1. How to develop your ideas
Body paragraphs
How to develop your ideas

2. Stay focused on the question
Ensure your topic sentence makes a point
Then Macbeth goes to the witches..
Later, Lady Macbeth tells her husband…
Remember: statement first, then support.

3. Answer both parts of the question
Literary essay, not formal writing
Balance textual analysis with personal response
Analysis 75%
Personal response 25%

4. HOW an idea is explored (analysis)
Analyse how an idea or issue you found particularly relevant was explored
HOW an idea is explored (analysis)
75%
You found relevant: (personal response)
25%

5. Example
Macbeth’s “Vaulting ambition” drives him to murder the king in order to fulfill the witches’ prophecy “thou shalt be king hereafter.” Macbeth’s ambition to have power is relevant today as in school elections for leadership positions many students are very ambitious and this drives them to gain the position they want. Although they do not murder to get there, they often manipulate peers into voting or not going out for role so that they have the upper hand, Ambition can drive people to act in such ways that ruin their lives or friendships, such as in “Macbeth.” Macbeth kills his best friend Banquo and though he gains the title of king he soon begins his downward spiral.

6. Too much personal response
Macbeth’s “Vaulting ambition” drives him to murder the king in order to fulfill the witches’ prophecy “thou shalt be king hereafter.” Macbeth’s ambition to have power is relevant today as in school elections for leadership positions many students are very ambitious and this drives them to gain the position they want. Although they do not murder to get there, they often manipulate peers into voting or not going out for role so that they have the upper hand, Ambition can drive people to act in such ways that ruin their lives or friendships, such as in “Macbeth.” Macbeth kills his best friend Banquo and though he gains the title of king he soon begins his downward spiral.

7. Lift your awareness of the writer at work
Shakespeare uses…
Through Macbeth’s thoughts, Shakespeare shows us…
Shakespeare’s use of soliloquy demonstrates Macbeth’s state of mind…

8. Shakespeare develops the theme of ambition primarily through the protaganist Macbeth. Macbeth’s “Vaulting ambition” drives him to murder the king in order to fulfill the witches’ prophecy “thou shalt be king hereafter.” Shakespeare uses regicide to show just how far some people will go to gain power. Macbeth kills his best friend Banquo and, though he secures the title of king, he soon begins his downward spiral. In a soliloquy, Shakespeare reveals the desperate plight of Macbeth to keep his power: "the very firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand..." In the continued denegration of Macbeth’s character, Shakespeare shows us how ambition can help us achieve our goals, but if attained in dubious ways, it can send us crashing down to our personal destruction. Ambition is relevant today as in school elections for leadership positions: many students are very ambitious and this drives them to gain the position they want. Although they do not murder to get there, they often manipulate peers into voting or not going out for role so that they have the upper hand, Ambition can drive people to act in such ways that ruin their lives or friendships