Structuring the Essay (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Structuring the Essay

Answering just one essay question can seem daunting. However, examiners just want to see your ideas and opinions on the 19th-century novel you have studied. The guide below will enable you to best express these ideas and opinions in a way that will gain the highest marks. It includes guides on:

• Answering the question

• Planning your essay

• Writing your essay

Answering the question

Regardless of which 19th-century novel you study, the type of question you’ll need to write an essay for will be the same. You will be asked a question that asks you to analyse and write in detail about an aspect of the novel. Your answer will need to address both an extract from the novel that you will be given and the novel as a whole.

It is tempting to jump straight in and start analysing the extract immediately. However, completing the steps below first will ensure you answer the question in the way that examiners are looking for.

6 key steps to answer the 19th-century novel exam question effectively:

1. The very first thing you should do once you open your exam paper is to look at the question:

• This sounds obvious, but it’s really crucial to read through the question a few times 

• Why is this important? Regardless of what subject you’re being examined in, the single biggest mistake most students make in their exams is not reading the question through carefully enough that they answer the question they think they’re being asked, rather than the question they’ve actually been asked 

• It’s especially important to get this right in your GCSE English Literature exams because you only have five essay questions to answer across two papers, so if you misread a question, you’re potentially costing yourself a large number of marks     

2. Identify the keywords of the question

• The keywords are the focus of the question: the specific themes, ideas, or characters the examiners want you to focus on

• For the above question, the key words of question are “how Stevenson presents good and evil”

• This is the theme the examiners want you to explore in your essay

• Do not be tempted to write a question on a related theme, even if you have revised more for it: this will affect your overall mark badly, as you won’t be directly answering the question! 

• In the example above, the theme is about good and evil, so make sure you plan and write an essay about good and evil, rather than, for example, the role of religion in the novel

  • Although this could be viewed as a related theme, your answer won’t be focused on the question and will lose you marks

3. Critically evaluate the idea or theme of the question in terms of the novel as a whole

• Think: what is this question asking, and what is it not asking?

• It is asking you to explore ideas about good and evil – a duality between what is considered morally right with what is considered wicked and wrong

• The question is not asking you to explore any other themes

• Again, writing about related ideas will actually lose you marks as you aren’t answering the exact question you have been set. The examiner isn’t going to reward you extra marks for information that is factually correct or demonstrates a great understanding of the novel if the information is not relevant to the question being asked

4. Now you have identified and evaluated the key idea or theme of the question, read the contextual information above the extract:

5. Contextualise the extract further yourself, before reading it

• Understanding where the extract comes from in the novel will also give you clues to understand the extract more completely

  • Think: what else happens before and after this point in the novel?

  • Which characters are involved?

  • How does it link to other parts of the text?

• Examiners repeatedly state that the very best answers are those that move beyond the extract and consider the question in the context of the novel as a whole:

  • Therefore, even at this stage, it is good to think about how the theme of the question develops before and after this point in the novel

6. Read the extract with all of the above information (the keywords from the question; the context) in mind

• This will enable you to pick out quotations and analyse only the most relevant parts of the extract in the context of the novel as a whole, and the question you have been set

Planning your essay

Planning your essay is absolutely vital to achieve the highest marks. Examiners always stress that the best responses are those that have a logical, well-structured argument that comes with spending time planning an answer. This, in turn, will enable you to achieve the highest marks for each assessment objective. The main assessment objectives are:

It is important to remember how marks are distributed for each assessment objective: there are 12 marks for AO1, 12 marks for AO2 and 6 marks for AO3. The mark scheme places assessment objectives AO1 and AO2 as the key skills, therefore while AO3 must be addressed in your response, your essay should focus predominantly on AO1 and AO2. 

• Your plan should include all aspects of your response, covering all of the assessment objectives, but mainly focusing on AO1 and AO2:

  • Your overall argument, or thesis (AO1)

  • Your topic sentences for all your paragraphs (AO1)

  • The quotations you will be using and analysing from the extract (AO1 & AO2)

  • The quotations you will be using and analysing from elsewhere in the novel (AO1 & AO2)

  • A sense of why the author has made the choices they have (AO2)

  • A sense of what contextual factors give further insight to the ideas and theme presented in the question (AO3)

• Therefore, a plan may look like the following:

Some other tips:

• You do not need to include a counter-argument (disagreeing with the question/including paragraphs which begin “On the other hand”)

  • The questions have been designed to enable as many students as possible to write essays 

