CRITICAL ESSAY

WHAT IS BEING ASSESSED?

The marking criteria for the critical essay are as follows: •  Personal stance •  Appropriateness of text to question •  Relevance of response to question •  Knowledge of the text •  Textual analysis (style/structure) •  Linguistic/literary/mass media awareness

HOW TO PREPARE - THREE MAIN STEPS

1. READ THE TEXTS AGAIN. There is no substitute for a full knowledge and understanding of the text and the only way to achieve this is by reading the texts yourself. Many people try to take shortcuts in this area: •  Watch the video/film of the play/novel. •  Read someone else's old critical essay answers or notes on a particular text. •  Read commercially produced notes (such as York Notes). •  Read the “blurb” on the back of the book. •  Study the picture on the front cover.   These are only shortcuts to a resit.

2. NOTE DOWN KEY DETAILS. Compile a list of the titles and authors you are preparing to answer on and then, for each one, add: •  A brief summary of story/content (4 to 10 lines) •  Personality details of main characters •  A list of themes/main ideas •  Note down points of style (e.g. word-choice, imagery, structure, tone, mood). Explain/comment on the EFFECT of these.   If you can answer the above for a particular text then you have a basic knowledge of that text. However, this does not necessarily mean that you will be able to answer successfully on that text. Your knowledge must be detailed but above all it must be flexible if you are to apply it successfully. On the next page you will find a simple but effective procedure for presenting your knowledge and views.

3. LEARN HOW TO PRESENT YOUR POINTS For any point relating to the text (whether it be on character, themes, or style) you should be able to: STATE THE POINT – so that people know what you are talking about EXPLAIN/DEVELOP POINT – so that people understand what you are saying GIVE EVIDENCE/PROOF/TEXTUAL REFERENCE – so that people believe you (and fully understand you) YOUR OWN COMMENT – to add conviction to your points / to individualise or personalise your work and make it different from other people's answers on the same text.

FURTHER PREPARATION •  Read and analyse questions in past papers. Remember that relevance is uppermost in a marker's mind and a lack of relevance will be heavily penalised. •  Make a glossary of question terms and how you will be expected to respond to them (e.g. briefly, in greater depth, account for, outline). •  Make outline plans for answers to questions in past papers. This helps you to see if you can come up with enough relevant points. •  Talk your answer aloud explaining and expanding on the points in your outline plan. If you become stuck at a particular aspect of the text, say setting, then you can revise that aspect. This has several benefits: •  it uses up less time than writing the answer out in full •  it highlights deficiencies/gaps in your knowledge of the text •  it highlights difficulties in expressing/articulating your views •  it saves you from spending time revising what you already know •  it builds up fluency •  Answer, in full, questions from past papers. To ensure that you get it right in your actual Higher exam, you need a fair amount of practice at orchestrating the various skills involved in writing a critical essay. Remember to ensure that your answer has: •  relevance to the question asked •  a good number of points •  sufficient range and variety of points •  individuality / sincerity of views •  justification of views (appropriate textual reference)

CLOSE READING – SOME COMMON FAULTS

1. Failure to answer the question asked. (treating the exercise as a general review rather than a particular question calling for an examination of specific aspects of the text) This would often begin: “One book I really enjoyed a lot was . . . . ” OR “The poem I have chosen is . . . . ” Instead, you should, of course, answer using the terms of the question as this lets your reader know, right at the beginning, that you intend to deal with the question. 2. Lack of knowledge of the text. There are many signs of this: •  inaccurate reporting of the text (e.g. getting a character's name wrong; getting an incident wrong; getting the title or author's name wrong) •  lack of detail in the answer which suggests only a hazy or sketchy knowledge of the text. •  lack of quotations suggest a lack of very detailed knowledge of the text. •  misquotation of the text obviously proves a lack of detailed knowledge of the text. 3. Failure to cover a sufficient number of relevant points. This means that the answer is too narrow, too insubstantial. Basically, you are on the right track but you don't actually earn enough marks. 4. Cramming points into a short space. This means that your points will be poorly expressed and underdeveloped, while you may also find that your answer is tragically short due to you having “burnt out” your ideas too quickly. 5. Inclusion of irrelevant points. Irrelevant points are, quite simply a waste of space as they earn you no marks. Only points which clearly relate to the question asked will gain you credit. Moreover, irrelevant points can actually be dangerous because they can make you think that you have written a very full answer when in fact, from a three page answer, you may have written only one page of relevant material.   So . . . to do well in Higher English it is clear you must do all you can to be totally prepared. You can do this if you become increasingly aware of what is required and you invest time and effort in trying to develop your skills.

Neil McIlvanney 2000