Ceapadóireacht - Leaving cert Irish/Gaeilge notes

Gaeilge

Ceapadóireacht – aiste

80 mins 2 ½ pages

The essay, or aiste, is a literary composition which presents the ideas of the writer on a chosen topic. It is usually informal in style and brief in scope.
Nuair a bhíonn aiste á scríobh agat, ba cheart duit machnamh a dhéanamh ar na haidhmeanna ginearálta seo a bhfuil ag an Roinn Oideachais:

• Go mbeidh tú ábalta tú féin a chur in iúl le cruinneas agus le beachtas teanga.
• Go mbeidh tú ábalta tuairimí a nochtadh go lán-mhuiníneach trí mheán na scríbhneoireachta.
• Go mbeidh tú in ann stíl phearsanta a fhorbairt de réir a chéile.
• Tá ort aiste a scríobh ar cheann amháin de na trí cinn a thugtar duit.
• Ní gá dul thar 500-600 focal nó mar sin (timpeall 2.5 leathanach).
• Beidh timpeall 80 nóiméad agat chun Aiste a scríobh.
• Ní mór duit cúram a dhéanamh de chruinneas na teanga agus caillfear marcanna trí bheith faillíoch ann.
• Smaoinigh go bhfuil formhór na marcanna ag dul do chaighdeán na Gaeilge (80%) agus níl ach fíorbheagán ag dul don ábhar (20%).

Tabhair na pointí seo a leanas faoi deara

• Nuair atá an aiste roghnaithe agat, téigh go dtí an leathanach deireanach de do leabhar freagraí agus scríobh síos pé smaointe faoin aiste a thagann isteach i do chloigeann.
• Cuir na smaointe seo in ord agus in eagar agus bíodh trí roinn, go bunúsach, agat ansin, sé sin, tús na haiste, corp na haiste agus críoch na haiste.
• Tús - Bíodh alt láidir amháin agat ina dtugann tú do thuairim féin faoin ábhar seo. Tóg mar shampla na habairtí seo a leanas : "Ní dócha go raibh am riamh ann ina ndéantar an oiread sin cainte ar 'Uaigneas'. Is féidir leat féachaint ar an teilifís agus beidh daoine ag caint 'is ag comhrá faoin ábhar seo. Tá na páipéir nuachta tuillte agus lán go béal leis an scéal céanna. Dúirt John Donne sa Bhéarla fadó 'No man is an island' agus tá an smaoineamh céanna le fáil sa Ghaeilge sa sheanfhocal 'Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann daoine'..."
• Corp - Bíodh thart ar thrí nó ar cheithre cinn de phointí agat anseo. Is fiú dhá thaobh den scéal a phlé i gcorp na haiste.
• Críoch - Bíodh an críoch mar achoimre agatsa ar an ábhar anseo. Tóg mar shampla na habairtí seo a leanas: "Mar a dúirt mé cheana, is iomaí rud atá scríofa faoin ábhar seo agus is furasta a thuiscint cén fáth. Ba chóir go mbeadh a thuairim féin ag gach duine faoin ábhar seo. Is ceist tábhachtach, phráinneach agus láithreach é. Tá orainn go léir é a scrudú agus a chíoradh go mion. B'fhéidir, lá éigin, dá mbeadh díospóireacht agus plé againn ar an gceist seo go mbeadh iompú bisigh ann san ábhar seo 'Uaigneas'."

Seo roinnt leideanna eile

• Go hiondúil, baineann na haistí le réimse an dalta scoile. Dá bhrí sin, bíodh eolas agat ar thoipicí cosúil le daoine óga, cúrsaí oideachais, spóirt agus caitheamh aimsire, an Ghaeilge, na meáin cumarsáide, taisteal agus teangacha, cultúr agus an timpeallacht.
• Bain úsáid as an gcleas seo. Cuir na ceisteanna seo ort féin agus tú ag smaoineamh ar ábhar na haiste - Cé?, Céard?, Cén áit?, Cathain?, agus Cén fáth? agus scríobh síos na freagraí ar do leathanach deireanach i do leabhar freagraí.
• Bíodh an Gaeilge san aiste gearr, simplí agus cruinn. Seachain abairtí fada.
• Cruinnigh do chuid cainte le hábhar na haiste agus ná téigh ar strae le caint scaipthe, scaoilte. Bíodh ábhar na haiste géar gonta, spéisiúil, pearsanta agus chomh fada agus is féidir, bíodh bua na samhlaíochta ann.
• Smaoinigh go bhfuil a stíl phearsanta féin ag gach duine a scríobhann aiste. Dá bhrí sin, lean ort ag scríobh!

