1. Advanced Higher English - Dissertation

2. Component 4 — project–dissertation
SQA Requirements
Component 4 — project–dissertation
This dissertation will give candidates an opportunity to demonstrate the following skills, knowledge and understanding:
- independent planning, research and presentation of their knowledge and understanding of an aspect or aspects of literature

3. SQA Requirements
The text(s) chosen must not be the same as those used in the Literary Study question paper.
This dissertation will be between 2,500 and 3,000 words long and will have 30 marks (30% of the total mark).

4. Give you help with every stage of the process
How can Scholar Help?
Help you make notes
Give you help with every stage of the process
Show you examples of good work
Help you understand how to write effectively in the Dissertation

5. Using Scholar

6. Using Scholar

7. Critical essay writing skills
Existing Skills
Critical essay writing skills
Comparison of texts in Scottish text sections
Analysis skills for RUAE and Scottish texts

8. Critical essay writing skills using more than one text
New Skills
Critical essay writing skills using more than one text
Increased word count
Using literary criticism

9. Literary techniques
Prose fiction
♦ narrative voice
♦ evocation of setting
♦ mood
♦ characterisation
♦ figurative language
♦ imagery
♦ symbol
♦ contrast
♦ tone
♦ structure
♦ sentence structure
♦ repetition
♦ word choice

10. Literary techniques
Prose non-fiction
♦ figurative language
♦ comparison
♦ sensory detail
♦ imagery and analogy
♦ variety of sentence structures (including the use of rhetorical questions)
♦ repetition
♦ symbol
♦ contrast
♦ tone
♦ structure/patterning/balance
♦ word choice

11. Literary techniques
Poetry
♦ form
♦ structure
♦ stanza pattern
♦ poetic voice/persona
♦ word choice
♦ imagery
♦ rhyme
♦ rhythm and meter
♦ stress
♦ sound
♦ mood
♦ tone

12. Literary techniques
Drama
♦ mood and tone
♦ structure
♦ language
♦ narrator/chorus
♦ contrast
♦ stylised elements
♦ characterisation
♦ significance of props
♦ stereotype
♦ music and song
♦ parody
♦ cliché
♦ monologue
♦ humour
♦ dialogue
♦ irony
♦ pathos
♦ timing/pauses/rhythm
♦ stage directions

13. Choice of Text(s)
Dissertations will generally be on more than one text. These texts should have a considerable amount in common to allow for genuine comparison and contrast. Candidates should avoid meaningless comparisons, ie ‘the theme of human relationships’ in three unrelated texts.

14. Choice of Text(s)
Candidates are permitted to concentrate on a single text as long as that text is a substantial one, ie of sufficient literary depth, complexity and sophistication.

15. Choice of Text(s)
Care should be taken over dissertations which deal with mixed-genre (eg prose and poetry) texts, particularly in approaches to analysis.

16. Task
No element of a dissertation is more crucial than the line of argument, or task. Clearly, the task determines what the dissertation will involve. The degree to which the given task is successfully completed is also a measure against which the dissertation will be assessed

17. Task
It cannot be stressed enough that the primary purpose of the dissertation is to analyse and evaluate literary technique. Candidates must be warned to avoid long passages of narrative with analysis merely being implicit. In ensuring that analysis is carried out, the choice of task is vital.

18. Task
Care should be taken not to make tasks too vague/imprecise, for example ‘An examination of the theme of human relationships in X, and Y’.

19. Task
I wish to analyse and evaluate the way in which different authors use the technique of twin or multiple narratives in order to convey theme: Cold Mountain by Charles Frasier; The Collector by John Fowles; Talking it Over by Julian Barnes.
This is a reasonable task. The dissimilar nature of the chosen texts is overcome by the focus being on the technique, rather than ‘the stories‘. In addition, the task almost demands that the candidate engage in analysis.

20. Task
The erring female in late 19th Century fiction: authorial sympathy but the inevitability of retribution: Flaubert: Madame Bovary and Tolstoi: Anna Karenina.
Clear line of argument is apparent here.

21. Task
How Webster depicts the role of women in Jacobean society in The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi.
This task is acceptable, however the candidate should be careful to restrict the scope of the dissertation to literary analysis.

22. Task
Precise
Focus on analysis
Focus on evaluation

23. Making notes

24. Making notes Type of Quotation Usefulness Plot based quotations
You need to be careful that you don’t just use these to tell the story
Quotations which give us a character’s feelings and attitudes at a particular moment
These could help you show how the writer builds character or talk about feelings in a key scene
Quotations which sum up a character
These will help you analyse characterisation
Quotations which help us see the mood of a particular scene
These will help you write about key scene
Quotations which sum up the theme
These will help you analyse the theme directly
Quotations which make a comment “outside” of the text
These will help you write about themes and genre

25. Best developed examples should be at the end of the text
Making notes
Cover the whole text
Not the first examples!
Best developed examples should be at the end of the text
Be harsh- make notes and cut them down
Page references and post-its

