 Hello everyone, I am Deeksha Jain and I cleared civil services 2018 exam with 22nd rank and my optional was English Literature. In this video, I will be talking about in detail about how I prepared for the optional and what all one has to do to clear this exam with English Literature. Okay, so the first thing that I want to go to is the sources and the books to refer for this optional. Before doing any books, what I feel is important is to read previous your question papers related to the cortex. Now, once you read the previous your question papers, you will have an idea about what kind of questions UPSC tends to ask in English Literature. For this, after reading the question paper, these are the sources that I referred to and which you I feel also one should refer. The first and the most, most important source is the cortex. In English Literature, we have dramas, poetry and novels and background topics. For the dramas, you have to read the original play. If you have any difficulty in reading Shakespeare because the language is a little archaic, you can also go for online sources like No Fear Shakespeare to see the exact translation so that it is better for you to understand the play. Apart from that poetry, novels, you have to read the core text and that is very, very important. While you are reading the text, please make sure that the previous your question papers that you read about that text, you keep those in mind because then when you read the text, you will know what are the important parts of the text which you should keep in mind. What is your own analysis of the text based on the questions that UPSC tends to ask? Okay, after the core text are done and 70 percent of the preparation is just the core text, I would even say 80 percent. Anything else is, I mean, addition to this. For the background topics, what I did was just Google. So we have background topics like the Elizabethan age or the Jacobian drama. So for this, what you can do is you can just Google these words and you will find multiple sources like your spark notes and you will also find some more literary sources. Just note down 5-10 points about that particular topic and you are good to go. It will be a 10 marker question and if you are able to put in all those paragraphs and with evidence from the text related to that background topic, then you are good to go, you will get good marks in that answer. Okay, now the second source that I personally found helpful was introductions to the text. Whenever you buy these texts, there will be different editions. For however many texts, you can find a worldview edition, it is very good. The introduction is usually very well written. So what happens, but other introductions are also fine. When you read an introduction, it is usually a person who has done some research on the text and they write about all the aspects of the text in that introduction. So it will give you a good overview. You can also collect critical comments from that introduction. So it is not necessary that you will find an introduction for every text, but for many you will find and for those texts it will be very useful. Okay, now after the introduction, in introduction one example that I would like to give. Now the foreword to Kantha Pura written by Raja Rao, it is brilliant for that text because it has all the themes of the text and it has very beautiful quotations also that you can use in the answer and it is very short, it is just one and a half pages. So it is not a proper introduction, but then it is very useful. So introduction, foreword by the author, all these things you should pay attention to. Okay, after that you can go for online sources. In online sources what you can do is you do not have to go too much in detail. So what happens is that when we read a text, there will be certain analysis and understanding that we will have and that will be the core of our answer. But many times we sort of feel that in a particular area our understanding is lacking. For example, maybe I might feel that in Pride and Prejudice if I were to get the question that I need to do a feminist analysis of the text, I might feel that I do not have enough number of points or I still am trying to understand the text. In such cases you can just type this feminist reading of Pride and Prejudice. You can go to online sources like Litchards, Sparknotes and even more literary sources like JStore and you might find some scholarly articles. Do not spend too much time on it, just give it 1 day, 4-5 hours, note down whatever you can from these articles if it is useful, build your understanding and then leave it. Whatever notes of like 1-1.5 pages that you have made is all you are going to require from that. Okay, after the online sources one more thing I would like to say is that in going to the introduction there are not in addition of text also and the introduction is very very heavy, it is the introduction itself is 50-80 pages. So please do not go that much in depth, what UPSC requires is your understanding first and after that if you give a little bit of you know critical comments it is alright and secondly you would not have the time in UPSC preparation to go into so much depth of every text. So I would say that if you find that something is too lengthy then avoid it but if the text is too lengthy you cannot avoid it, the core text has to be right, it is a compulsory thing. One more source is Ignomaterial. So what I found was that Indra Gandhi Open Institute of Learning for ME it has many texts which are there in the English literature optional. So for some in which I was looking for some content for Pride and Prejudice for example I was looking for some content. So I went to their website, I downloaded the PDF, I went through it, I made little notes from it and that was it, it helped me in sort of enhancing my answers. So I found that material to be decent, it is not very good but then decent will get you decent marks in UPSC also. Now all our sources are done, now we are talking about the preparation strategy how to go about the preparation of this paper. Now how I went was first was to read the previous your questions. Then read the core text, the core text is very very important. So when you are reading the text I would always do this whichever quotation I think is useful and important, I used to note it down to be used in answers. For example, so in Milton's Pride and Prejudice if there is a question that do a psychoanalytical reading of Pride and Prejudice. If you start your answer or if you use this quotation in the answer from Paradise Lost itself that the mind is its own place and in itself can make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven. This is the core way in which you can understand hell and heaven as the states of mind. So this quotation will be very impactful. So look out for such quotations which are relevant to the answers and which personally you feel that these are beautiful quotations and when you use them it will put a smile on the examiner's face and it will indeed it will fetch you extra marks. Second thing is so whenever you google around please don't go too much in detail. What I used to do was after reading the text I would just do a general I would go to lit charts I would see if there is somewhere where I am lacking depth. I would go and google those things. I did not you know compulsively google everything about every text because that is not required. Wherever you feel that preparation is required there you use online sources more. If you feel that the introduction that you have read or the understanding that you have is enough then it is perfectly fine. Okay now third thing is answer writing. Answer writing is the most important thing generally for UPSC means but also for UPSC optional paper. In English literature how do you practice answer writing? Firstly