  • Examiners say that the inclusion of a counter-argument is often unnecessary and unhelpful

  • It can affect your AO1 mark negatively

• Include evidence and analysis of the extract in the same paragraph as evidence and analysis of the rest of the novel

  • Think of the extract as a stepping stone to the whole text

  • Examiners prefer an “integrated approach”:  paragraphs that include related analysis of both the extract and the whole novel 

  • Examiners dislike essays which treat the extract and the rest of the novel as “separate entities”: when students analyse the extract in the first half of their essays, and then the rest of the novel in the second half of their response

    • This would mean your answer doesn’t cover the full scope of the question, and your AO1 mark would be affected

Writing your essay

Once you have read and evaluated the question, read and analysed the extract, and created a clear plan, you are ready to begin writing. Below is a guide detailing what to include.

Your essay should include:

• An introduction with a thesis statement

• A number of paragraphs (three is ideal!), each covering a separate point. It’s a great idea to start each paragraph with a topic sentence 

• A conclusion

Introduction

• Your introduction should aim to clearly, and briefly, answer the question

• The best way to do this is to include a thesis statement

• A thesis statement is a short statement (one or two sentences) that summarises the main point or claim your argument is making

  • You should include the exact words from the question in your thesis statement

  • Examiners want to see your own opinion: your interpretation of what the author is trying to show

• Your thesis statement should also attempt to explain why you think the author has presented their characters in the way that they have: what are they trying to say overall? What is their message?

  • A good way to think about this is to ask: what is the author’s one big idea in terms of the characters or themes addressed in the question?

  • Include contextual ideas and perspectives to help explain the author’s intentions

  • Including the author’s message or one big idea helps create a “conceptualised response”, which examiners reward the highest marks

• An example of a thesis statement:

Question:

Thesis statement:

“Stevenson presents good and evil as a constant duality throughout the novel and portrays it as a natural facet of the individual, which results in an ongoing battle between the two. Stevenson proposes that the inherent evil aspect of man is merely suppressed by society and he attempts to explore the consequences of attempting to separate one from the other.”

Some other tips:

• Introductions should not be too long, or include all the details of what each paragraph will include

  • You will not be rewarded for including the same information twice, so don’t waste time repeating yourself

• Write your thesis in the third person, not the first person (don’t use “I”)

  • “I believe that Stevenson presents ideas about good and evil …. ❌

  • “Stevenson presents good and evil as a constant duality through the character of Dr Jekyll / Mr Hyde … in order to illustrate …” ✅

Paragraphs

• Try to include three separate paragraphs that cover three separate points

  • This will ensure your response is to what examiners call the “full task”

• Start each paragraph with a topic sentence

  • A topic sentence is an opening sentence which details the focus of its paragraph

  • It should include the words of the question

  • All topic sentences must relate to your thesis

  • They should be seen as sub-points that provide a more specific and narrower focus than your thesis statement

  • Everything that follows a topic sentence in a paragraph must support the point it makes

Example of a topic sentence:

“Stevenson presents Jekyll as a man with a respectable reputation within society which is juxtaposed with the depiction of Hyde as a manifestation of evil.”

• Paragraphs ideally include analysis of both the extract and the whole novel

  • This is what examiners call an “integrated approach”

  • Don’t separate your analysis of the rest of the novel into different paragraphs

  • The examiners stated that the best students “dip in and out of both the extract and the whole text to select details which support their argument as appropriate”

• Beware of writing an overly structured paragraph which follows a set pattern

  • You may have learned PEE, PEAL, PEED, or other structures for your paragraphs

  • However, examiners often say that although these are excellent for learning what to include in essays, they can be limiting in an exam

  • Instead, be led by the ideas in the text, and prove your own argument (both the overall thesis and your topic sentences)

Conclusion

• It is always a good idea to include a conclusion to your essay so that your essay reads as coherent and focused on answering the question throughout

  • This can result in improved marks for AO1

• However, there is no need to spend a long time writing your conclusion

  • A conclusion for a 19th-century novel should only summarise the proof you have provided for your thesis

  • It only needs to be two or three sentences long

  • It should include the words of the question and your thesis

  • Remember, you do not get rewarded for including the same information twice

An example of a conclusion:

“To conclude, Stevenson presents good and evil as two powerful entities which coexist within the individual. Through his characterisation of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Stevenson indicates their separation as an impossibility and he uses them to present a very powerful exploration of the complexity of human nature.”