As HEC has extended the last date of the termination of MA/M Sc, HEC has given a golden chance to the aspirants of MA English.
Introduction
After BA and B Sc, MA English Literature is feared the same as F. Sc after the result of matriculations. However, MA English from the annual system is easy once you know where to start and what to learn initially. In this essay, I shall walk through cracking the code of each subject, method of preparation and reliable sources available on the internet and through books. This beginners' guide only focuses on the course of Sargodha University but the basic guidelines can also apply to the course of Punjab University too.
MA English Literature from Sargodha University, as a whole, is made of 10 subjects, carrying 100 marks each. 5 subjects are included in Part 1 and 5 subjects are included in Part 2 in which 1 subject is optional. Once you make up your mind to do MA English,
1. Your first duty is to grab the course outline of MA English Literature of Sargodha University from here: Get Course Outline
2. If you are an (government) employee, you can scale down the intensity of preparation according to your schedule.
3. If you have just freed yourself from the result of bachelor's, don't waste your time. Begin your preparation for MA English right after your exams.
4. Doing MA English in the composite is like committing suicide. Even if you somehow pass the exam, your knowledge will be limited.
5. The best way to do MA English Literature is to do it Part-Wise. You shall have more time to get into the unfathomable realm of literature as well as to grip the technicality of the subject. (Thanks Syed Ahmad Soban Wasti for his insight)
6. Don't fear the sheer number of books. You shall read only a considerable fraction of the things.
There are two methods to do MA English:
1. The Geeky Method
Through this method, a student involves himself completely and enthusiastically for literature. He strives his best to get the meaning out of the texts he reads.
Pros:
> Very fruitful to master the concepts in English Literature
> Helps in every field of life and assists in competitive exams
Cons:
> Expenditure on books makes it expensive
> Requires a considerable amount of time, mental toil and forceful output
2. Jugaroo Method
This method involves a list of selective topics and reliance on Current Notes only. This method is ideal for those who are employees.
Pros:
> It makes passing MA English very eaa6 and pain-free
> It is less expensive as in just Rs 2,000 you can get a complete set of Current Notes.
Cons:
> You shall only get the degree but you won't get an insight to look into a piece of literature
> Reliance on Current Notes can mar your impression upon examiner as he can clearly see you have just copied Current Notes.
> You won't be able to compete in competitive exams
However, a middle way between the two methods is ideal not only in clearing the exam but also in cracking the code of MA English Literature.
I have just made my mind to do MA English Literature. What I need to do to kick start my journey?
In order to begin your journey, you should begin with something simple. You can start from reading the chapter-wise summaries of the dramas and novels included in your course on a website called Course Hero. Such an entertaining activity should hook you up to unleash the unfathomable realm of literature. Once this is done, if you have enough time, read the history of the following eras in Literature:
> Anglo-Norman Era
> Renaissance Era in Literature with Elizabethan Playwrights and Poets
> Jacobean Era (Puritans like John Milton)
> Neo-Classical Period in Poetry
> Victorian Era
> Modern and Post Modern Era along with a basic history of World War First and Second
Recommended Book: A New History of English Literature by B. R. Mullick
However, it is optional and only recommended if you have enough time. What is not optional is to grab the basic knowledge of what drama, novel, poetry actually means. What is the difference between them? What are their elements and what are their kinds? I don't know any suitable book for that but you can Google them out. Similarly, you should know the definitions of literature.
When you study a book, make sure to:
1. Know about the author's biography, his famous works, his philosophy, his contribution to English Literature and the age in which he belonged
2. Know the context of a work. I mean why it was written and what lead to its creation
3. Keep a track of the setting*, themes, symbols and motifs** in a play or a novel
Now the basics are cleared, let's get into simplifying each subject:
Part 1
Classical Drama
In classical drama, your first task is to hop on Course Hero and to read chapter wise summaries of the plays included In your course. If you have enough time, you can go ahead and read the texts of the plays too. Oedipus Rex, The Jew of Malta and the Importance of Being Earnest have a simple vocabulary. Whereas Othello and The Tempest have difficult vocabularies. You need to search for No Fear Shakespeare translations of the two aforementioned plays. Kindly keep highlighting the important quotes during reading.
Besides this, you shall have to read the following of any play from its study guide at Course Hero:
> Author's Biography
> Character Sketches of Important Characters
> Context
> Themes
> Symbols
> Motifs (if available)
And from the point of view of the examination, kindly keep a list of important topics for long questions. Keep the past papers from 2015 to 2021 to get a better idea of how papers are designed.
