We acknowledge and pay respect to

the people of the Kulin Nation, the

Traditional Owners of the land upon
which Trinity College is situated.

We pay respect to their Elders past

and present.

Ray K. Vincent, Trinity and the Kulin acrylic on canvas, 2001

 Week 13:
Assessment
Preparation

• Literary Features Revision

• Part 2A: Essay Planning
 • Annotation one-one-one
feedback

Today’s Class • Revising Literary Features

• Preparing for Essay Writing
• Essay Plan activity
Important reminder!
Studying Literature is about developing essential scholarly skills
• Critical thinking and close analysis
• Complex reading and independent interpretation (argument)
• Academic writing and public speaking

If you use AI, translation apps or online sources to complete your classwork or homework
(instead of practising your own writing and thinking), you are NOT acquiring the necessary
analytical and literary skills to pass this subject and do well at university.

Additionally, if you use these methods in an assessment, you will almost always be caught
and there are serious penalties for breaching academic integrity.

We want YOUR IDEAS. In YOUR OWN WORDS.

Poetry Exam: Instructions and Assessment Criteria

A. Annotate the given passage, identifying its literary and

poetic features.
(2 marks)
• This task is intended to test:
• Your familiarity with the process of annotation.
• Your ability to identify a range of literary and poetic features evident in
Part One the provided stanza.

(5 marks) B. Choose three of these features and explain how these

features produce meaning in the passage.
(100-150 words) (3 marks)
• This task is intended to test:
• Your ability to explain how relevant features are producing meaning in
relation to the given passage.
 Poetry Exam: Instructions and Assessment Criteria

Part Two A (2 marks)

A. Produce an essay plan for a 600–700 word essay on the topic provided. You will need to incorporate your
discussion from Part 1 into your essay, but your essay should discuss the poem as a whole. Your plan
should include a thesis statement and an outline for the main argument you will include in your body
paragraphs. (Approximately 100-150 words)

This task is intended to test:

 Your ability to formulate a central argument in relation to the topic
 Your awareness of appropriate structure for an analytical essay in Literature, including:
o Introduction with clear thesis statement
o Body paragraphs based on evidence
 Your consideration of how separate ideas contribute to an understanding of the text in relation to the
set topic
 Your clear reference to some of your Part 1 features and explanations
 Your ability to plan in terms of a set word count
 Poetry Exam: Instructions and Assessment Criteria

Part Two B (8 marks)

B. Write a short essay (600-700 words) based on your essay plan. Use direct evidence from other parts of
the poem where necessary and explain the evidence you use, paying attention to relevant literary or poetic
features.

This task is intended to test your ability to:

 Develop your own credible, informed and sustained interpretation in response to the topic
 Understand ideas and themes of the poem (in relation to the topic)
 Provide and analyse direct evidence from the poem to justify your interpretation
 Identify and evaluate how relevant literary features construct meaning
 Utilise conventions and styles of academic writing (i.e. appropriate paragraph and essay structure).
Familiar Literary and Poetic Features

Plot Character Setting Narrative Structure Narrative Perspective Tone

Mood Contrast Imagery Connotations Symbolism Theme

Context Allusion Reference Poetic Form Repetition Poetic Diction

Rhyme Metre Figurative Language

• End Rhymes/Perfect Rhyme/Near Rhyme • Free Verse • Simile
• Rhyme Scheme • Blank verse • Metaphor
Enjambment Onomatopoeia Foreshadowing • Assonance • Rhyming Verse • Personification
• Consonance
• Alliteratation
Revising Literary
and Poetic Features
• Go through our list of literary and poetic features
• Tick all the ones you are confident you know and can
identify
• Circle any you’re feeling unsure about

1. Revise previous tutorial/lecture slides or use the online

glossaries (links in our Channel Class Notebook) to
understand the features you circled.
2. Ask a partner to choose up to FOUR of your circled features
for you (do the same for them!).
3. Find at least TWO of those features in a poem you are
preparing for the exam.
4. Write one or two sentences about ONE feature you found,
explaining how it is producing meaning in that poem (10
minutes).
5. Swap your sentences with your partner and provide feedback
to each other.
Essay Planning Task
(Part 2A)
You are working towards writing a 600-700 word
practise essay.
Your plan should be about 100-150 words long (not
including quotations).
You should include:
 A clear thesis statement answering the topic
question
 Notes for an introduction that will explain
your thesis statement and outline your
argument
 Notes for two or three body paragraphs (ONE
main idea in each) with…
 A topic sentence for each
paragraph/main idea
 Notes on possible evidence (direct
quotes and relevant literary features)
 Notes on possible explanation (of the
main idea, and all your evidence)
 OPTIONAL: Notes for a conclusion (that will
draw the main ideas together, and reconnect
to your thesis statement)
Practice Essay Topics

“When You Are Old” “The Lady of Shalott” “Cousins”

• W. B. Yeats’ poem ‘When You • How does “The Lady of • How does “Cousins” suggest
Are Old’ explores the Shalott” reflect gender that the past shapes the
unstable nature of love. inequality? speaker’s sense of identity?
Discuss.
Questions to ask yourself
“When You Are Old”
• What does the speaker want ‘you’ to do?
What does the speaker want ‘you’ to feel?
Why?
• What do you think the "shadows deep" in
‘your’ eyes means? Explain in your own
words.
• What was it that many people loved about
'you'? Explain in your own words.
• What do you think it means to have a
"pilgrim soul"?
• Why do you think "Love" is written with a
capital letter?
• What do you think it means that “Love
fled”?
• What are the connotations of “the
mountains overhead?”
• What about “a crowd of stars”?
• What might these metaphors represent in
the poem?
“The Lady of Shalott”
• In your opinion, what does the curse
symbolise?
• What does the Lady abandoning her
weaving and looking out the window
symbolise, in your opinion?
• How is this poem exploring the theme of
freedom?
• How can we describe the expectations of
women that are suggested in the poem?
• How can we describe the representation of
men in the poem?
• What does the tower seem to represent?
• What does the curse seem to represent?
• What does the ending of the poem seem to
represent?
• Do you consider the tragic ending of the
Lady of Shalott to be a punishment, a
choice, or something else?
“Cousins”
• What does the speaker discover or
rediscover in this poem?
• What is the significance of “sharing
memories” in “Cousins”?
• What is your understanding of the
(repeated) quote “I don’t have the
language for that”?
• In your opinion, what is the most important
theme in “Cousins” and why?
• Why might the cousin and uncle “know all
them old stories” but the speaker and her
mother do not?
• Why is place important to the speaker and
her family (remember the lecture)?
• What are the different settings in
the poem?
• What are the connotations of the different
places described?
• Does the change in setting correspond with
a change in anything else in the poem?
Homework

Finish writing your ‘essay plan’.

Bring it to our tutorial class next week.

Write an ‘essay plan’ for another poem.

Continue your own exam preparation

revision and/or try more practice tasks.