The analytical Response essay A strategy for success

A Question… What is the purpose of a literary essay?

Some answers… To persuade…Who? To what? To entertain…How? To challenge…Who? Why? To prove your engagement with the text – that you have a relationship with it. To show you are ready for Level 3 and Scholarship by being able to structure a lucid and detailed essay with conviction – one which answers the topic!

What we already know… Essays at this level must contain the following 3 things in each paragraph: description explanation Analysis – close reading and linking PLUS EXTENSION - critical response attending to purpose, audience and positioning of the reader.

So now… How do we write an essay? There is a simple process::::::

1… Choose your topic Clearly you should choose the topic that you know the most about and which you have an arsenal of quotations and evidence for.

2… Underline the instructional verbs in the topic: “discuss” “compare” “explore” “reveal” –etc-etc-etc These are what you MUST DO – the skills !!!

3… Circle the key words or phrases in the topic: “characterisation” “importance” “director’s role” “method” – etc – etc - etc These reveal what your essay MUST CONTAIN – the knowledge and content.

4… Choose a focus for your essay Ask yourself “which character/scene/ poems/theme/etc, etc, etc. This allows you to know what text or textual extract(s) you plan to base your argument around.

5. Brainstorm the key ideas for your body paragraphs. It is best to aim for several more ideas than you need, so that you can select the most important ones.

6… Select three good ideas from your brainstorm. Each of these will become a body paragraph. When selected, then organise them into body 1 idea, body 2 idea, body 3 idea – most to least important?

7. Now, write your essay… Aim for words (approximately 200 words a paragraph). This should be your minimum.

8… Proof-read the darned thing! Part of your job is to convince the marker that you are capable of academic study, so you should always check what you have written. A good strategy is to leave this to the last minutes of the exam.

9… Skills’ check… Check that each paragraph has: describe + explain + analyse (+ critically respond).

Your next move… Using your exam questions for each section, select one question and go through 1-6 of the process. Time spent planning is never wasted - it speeds up the writing process.