View a List of Important Questions of Classical Drama
Classical Poetry
In classical poetry, a major portion of short questions is dedicated to literary devices and basic principles of poetry. But, the recent paper of Classical Poetry came from the author's biography too. Kindly read every poetic text that is included in your course.
For Prologue to Canterbury Tales, Kindly find its translation to simple English and construct a character Sketch of every pilgrim. And for The Faerie Queene, if possible, grab the book of Famous Publishers.
The long questions for Classical Poetry can be prepared through selective topics.
View a List of Important Questions of Classical Poetry
Classical Novel
Don't feel frightened to see 400 pages of the texts of the novels included in your syllabus because you don't have to read them YET! However, you should read their chapter wise summaries via Course Hero or SparkNotes. Besides summaries, make sure to extract from Course Hero the following of every novelistic work that is included in your course:
> List of Every Character and Character Sketches of Important Characters
> Author's Biography
> Context
> Themes
> Symbols
View a List of Important Questions of Classical Novel
Prose
This one is a bit tricky and you may need a Critical Studies of Bacon's Essays and Russell's Essays published by either NKM or Famous. When you acquire the books, make sure to read the texts, summaries and analysis of every essay of the two writers included in your course along with long questions chosen from important topics.
As far as Edward Said and Lytton Stretchy are concerned, I have prepared some questions on my blog that should get you people covered.
While for Gulliver's Travels, you can follow the Course Hero formula along with important topics from the list.
View a List of Important Questions of Prose
American Literature
This subject is a combination of poetry, plays and novels.
Poetry:
Robert Frost is important. Read Critical Appreciations of every poem included in the syllabus along with poetic style and features of every poet. John Ashbury, Richard Wilbur and Whitman are important too.
Plays:
Prepare for the plays the same as I have told you in Classical Drama.
Novels:
Prepare for the novels the same way I have illustrated in Classical Novel
How to Write a Critical Appreciation of a Poem?
Your Critical Appreciation must be divided into the following headings:
Background information
Name of the poet, the year when the poem was published, the name of the book in which the poem was published also why this poem was written etc.
Development of Situation: A short summary of the poem
Themes: Self-explanatory
Figurative Analysis: the instances of literary devices in a poem like similes, metaphors, symbols, allusions, apostrophes etc.
Setting and Imagery: the time and place of the poetic text as well as images that help visualize
Structural Analysis: number of lines and stanzas, rhyme scheme, rhythmic pattern
Concussion: Self-explanatory
View a List of Important Questions of American Literature
Part 2
Note: As soon as you get yourself free from the exam of Part 1, start your preparation for Part 2.
Modern Drama
Every play in Modern Drama can be read with ease because of simple and modern language. This subject can be prepared like classical drama like knowing about context, themes, symbols etc. But you have to keep an eye on modern movements and historical events. Anyways, here is a quick rundown:
- Hedda Gabler - Feminism in Norway
- Arms and The Man - Serbian and Bulgarian War
- The Cherry Orchard - Communist Revolution in Russia
- Waiting for Godot - Theatre of the Absurd, Existentialism and Nihilism
- The Sea - A Post Modern Play
Modern Poetry
Short Questions of this subject are prepared from the central ideas, themes and explanation of poetic lines, not to mention literary and poetic devices. If you prepare Critical Appreciations of every poem in the syllabus, you should not only be able to attempt long questions, but also short questions too. Therefore, you are requested to read poetic text with an explanation. The most suitable website for poetic explanations is Poem Analysis dot com. You should also familiarize yourself with the characteristics of Romantic and Modern Poetry as well as the characteristics of each poet along with either Romantic or Modern nature of the poetry.
Removing some common confusions:
- Holy Thursday 1 - It was a Holy Thursday their innocent faces clean
- The Chimney Sweeper 1 - When my mother died I was very young
- The Divine Image 1 - To Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love
- The Prelude - Line 1 - 100 - Book 1 - O There is a Blessing in This Gentle Breeze
Modern Novel
The paper of Modern Novel is the trickiest of the bunch. Don't even try to visualize it as simple as the paper of Classical Novel as this paper is notorious for the challenging short questions. The long questions in this paper defy the expectations set by the list of important topics. Therefore prepare this paper well. As asserted before, read chapter wise summaries along with context, author's biography, themes, symbols and significance of the title etc. Again, Course Hero is the best choice.
