Paper 3 report

Report on English Paper 3: Creative writing essay and Transactional Writing (2010)

·         The pictorial response was very well received by the candidates, especially the one dealing with South Africa where many interpretations were acceptable.

·         Many candidates did not produce the correct format of the formal letter, perhaps because they were not taught it at school.

·         The tone of the formal and friendly letters is something to which teachers must give attention. Candidates must understand that they are writing for an audience and that their language must be appropriate.

·         Although the diary was an easy option, many candidates did not understand that writing about a very intimate sexual experience was rather alienating for the marker. Also, expletives have no place in an answer book.

·         Many candidates managed the informal speech and the directions very well, perhaps because these pieces of writing were informal and this made the writing process very easy.

·         The magazine article was not well answered because many teachers had taught newspaper reports, but not the magazine article. Candidates did not focus on inspiring, entertaining or informing their fellow learners.

Recommendations

1. Candidates should be taught basic language, such as participles and the proper use

thereof, deep structure, correct use of the apostrophe, paragraphing and the correct use

of tenses and concord.

2. Candidates tended to plan their essay and then rewrote the essay without editing it. This

was a fruitless exercise. Candidates should be taught how to plan and edit properly.

3. Handwriting: Candidates must not write an entire essay in capital letters. Also, a neat

handwriting will always count in the candidate's favour.

4. Many candidates do not label their rough work and final draft clearly. They must also

write the essay number and title at the top of the FINAL draft.

Paper 1 revision: grammar concepts

QUESTION 1: Comprehension

“Discuss” implies that an opinion must be expressed with supporting evidence. Candidates must be taught to provide evidence for their opinions.

QUESTION 2: Summarising

• The use of “approximately 90 words” is a clear indication of a reasonable limit. Using too many words incurred penalties.

• When told to use their own words, candidates must heed that instruction.

• Writing a summary in point form means expressing one idea, fact, thought, etc. per point in 10- 12 words.

• A connected prose summary consists of only one paragraph.

QUESTIONS 3 AND 4 Advertising and other media

• Answers were generally of a poor quality as candidates ignored instructions to confine their comments and evidence to specifics. Again, providing specific evidence is essential to earning marks. A simple “Yes” and “No” is not acceptable.

• Candidates were required to offer interpretations of certain figures of speech like pun, euphemism, irony, etc.

• Appropriate evidence about specific facial  expressions of cartoon figures earned marks

while generalised comments did not. For example: “The raised eyebrows of the man

indicate his confusion while the wide eyes of the woman suggest her alarm.”

QUESTION 5: Editing, using language correctly

• Candidates should be reminded that sound editing is based on a thorough working

knowledge of the rules of English grammar and punctuation.

• Very few candidates could see the need for correct punctuation.

• We urge teachers to teach correct punctuation of direct speech, use of the apostrophe

and concord.

• Common spelling errors: yous (plural form of you), there (for "their").

Students, The English Handbook and Study Guide^TM covers every aspect of the English Language you will need from Senior Primary to Matric.

Here follows a list of grammar concepts which you may be asked to identify, analyse/explain, or correct when deliberate mistakes have been made to test your knowledge.

1.                  active and passive voice

2.                  adjective

3.                  adverb

4.                  auxiliary verb

5.                  concord

6.                  conjunction

7.                  direct speech

8.                  indirect speech

9.                  modal verb

10.              noun

11.              object

12.              predicate

13.              pronoun

14.              subject

15.              verbs (all nine tenses)

16.              apostrophe use (contraction and possessive)

17.              preposition

18.              punctuation marks (all)

19.              phrase vs. clause

syno-, anto-, homonyms, and homophones

To a small boy who died at Diepkloof Reformatory

Reformatory in the title - A reformatory is a residential school for young offenders.

In the opening stanza the speaker addresses the dead boy. He says that the small boy had had no idea that his little crime would get the attention of a large number of institutions and professionals, nor did he know that they would benefit from it (their jobs depend on crimes like this).

In the next stanza, he looks through the small boy’s documents, starting with his birth certificate.

In stanza three he studies the boy’s death certificate and says that death released him from suffering.

In the final stanza he finds the document that sent the boy to the reformatory. He says that millions of people are complicit (involved) in the boy’s crime. He believes the boy will go straight to heaven because God does not need to punish him in order to protect society.

