how to write the perfect english literature essay gcse

How to Write a Good English Literature Essay

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

How do you write a good English Literature essay? Although to an extent this depends on the particular subject you’re writing about, and on the nature of the question your essay is attempting to answer, there are a few general guidelines for how to write a convincing essay – just as there are a few guidelines for writing well in any field.

We at Interesting Literature  call them ‘guidelines’ because we hesitate to use the word ‘rules’, which seems too programmatic. And as the writing habits of successful authors demonstrate, there is no  one way to become a good writer – of essays, novels, poems, or whatever it is you’re setting out to write. The French writer Colette liked to begin her writing day by picking the fleas off her cat.

Edith Sitwell, by all accounts, liked to lie in an open coffin before she began her day’s writing. Friedrich von Schiller kept rotten apples in his desk, claiming he needed the scent of their decay to help him write. (For most student essay-writers, such an aroma is probably allowed to arise in the writing-room more organically, over time.)

We will address our suggestions for successful essay-writing to the average student of English Literature, whether at university or school level. There are many ways to approach the task of essay-writing, and these are just a few pointers for how to write a better English essay – and some of these pointers may also work for other disciplines and subjects, too.

Of course, these guidelines are designed to be of interest to the non-essay-writer too – people who have an interest in the craft of writing in general. If this describes you, we hope you enjoy the list as well. Remember, though, everyone can find writing difficult: as Thomas Mann memorably put it, ‘A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.’ Nora Ephron was briefer: ‘I think the hardest thing about writing is writing.’ So, the guidelines for successful essay-writing:

1. Planning is important, but don’t spend too long perfecting a structure that might end up changing.

This may seem like odd advice to kick off with, but the truth is that different approaches work for different students and essayists. You need to find out which method works best for you.

It’s not a bad idea, regardless of whether you’re a big planner or not, to sketch out perhaps a few points on a sheet of paper before you start, but don’t be surprised if you end up moving away from it slightly – or considerably – when you start to write.

Often the most extensively planned essays are the most mechanistic and dull in execution, precisely because the writer has drawn up a plan and refused to deviate from it. What  is a more valuable skill is to be able to sense when your argument may be starting to go off-topic, or your point is getting out of hand,  as you write . (For help on this, see point 5 below.)

We might even say that when it comes to knowing how to write a good English Literature essay,  practising  is more important than planning.

2. Make room for close analysis of the text, or texts.

Whilst it’s true that some first-class or A-grade essays will be impressive without containing any close reading as such, most of the highest-scoring and most sophisticated essays tend to zoom in on the text and examine its language and imagery closely in the course of the argument. (Close reading of literary texts arises from theology and the analysis of holy scripture, but really became a ‘thing’ in literary criticism in the early twentieth century, when T. S. Eliot, F. R. Leavis, William Empson, and other influential essayists started to subject the poem or novel to close scrutiny.)

Close reading has two distinct advantages: it increases the specificity of your argument (so you can’t be so easily accused of generalising a point), and it improves your chances of pointing up something about the text which none of the other essays your marker is reading will have said. For instance, take In Memoriam  (1850), which is a long Victorian poem by the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson about his grief following the death of his close friend, Arthur Hallam, in the early 1830s.

When answering a question about the representation of religious faith in Tennyson’s poem  In Memoriam  (1850), how might you write a particularly brilliant essay about this theme? Anyone can make a general point about the poet’s crisis of faith; but to look closely at the language used gives you the chance to show  how the poet portrays this.

For instance, consider this stanza, which conveys the poet’s doubt:

A solid and perfectly competent essay might cite this stanza in support of the claim that Tennyson is finding it increasingly difficult to have faith in God (following the untimely and senseless death of his friend, Arthur Hallam). But there are several ways of then doing something more with it. For instance, you might get close to the poem’s imagery, and show how Tennyson conveys this idea, through the image of the ‘altar-stairs’ associated with religious worship and the idea of the stairs leading ‘thro’ darkness’ towards God.

