A bull will be eating cheese from your hand.

1. A bull will be eating cheese from your hand. Introduction to the Higher Critical Essay

2. The Exam Paper • 5 sections: drama, prose, poetry, language and media. • Choose one question from any two sections. • 1 hour 30 minutes = 45 minutes per essay. • You need to know the texts inside out, including quotations. • It will be scary at first! • It can be done!

3. What the SQA are looking for… • In a critical essay, you need to show that you can: • Understand the main events and the themes of the text; • Keep your arguments relevant to the task; • Analyse the techniques used and make relevant comments about them;

4. What the SQA are looking for… • Use evidence from the text (quotations or references to events) to support your arguments; • Engage with the text, showing your opinions and thoughts about it; • Write in a fluent, clear, well-structured way; • Be technically accurate (spelling, grammar, paragraphing).

5. Avoid! • Micro-analysis (focusing on the connotations of each individual word in a quotation) • The guided tour (rehashing every aspect of the plot and its concerns)

6. Which question? • Sometimes you will be faced with “no good questions” but you need to pick one! • You may have to abandon a text you know well but there’s no point choosing an unsuitable drama question just because you’ve done lots of work on DoaS. All you’ll end up with is a rubbish essay. • You may have to tailor your knowledge to fit a question. This is why you: • a) need a lot of knowledge of a text; • b) cannot prepare a standard answer.

7. The Question Preamble Answers to questions on _____ should address relevantly the central concern(s)/theme(s) of the text and be supported by reference to appropriate techniques such as: characterisation, setting, structure …

8. Example Essay Question Choose a play in which a character is seeking the truth, avoiding the truth or hiding the truth. Explain to what extent the character achieves this aim and discuss how the dramatist uses the situation to reveal important aspects of the character’s role in the play as a whole.

9. The key to an A • You need to plan your work before you write any part of your essay. • Helps you to organise your thoughts from the start; • Keeps you on the right track while you’re writing; • Filters out any unnecessary information; • Keeps your essay structured.

10. Planning • Avoid writing out the question – it wastes time. • Write down key words from the question – this will be your essay focus. • Take this opportunity to write down any quotations you’re going to use. • Organise your information so you know what is going into which paragraph. • Use a planning method that works best for you (spider plan; paragraph plan; headings; lots of random scribbles)

11. Essay Question – Developing a Response Willy Choose a play in which a character is seeking the truth, avoiding the truth or hiding the truth. Explain to what extent the character achieves this aim and discuss how the dramatist uses the situation to reveal important aspects of the character’s role in the play as a whole. Avoiding truth about: his job; who Biff is; part played in Biff’s downfall; his place in modern industry Success in avoiding truth is already unravelling at start of play; Biff at home forces W. to confront him and truth; can no longer do his job; gets sacked; Biff - “take that phoney dream and burn it” (i.e. face truth before too late) Willy’s role: relates to theme of American Dream/capitalism – shows how money is more important than personality; also how Biff has realised the hopelessness of Willy’s dream/job and needs to make Willy face the truth

12. Question Number WRITE IT IN THE MARGIN!!!! • If you don’t, and the marker can’t figure out which question you’ve answered, you’re done for.

13. Introduction • Should mention the title, author, text and a brief summing up of the text and its concerns. • If there is a plot detail that is particularly relevant to the question then you can mention that. • A reference should be made to the essay task but avoid “In this essay I will…”

14. Example Introduction 1 • A play we have been reading recently is called ‘All My Sons’ and it was written by Arthur Miller. The play is about a family called the Kellers who have a son who has been missing for three years. One of the sons, Chris, wants to get married to Ann (the missing son’s ex-girlfriend) but their mother Kate still believes Larry is alive and won’t allow it. Joe (the father) is really devoted to Chris and is hiding the fact that during World War 2 he sold cracked cylinder heads to the army which caused 21 planes to crash, killing their pilots. In this essay I will be answering the question “Choose a play in which a character hides the truth from other characters in the play”.

15. Example Introduction 2 • ‘All My Sons’ by Arthur Miller is a play about the Keller family, whose closeness is torn apart by the disappearance of their son/brother and the lies that surround it. In this essay I shall be examining the ways in which Joe Keller hides the truth from other characters and the effect his lies have on other characters and events.

16. Example Introduction 3 • Arthur Miller’s play ‘All My Sons’ is a tragic tale of fathers and sons, in which the lies of one devoted father leads to the death of one son and the shattering of the other’s illusions. However, Joe Keller’s deception not only wounds his son Chris but also his wife Kate and, ultimately, himself.

17. Main Body • Everything you say in the essay should address the question you have chosen. • If you have a great quotation that doesn’t fit then you’ll have to bin it – sorry! • Make sure that you keep referring back to the essay question. • You should be revealing something about character/theme/etc., NOT writing a long plot summary.

18. PCQE • If you find it useful, you can use the PCQEstructure throughout your essay. • This can help you keep things structured. • P = Point (introduces your idea) • C = Context • Q = Quotation • E = Explanation (analyses the evidence and relates it to the question)

19. PCQEExample • Despite the fact that the truth has been revealed and Chris is appalled by Joe’s deeds, Joe still refuses to admit it should destroy their relationship.During act 3 when Kate suggests that the truth is more important to Chris than his relationship with his father, Joe says: “There’s nothin’ he could do that I wouldn’t forgive. Because he’s my son … I’m his father and he’s my son, and if there’s something bigger than that I’ll put a bullet in my head!” Of course, the irony of this statement is the fact that there is indeed something bigger than that – the lives of other men – and when Joe finally realises that he does indeed “put a bullet in his head”. This act of sacrifice shows that Joe has finally understood Chris’s point of view.

20. Layout of Quotations • If they’re less than three lines long they should be part of the paragraph. • E.g. This is suggested when Kate says “No more roses”. Her throwaway comment reveals… • You also need to make sure that you say who said the quotation. • Obviously (you would think), the quotation should have quotation marks around it.

21. Conclusion • Your conclusion should feature an evaluation of the text. • What have you learned from it? • Can you relate it to anything else (a real event, another text, etc.?) • Consider themes, setting, relationships, etc.