How do you plan points for your essay?
Hellooooo
I'm currently using past papers, so I was testing myself on this English Lit question:
"How does Priestley present social class in the play? You must consider language, form and structure in your answer. (Total = 30 marks)"
I planned my structure, and wrote my first point:
"Priestly subtly reflects on social class with Eva’s vivid cause of death. Through the Inspector, the audience are directly informed that the lady consumed “strong disinfectant”, embellished by the plain but brutal dialogue to gauge sympathy.
However, the intention of disinfectant is to exterminate pathogenic bacteria. Thus, Eva’s suicide, by disinfectant, reflects the Birlings’ perception and treatment of those socio-economically ‘inferior’ - as literal, exploitable scum.
Additionally, the view of the working class as metaphorical rodents may have heavily stigmatised those who struggle. Eva herself was in a dire situation, and may have eventually succumbed to the upper class’ vision. Therefore, she too saw herself as a degraded, “wretched” pest, to be cleansed off society, which may wager empathy from the audience. "
Then, I waffled about Edna and Eva not appearing that much/at all while still being kinda important... and realised the rest of my points lacked a lot of substance.
So, how do you choose your points for essays? How do you plan in advance? I have revised AIC and literary devices, and I know the key themes (responsibility, old vs young, social classes, Socialism vs Capitalism), but whenever I try a past paper, my mind goes blank.
Thank you so much!
I'm currently using past papers, so I was testing myself on this English Lit question:
"How does Priestley present social class in the play? You must consider language, form and structure in your answer. (Total = 30 marks)"
I planned my structure, and wrote my first point:
"Priestly subtly reflects on social class with Eva’s vivid cause of death. Through the Inspector, the audience are directly informed that the lady consumed “strong disinfectant”, embellished by the plain but brutal dialogue to gauge sympathy.
However, the intention of disinfectant is to exterminate pathogenic bacteria. Thus, Eva’s suicide, by disinfectant, reflects the Birlings’ perception and treatment of those socio-economically ‘inferior’ - as literal, exploitable scum.
Additionally, the view of the working class as metaphorical rodents may have heavily stigmatised those who struggle. Eva herself was in a dire situation, and may have eventually succumbed to the upper class’ vision. Therefore, she too saw herself as a degraded, “wretched” pest, to be cleansed off society, which may wager empathy from the audience. "
Then, I waffled about Edna and Eva not appearing that much/at all while still being kinda important... and realised the rest of my points lacked a lot of substance.
So, how do you choose your points for essays? How do you plan in advance? I have revised AIC and literary devices, and I know the key themes (responsibility, old vs young, social classes, Socialism vs Capitalism), but whenever I try a past paper, my mind goes blank.
Thank you so much!
(edited 2 days ago)
Reply 1
Hey!
I don’t know which exam board you do, but I do AQA and this is sort of tailored towards the AQA mark schemes but you can use it for most essays
When I’m planning an essay, I start by writing down 3-4 points i want to make. I always try to do it in the form of ‘The author presents (theme/character in question) by/through the use of…’. So for this social responsibility question I might do ‘Priestley presents the theme of social responsibility through the use of vivid descriptions of Eva’s death / through the character of Eric Birling’. After I’ve chosen my favourite points I think I can say lots about, I jot down 2-3 quotes connected to it, then what this point says about social responsibility and some context. Then when I’m writing the paragraph, I try to keep referring to the wording of the question, but also the wording of my own point to keep linking back and to avoid waffling (I really struggle with waffling 😅)
I find this really helpful, so I hope this helps
Good luck 🤞
I don’t know which exam board you do, but I do AQA and this is sort of tailored towards the AQA mark schemes but you can use it for most essays
When I’m planning an essay, I start by writing down 3-4 points i want to make. I always try to do it in the form of ‘The author presents (theme/character in question) by/through the use of…’. So for this social responsibility question I might do ‘Priestley presents the theme of social responsibility through the use of vivid descriptions of Eva’s death / through the character of Eric Birling’. After I’ve chosen my favourite points I think I can say lots about, I jot down 2-3 quotes connected to it, then what this point says about social responsibility and some context. Then when I’m writing the paragraph, I try to keep referring to the wording of the question, but also the wording of my own point to keep linking back and to avoid waffling (I really struggle with waffling 😅)
I find this really helpful, so I hope this helps
Good luck 🤞
Reply 2
3
Original post
by Unknown-humanHey!
I don’t know which exam board you do, but I do AQA and this is sort of tailored towards the AQA mark schemes but you can use it for most essays
When I’m planning an essay, I start by writing down 3-4 points i want to make. I always try to do it in the form of ‘The author presents (theme/character in question) by/through the use of…’. So for this social responsibility question I might do ‘Priestley presents the theme of social responsibility through the use of vivid descriptions of Eva’s death / through the character of Eric Birling’. After I’ve chosen my favourite points I think I can say lots about, I jot down 2-3 quotes connected to it, then what this point says about social responsibility and some context. Then when I’m writing the paragraph, I try to keep referring to the wording of the question, but also the wording of my own point to keep linking back and to avoid waffling (I really struggle with waffling 😅)
I find this really helpful, so I hope this helps
Good luck 🤞
I don’t know which exam board you do, but I do AQA and this is sort of tailored towards the AQA mark schemes but you can use it for most essays
When I’m planning an essay, I start by writing down 3-4 points i want to make. I always try to do it in the form of ‘The author presents (theme/character in question) by/through the use of…’. So for this social responsibility question I might do ‘Priestley presents the theme of social responsibility through the use of vivid descriptions of Eva’s death / through the character of Eric Birling’. After I’ve chosen my favourite points I think I can say lots about, I jot down 2-3 quotes connected to it, then what this point says about social responsibility and some context. Then when I’m writing the paragraph, I try to keep referring to the wording of the question, but also the wording of my own point to keep linking back and to avoid waffling (I really struggle with waffling 😅)
I find this really helpful, so I hope this helps
Good luck 🤞
I forgot to mention I’m doing iGCSE Edexcel, but this is really useful! I’m aiming for 3-5 points per essay, but I’m actually currently practicing doing one paragraph/point first since I don’t have a lot of experience with essays. (I’m homeschooled too if that explains why lol) Again though, I’ll take your advice, so thank you so much!
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