3 Easy Marks for Your Written Assignment

When you are  facing just what you can do to get those three marks for a good Reflective Statement for your Written Assignment, you best guide is the question that is asked in Criterion A. This is the central question the examiner will use to  mark this part of the submission. And that question is: “To what extent does the student show how their understanding of cultural and contextual elements was developed through the interactive oral?”

So what you want to convey is that as a result of the Interactive Oral(s) you now have a better sense of this kind of information: (cultural and contextual):

Who wrote the work?  What are important highlights of his or her life? Where and when did she or he live?  What were significant elements of geography, local and world history, social,  political, economic and religious factors that are important to the work?

Where does the work fit in the history of the genre: are we looking at the beginnings of tragedy in Greek drama, or the use of memoir to convey a life-changing experience as with Primo Levi’s work?

Additionally, you may need to develop your sense of the context and culture within the work: Patrick Suskind and Grenouille do not share the same context. What are the significant features of each?

One of the most successful strategies for getting these 3 (easy) marks is to choose 2 or 3 of the elements mentioned above and rather than just citing them, develop the material so it’s clear you understood these elements and their significance to the work. (Remember, this particular exercise is not focused on the literary work itself, but on the many things that surround and affect its composition).

Do also be aware that the word limit of 400 words is VERY STRICT; one word more than 400 will put you in the penalty box.

And to really nail those marks, you should convey that you are in a different place as to understanding the ‘soup’ in which the work was written –and possibly even received by audiences–than you were prior to the Interactive Orals.

You say you already knew all of the material you heard?  If the Interactive Orals meet a demand for good and relevant research and delivery, that’s probably unlikely.