continue in heaven91 have a tendency to be played out with married men or those 92 separated from you by great distances. They work rather as an 93 antidote to domestic enslavement but are invariably full of grief.94 The citizens of Dunedin, by this token, were probably right about95 young Fleur. Well-meaning friends perceiving her anguish, 96 introduced her to various distractions, among them a gentleman by 97 the name of Barry Crump. “But don’t marry him,” they counselled98 urgently, which was a mistake.99 Among his many distinctions, Mr Crump was incredibly famous in100

New Zealand. Searching for a contemporary equivalent, Adcock

101

thinks of Georgie Best. Or, better yet, Gazza. He was a Crocodile

102

Dundee sort of fellow who wrote adventure stories with titles such as

103

Hang On A Minute, Mate and A Good Keen Man. And, of course, he

104

was an absolute knock-out in bed. “Well, they are, aren’t they?” she

105

says, giggling like a teenager. “Male chauvinist pigs always are.

106

Think of Italians. Isn’t it perverse?”

107

Anyway, it wasn’t long before she displayed all the foresight and not

108

prudence of a lemming and married him. It was, she says, the most

109

horrifying thing she could think to do to persuade herself out of more

110

obsessive liaisons. He was soon routinely smacking her in the

111

mouth. “They do that, don’t they?” she says. “Manly men. They’re

112

fine in the pub telling jokes and stories, but in an argument they’re

113

so good at the old logic, so that’s when they smack you across the

114

mouth.”

115

The marriage lasted five months. By the way of a divorce the £30

116

settlement, Mr Crump agreed to pay her passage to England; less

117

she’d already salted away for the purpose. And she ran away. No.

118

Correction. She ran towards.

119

It was mid-winter when she arrived in London, as though the whole

120

of England had been kept on ice for her, waiting for her to come

121

home. Sylvia Plath had taken her life one week earlier. Nobody

122

had heard of a poet called Fleur Adcock. She had a six-year-old

123

son, a couple of tea chests and some loose change, but the front

124

was cruel and she was literally sparked by that: “When it’s frosty,”

125

she says, “I feel as though I’ve been taking some interesting drug.”

1. Where was Fleur Adcock born?2. Explain why Fleur Adcock felt more at home in England.3. Explain Fleur Adcock’s feelings on the journey home to New Zealand.4. Why did Fleur Adcock marry her first husband?5. What was the reality of married life for Fleur?6. ‘Always he would inhabit an alien landscape.’ Adcock uses this line to

describe herself. What did you think she meant by this?7. Explain why Adcock’s first marriage broke and down the effect this had on her.8. At what point did Fleur Adcock realise she was so unhappy?

9. What was the name of Adcock’s second husband and who does Adcock compare him to?

10. Explain why this second marriage ended.11. Adcock’s ex-husband paid for her return to England. Why does the

writer state ‘she ran towards’ England?12. Explain how Adcock felt upon her return.

Extension:

Imagine you are Fleur Adcock. Construct a letter from Fleur to New Zealand, expressing your feelings about the country.

Lesson 4

Vocabulary – obliged, acclaimed, immoral, suburban, inhabit, flagrante, facsimile, ostracised, relinquished, rationalisation, idylls, antidote, enslavement, counselled, prudence, liaisons

Retention quiz

Subject terminology

1. What is direct speech?2. What is enjambment?3. Why are exclamation marks used?4. What is free verse?5. When do we use the first person?

Extension

Use the picture on the right-hand side to construct

your own examples of the techniques above.

Stewart Island

1 ‘But look at all this beauty’2 said the hotel manager’s wife4 when asked how she could bear to5 live there. True: there was a fine bay, 6 all hills and atmosphere; white7 sand, and bush down to the sea’s edge;8 oyster-boats, too, and Maori9 fishermen with Scottish names (she 10 ran off with one that autumn).11 As for me, I walked on the beach;12 it was too cold to swim. My13 seven-year-old collected shells 14 and was bitten by sandflies;15 my four-year-old paddled, until16 a mad seagull jetted down17 to jab its claws and beak into18 his head. I had already19 decided to leave the country.

