Nutrada(Mint) Opassathavorn 11MP English Essay
Describe a main idea in each of the short texts (poems) and explain why these ideas were significant
A main idea of Follower is the role reversal between father and the son, Heaney. In Follower, Heaney is a young boy looking up to his own father deferentially and as the time passes the roles change. On the other hand, a main idea of Digging is about love, respect and admiration from Heaney to his father and ancestors. In addition, both of the poems, Heaney wants to follow his father’s footsteps.
In Follower, Heaney says that his father is ‘An expert’ with such a great pride because he is a skilled and physically powerful farmer as it is shown in this quote; “Narrowed and angled at the ground, Mapping the furrow exactly”. Heaney is a little boy in the poem and he looks up to his father in the physical way because his father is tall and strong but he is small and short. “I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake, Fell sometimes on the polished sod”; it brings up the picture of the ploughman’s boots and the clumsiness of little Heaney while sometimes his father gives him rides on the back because he could not stand Heaney’s awkwardness. Heaney also wants to be exactly like his father and become stronger when he grows up. Even though, Heaney is a nuisance who always trips, falls and talks in the poem and it shows the enthusiasm of how much Heaney wants to help his father do the ploughing. At the end of this poem, the tone of the poem changes as the time passes. Heaney’s father is the one who following him as he gets older and needs to be looked after. While the grown-up Heaney gets annoy and all the negative feelings towards his father but still he respects and loves his father; this show the role reversal between Heaney and his father.
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Peer Reviews
Here's what a star student thought of this essay
Quality of writing
The Quality of Written Communication here is good. There is a clear, well-informed use of the English language and the candidate maintains all standards expected of a GCSE level candidate. A number of challenging terminological lexes are spelt correctly and the candidate demonstrate a sound knowledge of grammar and punctuation. It would improve the answer though, to see more of a variety of punctuation (colons, semi-colons) because this shows that there is a confident writer behind this essay with the use of more complex punctuation.
Level of analysis
The Level of Analysis quite sporadic and where it is invested on little more than simple comment it becomes very superficial. The candidate quite often just talks about what Heaney is describing in his poems, without relating back to the question about the main theme or why it is the main theme. There is very little effective comparison between the poems but what is evident suggests that the candidate, if given more time to flesh out their ideas, could provide a much better answer. I would advise that more time is taken to ensure this candidate has commented less on what the poems are about, but how the use of poetic devices like structure (e.g. - sonnet form, enjambment, stanza length) and language (e.g. - Personal Address, specialist language, narrative form).
Response to question
This answer is a response to an analytical question aimed at Seamus Heaney's poems 'Digging' and 'Follower'. The candidate shows a very basic response to the question, commenting on the messages of the poems well but struggling to delve much deeper into the the connotations of the poems. Furthermore, contextual analysis is required for all candidate hoping to score higher than a low C grade, so unfortunately that is where this essay lies. What is good here is very good, but what it lacks outweighs the pros. I would recommend learning a bit more about the poet and the reasons for him writing the poems as this shows external, independent research has been carried out and this is what they examiners love to see.
