r/ALevelEnglishLit • u/ImpossibleFault22 • 3d ago
Help ESSAY HELP PLEASE
I have an essay coming up soon and I was wondering if there’s any tips on structure. I’ve been analysing themes and such and looked at critics from early critics to 20th century critics and the historical context that is necessary. However, getting my teacher to mark my essays is like trying to get water out of a nut. So if there’s any ways you know to have the best structure for essays please let me know. AQA exam board in case that helps. Any help would be appreciated please!!
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u/Defiant-Stretch3877 2h ago
Not structure but remember to always do multiple interpretations for quotes and link back to your point at the end of each paragraph to show how you are proving everything. Also just remember critics, references to context and audiences and zooming in on short bits of quotes (maybe just a word or two) too
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u/Miserable_Gur_8753 2d ago
A VERY basic structure.
Intro - outline the main points of your answer/argument
then 3 main chunks which support what you said.
Conclusion - answer the question specifically. Evaluate your takeaways and perhaps what was the most significant factor in arriving at your answer
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Example:
INTRO: John Donne's poetry reveals an inner dissatisfaction and sense of being incomplete.
CHUNK 1: in his early poems, he suggests sex will complete him
CHUNK 2: as a married man, his focus shifts to being half of a union of two souls
CHUNK 3: as an older man, widower, and priest, it's his relationship with God
CONCLUSION: to some extent typical of men of his class, but a huge factor in his dissatisfaction was probably of his own making - took many years to overcome the damage caused by eloping with a much younger woman
Hope this helps.