How do you get top marks in an essay question?

Manlike2025

What techniques do people use when doing essay writing to get top marks?

Reply 1

Say the question is "Explore how Ambition can be seen in Macbeth". What would you do first? Depending on how many paragraphs your teacher asks you to write (normally 3 per essay), plan one paragraph and ask yourself these questions: (What does Ambition mean in the play, Who embodies/doesn't embody traits of Ambition, Where can this be seen?, When does this happen? (Integrate what Act, Scene, whether some scenes mirror/contrast each other etc), Why is this scene/authorial intent (integrate context here), How can this be seen? (Analysis of quotes + explain). For example, if I were taking the character of Macbeth, I know Macbeth is a tragic hero whose harmartia (fatal flaw) stems from his pride for attaining power through overarching ambition. (This answers both the What/Who), this could potentially be seen in every act, but more specifically Act 2 Scene 1, "is this a dagger that I see before me?" (this is just an example but you could elaborate on this more with other scenes), then describe why Shakespeare decided to explore Ambition (perhaps link it to the Great Chain of Being? and the How is pretty self-explanatory in terms of using a quote that answers the theme Ambition and analysing it and ofc then zooming into language devices, other quotes that can be seen elsewhere etc. (I would replicate answering these specific questions for every paragraph, bullet- pointing your ideas in this order, and if you're confident enough, use the ideas you used for this to construct a paragraph. That way you're hitting every bit of analysis the examiner wants for sophistication on a mark scheme). Hope this helps!

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How do you get top marks in an essay question?

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