How do I structure my coursework/ exam essays? Do you have any other tips for essay technique?

APPROACHING ESSAYS:

FIRST APPROACH: Really try to think about and dismantle the question. What exactly are you being asked? What would you like to write about? Is there a way you can twist the question so that it fits what you've revised? Highlight key words. The question is likely to be a controversial statement. Is it a black and white issue (the answer is most likely no), and if not, what are the different ways of thinking about it?

TIP: If you are doing coursework/ brainstorming exam questions untimed, you can make a mindmap for the question. Write the question in the middle of a piece of paper and forget about all your set text(s) for a moment. Think very literally about what individual words can mean. Examiners like it when you get really specific.

INTRODUCTION: Engage with your question immedeatly. The first introduction is where you want to make general points, moving into the specific in the body of your essay. What is your argument? Use this to steer the rest of your essay.

BODY: Think about your argument and find some specific examples from your text(s) that help back up/ illustrate your argument. Fewer examples are good to demonstrate depth of knowledge. Picking some quotes you know you can analyse well will help this.

TIP: Again, honing in on specfic words is a surefire way to demonstrate depth of understanding. Individual words are a good opportunity to demonstrate techincal knowledge: eg. assonance, metaphor, juxtaposition, deixis, polysemy. Is something interesting happening with metre or rhyme? How does this word contribute to a larger effect?

TIP: Always think about why your author has chosen to make the choices they have. Different genres, forms, rhyme schemes, metrical patterns, individual words etc are like a set of tools. Why has the author chosen these specific tools? How does that contribute to what they're trying to say?

CONCLUSION: I find it helps to not go into an essay expecting a certain type of conclusion. Let the body of the essay convince you of what you're actually trying to say. Sometimes you can go into an essay with one idea about what your argument is, and find that by the end you're actually somewhere very different. If you try to shoehorn something in it'll feel a bit clunky, whereas if you let the essay steer itself towards its own conclusion, it'll be more organic.