Discuss - 'Mental Cases', 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' and 'The Send-Off', by Wilfred Owen.

Review of essay

Rating: 3 star(s)

Response to the question

This is a response to a comparative task with three of Wilfred Owen's poems, with a question that directly asks for a personal response. The candidate, at the beginning of their answer chose to analyse 'Mental Cases', 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' and 'The Send-Off'. In question like these, it is best if the sections where candidates analyse the effect the poems have on the reader are instead directed at the effect on the candidate themselves, just so that the personal response is explicit. Also, in any question, candidate must stick to answering what they set out to answer in the introductory paragraph. Seeing the candidate promising analyses of 'Mental Cases', 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' and 'The Send-Off' is fine enough, but if that candidate later then chooses to completely ignores the analysis of 'The Send-Off' and instead dedicates analysis to 'Dulce et Decorum est' without ever specifying doing so, then they are not structuring a cohesive answer and explaining fully what they intend to do in the introduction. Structure is very important in an essay as thus what is written in the introduction should be adhered to as a rough plan for the course of the essay.

Level of analysis

The Level of Analysis is average, but the extent to which there is a clear-cut comparison between the poems is limited because the candidate has addressed the poems in turn, rather than discussed a similarity and/or difference between the poems and then discussed how that poetic device (emotive language, irony, Second Person address, etc.) features in each poem. The latter method is better at encouraging active comparison throughout the essay and also saves time because there is no need to explain the poem's use of a certain technique individually, so it is greatly recommended that candidates aim to leave their comfort zone as, if done well, this method of essay writing can elicit many more marks much more easily than the standard Poem-by-Poem structure.
The candidate discusses a number of different techniques used by Owen, including his manipulation of language and the effect on the reader. I would have liked to have seen more on the context of the poems, such as what mental statement of mind and attitude to War Owen had at the time of each poem's writing (though predominantly anti-War and unconventional, his stance did change somewhat over the course of the four years of World War I). This would show the examiner the candidate has the incentive to conduct external, independent research in their own time and has a dedicated enthusiasm for the poems. As a final note, it should be noted that the conclusion of any essay must be at least four lines long and must introduce no new ideas, as it is conclusive. The main aim of a conclusion is to tie together all the ideas explored in the essay answer and so a fully-fledged conclusion of about four to six lines is imperative to ensure a well-structured essay.

Quality of writing

The Quality of Written Communication here is reasonable. At no point during the answer is the meaning of the candidate's answer incomprehensible, but there are a few spelling errors which could easily be ironed out if the candidate re-reads their answer to look for these errors. Also, the range of punctuation is limited. Though, challenging to use correctly, colons and semi-colons are excellent at bumping up the QWC mark as the correct use of them encourages examiners to believe the candidate is a very confident writer who displays a knowledge of more complex punctuation than just commas and full stops.