Writer’s Methods & Techniques (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Writer’s Methods & Techniques

Examiners want students to analyse a wide range of the author’s methods (AO2), not just the language. Remember, analysing methods means evaluating all of the author’s choices, which includes a lot more than just the lines they wrote for each character. It includes characterisation, form and structure. In this guide you will find sections on:

• The Rise of the Novel

• Features of 19th-Century Novels

• How to Quote from a 19th-Century Novel in your Essay

• Analysing the Author’s Methods

The Rise of the Novel

• 19th-century literature refers to written works published approximately between 1800 and 1899 

• The word “novel” comes from the French word “nouvelle” which means “new” and was coined to introduce the birth of this new literature form in the 19th century:

  • Prior to the 1800s, poetry had been the dominant form of literature and it was only during the 19th century that the novel became the leading form of literature in English  

  • The novel was defined as an extended form of fictional narrative written in a prose format

• The rise of the novel in the 19th century was due to a range of different factors:

  • Literacy rates increased dramatically during this period, in part due to the expansion of the school system and the growth of the middle classes

  • Improvements in printing technology meant that books, newspapers and periodicals were easier and cheaper to produce and therefore more accessible to a wider audience:

    • Many novels were first serialised in periodicals and journals before appearing in novel forms, such as Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations

Features of 19th-Century Novels

There are many similar characteristics within 19th-century novels, and while not all of these can be found in every instance, some typical features are explored below.

Romanticism and Realism

• Romanticism and Realism pervaded much of the literature of the 19th century: the former dominated the first half of the 1800s, while the latter dominated the latter half of the century

• Romanticism was a literary movement which had dominated literature for centuries and was defined by a number of characteristics:

  • celebration of nature

  • the idealisation of the common man

  • focus on the individual experience and spirituality

  • idealisation of women 

  • celebration of isolation and melancholy

• Realism was a literary movement which first began as a reaction to Romanticism as it was thought it had become too far removed from the real world

• Realism was defined by a number of characteristics:

  • familiar and realistic characters and settings 

  • everyday life and occurrences

  • focus on social issues

  • depictions of the struggling working and middle classes

    • For example, in Great Expectations, Dickens depicts the harsh reality of life for the working class and impoverished

Gothic Genre

• The Gothic genre rose to prominence in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and was widespread in Victorian literature:

  • The gothic genre had become very influential and therefore many works of popular Victorian novels had elements of it

  • The majority of the 19th-century novels in this exam are classic gothic works or employ gothic elements within their writing

• The atmosphere of horror, the possibility of supernatural occurrences, and the present being haunted by the past are key characteristics of gothic fiction:

  • The atmosphere is typically claustrophobic and incarceration or persecution are common elements

  • It frequently uses the description of horrific occurrences to metaphorically express psychological or social tensions:

    • For example, Frankenstein can be viewed as a classic gothic novel although Shelley also infuses the text with elements of romanticism

Moral, Ethical and Social Considerations

• Many novels from the 19th century examined moral, ethical, and social themes

• It also reflected the Victorian era's interest in equality and the inner workings of the human psyche:

  • For example, in Pride and Prejudice, Austen explores the moral and ethical implications of pride, prejudice and vanity 

  • For example, in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Stevenson portrays the moral and physical degeneration of his protagonist

Narrative style

• 19th-century novels generally used an omniscient third-person narrator, which enabled the narrator to be aware of all of the characters’ thoughts and emotions

• The appeal for 19th-century writers of the third-person omniscient point-of-view is that it also gave the narrative a sense of objectivity or truthfulness:

  • This enabled the reader to form their own conclusions and evaluations about the characters and events in the novel

• Third-person narrative was also a useful device for novels which contained complex plots with multiple characters:

  • For example, the third-person narration in Great Expectations allows Dickens to present a wide range of characters who are all interwoven within a complex plot

How to quote the author in your essay

• The 19th-century novel exam is a closed-book exam, which means you don’t get a copy of the novel to use in your exam

  • This means that examiners do not expect you to memorise dozens of direct quotations from the novel

  • The extract has been chosen for you to use to answer your essay, which means it will contain many lines that you can use as evidence in your essays

  • As much as you should take a “whole-text” approach to your essay, there will be plenty of excellent quotations that you can, and should, select from the extract first

  • If you are memorising quotations, focus on learning a few, short quotations that are relevant to the key themes in the novel you are studying

• The extract should serve as a springboard to the rest of the novel

  • This means that - when you are thinking about what other references to include - you should be led by the themes and ideas in the extract, and not by the quotations you have memorised

• References don’t need to be direct quotations

  • They can be things that characters say in different parts of the novel in your own words

  • They can be references to things that happen in the novel, or the way that different characters are presented elsewhere

• Examiners repeatedly stress that textual references are just as valuable as direct quotations, when referencing the rest of the novel

  •  “You don’t get extra marks for more quotations, but you do get more marks for making plenty of interesting comments about the references you have selected.”

