Quick questions on Features of an analytical response: VCE English Unit 3 Area of Study 1

Three sentences, four if needed.

The first line of argument. The paragraph should follow a reliable shape.

The complicating line of argument. A high-band response uses the second paragraph to qualify or push back against the first. The second paragraph is where the response shows it can hold two positions in mind at once.

The lifting line of argument. This paragraph operates at the level of the whole text rather than the scene. A structural feature, a motif tracked across chapters, the ending. The third paragraph is the marker's signal that you have read the whole text.

Reassert the contention in new language. Name what the body has shown. Avoid summary, avoid the phrase "in conclusion", and avoid introducing new evidence.

A claim about the text that engages the prompt without paraphrasing it. The opening should sound like an argument, not a topic sentence.

Your contention. A direct response to the prompt's directive verb (discuss, to what extent, how does, in what ways).

A signpost of the three lines of argument the body will develop. Use the language of the prompt, not the language of summary.

Names the claim and links it to the prompt.

One sentence locating the scene in the text.

Each quotation is a phrase fused into your own clause.

For each quotation, name the language or structural feature and argue its effect on the reader.

Returns to the prompt's directive verb and links to the next paragraph.

Formal, third person, present tense for analysis ("the author positions the reader"), past tense only for narrative events ("when the protagonist returned").

Quotations are integrated into your own grammatical clause. A whole-sentence quotation followed by analysis is weaker than a phrase fused into your sentence.