Contemporary Scottish Theatre
Essay Writing
Created by L McCarry
Contemporary Scottish Theatre
• As part of your written exam you will complete a
CST essay.
• This is different from the SET TEXT as you have a
choice of many more questions.
• You have a choice of eight questions, two
questions are under each of the headings: Social,
Political and Religious Dimensions, Use of History
Nostalgia and Popular Tradition, Issues of Gender
and Current Productions and Issues.
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Contemporary Scottish Theatre
• You must choose ONE question to answer from the eight
given.
• You must consider which question will enable you to
demonstrate your knowledge of the plays and answer the
question fully.
• You must always mention at LEAST two plays that you have
studied or seen.
• The most popular questions chosen by our candidates are
in the Social and Issues of Gender headings.
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SQA Guidelines
• The essay will seek a response from the candidate in respect of their
knowledge of two or more plays and their views on themes which the texts
address. These responses should not be a retelling of the plot but should
demonstrate that the candidate is able to show how issues and themes are
dealt with in the texts selected. Once selection of the question has been
made, careful reading of that question is essential to understand its full
demands.
• When marking, an holistic approach should be taken. However, all elements
of the question must be addressed when awarding maximum marks.
• One additional mark may we awarded for good use of quotes.
• One additional mark may be awarded for a well structured essay with a
good introduction and conclusion.
• The total mark for the essay is 20 marks.
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Social Questions
• When starting any CST essay ANSWER the question in the
introduction and state what plays you plan to discuss to enable you
to answer the question.
• The common mistake with the social essays is to list the social
conditions you have learned about e.g. ‘…another social issue is…’
which quite often means that the question is not being answered.
• Prepare and find quotes under the following: The Depression and
the poverty caused by this, Housing/living conditions, Health, Work
(including roles of women/men and unemployment) and
Community. This should give you enough to discuss in a social essay.
Try to find a few quotes under each of the above, from TWO plays.
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Social Questions
• You have a good structure in place for answering a
social question as you have The Depression, poverty,
living conditions etc. already prepared as examples of
social issues within the plays you have read.
• However, what’s really important is to take the quotes
that you have that illustrate the social issue and use
these to answer the question appropriately:
See an example of the next slide
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Social Question
Q: (2009) “Contemporary Scottish plays highlight the need for political and/or social
change.’ With reference to two or more plays you have studied or seen, discuss the
political and/or social changes that Scottish playwrights want us to consider.
A: I believe that Ena Lamont Stewart’s play ‘Men Should Weep’ highlights the
need for social change as the characters housing and living conditions are
poor, cramped, overcrowded and poorly built. They all seek a change and a
better way of life. In particular, the character of Bertie is unable to return home
due to the damp and crowded living conditions, which would hinder his
recovery from TB. A moment in the play that conveys this is when Jenny says:
‘Daddy, if Bertie comes back here, he’ll – he’ll never get better…It’s rotten, this
hoose. Rotten. Damp…’ These quotes give us an insight into just how bad the
living conditions must have been at the time. Jenny offers the family a change
in their social situation when she returns at the end of the play: ‘I can get ye a
four room an kitchen, rare an open, near a park. An…I’ll can help ye wi the
rent.’ This quote further shows the life the family could have if they accepted
Jenny’s offer. She has changed her social situation and wants to do the same
for her family.
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Social Questions
• What is important is that you are mentioning
the social issue but ONLY IN RELEVANCE TO
THE QUESTION.
• Remember an important point is not to quote
without saying afterwards ‘this quote shows…’
as you will not receive a mark without
justifying the relevance of your point.
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Issues of Gender Questions
• Gender questions can be very interesting to answer.
However, you must have many quotes prepared to
enable you to pick up as many marks as possible, as
you don’t have the structure of the social issues to help
you in these essays.
• Gender questions can ask for your opinion on a
statement and often want you to discuss this with
relevance to the plays you have read. The vocabulary
can also be tricky in gender questions, they like to
throw you a long word just to confuse you!!
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Issues of Gender Questions
They tend to fall into similar categories of question based on:
The roles of women or men
The relationships between women and men
The more powerful/ domineering or submissive sex
Unconventional roles
Families
Generation differences
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Issues of Gender Questions
Look at your past paper questions
to get an idea of the style of
questions. It is important to
prepare quotes and examples from
the text that could be adapted to fit
any question asked.
Past Papers
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Issues of Gender Questions
On the next couple of slides
you will see ONE example of
an Issue of Gender question,
initial introduction and start
of an essay.
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Issues of Gender Questions
Q: (2007) Describe and analyse the portrayal of submissive and/or domineering
women in at least two plays you have either seen or read.
A: In this essay, I am going to discuss the portrayal of submissive and domineering
women, as I believe these can be found in the plays I have read which are: Ena Lamont
Stewart’s ‘Men Should Weep,’ Tony Roper’s ‘The Steamie’ and Ann Marie Di Mambro’s
‘Tally’s Blood.’
I believe that a submissive character is one that is controlled by others and gives into
them, someone who is stuck in the drudgery of life and struggles to change it, this can
be seen initially in the character of Maggie in ‘MSW.’ However, in most of the plays I
have read the women can be seen as domineering, in terms of being strong willed and
vocal such as Magrit in ‘The Steamie,’ prepared to do whatever it takes to get what
they want and can manipulate and control others, such as Isa and even Jenny at times
in ‘MSW’ and Rosinella in ‘Tally’s Blood.’ Each have their reasons for being this way
and I will now analyse and describe the way these women are portrayed in the texts.
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Issues of Gender Questions
The character of Isa is a very domineering character, we understand
this as she is a woman who uses her sexuality to manipulate Alec and
to also flirt with John to annoy Maggie. She puts Alec in his place and
believes that he is not good enough for her. She threatens to leave him
because he can’t provide for her and she even further insults him by
claiming she will leave him for a local man who can give her what she
wants. She eventually escapes the drudgery of her life. Isa’s
domineering side is shown when she says: ‘If you want tae keep me,
it’s time ye wis makin a bit o dough again. I canna live on air…I’m sick
fed up wi you. I’f I’d went wi Peter Robb I’d hae a fur coat…fancy me
mairryin a rat like you.’
These quotes help to show how Isa uses insults to dominate Alec, she
is pushing him to get what she wants. She knows he loves her and uses
this to manipulate him to give her the life she wants. This is unusual
for the time period as she is unafraid of him and not afraid to leave
him, which she eventually does.
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Issues of Gender Questions
•In this type of essay you would continue to
describe the character and then analyse their
portrayal as either submissive or domineering.
•What is important is to keep linking back to the
question being asked and justifying your reasons
as to why you think they are portrayed in this
way.
Created by L McCarry
Contemporary Scottish Theatre
• Popular Tradition essays will be covered later
in the course.
• This presentation is designed to give you a
‘starter’ to writing essays and structuring
these.
• The first thing you must do is prepare quotes
as advised in the previous slides, then you are
ready to work on past paper questions.
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Well Done!
You have now completed revision
on:
Contemporary Scottish Theatre
Essay Writing
Created by L McCarry