What to do Before Writing

1. Look Over and Understand the Text

Thoroughly read/look over the text and make sure you have a firm understanding of what you are writing about.
Annotate the text by highlighting or underlining important words/sentences. Making notes on different uses of literary devices, key words, or any other areas of significance can be helpful to form ideas when analysing the text.
Look for the main themes that may be revealed or hinted at in the plot. Also consider how these themes are revealed and constructed through the characters, setting, or events in the story.

2. Map out Your Essay

Understanding the question is obviously the most important thing to do. Make sure your essay answers all parts of the question and does not drift off onto another topic. This is how people often fail exams!
Create a strong thesis that you will build your essay around. The key to writing a strong essay is making sure your thesis is apparent and appears throughout the essay, so make sure your essay is able to be supported with your text and with lots of evidence.
Creating an outline will help you write quicker. Taking 5-10 minutes before writing to map out your arguments and create a game plan will help you out more than you think!

Writing Structure

1. Introduction

Start your introduction off with a hook sentence. This will encourage the reader and spark interest. Examples of hook sentences could be:

Next, provide background knowledge and inform the reader on the text or topic of your essay. Jumping into an essay and getting straight to the point would be a mistake, you cannot assume that the reader automatically knows what you are talking about.
Lastly, finish with your thesis statement and get the main point across to set the tone for the rest of the essay.

2. Body Paragraphs

Start with a topic sentence to introduce the reader to your first argument. Your topic sentence should reference your thesis.
Next, include your (in-text) citation that backs your argument. Make sure that these citations are linked to your argument and that you explain this connection.
Now, analyze your citation in detail. Show its significance, any literary devices used, and how it meaningfully contributes to both the text and your argument.
Finally, link this all to your thesis. All your body paragraphs should conclude with a connection to your thesis statement.

3. Conclusion

Start your conclusion by quickly overviewing your main arguments. This will add some relevant context and remind the reader of your thesis and points.
Next, explicitly restate your thesis. Feel free to reword or reorganize your thesis statement, but you should clearly reflect on your thesis and state the insights gained through your many analyses.
Finally, conclude with a final thought. End your essay with a statement or question that will leave a lasting impression and will force the reader to reflect.

Review and Improve

Look over your essay and ensure you did not make any grammatical mistakes, typos, or punctuation errors.
Look over your initial plan. Make sure you well incorporated your arguments and did not skip over or forget to add any important insights.
Improve the language you used by replacing words with ones that might add clarity and precision. Ensure you are using a variety of sentence structures and vocabulary to fully engage the reader.

Introducing a Textual Reference:

Pinning a Reference to a Literary Feature:

Exploring the Author/Reader Relationship:

Connection Back to the Main Claim:

Moving to the Next Point:

“Later in the passage, we see…”
“(Author) also suggests the idea that (idea) in line (line number)”
“We see this idea of (idea) elsewhere in the text, specifically in (line number).”