HELP! Eng Adv. Essays. (1 Viewer)

[illmtl]

I'm having real problems in English. To give some perspective - The half yearlies put me in the top 10 for all my subjects except english where I'm 86th....

I have no problem with the course content, which is really quite straightforward, but when it comes to essays I'm getting progressively worse marks; No matter how hard I try to do what the teachers say, it's still bad.

Last assessment I did absolutely everything we were told - techniques, backed up with quotes/examples, in every paragraph - and got 8/15.... worse still every comment on my paper was stating that my interpretation of my own choice poem was wrong.

Does anyone have any advice on what to do with english, or about why the comments might be so nasty (I'm not the only one, others in my class - the non-ext class - got similar)?

 

[YBK]

I also need help... i mean, first in extension english and 20th in advanced, go figure

just research the topic I guess, that's what i'll try to do next time. Also shove in some quotations. For example: "According to Mr. X, doctor in X this topic falls into X"

lol

 

[Emma-Jayde]

That's the one problem with english. If a teacher doesn't like you they won't mark your essay well, because it's completely open to interpretation.
But get study guides and stuff like that for the major units that you're doing. They can help.

Don't use too many quotes though. If you use a lot you draw the focus away from what YOU have written. Remember that in an exam, you'll have to remember all your quotes, so you won't want too many.

But as for being told that the interpretation of your poem was wrong...How can you interpret something WRONG?
Of course, if it's all flowers and ponies dancing in the sunshine it's not likely to be about death, but and interpretaion is just YOUR opinion, not theirs. It can't really be wrong.
Get another teachers' opinion on something, to see what they would give you.