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Alevel English Literature Essay structure help?

Hi! I'm in year 12 and I'm currently revising for Dr Faustus and Enron's compare essays.
Ever since I reached year 12 I realised that sadly I couldn't ramble in my essays anymore which placed in front of me a pretty steep learning curve.
Can anyone help with the structure and the actual paragraphs of the text? My teacher keeps stating I should be clearer, and concise, work on involving more dramatic structure and having stronger evaluations. How should I integrate this into my essays?

Thank you!
(Also if anyone has example essays for Dr Faustus and Enron I would greatly appreciate it if you'd send them over :smile: )
(edited 1 year ago)
Hi, I do A level literature and language on the OCR board, so my advice may differ but I noticed you were going through something similar that I went through.
I was told to be more clear and concise and still do because I habitually write sentences that go on for like 5 lines. My best method at ridding that was cutting all my sentences down to two lines exactly or cutting them off at 2 to 3 clauses. It was really difficult and stopped my flow of work but boosted my work to 30/32 when I finally tried it so if that's what you're struggling with maybe this would be a good thing to practise.
Unfortunately, I don't do Faustus (read it xd) nor Enron and I'm not sure if comparative essays work the same way they do in my exams. But involving more dramatic structure would be researching and understanding how they work as plays; the techniques like soliloquies, dramatic irony, pathos, ethos. Do research a few so you can start identifying them and explaining the effect and strengths of such throughout your essays.
And finally (sorry this was so long) but one key trick or important thing I learnt in year 12 is using criticisms. You may be taught this later on or already but quoting a famous critique's analysis of the books and developing or arguing against it really have make your point clear on what stance you are taking in your argument. Someone pretty famous is Ato Quayson but ask your teacher if you haven't taught this yet to help you learn how to find these criticism. Honestly, they boosted my marks a lot. If you really want to stretch further, research one or two literary theories like Marxism or Cultural Materialism that work best to the themes of your books. Then even just one sentence of saying, 'when looking at this from the a Marxist viewpoint, you can see that' blah blah blah. It just really strengthens your analysis further.

Sorry this was so long, and I hope I gave some new advice. But hopefully someone doing your books or studying just literature will be able to help better. Definitely search up past paper answers, they're truly helpful.
Best of luck xxx
Reply 2
Original post by Astudentyouknow
Hi, I do A level literature and language on the OCR board, so my advice may differ but I noticed you were going through something similar that I went through.
I was told to be more clear and concise and still do because I habitually write sentences that go on for like 5 lines. My best method at ridding that was cutting all my sentences down to two lines exactly or cutting them off at 2 to 3 clauses. It was really difficult and stopped my flow of work but boosted my work to 30/32 when I finally tried it so if that's what you're struggling with maybe this would be a good thing to practise.
Unfortunately, I don't do Faustus (read it xd) nor Enron and I'm not sure if comparative essays work the same way they do in my exams. But involving more dramatic structure would be researching and understanding how they work as plays; the techniques like soliloquies, dramatic irony, pathos, ethos. Do research a few so you can start identifying them and explaining the effect and strengths of such throughout your essays.
And finally (sorry this was so long) but one key trick or important thing I learnt in year 12 is using criticisms. You may be taught this later on or already but quoting a famous critique's analysis of the books and developing or arguing against it really have make your point clear on what stance you are taking in your argument. Someone pretty famous is Ato Quayson but ask your teacher if you haven't taught this yet to help you learn how to find these criticism. Honestly, they boosted my marks a lot. If you really want to stretch further, research one or two literary theories like Marxism or Cultural Materialism that work best to the themes of your books. Then even just one sentence of saying, 'when looking at this from the a Marxist viewpoint, you can see that' blah blah blah. It just really strengthens your analysis further.

Sorry this was so long, and I hope I gave some new advice. But hopefully someone doing your books or studying just literature will be able to help better. Definitely search up past paper answers, they're truly helpful.
Best of luck xxx


Hi! Sorry for my late reply but those tips are very helpful. thank you sm! x
(edited 1 year ago)
Reply 3
The advice already given includes pretty much everything! Unfortunately I'm not studying these texts either but I would say:
- Critical quotations
- Attitudes in different time periods and social contexts
- Film adaptations/ play versions
- Marxism/ feminism etc
Try and be thorough and don't lead yourself into a dead end point. Hope this helps!
Original post by klinx
Hi! I'm in year 12 and I'm currently revising for Dr Faustus and Enron's compare essays.
Ever since I reached year 12 I realised that sadly I couldn't ramble in my essays anymore which placed in front of me a pretty steep learning curve.
Can anyone help with the structure and the actual paragraphs of the text? My teacher keeps stating I should be clearer, and concise, work on involving more dramatic structure and having stronger evaluations. How should I integrate this into my essays?

Thank you!
(Also if anyone has example essays for Dr Faustus and Enron I would greatly appreciate it if you'd send them over :smile: )
Reply 4
Original post by klinx
Hi! I'm in year 12 and I'm currently revising for Dr Faustus and Enron's compare essays.
Ever since I reached year 12 I realised that sadly I couldn't ramble in my essays anymore which placed in front of me a pretty steep learning curve.
Can anyone help with the structure and the actual paragraphs of the text? My teacher keeps stating I should be clearer, and concise, work on involving more dramatic structure and having stronger evaluations. How should I integrate this into my essays?

Thank you!
(Also if anyone has example essays for Dr Faustus and Enron I would greatly appreciate it if you'd send them over :smile: )

Hi I do dr Faustus too and I’m struggling :frown: what’s ur insta ?

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