This blog post contains sponsored links. As an Amazon affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
This is 1 author both you and your child can’t ignore if both of you are serious about their O Level English Grade
For those of you who have been stalking my blog, you would have surmised that I am kind of old school.
I am not a sucker for secret hacks, magic pills, or better still – bomoh.
I mean, you can always curse a person to death with bomoh, but improving your child’s O Level English language grade?
Well. that would be new…
The Ultimate Secret to Improving Your Kid’s O Level English Grade
While I am NOT a sucker for secret hacks, there is that ONE secret that I will swear (KNNBCCB!#@!$%^*) by.
It has worked wonders for many of my ex-students, and it will work wonders for your child’s O Level English grade.
It is the miracle water that will make your son’s O Level English grade go “pom-pom-pom”.
Your own teachers probably nagged about it when you were an immature gal running around the playground, chasing boys.
Alright, enough.
What’s the secret already?
Well, as if the secret isn’t obvious enough: it lies in READING.
Why So?
Because English is first a language, before it becomes a subject to be graded.
And where language is concerned, the same few elements come into play.
It doesn’t matter if you are learning English, Tamil (I took classes for Tamil for 6 months. I was a total fiasco) or Sanskrit.
The following elements always apply:
WORD POWER.
Understanding.
Grammar.
Expression.
Etc. (LOL. You know when writers like me use the word ‘etc’? It’s when we try to show that we know more than what we know, but we have no idea what we actually know. Or maybe we don’t know.)
Reading tackles all these, and reading will boost your child’s comprehension and writing at the same time.
Killing two birds with one stone?
I like.
What Should Your Child Read Then?
Whenever a desperate father asks an English teacher what his daughter should read to boost their English grade, too many an English teacher will give this instinctive response: read the newspapers.
The response is almost Pavlovian, even robotic.
I don’t have a problem with newspapers.
If your child would even venture to peruse the papers, half of all their English language problems would be resolved.
But newspapers are written in the inverted pyramid style, where the most important information (or what might even be considered the conclusion) is presented first.
The specifics come in later, and if you haven’t realised, newspapers are written with ease of reading as the chief focus.
But for the O Level English exams, your child needs to get descriptive.
He needs to get verbose in his writing, expounding in detail the environment and the people involved, and NOT be curt and go straight to the point.
She needs to be elaborate in her discussion, expanding on and articulating her arguments, leaving no stones unturned.
Being concise is not a virtue here.
The Ultimate Reading List
There is really no such thing called the ultimate reading list.
What your child should be reading is a function of his or her interest, coupled with the intensity and proficiency required of him or her in the exams.
So while it is perfectly fine to read Roald Dahl’s books, you would need to remember that Roald Dahl’s writing style can’t actually be applied during the O Level English exams, since your kid will probably not be writing a children’s novel for the Continuous Writing segment of Paper 1.
Which author should your kid focus on then?
My answer? Malcolm Gladwell (sponsored link).
Who in the World is Malcolm Gladwell?
Malcolm Gladwell (sponsored link) is a bestselling author, journalist, public speaker, and MasterClass instructor. He is best known for his nonfiction writing on psychology and sociology.
Gladwell (sponsored link) has written many books, some of which include The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers (sponsored link).
At the point of writing this blog post, Gladwell has had 7 books published under his name (sponsored link).
The number is unimportant. What’s more important is the why.
Why the Gladwell Books?
As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a small commission when you purchase products through the links I provide; and whatever small commission I earn doesn’t jack up the prices you pay at the Amazon store. Not even a small iota.
So why are the Gladwell (sponsored link) books the chosen ones?
Other than the rather interesting topics covered therein, it is how Malcolm Gladwell (sponsored link) presents his case.
He presents his theories clearly.
He explains his case through research compiled from a panel of experts.
He quotes examples to back up his arguments.
And he gives his perspective after the explanation, research and examples.
If you haven’t realised, this fits into the PEEL format that we so frequently tout in Argumentative Essay-writing.
I’ll cover PEEL in detail in another blog post, but for now, just understand that the acronym stands for Point, Explanation, Example and Link; or the more complex Point, Elaboration, Evidence, and Link; or PEEEEL for indecisive schools – Point, Explanation, Elaboration, Example, Evidence and Link; or the new PEEEELA for indecisive schools which have a penchant for complicating things – Point, Explanation, Elaboration, Example, Evidence, Link and Analysis.
The Gladwell (sponsored link) books are a case of PEEL in action.
If your child even mimics half of Gladwell’s (sponsored link) writing style – ceteris paribus – an A2 is in the cards.
How about A1 as an O Level English Grade?
You might wonder why I have stopped short of promising an A1 as an O Level English grade.
Well, I am behaving like famous soap brands.
Most soaps and sanitisers kill 99.99% of the germs.
Nobody ever talks about the 0.01% which are supposedly unkilled.
I guess that elusive A1 will be my 0.01% which I will let you figure out for your child.
