Essay Planning Year 12 English

Things to remember, whatever your essay question is. Include the title of the text – Underlined or in “quotation marks” Why??? Include the name of the author(s). Don’t forget to spell their name(s) correctly!

The things you need to plan Choose your Question. Break your question down. Decide on your main argument/opinion. Decide on the three points you will make to back up your opinion. Find examples and quotes. Make sure that everything comes back to your main argument.

Break the question right down, start by answering the obvious bits. Analyse how the strong personal voice of a narrator or writer helped you to understand a theme in the written text(s). Strong personal voice = Maya Angelou/Death Theme = Overcoming adversity/Humanity is complex

We can now re-work our question… Analyse how the strong personal voice of Maya Angelou helped you to understand the idea of overcoming adversity in the written text(s). Text choice for today: Still I rise

Still I rise Still I Rise You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I'll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? 'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells Pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops. Weakened by my soulful cries. Does my haughtiness offend you? Don't you take it awful hard 'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines Diggin' in my own back yard. You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness But still, like air, I'll rise. Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I've got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history's shame I rise Up from a past that's rooted in pain I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise.

Three techniques that demonstrate the narrator overcoming adversity Allegory (a text which can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning.) Allusion is a figure of speech, in which one refers covertly or indirectly to an object or circumstance from an external context. It is left to the audience to make the connection. “You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies” What is the history that Angelou is referring to? What does this indicate about the narrator and adversity?

Three techniques that demonstrate the narrator overcoming adversity Metaphor “I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.” What does this mean? How does it show Angelou’s narrator overcoming adversity (racism)?

Three techniques that demonstrate the narrator overcoming adversity Repetition “I rise” (Ten times). (Like dust…Like air) Why is this repeated? What does this tell you about the narrator? Why does Angelou use air and dust in her images of rising up?

Where we are so far… We have now decided that we are going to write about Maya Angelou’s Still I rise and we have decided on our main argument. (That the narrator demonstrates overcoming adversity, by standing up against racism) We have chosen three techniques to write about, and found examples to back up our three points. What do we need to do now?

Adding depth to our Analysis Now that we have looked at the how the poem explores this idea we need to look at why this idea is so important. What reasons can you come up with?

Make sure everything comes back to the question Comment specifically on the narrative voice. Would this poem be as effective without it? If not, why not?

And now… We write the essay!!!