English A1 SL - literary features

[bjornmys]

Well, to make a long story short, I received my essay back a while ago and i got 14/30. The reason why I lost so many marks was mainly because i didnt use enough literary features! the thing is, literary features is something thats completely new to me and my class and im just not getting the hang of it as my teacher explained reaaally briefly and expected us to figure the rest out for ourselves. i could mention a couple of them if we were doing a play but when it comes to writing an essay on a novel i just dont know what to say, as literary features are a pretty big part of my teacher's criteria at our current stage. could you english experts, (or well, A1 experts i think would be better hehe) please give me some examples of literary features that can be used on a typical novel and where do you put it in your essay/commentary?

thanks a lot!

[HJ:)]

Well, to make a long story short, I received my essay back a while ago and i got 14/30.

please give me some examples of literary features that can be used on a typical novel and where do you put it in your essay/commentary?

thanks a lot!

well the only thing I know about literary features is that

you can put some quotes from the novel in your essays.

Yup that's basically what i learned hehehe hope it helps

[Vvi]

Literary features=

-alliteration

-assonance

-rhyme

-onomatopoeia

-setting

-mood

-tone

-syntax (sentence structure)

-diction (choice of words)

-imagery

-allusion

-allegory

-caesura ( break or pause by a comma/full stop within a line of poetry for emphasis)

-characterization

-caricature

-dramatic irony

-pathetic fallacy

-satire

-metonymy

...and so on.

You wouldn't just mention these in your essay; saying that the poet uses imagery is not gonna get you any points, You have to be able to say what effect is created by that literary device, and what is the author's purpose in using it.

Ask your teacher for a list of literary devices, with definitions. And also ask if you can rewrite your essay. Hopefully it wasn't your final WL essay.

[Hyperbole]

When writing about novels I also find that it's often easy to write about the style of narration.

As for how to put it into your essay, it should be well integrated and not seem like something you're just putting in haphazardly to score the necessary points; it should form part of your argument. This is something you must practise a lot, until it comes intuitively. Try to write as many essays as you can before it's time to sit the exams: it will help you!

[KiwiFruit]

I'm not to sure which one you are talking about Paper 2 or World Lit.

Paper 1 when analyzing a unseen text understanding, awareness and analysis of literary features is looked at for a certain criterion. But like they've been saying ^ don't just regurgitate what you know like every literary feature out there. Try to choose the most impacting ones, for a novel I would usually talk about tone/diction/allegory( if it applies, such as Jean Anouilhs rendition Antigone) also Characterization would be a good one for a novel as it isn't specific and can be thrown into many topics. If it is a world lit, assignment the amount of literary features needed will depend on what question you did, for example a topic title of " How does the author's book the XXXXXX, use the allegory relating to XXXX to make a thinly veiled attack", then " Analysis and make reference to the similarities of the historical background found in the book to the era that it was written in".

Hope that helped.

[Capa]

Here is a glossary of literary terms :

http://www.virtualsalt.com/litterms.htm

I hope it's useful

Capa...!

[balloon]

Choose a literary technique that is RELEVANT to your topic, state what it is, give two examples from the text, say WHY it is relevant to the topic and the point you are arguing and move on to ANOTHER one. Look at the marking criteria in the IB syllabus! It tells you EXACTLY the literary techniques you need to cover, including tone, form, mood, techniques etc. This is MAJOR and in my experience the most neglected area by students in english assignments. You will be getting double the marks of class mates simply by following the syllabus marking criteria (which is what your teacher will use) and including the specified literary techniques.

[hermine0817]

And don't forget to PEEL, as my teacher always tells.

P - Point (make your thesis)

E - Evidence (give example from the text)

E - Explain (what effect does it have? how does the author express that? etc.)

L - Link (link to the next/former paragraph so that it flows)

and of course what balloon has told.

[avrila]

Literary feature is used along when describing your essay. Say you want to talk about a theme of a novel. The way you determine the theme is by using the literary features. And what is literary features? To me, literary feature is an element that you use to trace any aspects in the novel.

The list of literary features are as follows (as told by my teacher):

1. Character's characteristics

2. Events

3. Story plot

4. Author's descriptions

5. Opinions and actions from other characters

6. Dialog

7. Ideas

[Swifty]

And don't forget to PEEL, as my teacher always tells.

P - Point (make your thesis)

E - Evidence (give example from the text)

E - Explain (what effect does it have? how does the author express that? etc.)

L - Link (link to the next/former paragraph so that it flows)

and of course what balloon has told.

hehe. If PEEL is hard to understand, follow what my teacher says to SEX

Statement

Evidence

eXample

They both explain the same thing