In other words, Tennyson sees faith as a matter of groping through the darkness, trusting in God without having evidence that he is there. If you like, it’s a matter of ‘blind faith’. That would be a good reading. Now, here’s how to make a good English essay on this subject even better: one might look at how the word ‘falter’ – which encapsulates Tennyson’s stumbling faith – disperses into ‘falling’ and ‘altar’ in the succeeding lines. The word ‘falter’, we might say, itself falters or falls apart.

That is doing more than just interpreting the words: it’s being a highly careful reader of the poetry and showing how attentive to the language of the poetry you can be – all the while answering the question, about how the poem portrays the idea of faith. So, read and then reread the text you’re writing about – and be sensitive to such nuances of language and style.

The best way to  become attuned to such nuances is revealed in point 5. We might summarise this point as follows: when it comes to knowing how to write a persuasive English Literature essay, it’s one thing to have a broad and overarching argument, but don’t be afraid to use the  microscope as well as the telescope.

3. Provide several pieces of evidence where possible.

Many essays have a point to make and make it, tacking on a single piece of evidence from the text (or from beyond the text, e.g. a critical, historical, or biographical source) in the hope that this will be enough to make the point convincing.

‘State, quote, explain’ is the Holy Trinity of the Paragraph for many. What’s wrong with it? For one thing, this approach is too formulaic and basic for many arguments. Is one quotation enough to support a point? It’s often a matter of degree, and although one piece of evidence is better than none, two or three pieces will be even more persuasive.

After all, in a court of law a single eyewitness account won’t be enough to convict the accused of the crime, and even a confession from the accused would carry more weight if it comes supported by other, objective evidence (e.g. DNA, fingerprints, and so on).

Let’s go back to the example about Tennyson’s faith in his poem  In Memoriam  mentioned above. Perhaps you don’t find the end of the poem convincing – when the poet claims to have rediscovered his Christian faith and to have overcome his grief at the loss of his friend.

You can find examples from the end of the poem to suggest your reading of the poet’s insincerity may have validity, but looking at sources beyond the poem – e.g. a good edition of the text, which will contain biographical and critical information – may help you to find a clinching piece of evidence to support your reading.

And, sure enough, Tennyson is reported to have said of  In Memoriam : ‘It’s too hopeful, this poem, more than I am myself.’ And there we have it: much more convincing than simply positing your reading of the poem with a few ambiguous quotations from the poem itself.

Of course, this rule also works in reverse: if you want to argue, for instance, that T. S. Eliot’s  The Waste Land is overwhelmingly inspired by the poet’s unhappy marriage to his first wife, then using a decent biographical source makes sense – but if you didn’t show evidence for this idea from the poem itself (see point 2), all you’ve got is a vague, general link between the poet’s life and his work.

Show  how the poet’s marriage is reflected in the work, e.g. through men and women’s relationships throughout the poem being shown as empty, soulless, and unhappy. In other words, when setting out to write a good English essay about any text, don’t be afraid to  pile on  the evidence – though be sensible, a handful of quotations or examples should be more than enough to make your point convincing.

4. Avoid tentative or speculative phrasing.

Many essays tend to suffer from the above problem of a lack of evidence, so the point fails to convince. This has a knock-on effect: often the student making the point doesn’t sound especially convinced by it either. This leaks out in the telling use of, and reliance on, certain uncertain  phrases: ‘Tennyson might have’ or ‘perhaps Harper Lee wrote this to portray’ or ‘it can be argued that’.

An English university professor used to write in the margins of an essay which used this last phrase, ‘What  can’t be argued?’

This is a fair criticism: anything can be argued (badly), but it depends on what evidence you can bring to bear on it (point 3) as to whether it will be a persuasive argument. (Arguing that the plays of Shakespeare were written by a Martian who came down to Earth and ingratiated himself with the world of Elizabethan theatre is a theory that can be argued, though few would take it seriously. We wish we could say ‘none’, but that’s a story for another day.)

Many essay-writers, because they’re aware that texts are often open-ended and invite multiple interpretations (as almost all great works of literature invariably do), think that writing ‘it can be argued’ acknowledges the text’s rich layering of meaning and is therefore valid.