View a List of Important Questions of Modern Novel
Literary Criticism
This subject is one of the conflicting subjects as its course outline says something else while the paper asserts something else. I am pretty sure that the University of Sargodha shall try to follow its own course outline as a lot of us have complained about the unfortunate paper. However, purchase Current Notes for Literary Criticism and prepare every question of the following authors this time:
- Aristotle's Poetics
- Sidney's An Apology to Poetry
- Raymond William's Modern Tragedy (despite its absence from the course outline, go for it)
- Cleanth Brooks's Well Wrought Urn (So far, no question from him is asked but UOS may change its mind)
- Eliot's Tradition and Individual Talent, Hamlet and His Problems, Metaphysical Poets and Milton 1 and 2
- Catherine Besley's Critical Practice: Do NOT prepare her from Current Notes! Kindly download her original book called Critical Practice by Catherine Besley from Z Library.
Note: I know I have added a lot of stuff that is not even a part of our course outline but you already know what has been happening for 6 years and it may happen again.
View a List of Important Questions of Literary Criticism
Selection of Optional Subjects
You can only choose ONE subject out of the following:
Literary Essays
Literary Essays is the simplest (and the easiest to grab passing marks) out of the other optional subjects as you don't have to learn something from scratch. The paper of Literary Essays comes from the course outline (writers and literary periods) of both Part 1 and 2 for instance like Romanticism vs Classism, Shakespeare, Victorian Novelists vs Modern Novelists and Eliot etc.
The paper pattern of Literary Essays is substantially different from the rest. You are given eight topics and you can only select 1 essay to write for 100 marks. Literary Essays are of two types:
Comparative: A comparison between two opposing concepts or doctrines
Examples: Romanticism vs Classism, Art for Art vs Art for Life etc
Simple Essays: Only focused on one particular person, era or movement
Examples: Romantic Era in Poetry, Aristotle's Concept of Greek Tragedy etc
How to write an essay?
Writing a literary essay is like writing 5 to 6 long questions centred around one topic, beginning from Introduction and ending on Conclusion.
The Subject of Literary Essays is useful for the CSS aspirants.
Note: You need to write at least 20 pages for an essay.
This subject is only suitable for the ones who are adept in creative writing.
Recommended Books:
- A New History of English Literature by B R Mullick
- A Background to English Literature
Linguistics
Linguistics or Science of Languages is more technical and is geared towards the enthusiasts of language. This subject is ideal for those who want to become lecturers of English in Government Colleges as Linguistics has acquired a significant place in the MCQs test of PPSC. Although this subject awards maximum marks but because of its technical nature, it is difficult to pass.
Recommended Books:
- Understanding Linguistics by Atta Ur Rehmaan Jadoon
- The Study of Language by George Yule
Short Stories
As the name suggests, this subject is made of short stories. This subject is ideal for those who want to complete their degree of MA English entertainingly and without the risk of getting failed.
Literature around the World
If you know what you are doing, go for it. But not everyone should go for this subject.
Online Resources
MA English Literature has never been this easy thanks to the recourses available on the internet. Online resources are categorized into the two:
International resources
Literary Devices dot Net
literarydevices.net is an ideal site to get an analysis of literary devices used in a poem along with their structural analysis. This site is famous for the simple explanation of literary devices with examples.
Shmoop is my personal favourite. This website hosts humourous study guides of novels, plays, poems, criticism, movies and even songs! If you want an entertaining and simple way to study, Shmoop is your best friend. This site also provides line by line explanation of many renowned poems! The only thing I don't like about this website is the intrusive ads which you can disable through an ad blocker.
Course Hero
You should bookmark this site if you want to do MA English. This site hosts the best study guides of novels and plays ever witnessed on the internet. They also have a YouTube channel but their site is amazing as their study guides pack necessary information without including anything that is superfluous. But their character sketches are too short. I recommend you people to resort to Shmoop if you want a detailed character analysis of the important characters in a novel or a play.
SparkNotes
Similar to Course Hero, SparkNotes is also a helpful resource.
Litcharts
Litcharts is best to acquire detailed critical appreciations of poems but their technical analysis is locked behind a paywall.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia can be used to gather introductory information for the critical appreciation of a poem.
