Literature of the Hart

How do you achieve top grades in writing tasks - for example in GCSE English Language?  I'm often asked this question as an English tutor. One of the ways I've devised to help students improve their writing is by helping them develop the variety and complexity of the sentence structures they use.  I've written an ebook, called The Five Sentence Types Workbook   to help students with this skill. Students have often not learnt how to use commas correctly.  Students often don't understand the difference between main clauses and subordinate clauses. And you do need to understand these grammatical points if you are going to write really well! I am a specialist at stretching able students to achieve high grades, and  offer a free 30 minute online introductory session if you would like to know more .  Contact me via the Contact Form  here .

It's obviously a challenge to achieve the very highest grades at GCSE English Language and English Literature, but my experience as an English tutor and teacher has enabled me to create many engaging and effective ways to help students achieve top grades. This new series of posts will explore the issue from several different angles.   Today I want to stress two key factors in achieving the highest grades. 1. Reading There is no substitute for reading high quality literature, and I have a number of texts I use with students that I know they will find challenging but also enjoyable and rewarding.   Children are fascinated to learn new, intelligent vocabulary, even if they don't admit it, but some teenage books, though great for encouraging reading, don't make them encounter a really wide vocabulary.   2. Practise Writing I wanted to be a writer when I was at school, and one of my teachers gave me the best advice: just keep practising!  Like any skill, writing develops with de

  The next ebook in the  Hartland English Guides  series is now available -  A Dash of Punctuation: Colons and Semicolons , priced at just £1.99  - and you can receive a  FREE PREVIEW  by completing the contact form below. A Dash of Punctuation   will improve students' writing by helping them understand two neglected punctuation marks: colons and semicolons. Often we shy away from colons and semicolons because they seem a bit tricky, but in my 30 years as a teacher I have developed simple and clear ways to teach students how to use both of these wonderful punctuation marks clearly, correctly, and in ways that make their writing more complex. Available on Amazon, you can purchase your own copy of this ebook via  this link .

This series has been focusing on an interesting way to improve writing by using a short story about Sherlock Holmes. Today's post is about a rarely used punctuation mark: the colon. Students often shy away from using it, but as an English tutor I teach this skill as it can really improve the complexity and elegance of anyone's writing style. The simplest way to use a colon is to introduce a list without having to use extra words. Example Sherlock Holmes had a notebook, a pen and a magnifying glass. Have a go - or ask your child to have a go, if you are helping them - at writing some examples of your own, using a colon to introduce a short list.  I’ve helped you with the first two. 1. I looked around his room and noticed three different things : .. 2. On his table were… 3. If you'd like to know more about using colons and semicolons, I've just published a new ebook in the Hartland English Guides series, called A Dash of Punctuation : Colons and Semicolons , availab

Improving writing is about developing lots of mini-skills, and today's post is about the simple skill of varying the words we use for " said ".  It's part of a teaching approach I use called ' W riting with Sherlock Holmes '. As an English tutor, I'm often asked to help students improve their writing.  Varying vocabulary is an important skill that develops as we read and learn a wider and wider range of words. Near the start of the Sherlock Holmes story The Red Headed League, we read two different ways of varying the word "said". The first is simply to add an adverb - " he said cordially " is the example.  The adverb tells us more about the feelings or tone of the person speaking. The other is " I observed ".  The different word makes a subtle difference in the way we understand how and why something is said. What other ways of varying "said" can you think of? If you'd like to know more about my ebook The Five Se

Many of us want to improve the quality of our writing, or our children's writing.  I'm often asked as an English tutor to help.  But how do you do this? Previous series have looked at improving writing with Emily Dickinson ,   improving creative writing  and improving writing in an exam .  Today's post is about a fun approach I use that appeals to children to help them improve their writing by learning from the creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Here's the opening to one of my favourite short stories about Sherlock Holmes, called ' The Red-Headed League ': "I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the autumn of last year and found him in deep conversation with a very stout, florid-faced, elderly gentleman with fiery red hair." It's a sophisticated opening sentence, a multiple complex sentence, and students may need help with some of the vocabulary. But in my experience they enjoy the challen

This is the last post in the recent series on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , a common GCSE literature text which as an English tutor I am often asked to teach. You can read the first two posts here (1) and here (2) . All three posts have explored quotations in the important final chapter of the book.  This post looks at quotations which are linked by language associated with evil. Dr. Jekyll writes that "My devil had long been caged, he came out roaring" and that "the spirit of hell awoke in me and raged." A good response to these quotations would link together the language associated with evil, and would go something like this: 'The references that Dr. Jekyll makes to "my devil" and "the spirit of hell" use language associated with evil, and emphasise the moral depravity that has been set free by his experiments which led to Mr. Hyde's terrible crimes.'

This series is about the popular GCSE literature text The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde .  As an English tutor, it's a common text that students ask me to help them with. The final chapter of the book is one the most important, and the first post in this series looked at the chapter's  image of the "shipwreck" (you can read it here) . Stevenson uses references to apes in two phrases in Chapter 10 when referring to the  " ape-like tricks " and " ape-like spite " of Mr. Hyde.  Although I chose an "ape-like" image to accompany this post, it's important to remember that this is imagery , and that Mr. Hyde does not resemble an ape in appearance! The animal imagery implies that Mr. Hyde is sub-human.  What good human qualities do you think he lacks?  If you can answer that question then you will be able to write with a good level of insight about why Stevenson chooses to use at least two examples of animal imagery in this chapter.

