Topic outline
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English Language and Literature
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In this English Language and Literature taster course you will complete the following.
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Introduction
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Welcome to English Language and Literature, we look forward to meeting you at the start of term.
English Language and Literature is the study of a variety of different texts, such as poems, novels, plays and non-fiction texts such as autobiographies. In English Language and Literature, we are interested in the techniques that writers and speakers use, and we consider their language choices (their vocabulary, literary devices and also grammatical structures) to explore how meaning is shaped in texts – all very exciting and challenging!
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Video
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One of the text types we will study is poetry, and we will look at British poetry through the ages. For your first task, we would like you to watch the following short video:
What makes a poem… a poem?
Summary
- Here’s a quick summary of the ideas covered in the film:
- Poetry emphasises the musical qualities of language
- Poems used condensed language
- Poems often feature intense feelings
- Poetry has a way of challenging simple definitions
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Learning Object
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Now that you have considered some of the ways that poetry can be defined and described, we would like you to complete this short course by the Open University on ‘What is Poetry?’ In it, you will consider poetic techniques used by writers, some elements of rhyme as well as looking at stress, rhythm and metre in poems. The course features some excellent poems as well as some interesting critical discussions about what makes a poem a poem! This will be excellent preparation for when you join us!
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Summary
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Here’s a quick summary of the things covered:
- What is poetry?
- Poetic techniques
- Rhyme
- Stress, Rhythm and Metre
Thank you for completing this short course, we hope you enjoyed it! We look forward to seeing you when you join us for English Language and Literature with Gower College Swansea.
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Extended Reading
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If you want to continue with your study of English Language and Literature over the summer in preparation for the new term, you may find the following links useful:
The WJEC English Language and Literature AS Poetry Anthology
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Here are some videos that might interest you from GCS TV.
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