Quotation Bank Builder

Which pages, not how deep

You have already built one page of a quotation bank: a claim about a theme, with something from early in the text, something from the middle and something from late, so that the page shows a shape rather than a list. That is how deep a page goes, and it is the right method. This module asks the other question, and it is the one that decides marks in a closed-book Shakespeare answer. Which pages do you need? The Shakespeare question is worth forty marks and it is about a whole play, so it can name a major character, a relationship between two of them, a theme, the way the play opens or ends, or an idea from the period the play was written in. You cannot bank a whole play. You can only bank a little of it, and you have to choose that little in advance, weeks before you know what the question says. So here is the idea the whole module rests on. A bank is not a list, it is coverage. The test of a bank is not whether the quotations in it are good. It is whether, for every question you could plausibly be asked, there is something in the bank you can reach. Twenty superb quotations about one character is a worse bank than eight spread across the play, because the question might not be about that character.

Words for planning a bank

Five terms used precisely in this module. They are about the shape of a bank rather than the quality of any one quotation.

Two banks, one exam

Two students have revised the same play for the same closed-book question. Whose bank is stronger?

• The one with eight quotations spread across three characters and two themes
• The one with twenty quotations, all about the main character
• The one with the longer quotations, since there is more to analyse
• They are equally good, since both students revised

Everything on one character

The two banks from the last question, set side by side. Read down the second column and ask which questions it could not answer.

Match each focus to what reaches it

The entry that does four jobs

Here is what makes a small bank cover a large play, and it is the single most useful thing on this page. Some entries are versatile: they can be used for more than one focus, because they say something about a character and an idea at the same time. Take one you already know, from "The Long Shift", the practice play used elsewhere on this course. A man whose factory is closing says of the machines that they are "only resting". That one short quotation can be reached for at least four different questions. Asked about that character, it shows what he cannot admit. Asked about loyalty, it shows loyalty turning into denial. Asked about the factory and the work, it shows a man granting life to machines that have stopped. Asked about how the play uses language, it gives you two words worth analysing on their own. One entry, four possible focuses. Now compare an entry that only ever answers one question, such as a line that simply records where somebody went. It is not a bad quotation, but you would have to spend a separate slot in your memory on it. So when you are deciding what to add, do not only ask whether a quotation is good. Ask how many different questions it could be used for, and prefer the ones that answer several. That is also why the same entry should appear on your page for a character and on your page for a theme. That is not duplication. That is the entry doing its job twice.

Which two make an entry versatile

Select the TWO things that make an entry usable for more than one question focus.

• It says something about a character and about an idea at the same time
• It contains a word or two worth analysing in their own right
• It is longer, so it contains more material
• It comes from a famous part of the play

The rule for coverage

A bank is not a list, it is _____. The test is whether every _____ you could be asked about can be reached by something you already have. A focus that nothing reaches is a _____, and you find those by checking rather than by guessing how prepared you feel. Prefer entries that are _____, because one that serves several focuses is worth more than three that each serve one. Five to eight entries per page is a _____, not a target: a bank you cannot recall exactly is not a bank.

How to audit what you have

You already have some entries. Put the steps of a coverage audit in the order that works.

• List the focuses a question could realistically name: the main characters, a relationship, two or three themes, the opening and the ending
• Go through your existing entries and mark which focuses each one can reach
• Find the focuses nothing reaches, and treat those as your gaps
• Add one versatile entry for each gap, chosen because it serves more than one focus
• Test yourself on the whole bank from memory, and cut anything you cannot reproduce exactly

A coverage check, worked

Here is the audit done on "The Long Shift", the practice play, using only entries you have already seen. The bank holds three: the father saying he has never been late, the machines being "only resting", and his refusal to look for other work. Now list the focuses. A question could name the father, another character, the relationship between them, loyalty, the factory and the work, or how the play ends. Check what the three entries reach. All three reach the father, and all three reach loyalty, so those two focuses are covered well and in a shape that shows change. The factory is reached by "only resting" and glanced at by the refusal. Now the gaps, and they are obvious once you look. There is nothing at all about any other character, which means a question about a relationship has only one side available. And nothing here is drawn from the close of the play, so a question about how things are left would have to be answered from the middle. That is a bank that feels complete and is not. Notice two things about this method. First, the gaps were found by listing focuses and checking, not by wondering whether the revision felt like enough, which is a feeling that tells you nothing. Second, the fix is small: two more entries, chosen to be versatile, would close both gaps. A coverage audit usually ends in adding two or three entries, not in starting again.

The bank that looks finished

Four students describe their revision. Select the ONE whose bank has the coverage problem this module is about.

• I have twelve quotations about the main character, covering every stage of the play in detail, and nothing on anybody else.
• I have six quotations spread across two characters and a theme, and three of them work for more than one of those.
• I have five quotations and I checked that each of the focuses I listed can be reached by at least one of them.
• I have seven quotations, including one from the opening and one from the closing scenes.

Say why versatility matters

Assemble the sentence that explains why a small bank can still cover a whole play.

The question names something you did not bank

It is the exam. The Shakespeare question names a focus your bank does not cover well. Work through it.

• The question is about a relationship, and you banked the two characters separately but never a moment between them. What do you do first?
• You want to use one entry for a focus it was not banked under. How do you make that work?
• You can only remember the sense of one quotation, not its exact words. What is the right move?
• Afterwards you want to fix the bank for the next mock. What is the most useful change?

Audit your own bank

Audit the quotation bank you have for the Shakespeare play your school is studying. Use your own play, not the practice one, and write the audit rather than the bank.

• List the focuses a forty-mark question could realistically name for your play
• Say how many entries you currently have, and which focuses they reach
• Name at least one gap: a focus nothing in your bank reaches
• Identify your most versatile entry and say which focuses it could serve
• Say what one entry you would add to close the gap, and why that one
• Say how you will check you can reproduce each entry exactly