There must be a better word - refining words

Like most people, I am in that ‘getting ready for the exam stage’ and looking at everything and anything that will help push students in the right direction. Currently, I am looking at Paper 1 Question 4 and the formation of opinions. 

A lot of students struggle on this question because simply they don’t engage with the opinion. They simply search and locate evidence for the statement. They don’t explore or even think about the statements. It is simple: search, find, write and a bit of waffle. The better students engage with the question on a cerebral level and explore ideas, but how can we get students to think, engage and explore the statement? 

Often, in English, our problem is with students being too general with their thinking, writing and reading. Teaching tends to work on getting students moving from the general to the specific. The problem is, unless the teacher is in the room, students don’t always think in specific terms. This, in exams, is damaging. Therefore, I have been working on students getting precise quickly in their writing on Q4. Instead of defaulting on ‘I agree because’ we’ve looked at a more nuanced way to be specific.  Doing something more with the opinion. Here are some of the things we’ve been doing: 

[1] I agree that Hartop is cruel but I’d say vindictive is a better word to describe how he behaves towards his family.   [ Refining with words] 

[2] Not only does the reader feel sympathy for Alice, but they feel sympathy for their whole family, especially the mother.  [Extending the opinion] 

[3] On the surface it might seem that Hartop is cruel, but I’d say he is only cruel because society forces him to behave that way.  [Opinion but] 

What this allowed us to do is engage with the subtext quickly without too much fuss. And, if I am honest, the most useful one was refining words. Because I can speak with authority on this, we spend too much time adding words rather than rewording things. We add and we list words, but we don’t refine and redefine the words that we use. As a thinking process, it is pivotal, yet we don’t really employ it in writing and reading. We tend to scroll through adjectives when describing a character, but rarely do we go -  Hang on! That word isn’t quite the right one - in writing . 

For literature, we can employ this thinking quite easily. 

A but B because ….

Greed is a word often associated with Scrooge, but empty is possibly a better word. Empty because … 

Power is one way to look at the poem, but a much better way of seeing it is as ‘control and the power to control people. 

For language, we can employ it when writing.

A but B because ….

Fame is what most people call it, but I’d call it attention-seeking behaviour. 

The word ‘sport’ does quite accurately describe the physical pain over a short space of time. 

Dark isn’t the word to describe the sky, but inky is better.  

Peaceful doesn’t convey the sense of the place, but perfection does.

The refining of a word helps a student to explore the idea without resorting to listing. Refining it makes students explore and develop an idea. Too much writing is listing and not enough exploring. If we are going to get students to think better, then we need structures to help support that thinking. We need students to refine their thoughts within the process of writing. How many times have we seen students rush out an essay quickly without a plan? What if students refined the word in the question? Explain how Shakespeare presents love. Love isn’t what the play is concerned about, but infatuation is. There's your thesis statement. 

We need to build a sense of questioning in the way students think - especially with the choice of words they use.

Refining words should be a common part of oracy and not just in writing.

We need it to be everywhere and so common. 

Thanks for reading, 

Xris