Essay Writing

Using metalanguage

Metalanguage

• Part of your criteria is to show an understanding of writing conventions.

• That means how the novel has been written including style, structure and literary techniques.

• If you can name these conventions you are using metalanguage.

So…

• If you can comment on how the story is written to create meaning you are fulfilling this criteria.

• Remember that authors construct stories in a particular way to create meaning.

• They make deliberate choices about how they write a story.

• Remember our discussion of why Orwell includes the full text of Goldstein’s book?

For example…

• Say you are writing an essay about Julia and Winston and the strength Winston gains from this relationship.

• And you want to demonstrate how the relationship with Julia physically strengthens Winston.

Sample

• Winston is physically strengthened by the energy he gains from the relationship with Julia. Winston ‘had dropped his habit of drinking gin at all hours.’ He no longer feels the need to numb his emotions as he feels hope that he is experiencing life as a true human being. Similarly his varicose ulcer which causes him so much pain in the beginning of the novel ‘subsided’. Symbolically, the ulcer may represent what Winston was forced to hold in, his hatred of the Party and its destruction of humanity. With Julia in the room above Mr Charrington’s shop Winston ‘had no longer any impulse to ‘shout curses at the top of his voice.’

Take notes on…

• Take notes on the following and be prepared to discuss how they work in your SAC response. – Symbolism or Motif– Limited third person narrator (you should already have

some notes on this)– Setting– Foreshadowing- where are there indications that

Winston’s hope to remain human will be shattered?– Why has Orwell included these in the novel?