Sutton Coldfield English Tutor

Some food for thought from Mr. Fry! Whether we are writing critical essays or producing our own literature, we can't rely on inspiration alone. Confident command of a range of techniques helps to shape work into something people will want to read.

Developing a sound structure for your story will guide readers, and keep them absorbed. As you read more fiction, you will increasingly notice writers using techniques that you can adopt to improve your own work. Some of the tricks of the trade are outlined in my blog entry on story structure below :

https://suttoncoldfieldenglish.co.uk/elements-of-gcse-english/2020/12/4/analysing-story-structure

Describing an image creatively means bringing your scene to life with a strong sense of atmosphere. You can keep readers immersed with powerful use of sensory language, imagery and thoughtful sentence structure.

I am putting up a series of videos on YouTube to help. The first deals with sensory language. Please let me know if it is helpful!

https://youtu.be/hOQEI5RGuaY

How can you show an impressive understanding of a poet’s craft, when you have not had the chance to study their poem in advance? Those of you in year 11 will soon be faced with this task in your English Literature exams. I discuss ways of getting beyond 'technique spotting' in my blog post here:

https://suttoncoldfieldenglish.co.uk/elements-of-gcse-english/2020/10/27/unseen-poetry-bringing-it-all-together

An unusual view on poetry, but true enough!

Hi, and welcome to my page! I’m an English Language and Literature specialist, and have been teaching in the area for over 25 years. I currently teach English online at all levels , and teach in the home when it is safe. I am an examiner for GCSE and A Level.

You can contact me via the button above, or visit my website at www.suttoncoldfieldenglish.co.uk for further details of sessions specifically tailored to your needs. There are also helpful subject pages, and plenty of hints and tips on my website blog .

Tim Moule - English Tutor Sutton Coldfield English Home Tutor. An experienced teacher and GCSE and A Level Examiner.

I’ve been reading various types of thriller recently to see what makes them tick. ‘Gray Mountain’ was a slow-burner, but a good read. I got into it gradually over the first 50-100 pages, after which I was fully immersed. John Grisham is one of the most prominent writers of legal thrillers, a genre which seems to have grown enormously since the 1980’s and ‘90s, both in print and on the screen.To paraphrase Grisham, the trick with these thrillers usually revolves around innocent people getting involved in perilous, complicated conspiracies, and then somehow coming out in one piece at the end of the book. In addition to watching our protagonist getting in and out of various scrapes, ‘Gray Mountain’ also works as a thoughtful, well-researched eco-thriller.

The heroine, Samantha Kofer, is a very successful, high-earning big city lawyer made redundant in the huge financial crash of 2008. The story then follows the time-honoured ‘city girl goes to the country to rediscover real values’ pattern, as she takes some work with a nonprofit legal practice in remote rural Appalachia, intending to bide her time until she can return to her cosmopolitan existence in the city.

Samantha’s sense of purpose kicks in when she sees the personal and environmental devastation caused by the huge, rapacious coal companies, who literally blow the tops off mountains to get at the coal, and fight tooth and nail to avoid compensating the miners they have poisoned with the dust.

Despite herself, she gradually gets too deeply involved to just scurry back to New York, finding herself embroiled in dangerous cases via a local crusading lawyer. This also provides a romantic sub-plot, and some other interesting twists via other local characters and Samantha’s powerful, separated parents.

The characters are a little flat, but serviceable. I found myself believing in them through the strength of the dramatic situations that Grisham creates, including very well researched insights into the appalling situations existing in Appalachia as a result of ‘Big Coal’ trampling over the local population. Some of the cases are very touching, and I found myself driven to do a little research of my own based on Grisham’s discoveries. ‘Gray Mountain’ is ultimately an entertaining and satisfying read, and stays with you for some time afterwards.