Whilst this is certainly a fact – texts are open-ended and can be read in wildly different ways – the phrase ‘it can be argued’ is best used sparingly if at all. It should be taken as true that your interpretation is, at bottom, probably unprovable. What would it mean to ‘prove’ a reading as correct, anyway? Because you found evidence that the author intended the same thing as you’ve argued of their text? Tennyson wrote in a letter, ‘I wrote In Memoriam  because…’?

But the author might have lied about it (e.g. in an attempt to dissuade people from looking too much into their private life), or they might have changed their mind (to go back to the example of  The Waste Land : T. S. Eliot championed the idea of poetic impersonality in an essay of 1919, but years later he described  The Waste Land as ‘only the relief of a personal and wholly insignificant grouse against life’ – hardly impersonal, then).

Texts – and their writers – can often be contradictory, or cagey about their meaning. But we as critics have to act responsibly when writing about literary texts in any good English essay or exam answer. We need to argue honestly, and sincerely – and not use what Wikipedia calls ‘weasel words’ or hedging expressions.

So, if nothing is utterly provable, all that remains is to make the strongest possible case you can with the evidence available. You do this, not only through marshalling the evidence in an effective way, but by writing in a confident voice when making your case. Fundamentally, ‘There is evidence to suggest that’ says more or less the same thing as ‘It can be argued’, but it foregrounds the  evidence rather than the argument, so is preferable as a phrase.

This point might be summarised by saying: the best way to write a good English Literature essay is to be honest about the reading you’re putting forward, so you can be confident in your interpretation and use clear, bold language. (‘Bold’ is good, but don’t get too cocky, of course…)

5. Read the work of other critics.

This might be viewed as the Holy Grail of good essay-writing tips, since it is perhaps the single most effective way to improve your own writing. Even if you’re writing an essay as part of school coursework rather than a university degree, and don’t need to research other critics for your essay, it’s worth finding a good writer of literary criticism and reading their work. Why is this worth doing?

Published criticism has at least one thing in its favour, at least if it’s published by an academic press or has appeared in an academic journal, and that is that it’s most probably been peer-reviewed, meaning that other academics have read it, closely studied its argument, checked it for errors or inaccuracies, and helped to ensure that it is expressed in a fluent, clear, and effective way.

If you’re serious about finding out how to write a better English essay, then you need to study how successful writers in the genre do it. And essay-writing is a genre, the same as novel-writing or poetry. But why will reading criticism help you? Because the critics you read can show you how to do all of the above: how to present a close reading of a poem, how to advance an argument that is not speculative or tentative yet not over-confident, how to use evidence from the text to make your argument more persuasive.

And, the more you read of other critics – a page a night, say, over a few months – the better you’ll get. It’s like textual osmosis: a little bit of their style will rub off on you, and every writer learns by the examples of other writers.

As T. S. Eliot himself said, ‘The poem which is absolutely original is absolutely bad.’ Don’t get precious about your own distinctive writing style and become afraid you’ll lose it. You can’t  gain a truly original style before you’ve looked at other people’s and worked out what you like and what you can ‘steal’ for your own ends.

We say ‘steal’, but this is not the same as saying that plagiarism is okay, of course. But consider this example. You read an accessible book on Shakespeare’s language and the author makes a point about rhymes in Shakespeare. When you’re working on your essay on the poetry of Christina Rossetti, you notice a similar use of rhyme, and remember the point made by the Shakespeare critic.

This is not plagiarising a point but applying it independently to another writer. It shows independent interpretive skills and an ability to understand and apply what you have read. This is another of the advantages of reading critics, so this would be our final piece of advice for learning how to write a good English essay: find a critic whose style you like, and study their craft.

If you’re looking for suggestions, we can recommend a few favourites: Christopher Ricks, whose  The Force of Poetry is a tour de force; Jonathan Bate, whose  The Genius of Shakespeare , although written for a general rather than academic audience, is written by a leading Shakespeare scholar and academic; and Helen Gardner, whose  The Art of T. S. Eliot , whilst dated (it came out in 1949), is a wonderfully lucid and articulate analysis of Eliot’s poetry.

James Wood’s How Fiction Works  is also a fine example of lucid prose and how to close-read literary texts. Doubtless readers of  Interesting Literature will have their own favourites to suggest in the comments, so do check those out, as these are just three personal favourites. What’s your favourite work of literary scholarship/criticism? Suggestions please.

