Literature Homework Help

About Literature

Literature asks what a text does and how it does it. The questions students bring here are mostly about set poems, novels and plays: the theme of a poem, why a character acts as they do, what a figure of speech achieves, the difference between the poet and the speaker. The answers that score are the ones that quote, then explain the effect.

Popular topics in Literature

• Poetry

  Theme, tone and mood, stanza and form, rhyme and rhythm, and reading a poem you have never seen before.

• Figures of Speech

  Simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, irony and alliteration — and the effect each one has on the reader.

• Character & Characterisation

  Direct and indirect characterisation, motivation, development, and how dialogue reveals personality.

• Plot & Structure

  Exposition, conflict, climax and resolution, flashback, foreshadowing and the shape of a short story.

• Setting & Context

  Place, period and social background, and how the setting shapes what the characters can do.

• Narration

  First and third person, the omniscient narrator, point of view, and the difference between narrator, speaker and author.

• Drama

  Acts and scenes, stage directions, dramatic irony, soliloquy, and reading a play as performance.

• Essay Answers

  Building an argument from the text, using quotations as evidence, and comparing two texts or two poems.

How ScanSolve helps with Literature

Photograph the poem, extract or question and ScanSolve answers from the text in front of it: the point, the quotation that supports it, then the effect. Where a question names a device, the answer says what the device achieves in that line rather than defining it in the abstract — which is the difference between a definition mark and an analysis mark.

If a question refers to a set text the image does not include, the answer says so and asks for the passage instead of inventing a plot. Where two poems or texts are compared, the response is organised by point of comparison rather than one text after the other, which is how comparison marks are awarded.

Study tips for Literature

1. 01

   Quote short and explain long. A six-word quotation with three sentences of analysis scores better than a sentence quoted and left to speak for itself.

2. 02

   Separate the speaker from the poet. "The speaker feels abandoned" is a literary claim; "the poet was abandoned" is a biographical guess.

3. 03

   Name the effect, not just the device. "A simile" earns little; "the simile makes his grief sound ordinary and domestic" earns the mark.

4. 04

   Reread the question after your first paragraph. Literature answers drift into retelling the story faster than any other subject.

Frequently asked Literature questions

• How to Write an Essay: Structure, Thesis, Body Paragraphs & ConclusionLearn how to write an essay step by step. Master essay structure, craft a strong thesis statement, write compelling body paragraphs, and end with an effective conclusion.

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