Are you one of those for whom English Literature was not merely a subject, but a passion? Over time have you lost that passion in the dreary modes of writing answers and memorising them? Well, you are in the same boat as me! There was a time when Literature was the best choice for me and I loved every bit of the subject.
However with time, what happened was demands associated with that subject came on a rise! Rather than exploring on love of that subject, delivering answers on time, carrying on with projects and finally memorising took theupper hand. Though all of this is a regular part and parcel of academic life, yet after a certain point of time, this tends to look quite a difficult job.
Major problems that arise:
In case of students who take up English Literature as a subject, their major concern is their love for that subject. Being one of those few subjects that provide people a chance at exploring deeper concepts that are associated and allow students to interpret it in their own manner, Literature surely has become one of the most wanted subjects in present times. Yet, major issues arise when students have to write lengthy answers related to a specific topic and memorise them as well.
It is then that students tend to lose out interest in that subject and performance suffers. As a student, I have seen my grades fall and also lose out on wanting to explore more on a specific topic in that specific domain. To get to the core of this problem, I decided to take out some other way. By giving a miss to the monotonous routine, I tried out these tips that helped me in getting back to the core aspects of this subject, as well as prepare it on for examination purpose.
‘’Beware of monotony; it is the mother of all deadly sins!’’
Tips to follow to make learning Literature more informative:
As a subject to prepare for examination purposes, studying of Literature has to be changed. Rather than studying and simply writing answers, there are other ways of making this subject informative. I have tried them on a personal note and here are some ways for you to choose for your benefit.
- Note down what are the major issues and occasions in brief: It should never be forgotten that Literature is a subject for exploration. Hence, spontaneity is a must in this regard. For that, it is important to note that brief notes are made that help in overall preparation process. You can take up a particular novel, or chapter and note down what important events are there in that chapter.
After noting that down you can categorize those events against events of History of English Literature. In this way, both past and present aspects of literature can remain connected and from those brief notes, further answers can be made on spot during exams. Also, this brief note help in making this subject more informative, and can save time in comparison to writing those long answers.
- Make brief notes about characters and specialities associated with them: The primary aim of English Literature, post reading of a subject is to understand how a plot is being developed and what are the concerns and issues associated with that plot. Based on that character analysis is done in a particular chapter. In most cases, this analysis results in writing a lengthy answer that is to be furthered studied for exams.
How about going in for a twist? Leave out those long answers and just note down points in short. Allow your mind to develop ways that could help you in dealing with writing on the spot answers. Rather than writing answers try to insert quotes and similar character types from other chapters or novels.
This will help in making sure that you are aware of ways to merge one segment with another, give an idea regarding how to connect with instances from other places and present this whole thing at a singular pace! So, you really need not write answers to get information about a specific topic.
- Practise impromptu writing: Leave out writing those answers for a while! Get real and understand the subject, frame an idea about it. Tired of this monotony, I tried out reading a topic, doing a little research on it, noting points and writing sudden answers. The answer that you write need not be accurate.
The main concept associated with this technique is to make sure that you are ready to write an answer any time. This reduces the need for writing long answers and thereby makes sure that you stay informed about details rather than spending maximum time on writing and memorising those answers.
- Note down points for all the chapters and interconnect them: There can be nothing better than understanding a particular topic while comparing it with another such topic. In thecase of writing answers, it is seen that a huge number of references is made, I personally used to do so when I was into writing long answers, but only a few are remembered. Thus, this whole process goes down the drain as major targets of writing are not met in the first place.
Dump this process! I took down points in various heads such as characters and incidents and tried relating them with other characters. Into all of it, I only added a singular quote by a known author to help better my answer. With this process, I have seen that remembering each and every concept, character and incident has become so easy!
Rather than writing those answers, I can now connect them at right places and make sure to remain informed about the respective developments. Hence, connecting of these have improved my mode of studies for the better and now I am more interested in that specific topic. You can also try out this technique that surely helps out in making this subject all the more informative and much less boring.
- Reading and re-reading of a particular chapter: I have seen most of my peers and me as well that after a preliminary reading of the chapter; I was more interested in noting answers. This has to be stopped immediately. In Literature, there is nothing more important than reading the text.
So, leave out those hefty answer writing sessions and make sure that you concentrate your energies in reading and getting into deeper aspects of a particular novel or a chapter. This would help in improving your idea of that topic; get a basic understanding of that chapter and finally ability to compose answers without any such help.
As an ardent fan of this subject, and a diligent student, I personally found out these ways that would help me remain informed about topics that are there in this subject rather than writing long answers that was my previous practise. So, it is time for you to try out this technique. Try out now!
You can surely revert back to us in thecase of any queries or if you have any suggestions!