Personal Responce to the poetry of Eavan Boland

Eavan Boland is my favourite modern poet. There are many reasons for my positive response to her poems. What I love about Boland’s work is how revolutionary it is. Jody Allen Randolph, the American critic, once said that Boland “single-handedly challenged what was a heavily male-dominated profession”. What really appeals to me about Boland’s work is how she offers me fresh insight on old topics. In particular I like her reflections on love and relationships, the polemical/political dimension to her work and also the unique voice she has in Irish poetry: lending fresh input on old Irish topics, such as the Famine. Although I thoroughly enjoy Boland’s diverse range of themes, it is also the way in which she presents these themes to the reader which appeals to me. I find her poetry has an evocative, warm and lyrical quality with an impressing economy of language. I love how she uses banalities as symbols for emotions and ideas that otherwise would be completely ineffable. I also find her poetry contains suspense and tension of the best narrative.

Boland’s reflection on relationships is one of my favourite aspects of her poetry. In the poem “Love”, Boland chronicles the deep elemental love between her and her husband, Kevin. This poem is incredibly personal: “I am your wife” “I see you as a hero in a text” “We love each other”. This poem really has an impact on me. When I read it, I really couldn’t get over its power. Boland really emphasises the deep, elemental and transcendent love between them: “It offered us ascension”. I find these lines incredibly powerful. In “Object Lessons” Boland says “when you write about love, you begin by writing about people and end up writing about time”. The poems beauty in my view is augmented by how Boland blends tenses in this poem. She uses the present “Dark falls”, the past: “love had”, past participles which can act also as adjectives “touched” and the future “Will we ever love so intensely again”. I believe this aspect of Boland’s “Love” creates a beautiful and transcendent poem which is, in my view among Boland’s best. Also in “The Pomegranete”, Boland shares another deeply personal relationship, the story of “a daughter”. However, what I really love in this poem is how Boland takes a personal relationship and lends it universal relevance by employing icons of youth culture “her can of coke”, “teen magazines”.

W.H. Auden once praised Adrienne Rich for poems that “speak quietly but do not mumble”. However, in my view, this quote would be truer of Boland’s work. I just love how Boland writes poetry with a political flavour. I think “The War Horse” is a prime example of this trait. In this dual-narrative, Boland charts the journey of a horse which escaped “from the tinker camp on the Enniskerry Road” However, I am led to believe the underlying current in this poem is a reflection on the apathy and almost disinterest of people in the Republic to the “Troubles” in the North. “Neighbourhoods use the subterfuge of curtains”, “only a leaf of our laurel hedge is torn”. This is one of the key aspects of Boland’s poetry for me. Boland writes poems that speak, speak without shouting.

Boland’s voice really makes me listen. The message in “The Famine Road” really interests and horrifies me. Although there has been a myriad of poems and a wealth of literature produced on this topic, Boland gives a different view on this issue. Boland takes two situations in this poem and junxtaposes them marvellously. One deals with the flippant attitude of the English oppressors: “These Irish/ Give them no coins at all”, “could they not blood their knuckles on rock, suck April hailstones for water and for food?”. I find this poem shocking. It is also a unique perspective on the Irish situation. Another detail here which haunts my memory is “I saw bones out of my carriage window”. However, the most shocking image in the poem occurs when Boland writes “Each eyed, as if at a corner butcher, the other’s buttock”. This, in my view, amounts almost to a Swiftian allusion and really highlights the horror of this incredibly clever poem. If I was to make one cricism of this poem it would be that the shift in tone which is symbolized by italicised stanzas is perhaps too forced, too obvious. However, this didn’t detract from or diminish in any way my enjoyment of the poem.

Although I can engage easily with Boland’s themes, it is also her unique craft that has am impact on me. One of the reasons Boland’s poems appeal to me is their warm, lyrical and evocative quality. This, I feel is best illustrated in Boland’s fantastic lyric, “This Moment” which is in fact my favourite Boland poem of all time. I just love how evocative the opening is: “A Neighbourhood. /At Dusk. ”. My favourite image would have to be the warm image of domestic life that Boland presents: “One tree is black / One window is as yellow as butter”. There is in my opinion a wonderful, lyrical quality to this image which renders it one of the most quotable of Boland’s poetry. “Love” appeals to me on a similar level. The opening lines are for me, astonishing for the sheer economy of language “Dark falls on this mid western town, Dusk has hidden the bridge”. These lines have the effect of brining me into the word of the poem, into Boland’s world. This is why Eavan Boland is my favourite modern poet,

