CSEC ENGLISH

Hello there! Now that Mashramani is behind us, it’s time to focus on those exams that will be happening in May/June. There’s still time to re-read your chosen literature texts, to work on vocabulary building, to check on your spelling and punctuation, and to get some practice in writing essays. We’ll be here for you, so make sure you work through your CSEC English page every week! You are sure to learn something helpful! Now read on, and enjoy.

ENGLISH B—Where’s your evidence?

Many students—especially those of you who lean more to the science subjects—find it difficult to generate 450-500 words for your essays, especially the literature essays. Generally speaking, exam candidates who submit essays of less than 400 words manage only to get a low grade.

Why? Because the Examiner wants you to be like a lawyer! You must not only state your opinion, but you must back up that opinion with PROOF. You cannot, as a lawyer, simply state, “This man is guilty!”. The judge will expect you to BRING YOUR EVIDENCE!

It’s the same with writing about literature: any time you express an opinion, you MUST back it up with EVIDENCE. (And that’s the secret to writing essays of the required length!!)

Examples

Here’s a topic sentence (an observation about Senior’s poem

Season):

One notices a marked difference between male and female in this poem. True enough. But where is your evidence? Add evidence on to your topic sentence, and you have a well-developed paragraph with lots of points to win you some marks:

One notices a marked difference between male and female in this poem. The men are presented as being ‘macho’,* drinking ‘white rum neat’*. Instead of loving their wives, they are having a love affair ‘making marriages’* with their guns. They are ‘hunters’*, and for them it is ‘sport’* to kill birds. Even the little boys* are ‘longing to grow up birdhunters’.

(Each asterisk here represents a piece of evidence showing the character of the men.)

Now let’s do a similar paragraph for the females:

Birdshooting

In contrast, the women are peaceful and nurturing. They work ‘all night long’, preparing food and drink for the men to carry with them. However, their disapproval shows in the one word ‘contentless’ used to describe them. They are abandoned by their menfolk who eagerly ‘make marriages with their guns’ and go off hunting. Even the little girls watch ‘shivering’ as the men leave; they whisper to the birds, ‘Fly Birds Fly’, willing them to escape while there is still time.

Now we just need a single sentence to sum up what we have shown in that ‘evidence’:

Clearly women are the pacifists and nurturers, while men appear to be aggressive and destructive.

Your Turn Now

If you put together the paragraphs on how men and women are portrayed by Senior, you will note that we have 137 words where we set out with just 12. And all we did was provide evidence from the poem.

Give it a try!

Take a look at Brathwaite’s poem of this topic sentence:

South, and search for evidence in support

The speaker has clearly had a wretched experience while living in the ‘lands of the north’, and remembers his homeland with affection and nostalgia.

When you have the ‘evidence’ supporting those two ideas, write your paragraphs as we have done. We are sure that you can produce at least 140 words!

Select from this list of words to replace the words in italics in the sentences that follow:

Notorious, eccentric, scrumptious, ostentatious, vigorous, notable, strenuous, inconspicuous, nondescript, onerous

1. One very famous and celebrated example of a successful revolution is that of Toussaint L’Ouverture in Haiti.

2. Jack the Ripper was a famous (but famous for his wickedness) serial killer who lived a hundred years ago in London.

3.

4. The cakes we had were mouth-wateringly delicious, cream had an unpleasant grainy texture.

5. Looking after an elderly relative can be a bit of a burden, since we all have to get old, we should do the job willingly.

6.

I certainly admire the famous artist’s paintings, but I am put off by his loud and showy manner.

After all the muscle-straining, back-breaking glad to dive into the cool creek.

7. His handshake was powerful and energetic, like some handshakes you get.

but the ice but

work, the men were not limp and chilly

8. We often wondered how Auntie could be so ordinary and full of common sense, living, as she did, with such an odd and strange and peculiar man as Uncle Charlie.

9. Savitri had such beautiful eyes that even when she wore quite ordinary, plain, uninteresting clothes, heads still turned.

10. Mum felt she had to display the vase that her boss had given her, but she hated it so much that she found a place where it would be hardly noticed and almost hidden.

REPORTING COMMANDS

Here we have two commands in quotation marks. The quotation marks indicate that those were the exact words used in the commands.

● “Buy the kerosene and bring the change home,” my sister said. ● “Don’t put your muddy shoes in the kitchen,” said Mum.

Imagine that you tell your friend about these commands later in the day. This is what you should say:

My sister told me TO BUY the kerosene and TO BRING the change home. My Mum warned me NOT TO PUT my muddy shoes in the kitchen. Notice that when we report what someone said, we do not use quotation marks. When we report a command, we use the infinitive TO BUY, TO BRING, or (in a negative command) NOT plus the infinitive: NOT TO PUT.

Your Turn Now

Imagine that your Mum gave you these commands (instructions). Write down how you would report what she said to your friend later in the day.

“Put on your old uniform. Brush your teeth quickly. Don’t gobble your food. Don’t forget your lunch money. Buy a loaf of bread on your way home. Don’t be late.”