26. Comparison of key scenes Literary stance
Making notes
The erring female in late 19th Century fiction: authorial sympathy but the inevitability of retribution: Flaubert: Madame Bovary and Tolstoi: Anna Karenina.
Planning
Sub-themes
Comparison of key scenes
Literary stance

27. Don’t let these dominate The dissertation is your work
Secondary sources
Don’t let these dominate
The dissertation is your work
They provide you with opinions to use as part of your argument
They may be text specific about your texts or author
They may focus on a theme “the role of the passive female in Gothic literature”

28. Study notes (Sparknotes, Yorknotes etc) are not literary criticism
Secondary sources
Study notes (Sparknotes, Yorknotes etc) are not literary criticism
School library
Online articles
Some schools may subscribe to magazines/ research facilities
Public libraries
Culture section of online newspapers

29. Secondary sources
Take, for example, a hypothetical dissertation on the literary treatment of suffering in two plays by Shakespeare – Measure for Measure and King Lear. A possible secondary source for this topic could be F. Kermode, Shakespeare’s Language, Penguin Books, The following passage (from page 184), might be appropriate to the line of argument:
‘… the subjects of King Lear reflect a much more general, indeed a universal tragedy. In King Lear we are no longer concerned with an ethical problem that, however agonising, can be reduced to an issue of law or equity and discussed forensically. For King Lear is about suffering represented as a condition of the world as we inherit it or make it for ourselves. Suffering is the consequence of a human tendency to evil, as inflicted on the good by the bad; it can reduce humanity to a bestial condition, under an apparently indifferent heaven. It falls, insistently and without apparent regard for the justice they so often ask for, so often say they believe in, on the innocent; but nobody escapes. At the end the punishment or relief of death is indiscriminate. The few survivors, chastened by this knowledge, face a desolate future.’

30. Secondary sources
The candidate could choose to use the information and ideas from this secondary source in one of two ways. Firstly, the candidate might use direct quotation as seen below:
‘Although much of King Lear’s suffering can be attributed to his own actions, it cannot be denied that much is inflicted on him directly by Goneril and Regan. Should we conclude from this that Shakespeare wants us to view the characters Goneril and Regan as evil? As Frank Kermode observed: “Suffering is the consequence of a human tendency to evil, as inflicted on the good by the bad”1
1 F. Kermode, Shakespeare’s Language, Penguin Books, 2001 p.184

31. Secondary sources
Alternatively, a candidate could decide to integrate ideas suggested by Kermode into the text of the dissertation in the form of paraphrase. An example might be:
‘King Lear is a play in which characters are not divided along the lines of villains and victims. Frank Kermode, in Shakespeare’s Language suggested that the suffering in this play extends to all characters, and that there is avoiding this painfully destructive force.1’
1 F. Kermode, Shakespeare’s Language, Penguin Books, 2001 p.184

32. Referencing It is recommended practice to:
Secondary sources
Referencing It is recommended practice to:
♦ use italics or underlining to indicate the titles of texts
♦ set in from the margin all quotations of more than one line so that they are clearly distinguishable from the text of the dissertation
♦ use footnotes and page references where appropriate to identify quotations from and references to primary sources
♦ use footnotes and page references at all times to identify and acknowledge quotations from, references to and information/ideas gleaned from secondary sources
♦ provide an accurate bibliography
♦ give footnote and bibliography references in the following form: D. Gifford and D. McMillan, A History of Scottish Women’s Writing, EUP, 1997.

33. Secondary sources
Further advice on secondary sources and referencing is available in the Education Scotland AH English materials available at
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FOOTNOTE SYSTEM
HARVARD REFERENCING SYSTEM

34. Writing exemplars
We can align the battle between reason and irrational will within The Underground Man to that of Raskolnikov’s inner battle. The Underground Man does not harbour the same dichotomy whereas Raskolnikov – who is the development of The Underground Man in many respects – does. Although the identities and alienation of both characters are born of an inability to adhere to social norms, Raskolnikov is the more complex character as he exhibits the qualities of ‘the underground generation’ that is shown in Notes from Underground but also becomes a more realistic character as he is able to challenge these ideas with his own sense of humanity. This makes him and the battle between reason and irrationality within Crime and Punishment altogether more convincing. However we must not neglect the insight into the psychology of one so besotted with fear and irrationality as we are shown in Notes from Underground.

35. Writing exemplars
Such a sombre atmosphere is only to be expected, after all, Shakespeare wrote during a period of great national tension. England faced war from countries such as Spain, and questions concerning the succession of Elizabeth I dominated the domestic political landscape. The theme of the nation is ingrained in each of these plays, particularly in Henry V which can be regarded as Shakespeare’s most patriotic play. One particular idea of national honour that resonates across all three of the plays is that of fighting in the Holy Land. This is Henry IV’s ultimate ambition; he is prophesised to die in Jerusalem,. . .

36. revise texts thoroughly Note take Plan thoroughly Draft
Thank you
Next steps
Scholar
revise texts thoroughly
Note take
Plan thoroughly
Draft