1. Explain why you think Adcock begins the poem with direct speech? (S)2. What does the verb ‘bear’ reveal about Adcock’s attitude towards the island?

(L)3. Explain the significance of the colon in the line ‘True: there was a fine bay.’ (S)4. Identify the adjectives used to describe the island in lines 5-9. (L) 5. What images do the nouns used conjure up in lines 5-9? (L).6. Explain what the reader’s impression of Stewart Island would be as a result of

the nouns and adjectives used between lines 5-9. (L)7. How does Adcock attempt to insert humour in this poem? (S)8. What does the adjective ‘cold’ literally and metaphorically reveal about

Adcock’s feelings towards Stewart Island? (L)9. Explain the significance of the enjambment in the lines ‘My / seven-year-old

collected shells / and was bitten by sandflies.’ (S)10. Explain the significance of the verbs between lines 13-18 in helping to

convey Adcock’s discontent whilst in New Zealand. (L)11. What is the impact of the declarative ‘I had already decided to leave the

country’ at the end of the poem? (S)12. The poem has been structured using free verse. Why do you think

Adcock choose this form to use? (F)

Extension

How has the poet used language and structural techniques to convey to the reader that she does not feel at home in New Zealand, and more specifically Stewart Island?

POINT What language or structural technique has been used to convey that Adcock does not feel at home in New Zealand, and more specifically Stewart Island.

EVIDENCE Textual reference using quotation marksEXPLANATION What does the quotation tell you?FOCUSED EXPLORATION

How has the language or structural technique helped to convey the idea that Adcock does not feel at home in New Zealand, and more specifically, Stewart Island.Extension: Offer multiple interpretations. ‘It could suggest this…it might suggest that…’Extension: Link to contextual knowledge

EFFECT How would a reader respond to this?

NB: In the exam, you will need to write one paragraph on a language technique and one paragraph on a structural technique

Lesson 5

Vocabulary – comparison, contrast

Retention quiz

Subject terminology

1. What is parenthesis?2. What is repetition?3. What is the third person?4. What is anaphora?5. What is asyndeton?

Extension

Use the picture on the right-hand side to construct your own examples of the techniques above.

The poetry examination

In the poetry exam, you will be asked to compare two poems from the anthology. For example, past questions include:

Compare how the effect of love is presented in the two poems.

Compare how tension is presented in the two poems.

Compare the ways the writers present an old person in the two poems.

The responses are being assessed for AO2 – Language, structure and form (15%) and AO3 – Comparison and context (5%)

Here is an example of a response to the question ‘Compare how tension is presented in the two poems.’ The candidate chose ‘Catrin’ by Gillian Clarke and ‘War Photographer’ by

1. Use 4 different highlighter colours to identify The points the candidate makes about language techniques and how they’ve

been used to convey tension The points the candidate makes about structural techniques and how they’ve

been used to convey tension The points the candidates makes context and the links established between

context and the poems The comparisons and contrasts made

2. Now use the mark-scheme to identify where you would place this response and explain your reasons for this.

Lesson 6:

Self-assessing – Practise defining the terms you got wrong in the retention quizzes.

Comparing ‘Nothing’s Changed’ and ‘Stewart Island’

This is the question that you are going to be working on across the next two lessons:

Compare how feelings of frustration are presented in ‘Nothing’s Changed’ and Stewart Island.

In the first instance, you need to be clear on how feelings of frustration, in this instance, are presented in both poems.

1. What is the source of frustration in ‘Nothing’s Changed’?2. What is the source of frustration in ‘Stewart Island’?3. How are the sources of frustration linked to Time and Place?

And then you need to consider how the feelings of frustration are presented through the use of language and structural techniques and the features of form.

Nothing’s Changed Comparison or contrast

Stewart Island

Language

DON’T FORGET YOUR CONTEXTUAL LINK

Structure and form

DON’T FORGET YOUR CONTEXTUAL LINK

Constructing an effective introduction and conclusion

The examiner states that the response we have read would have benefited from an introduction which guides the reader into the response and identifies which two poems are going to be explored.

