How should I include critical viewpoints in my essay?

Critics can be very difficult to engage with effectively. The best way to go about responding to a critic is by understanding how it fits into the familiar PEA/PEE (Point Evidence Analysis/Explain) formula. A solid starting point would be to follow your Analysis with the critical viewpoint (PEAC), which indicates you have considered the critic's opinion in relation to your own argument.

Once you are comfortable with how you respond to critics, you can begin to stregnthen your approach by mixing up the PEAC formula. Opening with a critical viewpoint (CPEA), for example, will allow you to organise an entire paragraph (and therefore your argument) around a critical response. This will make for a more engaged response, and will help you to produce a top-band answer.

JH

Related English Literature A Level answers

All answers ▸

Compare the way in which love is presented in Shakespeare's Sonnet 23 and Othello.


How do you effectively revise English Literature?


How should I structure a close analysis of a passage?


How would I start to answer 'In Angela Carter's Wise Children, how far does the character of Peregrine embody the carnivalesque?'?