Much of all this may strike you as common sense, but even the most commonsensical advice can go out of your mind when you have a piece of coursework to write, or an exam to revise for. We hope these suggestions help to remind you of some of the key tenets of good essay-writing practice – though remember, these aren’t so much commandments as recommendations. No one can ‘tell’ you how to write a good English Literature essay as such.

But it can be learned. And remember, be interesting – find the things in the poems or plays or novels which really ignite your enthusiasm. As John Mortimer said, ‘The only rule I have found to have any validity in writing is not to bore yourself.’

Finally, good luck – and happy writing!

And if you enjoyed these tips for how to write a persuasive English essay, check out our advice for how to remember things for exams  and our tips for becoming a better close reader of poetry .

Discover more from Interesting Literature

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Type your email…

30 thoughts on “How to Write a Good English Literature Essay”

You must have taken AP Literature. I’m always saying these same points to my students.

I also think a crucial part of excellent essay writing that too many students do not realize is that not every point or interpretation needs to be addressed. When offered the chance to write your interpretation of a work of literature, it is important to note that there of course are many but your essay should choose one and focus evidence on this one view rather than attempting to include all views and evidence to back up each view.

Reblogged this on SocioTech'nowledge .

Not a bad effort…not at all! (Did you intend “subject” instead of “object” in numbered paragraph two, line seven?”

Oops! I did indeed – many thanks for spotting. Duly corrected ;)

That’s what comes of writing about philosophy and the subject/object for another post at the same time!

Reblogged this on Scribing English .

• Pingback: Recommended Resource: Interesting Literature.com & how to write an essay | Write Out Loud

Great post on essay writing! I’ve shared a post about this and about the blog site in general which you can look at here: http://writeoutloudblog.com/2015/01/13/recommended-resource-interesting-literature-com-how-to-write-an-essay/

All of these are very good points – especially I like 2 and 5. I’d like to read the essay on the Martian who wrote Shakespeare’s plays).

Reblogged this on Uniqely Mustered and commented: Dedicate this to all upcoming writers and lovers of Writing!

I shall take this as my New Year boost in Writing Essays. Please try to visit often for corrections,advise and criticisms.

Reblogged this on Blue Banana Bread .

Reblogged this on worldsinthenet .

All very good points, but numbers 2 and 4 are especially interesting.

• Pingback: Weekly Digest | Alpha Female, Mainstream Cat

Reblogged this on rainniewu .

Reblogged this on pixcdrinks .

• Pingback: How to Write a Good English Essay? Interesting Literature | EngLL.Com

Great post. Interesting infographic how to write an argumentative essay http://www.essay-profy.com/blog/how-to-write-an-essay-writing-an-argumentative-essay/

Reblogged this on DISTINCT CHARACTER and commented: Good Tips

Reblogged this on quirkywritingcorner and commented: This could be applied to novel or short story writing as well.

Reblogged this on rosetech67 and commented: Useful, albeit maybe a bit late for me :-)

• Pingback: How to Write a Good English Essay | georg28ang

such a nice pieace of content you shared in this write up about “How to Write a Good English Essay” going to share on another useful resource that is

• Pingback: Mark Twain’s Rules for Good Writing | Interesting Literature
• Pingback: How to Remember Things for Exams | Interesting Literature
• Pingback: Michael Moorcock: How to Write a Novel in 3 Days | Interesting Literature
• Pingback: Shakespeare and the Essay | Interesting Literature

A well rounded summary on all steps to keep in mind while starting on writing. There are many new avenues available though. Benefit from the writing options of the 21st century from here, i loved it! http://authenticwritingservices.com

• Pingback: Mark Twain’s Rules for Good Writing | Peacejusticelove's Blog

Comments are closed.

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Miss Huttlestone's GCSE English

Because a whole class of wonderful minds are better than just one!

