Structuring the Essay (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Answering just one essay question can seem daunting. However, examiners just want to see your ideas and opinions on the modern text 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 modern text 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 text. Your answer will need to address the text as a whole.

Completing the steps below will ensure you answer the question in the way that examiners are looking for.

6 key steps to answer the modern text 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 key words 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 the question are “how Russell presents the importance of friendship”

• 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 friendship, so make sure you plan and write an essay about friendship, rather than, for example, the role of family in the text:

  • 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 text as a whole

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

• It is asking you to explore ideas about friendship – a special relationship or bond that exists between people

• 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 text if the information is not relevant to the question being asked

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 elsewhere in the text (AO1 & AO2)

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

  • A sense of what contextual factors give further insight into 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

Writing your essay

Once you have read and evaluated the question 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 writer is trying to show

• Your thesis statement should also attempt to explain why you think the writer 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 writer’s one big idea in terms of the characters or themes addressed in the question?

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

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

• An example of a thesis statement:

Question:

Thesis statement:

“Russell presents the importance of friendship through several characters in Blood Brothers, especially Mickey and Edward whose friendship is central to the play. Russell chooses to contrast the power and beauty of their childhood friendship with its final collapse in adulthood, which results in their tragic ending. Their friendship highlights one of Russell’s key messages concerning social class, inequality and poverty which can have devastating consequences on people’s lives.”

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 Russell presents ideas about the importance of friendship …. ❌

  • “Russell presents the importance of friendship through several characters …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:

“Russell initially depicts Mickey and Edward's friendship as strong despite their disparate social backgrounds, which underscores his message that natural human bonds and relationships are more important than societal norms and expectations.”

• 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 modern text 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, Russell presents friendship as a fundamental aspect of people’s lives and he demonstrates how these special relationships can be impacted by social inequality and injustice. Through Mickey and Edward, Russell argues that even the closest friendships - and by extension, all bonds between different groups in society - are tested, and potentially broken, by these inequalities.”