Other Honourable Mentions
CliffsNotes
Gradesaver
Local Resources
Ask Literature
Being run by a person known as Anwar Ahmad, Ask Literature provides quality long questions for the students of both Punjab and Sargodha University. His articles are well written and can easily be understood by a layman. The only drawback of his site is the request to disable adblocker. Which I can understand considering he is using a self-hosted WordPress site.
Taste of Learning
This blog and YouTube channel that is run by Shoaib Asghar, who is a lecturer of English Literature at Govt. Graduate College, Haroonabad. This blog is ideal for those who strive to look for bite-size explanations of complex topics in English Literature whereas his YouTube channel covers areas from the syllabus of English in intermediate to the MCQs of NTS and PPSC. Among all the locals, I find his content and blog to be most accurate and easy, and his writings have helped me a great deal during my MA. View his YouTube Channel
Nazar Bazmi Notes
This site houses answers to short questions for the students of MA English in UOS.
CSS Forums
The old but gold CSS Forums has a dedicated section for the notes of MA English Literature but the only problem is the convoluted navigation system that confuses a lot of students.
I am amazed why people prefer WhatsApp over Facebook but it is a glaring reality that on Facebook, the treasure of the notes for MA English Literature is available for everyone. The truth is, a majority of people in Pakistan use Facebook and many lecturers use Facebook as a portfolio for their notes because getting into blogging requires technical know-how. Anyways, you can use the Search Tool of Facebook to find required notes.
Some honourable mentions:
M.A ENGLISH(Annual System) University of Sargodha(UOS)
MA / BS English University of Sargodha
The Assimilators
The Assimilators is a blog dedicated entirely to the students of MA English Literature at Sargodha University. This website holds the Critical Appreciations of almost every poem included in your course. The writing of this blog is simple. But there are many spelling mistakes and autocorrect errors so use the writings of this blog with a grain of salt.
Visual Resources
YouTube
You already know what YouTube is all about. YouTube is like your home academy. I wish I could recommend some YouTube channels but since I am not into this thing, you can figure it out by yourself. However, some community members were kind enough to share their pick:
- Study Lovers Recommended by the Community
- English for All
- Literature ki Dunia
- English Literature notes
- English Literature with Asma Shaikh
Movies
Many literary works have been dramatized or filmed. These films can help you get the idea about the story of a play or a novel. This method has recently caught fire and its results are promising. You can find movies on YouTube.
Physical Resources
NKM and Famous
The study guides by NKM and Famous are a valuable asset to clear MA English Literature like a pro but you need a teacher or an academic mentor who ca6 guide you to use these guides.
Current Notes
Current Notes are a collection of guides that only provide copied university questions (from other books or articles online) at a reduced price. Current Notes can help in clearing the exams but they can only help in clearing the exam and you won't learn the true spirit of literature. Besides the course in Current Notes is not complete.
How to perform a Google Search for a study guide?
In order to search for the study guide of plays and novels, use the following formula in Google Search:
[Name of the Play/Novel] [Name of the website]
Examples:
The Mill on the Floss Course Hero
Othello Shmoop
Jazz by Toni Morrison Course Hero
However, you can search for the critical appreciation of any poem by following this formula:
[Name of the poem] critical appreciation
Examples
After Apple Picking Critical Appreciation
Wild Swans at Coole Critical Appreciation
Now you know how to prepare, here is how you can attempt the paper
What about Supply?
Don't fear of any supplies. In the degree of MA English, supply is a common thing (if you happen to be a Mianwalian, Bhakkarian or Okaaraian). Just remember, if a person with pathetic handwriting like me can pass the exam of MA English, anyone can do it.
What about Marks?
Don't think of it. Even clearing the papers of MA English Literature is an achievement.
What about Aggregate?
A person is considered pass if he or she attains 40 percent or above both collectively and in subject.
Passing Marks per Subject: 40
Altogether: 400 (200 in Part 1) (Since First Annual 2020)
If three or four papers are pass, an aggregate shall be established and he or she shall be able to take the exam of Part 2 along with his or her supplementary papers of Part 1.
Conclusion
Thus, MA English Literature is not as difficult as it is often portrayed. Once things are cleared, you can swim in the ocean of literature and I bet, you'll surely enjoy it.
• A setting is the place and year when the story of a novel, epic or drama takes place.
** A motif is a reoccurring imagery that helps in explaining a theme of a literary work
