Critical Essay Writing
Choosing the Question
One of the most important aspects of the critical essay is relevance to the task. It is
impossible to achieve a good mark in the critical essay if your response is not relevant to
the task, even if the points you include are correct. It is therefore vital that you pick a
question that suits your text and allows you to show off what you have learned.
Does it suit the text?
The first step is to look at the first sentence of each question – this is the sentence which leads
you towards what text will suit the question. You should make sure that the text suits the
instruction in the first sentence – if it doesn’t suit then you will find it very difficult to answer the
question in a relevant way.
For example:
Choose a play which has a happy ending.
If you were to choose a play like Romeo and Juliet you would have a very hard time justifying the
happiness of the ending and it would be likely that you would not produce a good essay.
What should I include?
Once you have chosen the questions that relate to your text you then need to decide what
exactly you are being asked to write about, this information is found in the second part of the
question. The instructions here are there to direct you towards a particular aspect of the text and
to prevent you writing everything that you know about the poem, play or piece of prose. You
must look for the key words in the question to decide what is being asked of you. It is important
that you choose a question that you will be able to answer as simply writing all you know will not
result in a good mark.
the type of poem
For example:
establish the
aspect – keep it
as wide as poss
Choose a poem which increased your understanding of any
aspect of life in the modern world.
State what aspect of life in the modern world the poem
illustrates and go on to show how the poem, both by its
content and by its style, increased your understanding.
identify the
‘techniques/aspects
You obviously cannot guess what the questions will be, but you can learn to recognise certain
phrases which often appear:
‘by close reference to the text’ – you should include detailed examples refereeing to particular
parts of the text. Close references often take the form of quotations.
‘to what extent’ – this expects you to look at both sides of a situation. For example if the
question was asking you to consider the extent of a change in a character, you should look at
the ways they do and do not change and then arrive at you own conclusion.
‘discuss the various techniques used’ – you are expected to focus on the methods (techniques)
used by the writer – you should avoid excessive story telling here
Steps
1. Read the questions and tick the ones that are suitable
2. Re-read the suitable questions and decide which one will allow you display your knowledge
3. De-construct the question – focus on the key words and decide exactly what you are being
asked to do.
Critical Essay Writing
Planning the Response
You have only 45 minutes to write the essay so it is often tempting to missing the
planning stage. Planning an essay should take only a few minutes and should not only
allow you to focus on the question, but can also help calm any nerves. By spending a few
minutes deciding what to put in the essay you will focus you on the task and are more
likely to write a relevant response.
What happens if I don’t plan?
o It is likely that that you will begin your essay and then will realise that you have forgotten
a point.
o You will start well and than after you have made a few points you will realise that you
don’t know what to say next.
o Your essay won’t have a clear line of thought and you will gradually move away from the
aim you started with.
What should a plan look like?
There is no correct answer to this. The plan won’t be marked so it is up to you how you plan the
essay. Quite often plans will look messy with bits scored out and other bits added in and arrows
showing what goes where – this is a good sign as it shows that you have thought about the
points and the order which will make it more likely that you will write a well-formed essay
There are various ways to plan an essay, the two most common are:
o spider chart
o brief paragraph plan
What goes in a plan?
Again, this is up to you – but remember that you don’t receive marks for the plan so you don’t
want to write too much. A quick note of the points you want to make or the techniques you want
to discuss will suffice. You then should decide the most suitable order for the points to go in.
You may also want to note down the quotations that you plan on using – you can jot down
shortened version using an ellipsis.
Steps
1. Re-read the question focusing on the key words and phrases you underlined when picking the
task
2. Note down the important and relevant points and techniques or features
3. Put the points in a suitable order.
Choose a poem which increased your understanding of any aspect of life in the modern world.
State what aspect of life in the modern world the poem illustrates and go on to show how the poem,
both by its content and by its style, increased your understanding.
“Glasgow Nocturne” by Maurice Lindsay
Violence – content, imagery, word-choice and tone
Content
Violence in inner-city life. Description of a gang murder.
Honest and graphic account. Nothing was being hidden.
Imagery/Gang Gangs as packs of violent animals
Horrific image – clearly a major problem which is often cloaked by night.
Incident
Unapologetically graphic
No escape from how horrific this life is. A deeper understanding of the meaninglessness
it is.
Daylight
Detached and uncaring
Focuses on what we should be thinking about.
Intro
Critical Essay Writing
Introduction
The intorduction is the first piece of your writing that the examinar will see so you want to
make a good first impression. You must remember that the purpose of the introduction is
to introduce the essay – not the story of the text.
What should I include?
The following points are all that are really necessary in the introduction:
Title of the text
Author of the text
Genre of the text (poem, play etc)
Link to task
The link to the task is the part that often causes the most problems, but there is no reason to be confused
by it. All you have to do is write include a few sentences which explain what the essay will be about using
the wording of the question to help you.
If you want to you can include a sentence or two of a summary.
Using the wording of the question
You do not need to worry about being overly inventive with the introduction – you just want to write a brief
paragraph which shows the marker exactly what you will be writing about.
You will use the underlined version of the question and your plan to help you write the introduction. You
then want to insert this information into the question
the type of poem
For example:
establish
the aspect
– keep it
as wide as
poss
Choose a poem which increased your understanding of any
aspect of life in the modern world.
State what aspect of life in the modern world the poem
illustrates and go on to show how the poem, both by its
content and by its style, increased your understanding.
identify the
‘techniques/aspects
“Glasgow Nocturne” by Maurice Lindsay
Violence – content, imagery, word-choice and tone
Content
Violence in inner-city life. Description of a gang murder.
Honest and graphic account. Nothing was being hidden.
Imagery/Gang
Gangs as packs of violent animals
Horrific image – clearly a major problem which is often cloaked by night.
