Hi I'm doing El Laberinto del Fauno and La Casa de los Espiritus
both the essays are pretty much the same and from what I understand you just follow these steps:
- figure out what they want from you. Do you have to analyse? Do you have to justify?
- Lay out 2-3 points of literary or contemporary context, i.e. events that happen in the story or things that influenced the writer/director
- Write your intro, ideally 2-3 sentences long, and something like:
- Sentence 1: 'Para responder a esta pregunta, es necesario analizar/determinar/justificar...' and then just kind of reword the question so it fits.
- Sentence 2: 'Para llevar esto a cabo...' and then just briefly explain the process you will use to reach your conclusion
- Don't add any examples to your intro - that's for later
- Then you work your 2-3 points into 2/3 paragraphs, not too long and as concise and simple as possible. Try and use the most obvious examples/points where you can. Just like GCSE English it's: sentence 1 = point, sentence 2 = evidence (example) sentence 3 = explain how the evidence links to the point, and sentence 4 = Link back to the question!!! How do the first 3 sentences contribute to answering the question?
Never forget to link back to the question. It feels very repetitive but it's necessary.
- The conclusion: Around 2 sentences long and should be similar to the intro, whilst also taking into account the examples you used. Don't add anything new!!
I know this all sounds a bit weird but it's worked for me!
Good luck!