please use previous your questions to practice answer writing because the major themes that are asked in UPSC are the same they are being repeated because there are four or five themes for each text and only they keep getting asked in a cyclical manner. So the more you practice the more you will be prepared for the questions which will come in the exam. Okay now I wanted to discuss a little bit in detail about answer writing. So okay firstly in answer writing what is important? A good introduction and a good conclusion is always important. In introduction what you can do is you can begin by a quotation or you can begin by your own understanding which is well framed and apt to the question that is being asked because the introduction has to be bang on on the question. Please do not do this that you in the answer you have just summarized the entire text that this happened and then this happened then she said this to this person because that is not what they are asking they are asking for your analysis. So the answer has to be analytical and not a summary based answer. Another thing in answer writing is use of quotations as I mentioned earlier the more quotations at least use three four quotations in one answer it will fetch you at least four or five extra marks I can tell you that much. In answer writing whenever you make a point whether it is for example if you are making a point that Alexander Pope in the rape of the lock satirizes the conventions of the society of that time then please give evidence of it also and evidence is what evidence is one is quotations from the text two it is incidents from the text also if you do not remember the exact quote you can say that for example you can say that cutting the lock of Belinda was also a satire on the on the way women on women and their vanity of during that period of time. So that evidence will act as good as a quotation you can use a quotation elsewhere where you remember the exact quote. So use evidence to back up your point because if you just make a point without evidence then then you will get no marks for it it will be very vague and very generalized okay. Third thing about the answer is that paragraphs should be well connected it is not a GS paper answer that you can just write in point form and just way you know you can't the literature answer has to be a cohesive whole you the a person must feel that you know from beginning to end it is one piece and if there is a good answer one does not feel it feels so effortless because you start reading and you end reading and it seems like everything has been said without any effort at all. So that is the way you should judge your answer if you feel that your answer is becoming abrupt then try to correct those things try to make it more jointed and more wholesome okay. The next thing is that language based in UPSC the time allotted for a question is very less I am from an English literature background and we used to write eight sheets like eight sides of a sheet for the same answer in which UPSC you will get only four sheets three sheets or even two sheets. So the idea is that you have to say all of that but you have to say then much fewer words so how do we do that first thing is language based you need to use shorter and more direct sentences you can't be talking about in a you know if you can reach a place directly please don't take the zigzag route even though the zigzag route might be more beautiful and more artistic the more direct and the more to the point you are in the answer it will be more impactful and you will be able to say much more in your answer. In this regard also what you can do is that in university what we used to do that for one making one point we would give multiple evidences from the text that if I am saying that that this that Elizabeth is a very strong character and then I will give one evidence then two evidence then three evidence just making one point so that increases the length of the answer it also shows that you've read the text well but in UPSC that is not required you give one good evidence for one point with this what will happen is that you will be able to include more points you will be able to include diverse kind of quotations diverse kind of evidences and it will enrich your answer what you were saying in eight sides is it is possible to actually say it in only four sides but it has to be done very meticulously and the only way to get there is to practice the more answer writing you practice the better your answers will become and for this there is a word of caution please practice with a timer you because UPSC will give you seven minutes for a 10 marker I think around 14 minutes for a 20 marker so if you are taking 20 minutes to write a 20 marker answer then you will not be able to complete the paper then it will be pointless because other answers which you knew you will not be able to contribute anything to them the idea is that whenever you practice answers practice with a timer even if the quality goes back you practice again and slowly the quality will improve another way of doing it is also that you improve the quality first and then try to crunch it in time but I found the former way to be more useful because then once you get used to writing in a particular amount of time then your mind starts working like that so practicing in a timer is very very important the last thing which I found was important for my preparation was making consolidated notes as I have mentioned earlier also whenever I read a text I used to note down the quotations if I felt that I had a different perspective a way of looking at that text then I would also write down my point of view in that paper apart from that I would also mention if I have read some quotations somewhere some critics comments which I feel could be relevant to the answer something from the introduction or online sources then I would note all these things down in a piece of paper now what this will lead to is a four five sheet stapled sort of eyes to staple them so four five sheets of notes for one text two sides for a background topic and these can be easily revised this time we had a seven day break between before the optional paper and I could go through all my notes for all the text before the exam and I can tell you that really helps because then you feel very refreshed and you feel in control of the exam and it is easier to remember quotations if you revise them recently so do me consolidated notes it is very useful and it really helped me a lot and I think that is it from my side I personally I did not take any classes there are hardly any classes available for English literature I did all of this on my own I also got guidance from my mentor Mr. Gaurav Gurd he is an IRS officer who also cleared on his own with English literature as a background so it would be good if you can find somebody who can check your answers because then you can get feedback on that you can talk to college professors you can talk to previous year people like me or other people who cleared with English literature there are many people so it would be good if you can find somebody to correct your answers and that would be all it is a great option to have because the beautiful thing about literature is number one it does not feel like studying at all so if you get bored after four days of studying GS you can just pick up a novel you can pick up a poet and you can enjoy yourself and study at the same time and it is a very beautiful thing even to this day even I don't remember my GS papers that well but I do remember my literature paper very well because a lot of love and affection has got into it so I hope you enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed giving this paper thank you so much don't forget to subscribe with us and press the bell icon to never miss the video on Chanakya IES Academy