1. Which two poems are you writing about?2. How could you guide the reader into the response?

Writing a thesis statement

1 Essay writing is persuasive. In your essays you are trying to 2 convince your examiner that you have an interesting, logical3 point of view on the subject you are studying. After a brief topic 4 introduction of your topic, you state your point of view on the5 directly and often in one sentence. This sentence is the thesis6 statement and it serves as a summary of the argument you’ll7 make in the rest of your essay.

8 A thesis statement:9 Is a road map for the paper, in other words, it tells the 10 reader what to expect from the rest of the essay.11 Directly answers the questions asked of you. A thesis is 12 an interpretation of a question or subject, not the subject itself.13 The subject, or topic, might be World War II or Moby Dick; a 14 thesis must then offer a way to understand the war or the novel.15 Makes a claim that others might dispoute.16 Is usually a single sentence that presents your argument 17 to the reader. The rest of the essay, the body of the essay,18 Gathers and organises evidence that will persuade the reader19 of your interpretation.

20 Imagine you studying 19th century America and you are given 21 the following essay: Compare and contrast the reasons why22 the North and South fought the Civil War. Your initial thesis

23 statement reads:

24 The North and South fought the Civil War for many reasons,

25 Some of which were the same and some different.

26 This weak thesis statement restates the question without 27 providing any additional information. It does not tell the reader28 where you are heading. A reader of this weak thesis might 29 think “What reasons? How are they the same? How are they30 different?” If you were to ask yourself these same questions,31 you might begin to compare Northern and Southern attitudes -32 you might first think “The South believed slavery was right, and 33 the North thought slavery was wrong.” You would then need to34 push your comparisons towards an interpretation – why did one35 side think slavery was right and the other side think it was then 36 wrong? You would neeed to look again at the evidence and37 it might be that you decide that you are going to argue that the38 North believed slavery was immoral while the South believed it39 upheld the Southern way of life. Your next attempt at a thesis40 statement is:

41 While both sides fought the Civil War over the issues of 42 slavery, the North fought for moral reasons while the South 43 fought to preserve its own institutions.

44 The thesis statement is now much stronger. Included in this 45 thesis is a reason for the war and some ideas of how the two46 sides dis agreed over this reason. Your essay will characterise47 the differences more precisely. It might be then that your thesis48 seems too vague. You might decide that both sides fought for49 for moral reasons and that they just focused on different moral 50 issues. You end up revising the thesis into a final statement51 which captures the argument in your essay:

52 While the Northerners and the Southerners believed they53 fought against tyranny and aggression, Northerners 54 focused on the oppression of slaves while Southerners 55 defended their own right to self-government.

56 This final these statement interprets the evidence.

1. What makes a good thesis statement?

Extension:

Read the second example of how to construct a thesis statement.

1 Your literature teacher gives out the following essay question on 2 the American novel ‘Huckleberry Finn.’ This is your first draft3 of a thesis statement:

4 ‘In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain develops a contrast 5 between life on the river and life on the shore.

6 This is a working thesis with potential with an important aspect7 of the novel have been identified. However, your reader might8 think ‘So what? What’s the point of this contrast? What does it 9 signify?’ In order to gain clarity, you would work your way10 through the book to find concrete examples. After examining11 the evidence you will come up with further insights which might12 lead you to write a thesis statement such as

13 Through its contrasting river and shape scenes, Twain’s14 ‘Huckleberry Finn’ suggests that to find the true expression 15 of American democratic ideals, one must leave ‘civilized’ 16 society and go back to nature.

17 The final thesis statement presents an interpretation of the novel18 based on its content. For the essay to be successful, the main19 body must present the main evidence from the novel to convince20 the reader of your interpretation.

Adapted from http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/thesis-statements/

1. Construct your own thesis statement in response to the question ‘Compare how feelings of frustration are presented in the poem ‘Nothing’s Changed’ and ‘Stewart Island’?

Lesson 7:

Vocabulary – thesis

Knowledge retention test

Essay: Compare how feelings of frustration are presented in the poem ‘Nothing’s Changed’ and ‘Stewart Island’

DO NOT LOOK BACK THROUGH THIS BOOK but plan your essay response below: