English coursework

[clueless]

even if you havnt read hound of baskervilles could you possibly give me some tips on my essay?


thanks!!

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Analyse the ways in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle uses the conventions of the detective genre to engage the reader in the plot and action of the story ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle follows the conventions of a detective novel in order to build up tension and fear, build up trust for Holmes and to get the reader to come up with their own suspicions. Conan Doyle uses the setting, Holmes, Watson and the villain to achieve this. There are several themes running throughout the novel with appearance versus reality, with the moor and the Barrymores and the theme of relationships especially between brothers and sisters including the Stapletons. The themes are used to make the plot more complex and involve more red herrings.
‘Over the low curve of a wood there rose in the distance a grey, melancholy hill,’ immediately the setting is bleak and by using the word, ‘melancholy’, it comes across as being in the middle of nowhere and isolated. This contrasts to the busy London scenes where Watson had been before and by starting off in London and then going to the moor Conan Doyle has enhanced this contrast making the moor seem even more empty and spooky. At first the area of Devon ‘over the green squares of the fields,’ appears to be beautiful and a picturesque area, however when the ‘dim’ moor is described, the reader realises that this area of Devon isn’t like the rest and becomes suspicious of the area. ‘The house glimmered like a ghost,’ Baskerville Hall is a typical horror house in the middle of nowhere and when even Sherlock Holmes is worried for Watson, ‘I shall be very glad to have you back safe,’ the reader is engaged by the terrifying and tense setting of the novel.
Sherlock Holmes is arguably the most famous fictional detective created by the ‘father of all detective conventions,’ Arthur Conan Doyle. The readers don’t wonder whether it will get solved but rather how it will get solved because of Holmes’ record of solving every case. ‘You interest me very much Mr Holmes,’, he is respected by everyone and everyone wants to know what he is thinking and how he is getting on with the case, ‘I am naturally curious to know what view he may take,’ As readers we don’t know much about him as a person but we do know he will always solve the case. By having Watson fall for the Red Herrings such as with the Barrymores, it highlights the contrast and makes Sherlock seem even better for not falling for them. Conan Doyle has Holmes working ‘offstage’ for a section of the play when we follow Watson and his dead ends. When Holmes returns he has worked out everything and by having him offstage, readers don’t see any of his mistakes so he comes across as flawless. Holmes has a logical approach, ‘don’t give me opinions, give me facts,’ and with the novel being written at the time of the industrial revolution, science and logic were valued highly compared to the supernatural. With Holmes logical ideas proving correct over the supernatural ‘curse of the hound’ the readers are satisfied and support Holmes. Holmes is used to engage the reader as the readers want to know how he will solve it rather than if.
‘There is no man who is better worth having at your side when you are in a tight place,’ Dr Watson is Sherlock Holmes’ trustworthy sidekick. Conan Doyle uses Watson as his narrator so the readers can trust Holmes more and see him as a hero as Watson is constantly admiring him, ‘He was thin and worn but clear and alert,’ even when he is using negative language he always has a positive about Holmes to add; he can never insult him. The language Watson uses towards Holmes is always in admiration even though Sherlock sometimes looks down on him, ‘You could not make a greater mistake.’ The relationship between Sherlock and Watson becomes visible from the start as even in the first chapter Holmes outsmarts Watson with the matter of the walking stick. The choice of having him as a narrator was also a structural decision by Conan Doyle as he could include reports from Watson to Sherlock which clearly explained the events to the reader. This way the reader could obtain vast amounts of information quickly and also fall into the same red herrings as Watson does so the reader appreciates Holmes’ lack of flaws.
‘Small, slim, clean-shaven, prim-faced man,’ the villain of the story, Stapleton, is not the most obvious character to have as ‘the brute’ behind it all. By having an ordinary man as the villain Conan Doyle played on the fact that it could be anyone and just a few years before the novel was published there had been the case of Jack the Ripper. The fact that it was unsolved left people in fear of him and Conan Doyle played on this fear, however Sherlock Holmes did solve the case bringing some reassurance and comfort to the readers that these cases could be solved. By having an unobvious villain it also shows Holmes’ intelligence as he was able to work it out despite Stapletons conniving plans. The villain engaged the readers as Conan Doyle made a structural decision to have the events in chronological order with the readers following the narrator, Watson, and his thought path. So by having Stapleton revealed near the end, fear and tension is built u as the reader wants to find out who it is. It also allows them to have their own suspicions of who it could be.
In conclusion, Arthur Conan Doyle uses the bleak setting and the chronological order of the novel and revealing the villain to build up tension and fear, the admiring sidekick and Holmes himself to reassure and trust the detective and the villain and Watson to fall into the red herrings and come up with their own suspicions. These factors all make the readers engaged in the plot and intrigued to find out the ending.

[iAdam]

Haven't read it, but remember to answer the question in every paragraph you write, and use PEE, Point, Explain, Evidence for the explanation.

Just doing this can guarantee you a B in some essays.

[dirrty]

i remember doing that for coursework. what iAdam said would be the best way to do an essay. thats how i was taught anyway.

[Kipp]

I read it, it seems good.

[Susie Dent]

whoa chick start with an introduction instead of jumping in the deep end lol and put the title of the play in 'speech marks'
id rewrite it and get this piece of ass from a C grade to an A grade but i cba right nowx

[clueless]

thanks for the tip, i think i did that and thanks!

i did start with an introduction lol :S and why
and i hope its higher than a C lol
you could just give me some pointers!

[Mathew]

Need to lengthen it all. No where near enough detail.

I'm seeing one sentence as an introduction, explain which pages of the book you are analysing, why you are, what you hope to write about, and what you hope to achieve. Then go on to take each pointer step-by-step. Work through the pages you are studying (well done for giving examples, they bump up your grade too), and make sure you go into a LOT of detail.

The conculusion also needs to be a lot longer. Say whether you think you achieved what you set out to do, sum up what the best way to engage a reader is by giving YOUR OWN PERSONAL OPINION. I can't stress this enough, but in must subjects with essay work, you get extra marks for giving your personal opinion.

However, well done on giving examples, just a few things you can add to the beginning and the end to get extra marks, BUT you still need to explain things in more depth. As someone else said, PEE - point, evidence and explain is how we learn it. You need to refer back to the question for everything you write, and say why you think it refers back to the question. Don't waffle, just get it down.

I've come out with 3 A's and 2 B's in my English coursework (written and speaking + listening) so far.. my teacher works for the examination board through the summer, so he's gonna give me some help on how to get them all to A* standard..

Best of luck to you, keep us updated and if you need any more help, post back!

[clueless]

thankyou very much for ur advice its really useful! i never knew whether to put in my own personal opinion as sometimes they dont say I but now i will. I think you are right, I was a bit worried as he said 1000 words so I didnt want to go over but i just read it through and realised
thanks!

[Mathew]

thankyou very much for ur advice its really useful! i never knew whether to put in my own personal opinion as sometimes they dont say I but now i will. I think you are right, I was a bit worried as he said 1000 words so I didnt want to go over but i just read it through and realised
thanks!

You are allowed to add or take away 20%, so you can go up to 1200 words or down to 800. Not sure how many words are there, but I usually write as much as I can, and then have a teacher elminate the parts which THEY think shouldn't be needed.

[clueless]

well there isnt a set word count because on previous courseworks ive done like 3000 words!! but i got a new teacher this year and he wants them to be sharp and precise because before mine were filled with waffle
so ive gone down that path
i just hope i havnt cut out too much!