How to crack the ‘An Inspector Calls’ essay: a suggested structure

Happy easter year 10 and 11. i do hope you’re channeling your energy into some purposeful literature revision and that re-reading ‘an inspector calls’ is an integral element of this process. you see, swatting up on the literature texts means knowing the texts inside out , upside down (impressive) and front to back; it’s not enough to have read the texts once with me in class, the examiners can tell a mile off a student who knows the texts from those who have merely regurgitated what their teacher has told them about it., so in leaving the knowing of the text up to you and your independence now, i thought i’d put together a one stop shop for how to structure a top band ‘an inspector calls’ essay in exam conditions – this i can help with. here goes….

STEP ONE: The Introduction In your introduction, you need to set up the parameters for debate – your big bossy idea that will be constantly referred back to in the main body of your essay. This means you need to outline your argument and show that you know exactly what the question is asking you. You will also need to show how you are going to focus your answer.

If you are asked about a character, you should provide an overview of this character’s importance to the play and his/her function . if you are writing about a theme, you should talk about how that theme pervades the play and the reason you find it important. if you are asked about the opening or ending of the play, you should ensure you open by talking about its significance to the play as a whole., here’s an example of a meaningful, purposeful introduction:, what is the function of sheila in an inspector calls sheila has been celebrated as the most dynamic character in the play by many readers and viewers of ‘an inspector calls’. this is because she is deliberately crafted as a mouthpiece for priestley as well as being a physical representative of the younger generation – a generation that has the potential power to aid the socialist progression of society. whilst she has been raised as a member of the upper middle class, she is able to shake off her capitalist views in favour of a more socialist perspective, encouraging her family to recognise the importance of looking after those in less privileged positions. sheila, by the end of the play, is indeed the very portrait of change priestley sought in a post ww2 context. .

Step two: The main body of your essay for a character based essay:

As my highly scientific diagram of a veggie burger above suggests, the main body of your essay is the most essential – it carries the sustenance, the weight to the ideas posed in your introduction. for character questions you might want to break it down like this:, section 1: how the character is presented before the inspector’s arrival – contrast with another character e.g. sheila vs her mother, section 2: how the character is presented when they hear news of eva smith or daisy renton – compare and contrast with other characters;, section 3: how the character is presented during their interrogation – compare or contrast with another character and also discuss how the inspector treats them., section 4: how the character is presented at the end of the play once the inspector leaves – compare and contrast with other characters., for each of the sections identified above, you need to do the following: – provide a clear topic sentence, e.g. when we are first introduced to sheila, we feel…..; – provide at least one piece of evidence from the play, ideally 2-3; – analyse the evidence (the language) and provide inferences about the character, using analytical verbs from your word bank; – contrast or compare with another character; –  explain how priestley may want us to feel about the character and how this connects to his ideas., for some of the sections, you need to also: – discuss a dramatic device used at this point in the play e.g. stage directions. entrances and exits, props etc. – introduce contextual information to develop your interpretation of character. , approaching a theme based question:, a typical question might appear like this:, how does priestley present the theme of conflict in an inspector calls, the structure for an essay on themes is fairly straightforward. you need to decide on 3-4 ways in which the theme is presented and then examine each of these in turn. try to have something unusual up your sleeve for your final paragraph. remember, that for each section of your essay, you need to follow the same rules as above also., here are two visual examples of how you can approach themes:.

Essays on structure / specific scenes

Sometimes, you will be offered a question which is a little unusual so expect the unexpected. it may ask you to consider a part of the play and its relationship to a whole, or it may draw your attention to a structural device. these questions can be more challenging in terms of how to organise your response., an example: how is the opening of an inspector calls effective in setting up the events and ideas in the play, in order to tackle this, you will need to decide on four key aspects of the opening scene to explore, but you will still need to talk about the play as a whole since the question asks about the scene’s importance to the events and ideas presented later. here is an example plan for tackling this question:, 1. the use of lighting – the mood created and how this changes later in the play; 2. the use of props – how atmosphere is created and what these props symbolise, linking to ideas later in the play and context of edwardian era; 3. the stage directions and what we learn about each character merely from first impressions – how these are then demonstrated later in the play; 4. edna – her voice and lack thereof; 5. birling’s big, bold speeches; 6. the sharp ring of the doorbell – how it provokes a change in events, mood, ideas, and how it links to what happens at the end of the play; 7. any early foreshadowing..

