The following essay was written for my GCSE English course in February 2001 and relates to the William Shakespeare play “The Merchant of Venice”. It’s released here under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales Licence. I can’t vouch for it’s completeness: the only copy of the essay I have includes “PASTE HERE!” after the 4th paragraph and a section in red towards the end. I am also unsure of the title or question of the piece as this is also not in the document. I hope it will still be of some use to someone!
William Shakespeare’s ‘The Merchant of Venice’ addresses some very important points in term of religious and social views. The play centers around the idea of antisemitism in society and the way the Jewish community has been, and to some extent still is, persecuted for their religion. Due to this the play is of a controversial nature and so one which it is hard to put on in today’s multi religious society. The objections raised today are mainly about Act Four, Scene One – the court room scene. [read more]
This field-work study was carried out in the year 2000 as part of my GCSE Geography coursework at Ryburn Valley High School. It is a study of the coastal erosion seen at Flamborough Head’s North Bay on Yorkshire’s east coast of the UK. The attached document is the final report in PDF format (converted a couple of years ago from a Microsoft Publisher document). I have reproduced it as best I can below. As always the content is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales Licence.
Flamborough Head – North Bay
Flambrough Head’s North Bay lies on the east coast of England. It is made up of two chalk headlands and a sandy beach with chalk deposits.
Most of the visible landforms have been created in the chalk cliffs, although the site does also have deposits of Glacial Moraine, mainly to the inshore side of the beach. [read more]
This project is a little different to the essays I have published previously. As part of the coursework relating to the (additional, extra curricular) GCSE media studies course I studied, my friend and I designed a new product line aimed at fourteen to sixteen year olds. The aim of the coursework were to design the packaging and an advert for the product. Sadly I don’t have the finished product any more, but I do have both our planning document and the final evaluation. As always, this is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales Licence.
At this point I’d like to tip my hat to both Julie Patrick (look, she has co-authored a book about studying film) and Triestina Bozzo (now head of the Creative/Media Arts Faculty), both excellent drama and media teachers at Ryburn Valley High School. I’d also like to point out that when I attended the school it was not a specialist “Media Arts” school — these things didn’t exist — and that myself and a friend were the first people at the school to do video production as part of our expressive arts coursework. I’ll try to publish that one day. We were, one could argue, pioneers. [read more]
The following essay was written for my GCSE English course in October 2000 and contrasts Arthur Conan Doyle’s short Sherlock Holmes story “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” with Roald Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter.” It is roughly 1900 words long, and comes with a tip of the hat to Ms Roberts (presumably formally) of Ryburn Valley High School. It’s released here under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales Licence.
Explain what makes A. C. Doyle’s ‘The Speckled Band’ typical of the nineteenth century detective story genre, and how does Roald Dahl’s ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’ subvert this genre?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories changed the set pattern of the nineteenth century detective story. Prior to Doyle’s stories the detective had to wait for the criminal to make a mistake for them to be caught. However, Sherlock Holmes was the first of the detectives to work out who the murderer was by his own deduction, this new idea was introduced with the publication of A. C. Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories in ‘The Strand’ magazine. [read more]
This essay was written for my GCSE Media Studies couse in April 2001, and covers the much debated question of the direction of the internet (or, more correctly, world wide web). It’s released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales Licence.
Rather than fulfilling its expectations as a place for education and communication, the Internet has become one big advertising channel.
The media hailed the birth of the Internet as a revolution in the way information and education was distributed and shared. A feeling that the Internet was nothing more than a big advertising, moneymaking, opportunity for big business soon superseded this initial reaction. [read more]
The following essay was written for my GCSE English course in June 2000 and relates to the J.B. Priestley play “An Inspector Calls”. If you’re studying the book then a great copy to have is the Penguin Modern Classic version An Inspector Calls and Other Plays.
Who or what is Inspector Goole, and what is his role in the play?
The character of Inspector Goole can be explained in many ways. It is thought, that he could be a ghost, an angel (sent from God to deliver the truth), a psychic (able to see the future), or simply just a socialist “Crank” – this is what, in fact, the characters in the play believe towards the end, as Mr. Birling says, “That fellow obviously didn’t like us. He was prejudiced against us from the start. Probably a socialist or some sort of crank – he talked like one.” [read more]
With the recent upgrade of my computer I had reason to copy a lot of data from an old hard disk to my new computer. While doing this I came across some of my old school work, both from GCSE and A-level. [read more]