CSEC English

Hello there! Today we’ll look at some of the challenges you face in your English exams—both English A and English B—and we’ll try to help you do some last minute brushing up. Read on now, and enjoy your CSEC English page.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD PARAGRAPH? Paragraphs differ according to the type of writing.

Narrative. If you are writing a story, then you need to start a new paragraph whenever there’s a shift /new development in the action. Sentences like these are likely to start off a new paragraph: ● Suddenly the door opened, and Jim burst into the room. (Why has he come? What’s his news?) ●Trembling with fear, Karen approached the podium. (What will she say? Is it some kind of competition?) ● As the car swung around the corner, a bizarre sight met their eyes. (What did they see?)

Dialogue. If you are writing a short piece of dialogue in the middle of your story, remember that you need a new paragraph each time you switch from one speaker to another:

“You goin’ to court this morning?” asked Jem. We had strolled over. “I am not,” she said. “I have no business with the court this morning.” “Aren’t you goin’ down to watch?” asked Dill. “I am not. ‘t’s morbid, watching a poor devil on trial for his life. Look at all those

folks. It’s like a Roman carnival.” As you see, there are four paragraphs in this small segment of dialogue.

Exposition, argument and analysis. Much of your writing will be exposition, argument or analysis—the kind of writing where you are giving information, putting forward your case or trying to examine a story or poem to discover its meaning.

For this kind of writing, each paragraph needs to cover ONE topic, and that topic is to be clearly stated in the topic sentence. (In the examples below, we have put the topic sentence in italics to guide you.)

Shakespeare makes good use of the crowd to suggest the dangerous fickleness of society’s response to leaders. The rough demeanour of the tradesmen at the beginning contrasts with the dignified bearing of the senators, reminding us of Shakespeare’s belief that each class of people should know their place in society and remain there—not seeking to rise above their station. The same crowd is so easily led by emotions rather than by reason that Brutus’s reasoned discourse fails to move them much, whereas Mark Antony’s emotional appeal sets them to burning houses and lynching innocent folk like the poet Cinna. The disorder of the crowd— the noise and shouting and burning—both visually and aurally communicates to us the chaos that breaks out if the divine order of things is upturned. Finally, the chaos of the crowd’s reaction to Antony’s speech prepares us for the total social disorder suggested by civil war.

(Slightly modified from English B for CSEC: Joyce Jonas et al.)

NB Observe how the writer indicates in the topic sentence that the paragraph will be about the crowd in the play Julius Caesar and their dangerous potential. Check the following sentences, and you will see that each of them has a different point to make about the crowd and how the crowd becomes a danger to the state.

Putting up parking meters in Georgetown is not the solution to the city’s traffic problems. The main reason for our daily traffic jams is that there are too many cars for the network of roads, and parking meters will not solve that problem. Another factor adding to the traffic confusion is the presence of roadside vendors whose activities limit parking space and slow down the flow of traffic, and this long-standing problem needs to be addressed before we talk about parking meters. Many of the places optimistically marked out to be parking spaces are actually unusable in rainy weather, so clearly some infrastructural work needs to be done before we consider charging people for the privilege of parking their cars. The horrendous traffic situation in our capital city indeed needs urgent attention, but restricting and charging for parking is not the way to go: let the city elders put their heads together and come up with a much more comprehensive approach.

NB Again, the topic sentence says briefly what the writer wants to argue. Each of the following sentences offers a different argument in support of that initial statement, and the final sentence sums it all up. This is the type of paragraph you need in your ‘persuasive writing’.

HOW CAN I SLIDE A QUOTATION INTO MY ENGLISH B ESSAY?

Ideally, any short quotation that you insert should sound as if it actually is part of your own sentence. Read these examples and you will see what we mean:

The poet awakens our sympathy for the injured birds when he describes their cries as being ‘like two sorrowful high flutes’ calling to the other plovers who are ‘going south on silver wings, leaving these broken two.’

Using repetition to impress the reader with the endless destructiveness of man’s activities, Hopkins laments that ‘Generations have trod, have trod, have trod’, exploiting natural resources, but insensitive to earth’s loveliness, until now ‘all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil’.

NB For exam purposes, it’s a good idea to memorize a few very short quotations that you will be able to use to show your knowledge of your texts.

HOW CAN I MAKE MY SHORT STORY INTERESTING?

A good short story always grabs the reader’s attention from the first sentence. If your first sentence is boring, the reader will be put off from the start. Here are some boring first sentences: ● It was a sunny day and the breeze was blowing a little bit, but we didn’t have anything interesting to do. ● Jim had black hair, brown eyes, and was a medium sized boy of average ability.

Think about it: you definitely wouldn’t bother to read any further!!

● There it was again—the strange scratching noise coming from the attic space

above his bedroom. (What was up there?) ● Every kid in the village knew a dozen scary stories about the grey house at Lot 49, but nothing Dev had hear could have prepared him for this. (What scary horror?) ● Emerging from the forest of bamboo, the twins stopped in amazement at the

sight that greeted them. (What wonderful thing did they see?)

NB To grab your readers’ attention make sure that your first sentence makes them wonder what will happen next.

WHAT COMMON ERRORS CAN I AVOID? ● Remember that your dreams come TRUE; they do not come THROUGH. ● Remember that the following are TWO WORDS EACH and should not be written as one word: in fact, a lot, any time, even though ● Remember not to confuse lose and loose, or chose and choose, passed and past. Here they are correctly used: Try not to lose your smart phone. If you see the thief in the yard, just loose the dogs on him. My pants waist is too loose. Maybe you shouldn’t lose any more weight! Those are lovely shoes. Did you choose them? Yes, I chose them from a collec tion I saw online. I always choose chocolate chip ice cream. Have you ever chosen (NOT choosen!) pistachio? In the past, bicycles were the main form of transportation in Guyana. Our car was stuck in a traffic jam, so even the cyclists passed us—much to my dad’s annoyance!

WHAT IS MEANT BY KEEPING THINGS PARALLEL?

Perhaps the best place to start with this notion of parallelism is with making a list. Here are some jottings that someone made when she was planning a party: ● Invitations to send out ● Don’t forget to order the drinks ● Wipe down the plastic chairs ● Suzy will lend me her extra glasses ● Making the ice cream—Karen’s job As the list stands (and most lists start out this way!) the items are not parallel. But now look at the same items in the form of commands:

● Send out the invitations ● Order the drinks ● Wipe down the plastic chairs ● Borrow extra glasses from Suzy ● Remind Karen to make the ice cream.

Here the list uses passive infinitives ● Invitations to be sent out ● Drinks to be ordered ● Plastic chairs to be wiped down ● Extra glasses to be borrowed from Suzy ● Ice cream to be made by Karen

Here the list uses gerunds:

Mira reminded her friends about sending out the invitations, ordering the drinks, wiping down the plastic chairs, borrowing some extra glasses, and making the ice cream.