Literature of the Hart

 In English tutoring, I am often asked how students can improve their writing.  Mastering different sentence structures is one very important skill that will secure good grades. I have developed a teaching approach called “ 5 Different Kinds of Sentences ”, and you can find out more about this by contacting me using the contact form at the bottom of the page. As a teaser, what do you notice about these two very different sentences? 1.        “Hello!” 2.        I was on my home, which still lay twenty minutes’ walk away, on a beautiful summer’s evening, with birdsong still enchanting the air all around me, when I noticed a figure who was standing on the other side of the road, gazing intently at me, and who suddenly called out “Hello!” You can visit my About page to find out more about my experience and the services I offer as a tutor. Do get in touch! Michael

 As an English tutor I am often asked how to help improve students’ writing.  My last two posts focused on Reading the Question and Planning , which are essential preliminaries to an excellent piece of exam writing. The topic of this post is paragraphing , which is often neglected in school teaching.   It sounds obvious, but so often I see students produce writing with no, or haphazard paragraphing. You can learn to structure a paragraph with a topic sentence followed by a range of different sentence types, and the examiner will be extremely impressed with your writing skills! My ebook, The Five Sentence Types Workbook , is now available to buy on Amazon for just £2.99, and you can read more about it here . If you would be interested in receiving English tutoring from me, do visit my About page or contact me via the contact form at the bottom of this page.

My last post How to Write Well in an Exam (1) was about the importance of some simple and easy-to-learn techniques to help you read each exam question carefully.  This post is about planning .  I teach and embed these skills in my English tutoring . Examiners give high marks to well-structured writing.   So how will you make sure that your writing is well structured? You can learn planning techniques you can learn to ensure that even under the stress of an exam you will still plan a well-structured piece of writing. I have been teaching English and English literature for over 25 years and love to share the teaching I have developed as teacher and Head of English.    I have examined at both GCSE and A Level.  If you would like to know more about the English tuition I offer, then do visit my About page, and you can contact me via the contact form at the bottom of this page.

 GCSE English Language exams expect you to demonstrate your writing skills. But before you can write, you need to know what you are writing about , and this is where many students lose marks. There are some simple techniques you can learn to ensure that even under the stress of an exam you will still read the question carefully. I recommend reading each question at least twice and underlining the key words.  It's a technique that helps the mind focus on what is actually there, not what students THINK is there! I have been teaching English and English literature for over 25 years and love to share the teaching I have developed as teacher and Head of English.    I have examined at both GCSE and A Level.  If you would like to know more about the English tuition I offer, then do visit my About page and you can contact me via the contact form at the bottom of this page. My ebook,  The Five Sentence Types Workbook , is now available to buy on Amazon for just £2.99, and  you can read

Towards the end of Shakespeare’s famous sonnet beginning “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day”, he writes: “But thy eternal summer will not fade” This is a wonderful example of hyperbole – the use of literary exaggeration. Why do you think he uses this exaggeration: “thy eternal summer”? No one is at their best all the time, even in a single day, let alone for the whole of their life! But this is a love poem – even the form Shakespeare uses, the 14 line sonnet, was already well established by Shakespeare’s time as the fashionable way to write about love (there are love sonnets in his famous play Romeo and Juliet ). And he uses hyperbole to show how much he loves the person he is writing the sonnet for (no one really knows for sure who this person was, or even if there was a real person at all!).   So you could write: Shakespeare uses hyperbole in the line “But thy eternal summer will not fade” to show how he thinks the beauty of his beloved will last for ever because i

 "Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd" We love to talk about the weather in England but no one does it quite as well as Shakespeare!  These lines are from his sonnet " Shall I compare thee to a summer's day ", and they show how he uses metaphor. He is writing about the sun, but he calls it " the eye of heaven " and then talks about its " gold complexion "   .  Obviously the sun is not an eye - it's a metaphorical  and imaginative way of thinking about the sun - like a round eye looking down on us from the sky. So you could write about it like this: Shakespeare uses a metaphor to emphasise the power of the sun by using the metaphor of the "eye of heaven".  It's as if the sun is looking down with its heat on us.  But at other times it isn't warm enough, so Shakespeare uses another metaphor, of the "gold complexion" of sun which is often "dimm'd".

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate" Did you notice which word Shakespeare repeated in these two lines? It’s the word “ more ”. When writers use repetition it is usually because they want to affect us – in this example it’s because Shakespeare wants us to understand how wonderful the person is that he is writing about. So you could write this:  “Shakespeare repeats the word “more” to emphasise how wonderful the love of his life is.” Notice how I put the word “ more ” in quotation marks to show this is Shakespeare’s word and not mine. There are so many easy-to-learn skills to reading and writing about English literature.   As an English literature tutor I love helping people to do better in their studies, and also, I hope, to help them actually enjoy English literature too! You can find out more about my tutoring services on my About page contact me via the contact form at the bottom of this page.

 Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, and this is how one of the most famous sonnets in English literature starts: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day”  What does a summer’s day make you think about?      Something pleasurable, and something beautiful perhaps?   So if you had to write about the imagery of this line, you could do it like this:   “ When Shakespeare says ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day’, he wants us to imagine someone who is beautiful an desirable.” Notice how I include the a quotation in quotation marks , and then I add my interpretation of the imagery. There are so many easy-to-learn skills to reading and writing about English literature.  As an English literature tutor I love helping people to do better in their studies, and also, I hope, to help them actually enjoy English literature too! You can find out more about my tutoring services on my About page and contact me via the contact form at the bottom of this page. My ebook,  The Five Sentence