Higher English PLEASE HELP !!!

Introduction

- In the opening sentence, rephrase the question to include your text. For example, in the exam I did a poetry essay on Duffy's 'We Remember Your Childhood Well', and the question asked about how the poet creates a sinister tone, so my opening sentence was something like "A poem in which the poet creates a sinister tone is 'We Remember Your Childhood Well' by Carol Ann Duffy".
- Brief synopsis of the text, basically to act as a plot dump for the examiner. We were always advised to try and fit it into one sentence, otherwise you risk rambling.
- An eloquent sentence in which you mention what techniques - from the word bank or otherwise - you're going to refer to in your essay.

Paragraphs/Analysis

- Always refer back to the question! There's always people who ramble and get off-topic, and end up scoring low marks because they didn't answer the question.
- Never say "this quote"/"this quotation". The examiner will think it looks sloppy and it's obvious that it's a quote anyway from the inverted commas.
- Never use "I", "in my opinion", etc. - the examiner will know it's your opinion as you're the one writing the essay!
- Never use "shows" when analysing a quote, as it sounds childish and there are plenty of more elegant options - try "highlights", "suggests", "implies", "conveys"...
- Try to make your quotes as concise as possible - one words quotes which are straight to the point are much more effecive than long quotes which just get confusing (and need separating from the text) when analysing.
- At the start of every paragraph, write a topic sentence to tell the examiner what technique you're going to discuss e.g. "Duffy's use of imagery in 'We Remember Your Childhood Well' is key in creating a sinister tone".
- Only use quotes that you can fit to the question. This is why it's a good idea to memorise a huge amount of quotes and divide them into themes when revising; it's very obvious to the examiner when you've just learnt a few quotes and are trying to mould them to the question.
- Three words: Point (self-explanatory, what you're trying to say), Quote (your evidence for your point), Analysis (explain how your quotation links to your point/how effective it is/why it is effective)
- We were always told have a minimum of four paragraphs, all dealing with different techniques, and I (on the whole) stuck to that structure. However, if you're discussing a lot of techniques, it's better to have lots of shorter paragraphs as it's clearer to follow.

Conclusion

- Always start your conclusion with "to conclude", "in conclusion" or words to that effect, as it's vital to let the examiner know that there's no more analysis to come.
- Never include new quotes or analysis here.
- Link back to the question once more.
- Do what my teacher always described as a "kick ass comment" - one final comment which is succinct and demonstrates your line of thought on the matter in a sophisticated way. More often that not, you can link to to real-life experience and the human condition. I think my KAC for my Duffy essay was something like, "although parents may make mistakes, some are unforgivable and can remain with the child for life, and no amount of denial can make it better." (I phrased it much better at the time, but you catch my drift).

General advice

- Never, ever, ever retell the plot! You're not being marked for understanding the plot, but rather your interpretation of why the writer has used certain techniques.
- Use mature language. Conjunctions like "furthermore", "hence", "on the contrary" etc. never go amiss.
- Minimum 8 quotations per essay. If you use the structure I've talked about, that's 2 per technique and paragraph. There is some give and take though - one quote in a paragraph which is thoroughly explained without repeating your ideas is just as good as 3 more concisely (but still excellently) analysed quotes in another paragraph.
- Plan, plan, plan! It may seem obvious but when you're faced with an essay under timed conditions, it's easy to think that skipping this stage can save you time. In actual fact, the opposite is true. You'll end up wasting time thinking mid-essay because you can't remember what you were going to write. I found the best way to plan was to quickly highlight what techniques from the word bank I was going to use, and key words from the essay question. Scribble them down on a sheet of paper, and sort the techniques into a paragraph plan. Write down what quotes you'll use for each technique next to them. It's useful to use shorthand and abbreviations, and you'll save yourself a lot of time. This way, I could get a plan down in 5 minutes or less, and have more time for the essay. If needs be, find your own way of planning, but make sure you can get it onto paper with a few minutes.
- In the exam (and in practice exams/prelims I guess), allocate 45 minutes to each essay, including the plan. If you're not finished within that 45 minutes, move straight onto the conclusion and finish it up there. It's much better to have two essays at a decent length and quality than one which is great and one which barely scrapes a pass because you left it until last minute. Best case scenario, you finish the first one quickly without compromising the quality and have more time to do the second, with still some time at the end to read over them.
- Remember to write the question numbers in the margin!