  • The most important thing is that these references are directly related to the ideas and themes you are exploring in your essay, and provide evidence to prove your thesis

Analysing the writer’s methods

In order to achieve the highest AO2 marks, think about methods as the author’s choices, not just the language they are using. One way to address this is to recognise that writer’s methods embrace anything the writer has done to create and develop meaning, so while this obviously includes language, other aspects of the texts also should also be explored. The structure of the text, the juxtaposing of scenes and incidents, the use of characters as contrasts or foils all allow you to see the text in a larger sense, linking different parts of it together and exploring the choices the writer has made. Therefore, you should consider: What overall decisions has the author made in relation to characters, setting, form and structure? For what reasons have they made these choices? What overarching message do they help to convey?

What not to do when analysing the author’s methods

• Don’t “spot techniques”

  • Examiners dislike when students use overly sophisticated terminology unnecessarily (“polysyndeton”; “epanalepsis”)

  • Knowing the names of sophisticated techniques will not gain you any more marks, especially if these techniques are only “spotted” and the author’s intentions for this language are not explained

  • Instead of technique spotting, focus your analysis on the reasons why the author is presenting the character or theme the way they do

• Don’t unnecessarily label word types

  • Similar to technique spotting, this is when students use “the noun X” or “the verb Y”

  • This doesn’t add anything to your analysis

  • Instead, examiners suggest you focus on ideas, or images, instead of words, or word types

  • Instead of “Stevenson uses the noun “deformity” to show…” use “Stevenson uses imagery of pain and sickness such as “deformity and decay” in connection with the transformation to Hyde which shows…”

• Don’t limit your analysis to a close reading of the author’s language

  • You gain marks for explaining all of the author’s choices, not just their language

  • Only focusing on his language therefore limits the mark you will be given

  • Instead, take a whole-text approach and think about the author’s decisions about:

    • Form

    • Structure

    • Characterisation

    • You do not need to include quotations to analyse the above, but you will still be rewarded well by the examiner

• Don’t focus only on the extract

  • You will not be responding to the full task and text, and your mark will therefore suffer if you focus only on the extract, and not the wider novel overall

  • Use the extract as a springboard to ideas and themes in the rest of the novel

• Never retell the story

  • “Narrative” and “descriptive” answers get the lowest marks

  • Move from what the author is presenting to how and why they have made the choices they have

What to do when analysing the author’s methods

• Take a whole-text approach

  • This could involve commenting on structure: “At the start / this changes when / in contrast…“

  • Think about how characters develop: are they presented differently at different parts of the novel? Why has the author chosen to present this change?

  • Are characters presented differently from each other? Why? What does each represent?

  • Do characters’ relationships with each other change? Why might the author have chosen to do this?

• Remember that characters are constructs, not real people

  • Think about what each character’s function is in the novel

  • What does the author use each character to say about humanity, or about society?

• Always frame your essay with the author in mind

  • As the examiners say: “writers use methods, including language and structure, to form and express their ideas – the choices the writer makes are conscious and deliberate”

  • Therefore, write that the author “highlights X”, “suggests Y”, “challenges Z”

  • Use the words “so” and “because” to push you to explain your own ideas further

    • Stevenson depicts Dr Jekyll as rapidly losing control over the malevolent force that is Hyde and so he is left alienated from his friends and position within society.”

• Zoom out to big ideas in your analysis

  • Go from analysing language, or other writer’s choices, to the author’s overall intention, or message

  • This should also link to your thesis, and argument throughout

  • You can begin these “zoom-out” sentences with “Stevenson could be suggesting that because X, then Y” or “Stevenson could be using the character of X to challenge contemporary ideas about Y”

  • Use modal language to present sophisticated ideas

    • Using words like “could”, “may” or “perhaps” shows that you are thinking conceptually