Writing an essay is more than a technical matter. If you write accurately, use quotations correctly and answer the question, that’s simply not enough for a top grade. There is more to an essay than writing grammatical sentences and using literary terminology. As an A-level English literature student, it is vital that you develop an individual voice, through which you put your own stamp on what you are saying. Look at the wording of assessment objective 1: it begins ‘Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts…’. Developing an ‘informed, personal and creative’ voice takes time and a readiness to experiment. But be assured, as with all essaywriting skills, there are steps you can take to improve and move forward with this.
The transition to writing high-scoring A-level essays doesn’t happen overnight. At first, you may be restricted by how you wrote at GCSE, perhaps writing in a formulaic way. Or you might imagine that there are certain things you have to include, which could hamper your ability to think for yourself. Here is the opening of a new Year 12 student’s essay.
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