Q&A

1.      Line 24: Why is "Death" spelt with an uppercase "D"?

The capitalized D transform death into a proper noun. In addition, death is given a gender, ‘he’, automatically implying it is human.

2.      Lines 40-41: How are millions of people complicit (involved) in the boy’s crime – whatever it is?

The boy was probably led to criminal behavior because of his circumstances – perhaps poor and hungry or he got involved with other criminal boys. The circumstances he says were created by the millions of people who created this world before him. By creating a world in which this small boy turned to crime, those people are partially responsible for the crime.

3.      The poet deliberately juxtaposes (put side by side) the word "commit" and "committal". There is a deep irony in this. Explain what it is.

It is ironic since the committal is the legal document sending the small boy to the reformatory; and here the principal is tasked with ‘commit’ the child to his grave.

Abandoned Bundle analysis

The morning mist and chimney smoke of White City Jabavu flowed thick yellow as pus oozing from a gigantic sore.

'White City Jabavu is a part of Soweto, a township lying to the south-west of Johannesburg. The poet then uses a simile to compare the morning mist and chimney smoke to 'pus oozing from a gigantic sore'. The township is compared to a sore, a place that is very unhealthy and horrible to look at. It is heavily polluted, with rubbish heaps everywhere.

It smothered our little houses like fish caught in a net.

The next stanza consists of only two lines. It starts with the use of personification. It (the smog) smothers the houses. The houses are smothered in the unhealthy mist and smoke. Then a simile follows: The poet says that the houses; and therefore the inhabitants of the houses, are like fish caught in a net. They can't go anywhere. They are forced to live in filthy circumstances, and they have nowhere to go.

Scavenging dogs draped in red bandanas of blood fought fiercely for a squirming bundle. The third stanza introduces the scene: dogs are fighting for a squirming bundle. The dogs are described as scavenging; they are searching, hunting for food. Then a metaphor is used to describe what the dogs look like. The dogs in this case look like they are wearing red bandanas, in other words; their heads are covered in blood.

I threw a brick they bared fangs flicked velvet tongues of scarlet and scurried away, scurry leaving a mutilated corpse-an infant dumped on a rubbish heap-'Oh! Baby in the Manger sleep well on human dung.' The speaker throws a brick, so that the dogs run away. Another metaphor is used to describe the dogs: 'flicked velvet tongues of scarlet'. The colour red is used again, when their tongues are described as scarlet. It could refer to either the real colour of their tongues or the blood on their tongues coming from the bundle. Their tongues look like velvet; which is a soft and smooth material. They leave behind a mutilated corpse of a baby. The baby is now described as a corpse: and is therefore dead.

Then an exclamation follows: 'Oh!' This is the first indication of what emotions the speaker might experience. It can be an outcry of despair or sadness. The baby is then described as 'Baby in the Manger', which refers to Jesus. The baby is therefore innocent. It died a horrible death, like Jesus did, without committing any sin. The next line introduces a tone of bitterness. It contains a paradox. The speaker tells the baby to sleep well. This is the baby's last resting place, but it is not a soft mattress, but human dung. How can anyone sleep well on human excrement? The fate of the baby is horrifying. It shouldn't have happened.

Its mother had melted into the rays of the rising sun, her face glittering with innocence, her heart as pure as untrampled dew

The last stanza describes the mother. The word melted is used to indicate that she disappeared. Like snow melts and therefore disappears in the sun she also disappeared. Her face glitters in the sun. When something glitters it is usually beautiful. She is described as innocent. A new day is beginning for the mother. She will continue with her life, while her baby has just died a horrible death.

Mothers who have babies in these particular circumstances often don't have an income or means to look after the babies. Maybe the mother didn't have anywhere to take her baby to and she didn't have money to look after him. So she dumped the baby on the rubbish heap, because she didn’t know what else to do with him. The last stanza reinforces the sense of innocence. A simile is used to compare her heart to 'untrampled dew'. Dew drops that haven't been stepped on make perfect round spheres, and that is how the mother is described: pure and perfect. She can continue with her life as if nothing happened, as if she didn't commit a horrible sin.

Vrooyen/Temp

a young man's thoughts before jun the 16th

a young man’s thoughts before june the 16^th

Once again, in this short poem, your success lies in paying careful attention the context/setting of the poem, but you also have to know the new and unfamiliar vocabulary.

The setting: The poet places himself in the shoes of one of the teenagers who participated in the Soweto uprising of June 16, 1976. He sees himself the day before the event, foreseeing the tragedy that is due to erupt.