Incident
Unapologetically graphic
No escape from how horrific this life is. A deeper understanding of the
meaninglessness it is.
Daylight
Detached and uncaring
Focuses on what we should be thinking about.
Intro
Violence is an aspect of everyday life that most people choose to try to ignore, however in the
modern world it seems to become increasingly hard to disregard. Maurice Lindsay addresses
this horrific aspect of society in his poem “Glasgow Nocturne”. Through effective use of imagery,
word choice and descriptive recounting of incidents and responses to these incidents, Lindsay
vividly recounts gang violence which occurs in any city. This thought-provoking poem forces the
reader to consider the violence in the world today, and in turn allows us to gain a deeper
understanding of this occurrence that we would usually close our eyes to.
Critical Essay Writing
Main Body
The main body of the essay is where you show off your knowledge of the text. It is vital
that everything you include in the main body is relevant to the task and is as detailed as
possible.
Point
This is the first sentence of every paragraph you write. The purpose of this sentence is to
show how the paragraph is going to relate to the task so you should include the aspect
paragraph is dealing with and some reference to the task. After the first paragraph you
could start with a phrase such as a second technique or another reason or the writer also etc
Evidence
This section includes the evidence you are using to illustrate your point. You must
remember to put the evidence in context to ensure that it makes sense
Analysis
This is where you analyse the significance of the evidence – try to relate this to a technique
if possible.
Respond
This is the last sentence of the paragraph which acts like a small conclusion to each
paragraph – again this is a place for you to hammer the relevance of your point.
Question – reader’s understanding of an aspect of the modern world
POINT
Analysis
His unapologetically graphic word choice has a deep impact on
the reader and imprints in their mind the true nature of the
meaningless violence that occurs in today’s world and forces us
to understand it. By describing the events in clinical and
insensitive language he demands that the reader notice how
horrific the attacks are. He reports the killing in a very matter of
fact manner.
“
ribs and jaw
broken, kidneys and testicles ruptured, a slit
where the knife licked his groin”
The way he reports the death is detached and unemotional,
resembling a police report. By presenting the story in such a way
he gains the reader’s attention immediately as the lack of imagery to
soften the words forces us to see the harsh reality of the situation.
Such events would often be ignored by those people
who do not inhabit the under-world of today’s towns
and cities so such a strong language is undoubtedly
required to have a real impact. He gives us an
insight into a world that we would, under normal
circumstances, choose to ignore.
EVIDENCE
with
Context
RESPOND
In order to perform well in this part of the exam it is vital that you learn notes
and quotations – it is only when you really know these that you will become
comfortable with writing the essays
Critical Essay Writing
Conclusion
The conclusion is the last piece of your writing that the examinar will see so you want to
end on a relevant note. You must remember that the purpose of the conclusion is to sum
the the points and agrument that you have presented – not to add new information or for
you to mark the piece out of ten!!!
What should I include?
The same points as you put in the introduction:
Title of the text
Author of the text
Genre of the text (poem, play etc)
Link to task
Again, you link to the task by using the wording of the question and mentioning the
aspects that you have focussed on. It is also appropriate for you to sum up your
personal response to the piece – again though keep it relevant to the task; if the
question is about deepening understanding then focus on what you have learned, if it is
about enjoyment then focus on what you have enjoyed etc.
Choose a poem which increased your understanding of any aspect of life in the modern world.
State what aspect of life in the modern world the poem illustrates and go on to show how the poem,
both by its content and by its style, increased your understanding.
“Glasgow Nocturne” by Maurice Lindsay
Violence – content, imagery, word-choice and tone
Content
Violence in inner-city life. Description of a gang murder.
Honest and graphic account. Nothing was being hidden.
Imagery/Gang Gangs as packs of violent animals
Horrific image – clearly a major problem which is often cloaked by night.
Incident
Unapologetically graphic
No escape from how horrific this life is. A deeper understanding of the meaninglessness
it is.
Daylight
Detached and uncaring
Focuses on what we should be thinking about.
Intro
The content and the style used to present this aspect of modern living makes for
distressing reading. It is a subject that most would claim to know little about and one
which many would rather ignore. Yet through strikingly graphic word-choice, imagery and a
recount of a shocking incident coupled with a seeming detached tone, Lindsay forces his
readers to take notice of the violence that surrounds them and leads them to a deeper
understanding of the subject that they would rather forget.
Critical Essay Writing
Style
The content of your essay is obviously the most important aspect of your essay, but it is
important that the essay is written in a was that
Technical Accuracy
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You must write in paragraphs – be sure to indent the first word or miss a
line to make it clear that you are doing this
Spelling should be as accurate as possible and should be consistent.
Words that you know you will use such as technical terms, titles and
authors should be learned by heart to ensure they are written correctly
Punctuation should be as accurate as possible. Be aware of comma
splices and apostrophes (remember they are used to show missing letters
and to denote possession – not to show a plural!!!)
Use capital letters in the correct places – for I and at the start of sentences
and proper nouns
Quotations
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You must remain consistent in the way you present quotations.
If you are quoting only a few words these can go in the main body of the
text. For example. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo shows his feelings for Julie
by declaring that she is “the sun”. This shows that…
If you are quoting anything longer than a line then you should take a new
line, indent the quote and both sides and then take a new line when
returning to the essay. Remember when quoting poetry that the lines
should appear in the same way as they do in the original.
Formality
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
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You should write as formally as possible.
Refer to the writer by his or her full or last name – not their first name
alone.
Where possible, avoid I. You could use a phrases such as the reader
instead
You want to show flair in your writing so ensure that you use technical
language and vary your vocabulary. This said you are not writing a piece
for entertainment purposes so you must remember to keep it formal.