AS Coursework

1. AS Coursework Where do I start?

2. Working with your question…. By now, you will have chosen a focus for your question. Now you need to determine what your line of argument will be. E.g. You may have chosen: Compare and contrast how the writers explore ideas of human frailty in Regeneration and Journey’s End.

3. Compare and contrast how the writers explore ideas of human frailty in Regeneration and Journey’s End. • What are you going to focus on? • Come up with a sentence or two that sums up your focus. E.g. Both writers focus on the mental effects of war and how damaging these can be on the emotional behaviour of the men. However, the writers are concerned with demonstrating that such ‘frailty’ is not a sign of weakness but a natural human response to such extreme conditions.

4. Your question might them become…. Compare and contrast the treatment of human frailty in “Regeneration” and “Journey’s End”. To what extent to the writers present such frailty sympathetically?

5. Compare and contrast how the writers explore the significance of ‘manliness’ in the trenches of World War One in Regeneration and Journey’s End. • What are you going to focus on? • Come up with a sentence or two that sums up your focus. E.g. Both writers explore how ideas of masculinity and manliness are blurred during World War One, showing that the expectations of true ‘manliness’ were impossible to achieve in the circumstances.

6. Your question might them become…. Explore the treatment of Manliness in “Regeneration” and “Journey’s End”, comparing how the texts question this contemporary value. Take your focus question and do the following: Write one or two sentences summing up what your argument is going to be.

7. Planning Over half term, you should have researched your chosen question focus and by now, you should have lots of contextual information and different readings. Now it is time to work with the texts…. • Come up with a list of the key areas you want to cover in your essay.

8. E.g. Compare and contrast the presentation of the emotional impact of World War One on the individual in Regeneration and Journey’s End. • Introduction – establish line of argument • Some context on Rivers and barker’s interest in this theme. Compare to context of Journey’s End. Comment on how different contextual influences affect the portrayal of emotional effects. • Stanhope – how his background prepared him to be an officer link to Sassoon but contrast their emotional responses • Link to other characters who seem to not be OUTWARDLY emotionally wounded by war – Osborne. Link Osborne to Rivers – taking on board the fears and emotions of others, which must affect them also – are they the true heroes? • Trotter and Prior – both raised through the ranks but do not truly belong due to their lack of class. Does this make them more reticent about sharing their emotional difficulties – lack of true comradeship? • How both texts show that it is a prolonged exposure to the horror of war that leads to the emotional effects – Stanhope – drinking / Prior – even though it is one event that he considers to be the trigger – this was just “the final straw” • Cowards? Compare Hibbert and Willard – are they treated sympathetically? • Fates of the men – contrast treatment at Craiglockhart and Stanhope’s drinking as different ways of “healing” the men. Is it better to use drink to cope or be sent somewhere like Craiglockhart, only to be sent back to the front to repeat the same scenarios?