I also feel that there is a universal appeal to Boland’s work because of her use of banalities to lend a distinct relevance to her own personal concerns and experiences. Boland makes excellent use of symbol in “The Black Lace Fan My Mother Gave Me”. Boland views the fan as a manifestation of the love between her parents: “It was stifling”. Boland once noted in “Object Lessons” that “Ordinary Objects seemed to remind (Boland) that although the body may share this world, it does not own it”. The description of the fan is wonderful “These are wild roses, appliquéd on silk by hand /darkly picked, stiched boldy, quickly”. The detail here is unbelievable. This is why Boland’s poetry is special to me: her ability to describe objects and to invest them with universal relevance and significance.

Finally I love Boland’s poetry for its suspense and tension. It has a unique narrative quality which renders it unforgettable in my view. The ending of “The Pommegranete” is brilliant for these reasons. “And to her lips/ I will say nothing” This caesura is absolutely wonderful for its tension and suspense. In fact, in this context I believe this particular poem to be the best narrative poem on my course. “The only story I have ever loved / is the story of a daughter lost in hell”, “I can enter it anywhere” ”If I defer the grief, I will diminish the gift”. Boland here comments on her role as a mother and I believe it is the honesty at the core of the poem that speaks to me. It is wonderful for its suspense and tension and really in my view is an epithet for the beauty of Boland.

In conclusion, Eavan Boland’s poetry appeals to me for a plethora of different reasons: It’s reflections on relationships and love, its fresh voice and its polemical/ political dimension appeal to me. Boland presents wonderfully evocative poems which really speak to me. I feel there is an economy ion her language. I really enjoy how Boland invests small objects with significance and finally, most of all, I love how Boland writes poems which contain the suspense and tension of the best narrative. I find her narrative enthralling. If I was to sum up what Boland’s poetry means to me, I would make use of that quote of Keats’ “Poetry should be great and unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one’s soul, and does not startle or amaze itself with itself, but with it’s subject”.

How to answer English Comparative Question Paper 2

English Paper 2

Comparative

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When writing your answer, keep the following mind: 

Eight comparisons

Like you have to show evidence of studying six poems in the prescribed poetry answer, you have to make at least eight comparisons in the comparative answer. When using your four paragraph topics (minimum) make sure you compare your three comparative texts in each. Hence: 

Always write on your three texts

If you only write on two texts in a paragraph you will only make one comparison as you comparing them to each other – you would have to write eight paragraphs (each on a different topic) to get the eight comparisons. Writing on three means you will make two comparisons, so you will only have to write on four paragraphs. 

Key moments

In one of your paragraphs, you can make each of your texts focus on key moments. These moments are key because you say so and why you say so: give a line or two about what their significance to the plot, a certain character etc. Nothing too major. 

Use of I

Is not needed here, unless asked of in the question 

Paragraph topics

Writing a paragraph on the introduction of each text, showing how we see general vision and viewpoint in each, then do the same with the middle, the end etc can make your answer appear like a summary of the texts which markers are told not to reward. It may be better to write on specific topics of each genre such as the ones below. 

Quotes

If you write good, detailed examples from each text you will not need quotes. But examples need to be well detailed. If you prefer, you can use quotes – it is not specified to markers that quotes are essential, so you have a choice.

Remember

This is a COMPARATIVE question. Do not dwell too long on the elaboration (why your paragraph topics answer the question). Be concise with these – the bulk of your paragraph should consist of your comparisons. 

Elaborations

Do not have to be anything akin to a PhD standard – just simply an extension of the point you have previously you have said you will talking about, and an indicator to the marker of what this point will feature and why it answer the question.

Example order in your paragraphs

Very straightforward, but needs to be reminded: organisation is imperative throughout the exam. If there is a contrast in your paragraph, leave it until the end. Have the two texts you are comparing mentioned first, then the final text last. Don’t write on one text, contrast it to another and then try to compare the last text to the first text. 

Comparisons means: 
Means compare and/or contrast. You should try to have at least one contrast in your answer, just for variety. 

Do

Presume your marker knows about the texts you are writing about. Don’t summarize; presume they know the incident of the story you are talking about. Obviously talk about it as it is relevant to your answer, but do not summarize the story, how it got to this incident etc. 

Remember

Answering the question and elaborating at the start of the paragraph should be kept to a minimum. The main point of this answer is COMPARING.