English Essay tips

Learners are expected to respond to some of the following:

• themes, ideas and issues

• atmosphere and emotion

• plot development

• characters and relationships

• language

• relevant social, historical or cultural contexts or literary contexts such as genre.

• pay attention to the details of a text: understanding the significance of a word, phrase or sentence in context

• demonstrate the ability to read at a literal level and also explore deeper

• explain motivation, sequence of events and the relationship between actions or events.

• identify and interpret key themes

• make an informed personal response, justifying a point of view by referring closely to evidence in the text

• reflect critically and evaluatively on a text, using an understanding of context to inform reading

• recognise and evaluate the possibility of different valid responses to a text.

tip 1

always stay relevant to the question

tip 2

use author's name

tip 3

synonyms for suggests:

- invokes

- highlights

- emphasises

- displays

- shows

- signifies

- connotes

- demonstrates

- advocates

tip 4

introduction should be short of 3 sentences. here say something about the author and give context to the situation relevant to the question

tip 5

- make point + embed quote

- identify technique used in quote/give broad analysis

- word level analysis

- mention context

- sound level analysis (if talking about play)

- structural analysis

- mention form

- refer to form of text (show awareness of what the text is and talk about reader/audience)

- take a step back. how does that short word/phrase in that quote relate to the bigger world.

tip 6

mention alternative interpretations. ie. A READER FROM THE 16TH CENTURY MAY PERCEIVE this word AS A THREAT COMPARED TO A MODERN READER

tip 7

for comparison essays, start with your first point that links both novels together. then talk about novel 1 and how it links to the question then link it to novel 2 then talk about novel 2 then bring the two together again then talk about another point and start the cycle again.