The vocabulary:

winds – takes a twisting route

aches – hurts with a dull pain

belch – burp noisily

strum – sweep the fingers

brow – person’s forehead

drenched – soaked through

Here are the mistakes you failed to see:

1.1       Describe the structure of this poem (not what it is about) and say whether you think it is   effective.                                                                                                                     [2]

free verse/no punctuation/stream of consciousness poetry/ It is suitable because it clearly describes the anxious, disordered thoughts of a teenager who does not know what the next day will bring./

1.2       What is implied about the persona in the lines, “i take with me only the sweet/memories of my      youth”?                                                                                                                        [1]

The persona has a sense that they are leaving their youth behind – it is now just a memory./

1.3.1    What is the tone of “a broad belch of beer”, line 7?

1.3.2    It makes the line:                                                                                                         [1]

A.    sordid         B.     celebratory         C.   unruly  

B. celebratory

1.3.3    Explain your answer to 4.3.2 by referring to the alliteration.                                     [2]

The alliteration of “a broad belch of beer” evokes the picture and sound of happy young people enjoying an evening together/ in a carefree manner./                                                                

1.4       Then, for the first time, from lines 8 – 12, the persona mentions adults and what their response will be “tomorrow”. In the context of the poem, explain why the adults should sing and play a “sad song”.                                                                                              [2]

“tomorrow” is June 16^th, the day of the Soweto Uprising,/ when the brutal murders of teenaged protesters caused their parents and adults in their community to go into mourning./

1.5       Do you find the last line a fitting ending to the poem?   Explain your answer.         [2]

It is fitting for several reasons – the red sunset speaks of blood and the end of something, so foreshadows the day ahead// the blood of innocent children was shed and “drenched” helps us feel that horror// OR the persona speaks of “my sunset” being ‘drenched”, changing what is normally beautiful, a sunset, life, into something grotesque// OR it is a young person’s response to an indescribable horror – it must be expressed strongly.// …

1.6       Comment on the rich imagery used in the last line.                                                    [3]

Sunset is often the metaphor for the end of life - death. Here, however, it is not a gentle death but one which is ‘drenched with red’. Notice the harshness of the word ‘drenched’. The life of the young people has been ripped apart by police bullets, and their blood flows freely, drenching the sunset (and streets) with red.

Futility by Wilfred Owen

Futility by Wilfred Owen
This a beautiful war poem and by no means the difficult poem students make it out to be. In fact, there are only four new and unfamiliar words and the unusual rhyme scheme that could offer a challenge in the exam.
Those new words:

1.      Clays – a human being

2.      Cold star – earth before the process of evolution (Ice Age)

3.      Fatuous – pointlessly foolish; this also indicates the poet’s change of attitude towards thr sun.

4.      Toil – to work hard

Owen uses half-rhyme, also known as slant rhyme. This is an imperfect rhyme in which the final consonant matches but vowels sounds do not match:
Sun/sown                    once/France               snow/now/know                    
seeds/sides                  star/stir                       tall/toil/all

The poem is about a soldier (the speaker) that cannot believe that his comrade (a fellow soldier) has been killed in battle. He believes that by moving him into the sun his friend can be revived. This is because he sees the sun as a miracle worker, a healing agent. The sun, he believes has special powers to give life. The speaker is in denial and shock. He reasons that the sun has been able to prove its potency before so why can’t it resuscitate his friend now. He thinks about how his friend has just died therefore making it easier for the sun to restore him back to life. The speaker thinks about the role played by the sun in the creation of the world. The sun made things grow. This has such a tremendous feat. If the sun could do this then surely it can “wake up” one lone soldier. At the end of the poem the speaker realises how useless, pointless and hopeless the sun is and how it is not powerful enough to wake his friend. A comment is also made here about the futility of war because war causes death.

Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides,

Full-nerved, - still warm, - too hard to stir?

The rhetorical question is aimed not only at the Sun, the Sustainer of Life. It is also intended at the devastating concept of war in general. He was depressed and disgusted at the distressing and demoralizing consequences of the War.

Was for this that the clay grew tall? Did Man advance in Life and progressiveness to come to this? As the poet prefixes the adjective “fatuous” before sunbeams, he illustrates how the sun had lost its utility value in the face of Death. Was it for this eventual finale that the sun awoke the earthlings?