A level - English Literature AQA help

I've been stuck at a grade C/D throughout year 12, does anyone have any revision techniques/essay structures to help my essays reach grade B+ please?

Reply 1

awhi

Hey,
You might have been taught this already, but make sure to include each 'AO' in every essay you write:

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AO1 = the main point, make sure it's worded clearly and concisely

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AO2 = supporting evidence for that point, so different uses of language/form/structure/other techniques

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AO3 = any context of the author/contemporary period that links to your point

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AO4 = talking about common tropes in literature (specifically whichever genre the text you're writing about is), or connecting it to other texts

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AO5 = either a critic's perspective, an alternative interpretation of your own, or a 'school of thought' e.g. feminist or marxist interpretation

Try to include at least a little of each AO in every paragraph. And end each paragraph by wrapping the point up and linking it back to the question...
I hope this helps a bit!

Reply 2

EternalStudent43

Some mistakes that are easy to fix and can help bump you up:
1. Make sure not to talk about characters like they are real. So rather than ‘Gatsby is obsessed with wealth so that he is not able to see that it cannot bring true happiness’, you should write ‘Fitzgerald presents Gatsby as being obsessed with wealth, so that he is unable to see what brings true happiness’.
2. Make sure every opening sentence to a paragraph says what that paragraph is about and uses the authors name.
3. Make sure every point is supported by evidence
4. Make sure all context is linked to a quote, or supported by analysis.
5. Don’t make generalised statements like ‘women in the 19th century had no power’. Statements like that are rarely true (Queen Elizabeth, for example, was a powerful women)
6. Make sure you debate things in your essay, either different sides of the question, or different interpretations of a quote.

Best wishes