Writing a strong response in Close study of literature (2024 syllabus)

Model answer. B is better. It names a specific technique (short, broken lines) and explains what it does (shows grief catching). A names no technique and says nothing about effect.

Marking spine.

• 1 mark: chooses B.
• 2 marks: gives reasons (specific technique, links to effect).

Model answer. The stopped clock can symbolise a community stuck in time, perhaps after a loss or a change they cannot accept. The phrase 'nobody had the heart' suggests that the stopped clock is not neglect but a shared, quiet decision to hold on to a moment, so the sentence presents the town as bound together by grief or memory.

Marking spine.

• 1 mark: identifies the clock as symbol.
• 2 marks: explains meaning (stuck in time, grief, memory).
• 1 mark: uses the wording of the sentence.

Model answer. Topic sentence: 'The director uses a shift from warm yellows to cold blues to show the main character's growing isolation.' Evidence and analysis: 'In the sequence where she leaves the family home, the golden light of the kitchen gives way to the blue shadows of the street, so the colour change visually separates her from comfort and signals her loneliness.'

Marking spine. 2 marks for a clear topic sentence naming technique and idea; 2 for specific evidence; 2 for analysis of effect.

Model paragraph. The direct address makes the audience the character's confidants, so the speech feels like a confession. By stepping out of the action, the character reveals a self that the other characters never see, which suggests a gap between public behaviour and private feeling. When the lights fade immediately afterwards, the confession is left without response, leaving the audience holding what the character cannot share with anyone else. The moment therefore shows isolation: the character is honest only when no one on stage can hear.

Marking spine. 2 marks for a clear claim about character; 3 for techniques (direct address, staging, lighting) with effects; 2 for sustained argument; 1 for expression.

Planning. Decide what questions your text leaves open and what answers it gives. A strong thesis shows how construction produces both.

Structure.

• Introduction: a thesis that takes a position (for example, the text gives clear answers about characters or events but leaves larger questions open through its ending and form), with a preview of two or three features.
• Body 1: answers. A moment where the text gives clarity or resolution, and the technique that does it.
• Body 2: questions. A moment where the text withholds, complicates or leaves ambiguity, and the technique that does it (an open ending, an unreliable voice, a pause, a silence).
• Body 3: the relationship. How the two work together, and what they suggest about the text's value.
• Conclusion: a judgement about 'to what extent'.

Model body paragraph (about 160 words, on an invented film, Low Tide; use your own text). Low Tide gives clear answers about what happened but leaves larger questions open, and the film's construction is how it does both. The flashback to the night of the accident is shot in steady, level frames with natural sound, so the audience receives the facts without doubt. By contrast, the final sequence holds on the sister's face for an uncomfortably long take while the soundtrack falls silent, and the director refuses to cut to her response. This withholding turns a resolved plot into an unresolved moral question about whether she can forgive. The two choices work together: the clarity earns our trust, and the silence uses that trust to pose the question the story cannot answer. The statement is therefore true to a large extent, and the film's value lies in the gap between what we are shown and what we are asked to judge.

Marking spine. 7 marks for a sustained argument that responds to the statement; 7 for precise evidence and analysis; 3 for structure and expression; 3 for insight and a clear personal view. Responses that retell the text or list techniques without explaining effect stay in the lower or middle bands.

Planning. Treat 'trust' as the idea you must make interesting: decide what the text says about it (for example that trust is earned slowly, that it can be misplaced, or that it is a risk worth taking) and let that judgement drive the argument. For a poetry text, use only poems from NESA's list for it.

Structure.

• Introduction: a thesis stating what the text suggests about trust and how.
• Body paragraphs: three moments, scenes or poems, each analysed for the construction that makes the idea interesting (voice, structure, symbol, form).
• Conclusion: a judgement about the idea and why it matters to the audience.

Marking spine. About 7 marks for understanding of the text's distinctive qualities; 7 for analysis of how it portrays the idea; 3 for structure; 3 for expression.