The Tricky Conclusion If in doubt, leave it out! A conclusion is important in drawing your ideas together, but  there is little worse than a bad conclusion! If you are simply going to waffle and repeat  yourself, stick to a very brief and compelling single sentence to round off your essay.

If,  however, you wish to gain access to the higher levels of the mark scheme, you need to  develop a carefully crafted conclusion to your debate. you should draw together your  ideas to formulate your overall view on the theme or character, and ideally say something compelling to leave your essay on a high. the conclusion is to give your essay a sense of completeness and let your readers know that they have come to the end of your argument. it might restate the thesis in different words, summarise the main points you have made, or make a relevant comment about the literary work you are analysing, but from a different perspective. do not introduce a new topic in your conclusion., example conclusion:, what is the function of sheila in an inspector calls by the time we reach the final moments of the play, sheila has fallen silent, along with the rest of her family. however, this is not the silence of guilt; it is the telling silence of defeat: she has tried desperately to convince her family to “learn something” and reproaches them like a parent when she exclaims “it frightens me the way you talk”, but all of her efforts have been in vain. we see her as a reformed character and recognise priestley’s cry for help from his audience – we are all left wanting to help sheila in her quest to change the stagnant dangerous attitudes of the upper middle class – attitudes that repress the lower class citizens of society. therefore, we can see that sheila’s function is not merely to teach simple lessons about looking  after thy neighbour, but political lessons: we need to learn from the mistakes of our past, which led to two harrowing world wars, and seek to create a more caring and inclusive society., so you see, in the end all essays have a process and a logic behind them. just make sure you’re saying something passionate and telling throughout. never forget that the play is a construction and serves a political purpose. the characters aren’t real people but serve metaphorical and allegorical functions. your essay must be well structured sure, but it must also be a display of your passion for the text itself – let this shine through the formalities.  .

Share this:

Published by.

gcseenglishwithmisshuttlestone

Secondary English teacher in Herts. View all posts by gcseenglishwithmisshuttlestone

One thought on “How to crack the ‘An Inspector Calls’ essay: a suggested structure”

Like Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment Cancel reply

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

GCSE English Literature Revision

Is your English Literature GCSE coming up? Oxford Revise can show you how to make every minute of your English revision count and help you to enter that exam hall with confidence. You’ve got this!

When should I start revising?

Revision planner

Your revision plan is going to be one of your most important revision tools (alongside your Oxford Revise Revision Guides of course 😉). Use this free planner to start building yours.

English Literature revision guides

Oxford Revise: AQA GCSE English Literature: Macbeth

Oxford Revise: AQA GCSE English Literature: An Inspector Calls

Oxford Revise: AQA GCSE English Literature: Power and Conflict Poetry Anthology

• International
• Education Jobs
• Schools directory
• Resources Education Jobs Schools directory News Search

GCSE Literature Plan & Write Essay Guide

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

19 May 2018

• Share through email
• Share through twitter
• Share through linkedin
• Share through facebook
• Share through pinterest

A pupil friendly, step by step, English Literature essay planning and writing guide.

These resources provide a framework to enable learners to write comprehensive and well structured essays.

There are two resources:

Document Explains how to plan and write a literature essay from scratch.

There are also images of how students should think about their planning.

There is a small explanation of what is expected at each particular part. This is supplemented with a model at each stage,

The model is broken down into: Point Evidence Technique Analysis Link (PETAL).

There is a revision activity at the end.

Power Point A supplementary powerpoint that can be used as a lesson or as planning templates to print.

There is also a colour coded model paragraph included.

Guidance on how to write an overarching statement (introduction).

There is also a slide with a nominalisation activity to enhance academic writing.

Hope this is useful!

Creative Commons "NoDerivatives"

Your rating is required to reflect your happiness.

It's good to leave some feedback.

Something went wrong, please try again later.

Excellent resource, thank you!

Empty reply does not make any sense for the end user

Detailed and helpful. Thank you!

rosiewebster

Really helpful. Many thanks

A systematic approach to analytical essay writing which students would find helpful. Thanks!

Great. Thanks

Report this resource to let us know if it violates our terms and conditions. Our customer service team will review your report and will be in touch.

Not quite what you were looking for? Search by keyword to find the right resource: