P.E.E / SQuEx / BURGER Points
P.E.E – point, evidence, explain
SQuEx – say, quote, explain
1) MAKE A POINT
2) PROVE YOUR POINT BY USING A QUOTE
3) EXPLAIN HOW THE QUOTE PROVES YOUR POINT
Simples......!
Of Mice And Men
• When writing your Of Mice and Men essay, you may
wish to make a point that Lennie is ungrateful. The
point (P) would look like this;
• Lennie is helped and supported by George, but, it is
never enough, Lennie always wants more.
• This point is fine; there is nothing wrong with it,
but, I cannot give you marks for this – because it is
not supported, you are just STATING A FACT.
Time to develop your point...
Lennie is helped and supported by George, but, it is
never enough, Lennie always wants more.
In the first chapter of the novel, Lennie made a big
fuss because George didn’t have ketchup, he
wanted ketchup on his beans and George didn’t
have any. They got into a fight and Lennie said he’d
go off and live in a cave.
What’s YOUR opinion? Is that answer making a point
and giving an example?
Let’s take it further......
Lennie is helped and supported by George, but, it is
never enough, Lennie always wants more.
This is evident in chapter one. George has carried tins
of beans for supper and offers Lennie some. His
response is quite ungrateful, “I like ‘em with
ketchup.” George explains there is no Ketchup and
Lennie again repeats, “I like ‘em with Ketchup!” This
is followed with George losing his cool, and Lennie
threatens to “go off an live in one of them caves.”
POINT
EVIDENCE
Let’s go ALL the way...........
Lennie is helped and supported by George, but, it is
never enough, Lennie always wants more.
This is evident in chapter one. George has carried tins
of beans for supper and offers Lennie some. His
response is quite ungrateful “I like ‘em with
ketchup.” George explains there is no Ketchup and
Lennie again repeats “I like ‘em with Ketchup!” This
is followed with George losing his cool, and Lennie
threatens to “go off an live in one of them caves.”
Lennie's responses, his desire for ketchup and his
threat to run away prove that he is ungrateful of
George and his efforts of help and support, he
wants more.
•
•
•
•
That is a perfect P.E.E answer,
POINT
EVIDENCE
EXPLANATION
• Great stuff
Earnest Hemingway

Born on July 21, 1899, in Cicero, Illinois

served in World War I and worked in journalism
before publishing his story collection In Our Time.

1918, he was seriously wounded and returned home.
His wartime experiences formed the basis for his
novel A Farewell to Arms (1929).

renowned for novels like The Sun Also Rises, A
Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The
Old Man and the Sea, which won the 1953 Pulitzer.
Earnest Hemingway

1954, won the Nobel Prize.

Many of his works are considered classics of American literature.

four wives:
1st – Hadley Richardson -1921 -Paris –foreign correspondent –
influence of modernist writers and artists of 1920s "Lost
Generation" expatriate community.
2nd -1927-Pauline Pfeiffer -divorced after he returned from the
Spanish Civil War where he had been a journalist
3rd -1940 - ). Martha Gellhorn -separated when he met Mary Welsh
-4th wife - in London during World War II

He was present at the Normandy landings and the liberation of
Paris.
Earnest Hemingway

1952 –went on safari to Africa

almost killed in two successive plane
crashes that left him in pain or ill health
for much of his remaining life

Houses in Florida, Cuba and Idaho

summer 1961-Committed suicide
Earnest Hemingway

Hemingway –famous for way he writes in spare, tight
prose -70 percent of the sentences are simple
sentences -"changed the nature of American writing.“

style was fundamentally shaped "in reaction to [his]
experience of world war".

Along with other modernists - "lost faith in the central
institutions of Western civilization"

reacted against the elaborate style of 19th century
writers by creating a style;
"in which meaning is established through dialogue,
through action, and silences—a fiction in which nothing
crucial—or at least very little—is stated explicitly.’’

Themes -love, war, wilderness and loss

Began as writer of short stories

learned to "get the most from the least, how to
prune language, how to multiply intensities and
how to tell nothing but the truth in a way that
allowed for telling more than the truth

Iceberg theory - facts float above water; the
supporting structure and symbolism operate out
of sight. -sometimes referred to as the "theory of
omission".

describe one thing-an entirely different thing
occurs below the surface
Context Information
Hills Like White Elephants
Earnest Hemingway
3 stages to this short story;

The girl is pregnant

Story set in Catholic Spain in the 1920s

Hemingway – famous for his use of
symbolism
Earnest Hemingway
Hills Like White Elephants –

Great portrait of how we talk at, to and past
each other

How we can go on and on and never quite
get at what it is we really want to say

Story-chance to reflect on way we talk to our
loved ones and what we might, or might not,
reveal when we do communicate
Earnest Hemingway

In a group, discuss ways in which this
context information on Hills like White
Elephants leads you to further
understanding of the text

Make notes to refer to when discussing
the poem
Task