English Language & Literature
This is a good course for those who wish to combine their understanding of language and literature, and study a broad range of topics which will prepare them for higher education or employment.
This course is for you if...
...you want to combine your study of language and literature.
…you want to develop your skills in writing for a variety of audiences and purposes.
...you want to explore how writers and speakers tell stories, dramatise conflict and voice their experiences.
...you are looking for an A Level that will give you transferable communication skills that will help almost any other course or career.
Where can this course lead to?
By choosing an English A Level, you will develop easily transferable communication skills that are also very desirable for most careers and higher education courses.
English graduates enter a very wide range of careers in media, public relations, advertising, marketing, publishing, library and information services as well as teaching.
What will I study on this course?
You will follow the AQA specification.
Component 1: Telling Stories
- Remembered places: non-fiction speech and writing about Paris
- Imagined worlds: one novel from Alice Sebold The Lovely Bones, Margaret Atwood The Handmaid’s Tale, Bram Stoker Dracula, Mary Shelley Frankenstein
- Poetic voices: poems by one poet from John Donne, Robert Browning, Carol Ann Duffy and Seamus Heaney
Component 2: Exploring Conflict
- Writing about society – re-creative writing based on the study of one text from Jon Krakauer Into the Wild, Kate Summerscale The Suspicions of Mr Whicher or the Murder at Road Hill House, F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby orKhaled Hosseini The Kite Runner
- Dramatic encounters: one play from William Shakespeare Othello, Arthur Miller All My Sons, Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire orRory Kinnear The Herd
Component 3: Coursework – Making Connections
- A free choice of literary and non-literary texts to compare.
Extended opportunities and enrichment
You will have the opportunity to take part in creative writing. You will also have the chance to write and take part in a programme to be broadcast on Itchen Radio. There will be trips to museums, significant literary destinations and universities throughout the course.