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Revision: how to write a critical essay • Indicate text titles correctly In a hand-written essay or a typed essay the titles of poems and short stories should be in single inverted commas: ‘Home’ by Iain Crichton Smith; ‘In Mrs Tilscher’s Class’, ‘Before You Were Mine’, ‘Valentine’ and ‘Havisham’ by Carol Ann Duffy. In a hand-written essay the titles of plays and novels should be underlined, no inverted commas necessary: The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald; Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. In a typed essay the titles of plays and novels should be italicized, again with no inverted commas: The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald; Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. • You should write in the present tense The lovers are married by Friar Lawrence in secret not the lovers were married by Friar Lawrence in secret. DO NOT switch between tenses throughout your essay. The only exception to this is when you say who wrote the text you are writing about,

eg: Two poems which deal with the theme of love are ‘Havisham’ and ‘Valentine’, which were written by Carol Ann Duffy. Both poems are • You should write in the third person Not I think that the characters but the reader views the characters as • Learn the correct spelling of the names of your texts and their authors, and the characters and settings they contain – there is no excuse for this type of error and it is frowned on heavily by markers • Use a formal tone DO NOT use any of the following: slang (rejection has messed with her head); contractions (the reader can’t be sure if); abbrevations (Juliet & Romeo.) If you are still stuck look at the example paragraph on the next page for an idea of what a formal tone sounds like. • Evaluation must be based on analysis of the text Not I believe in love at first sight so I believe it is credible that Romeo and Juliet fall in love upon meeting one another for the first time but Shakespeare uses techniques in such a

way that the audience is able to put any cynicism to one side and believe that Romeo and Juliet fall in love instantly; the sonnet they share in Act I scene v is the first example of this • Punctuate quotes accurately Short quotes can be run on in your essay but should be indicated by quotation marks, eg: The Prologue tells the reader that Romeo and Juliet are “star-cross’d lovers”. Longer quotes can also be run on in your essay but should be introduced by a colon, note also that lines of poetry or drama texts should be separated by a /, eg: The first verse begins: “You could travel up the blue Nile / with your finger tracing the route”. Longer quotes than two or three lines should be separated from the body of your text by clear separation, no quotation marks are needed but they should still be introduced by a colon, eg: When the audience first encounters Romeo he believes himself to be in love with Rosaline. It is obvious, however, that his love is not genuine This is

indicated by his use of oxymorons and exaggeration when he talks of his love for her: Why then, o brawling love, o loving hate, O any thing of nothing first create! O heavy lightness, serious vanity, Mis-shapen chaos of well-seeming forms This language makes it clear that Romeo is confused about the true nature of love, and correspondingly his feelings for Rosaline. • Remember POINT-EVIDENCE-EVALUATION DO NOT include quotes without analyzing them. DO NOT include quotes to move along your summary of plot or character development. YOU MUST think about technique used in the quotes you cite: word choice, imagery, symbolism, tone, structure etc. Please note that theme is NOT a technique, it is suggested by the content of the text. Eg: When Romeo talks about Juliet he often does so in such a way that she, or her beauty, is compared to light. Upon seeing her for the first time he exclaims: “O she doth teach the torches to burn bright”; later, in the ‘balcony scene’, he says: “Two

of the boldest stars in all the heaven, / Having some business, do entreat her eyes / To twinkle in their spheres till they return”. The poetry of these lines is a contrast to the forced, exaggerated tone in which Romeo discusses Rosaline at the start of the play. Furthermore it becomes obvious that, to Romeo, Juliet and her beauty symbolize light, and therefore life. She very quickly becomes the focus of all Romeo’s thoughts and deeds, and the one thing he cannot live without. All this serves to develop and highlight the play’s central theme of love. In this example the POINT is highlighted yellow, the EVIDENCE is highlighted green, and the EVALUATION is highlighted blue. Look at the various techniques covered in this paragraph: comparison (compared to light); contrast, exaggeration, tone (a contrast to the forced, exaggerated tone); symbolism (Juliet and her beauty symbolize light)