How can students write better about literature?  I'm often asked this question as an English tutor, and this new series of posts will look at another common GCSE literature text, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In a previous series, I have given some tips about exploring literature texts in general, which you can read here (1. Overview) , here (2. Characters) and here (3. Quotations and Analysis) With the text of 'Jekyll and Hyde', it's actually the final chapter that is one of the best places to look in for key quotations.  It's a quotation from this chapter which is the focus for this post: "I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck:  that man is not truly one, but truly two" Students need to be able to respond to language and linguistic devices to do well at literature exams at both GCSE and A Level.  This quotation presents us with the metaphor of a shipwreck. What does a shipwreck suggest to you?  And what does it have to do with

The Five Sentence Types Workbook   is available for purchase on Amazon. I have written this step-by-step workbook to take you through five sentence types that underpin all writing, from the most basic to the most sophisticated. I have used material in The Five Sentence Types   successfully to work with younger students to help them grasp the difference between compound and complex sentences, with with GCSE English Language students seeking to stretch themselves to use multiple complex sentences accurately and gain the highest grades. Examples are taken from a story which you are invited to add to and adapt, as you learn and practise the different sentence types.  The teaching in the workbook has been developed over 30 years of teaching and tutoring. Available on Amazon, you can purchase your own copy of this ebook via  this link .

How can you help a student to improve their writing?  There are so many of us trying to do this, whether we are an English tutor, a parent home schooling, or a teacher. You can read the first two posts in this series, which have been looking at the importance of verbs,  here (1) and here (2) .  Today’s post will show how a student can take really simple and straightforward sentences and transform it just by thinking about verbs. Here’s the simple and straightforward sentences, on a similar theme to the Emily Dickinson writing I used for the first two posts: A bird flew down onto path. It sat there for a bit then flew away. The verbs are the doing words, and I’ve underlined them in the next example: A bird flew down onto the path. It sat there for a bit then flew away. I’m now going to focus on using more interesting verbs, and change a few other things, and I hope it will make a much better piece of writing… A bird appeared on the path today. It bobbed and fussed

“How do I improve my writing?” a student will often ask me.   Reading, and practising, new habits, are both highly effective strategies, and I use both as an English tutor.   Today’s post is about using a variety of verbs to improve writing.   The first post in this series looked at some writing by Emily Dickinson.   You can read it here .   I’m now going to change the verbs she uses so you can see the differences: “A bird hopped down the walk He didn’t think I looked He munched a worm in half And gobbled the fellow raw!” This is a fun activity students can do with any short piece of text! Can you think of different verbs that could have been used instead of mine? Click here if you'd like to know more about my tutoring services , or here to discover my ebook "The Five Sentence Type Workbook"

You can improve your writing by thinking about what verbs you are using. As an English tutor, I'm often asked to help students develop their writing skills.  Verbs are action words, and English has a huge range of vocabulary to use for verbs.   You can always expand your vocabulary to become a better writer. This is the first verse of a poem by Emily Dickinson: ‘A Bird, came down the Walk -  He did not know I saw - He bit an Angle Worm in halves And ate the fellow, raw.’ Actually the verbs that Emily Dickinson uses are quite straightforward! Can you identify them? They are “ came ”, “ know ”, “ saw ”, “ bit ”, and “ ate ”. What other verbs could she have used instead do you think? You can read the whole poem here .

 I have been exploring a key quotation from each Act of the GCSE Literature text An Inspector Calls recently.  As an English tutor, this is one of many strategies I use to help students grow in confidence. In Act 3 there is probably the most important speech in the play: the Inspector’s last speech - “…there are millions and millions and millions of Eva Smiths and John Smiths still left with us, with their lives, their hopes and fears, their suffering and chance of happiness, all intertwined with our lives … We are members of one body.   We are responsible for each other … if men will not learn that lesson, then they will be taught it in fire and blood and anguish” Good responses to literature respond to details in the text and to the effects of different literary and dramatic devices.    So a really good response to this speech could begin like this: ‘In the Inspector’s final speech, he uses the metaphor of “one body” to show how society should be inter-connected and unified.

  An Inspector Calls is one of the most commonly-studied post-1914 drama texts in the UK, and this series of posts is exploring some of the most important details.  As an English tutor, I offer guidance to students for KS3, GCSE and A Level English and English Literature. In Act 2 of the play, Sheila says to Mrs Birling: “You mustn’t try to build up a kind of wall between us and that girl.   If you do, then the Inspector will just break it down.” The metaphor of the wall represents the division between different social classes in Britain before the First World War.   When Priestley was writing for audiences to watch his play in 1945, he was highlighting the need to move beyond the harmful class divide between rich and poor to build a fairer society. If you would like to know more about my teaching approaches, which I have developed over 30 years as a teacher, tutor and educational leader, you can  book a free 30 minute consultation with me  via the  Contact Form .  You can find o

  As an English tutor, I help students with GCSE and A Level English and English Literature.   An Inspector Calls is one of the most commonly-studied GCSE texts, and this series of posts will look in detail at one quotation from each of the three acts.   Most students will know the phrase “ a chain of events ”, which the Inspector uses in Act 1.  But not so many are able to analyse effectively the language of this and other key quotations from the play. (You can read a previous post about the importance of focusing on quotations here ) Back to the quotation – “ a chain of events ”... It is a metaphor, and the phrase connects to the theme of responsibility in the play. So a really good comment on this quotation could be this: When the Inspector uses the metaphor of “the chain of events”, Priestley is implying that the actions of the family have had serious consequences, and that they are morally responsible for causing the suffering of members of the working class. If you wou