Example+Essay+3

There are a number of basic things you have to get right when planning/starting a critical essay. Aim for a 3-part structure (introduction, middle and end) - keeping the structure simple allows your analysis to shine through!
 * __Writing an Essay on 'Bold Girls'__**

Your opening paragraph should then do three things:

1. Show that you have understood the **key terms** in the question: identification of selected character/incident/theme/structure; the brief statement of your line of argument. 2. State which characters/scenes/themes/incidents you are going to discuss – depending on what the question has asked you. a theme of contemporary interest, identify the theme you are going to discuss…) 3. Show briefly how the character/theme/incident/scene is related to the question.

Here is a question from the 2003 Specimen Paper which would fit Bold Girls:


 * Choose a play whose main theme is made clear early in the action**
 * Show how the dramatist introduces the theme and discuss how successfully s/he goes on to develop it.**
 * In your answer you must refer closely to the text and to at least two of: theme, key scenario, characterisation, language, or any other appropriate feature.**

So, your first paragraph (introduction) could be:

INTRODUCTION

//"Rona Munro's drama, 'Bold Girls' introduces us to its main theme early in the action. Symbolically from the start of the play with the lone, dishevelled girl in a torn white (wedding?) dress, it is obvious, on a general level, that its focus will be on the female experience; but also more specifically, it will also focus on the experience of those women who faced and endured living in Northern Ireland during the 'troubles'."//

MIDDLE SECTION

Answer the question here, referring to evidence taken from the text eg. Show where you are made aware of the effect of the “troubles” on the women’s lives – eg. They are all without husbands, don’t have a lot of money / all have dreams etc… The strengths and weaknesses they display… Show that there a solidarity among the women… which key scene deals best with this… Show where and why their sense of solidarity and common experience begin to fail … (The above are possible areas to explore in this question, but there could be many others)

CONCLUSION

Where you show how the evidence you've provided has answered the question - and where you say something evaluative about the text as a whole. Hope this is useful.