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Production, not recognition

The writing gym

Everywhere else on this site you judge writing. Here you make it. Five moves, one at a time, with as many reps as you want.

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You get better at writing by writing, not by reading about writing. Always write before you reveal. A rough attempt you compare is worth ten model answers you only read.

1 · The shape of the whole thing

800 to 1000 words is an introduction, three or four body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Before you write one, know where every piece goes.

1

Put the essay in order

structure

Tap the six moves in the order they belong in a finished essay. Tap again to unpick.

2

The body paragraph recipe

ideas

PETAL, the exam version. Keep the letters your class uses. Two changes: the T is a name, so it lives inside the A sentence and never gets a sentence of its own; and the A does two jobs, because the markers pay separately for what the choice does and for the value underneath it. Six letters, five sentences.

PointThe argument of this paragraph.One part of your thesis, not a topic.
EvidenceA short quote, woven into your own sentence.Micro, never a block.
T · TechniqueThe name of the choice, in three words, inside the next sentence."Uses a metaphor" earns nothing on its own. A1 is where the marks are.
A1 · HowYour T, then what the choice does to the audience.Not "uses a metaphor". What it does.
A2 · ValueThe assumption or belief underneath it.Race, gender, honour, order, the military code.
LinkBack to the thesis and the exact question asked.The sentence most people skip.
Why the A splits in two
The marking guide gives 18 marks for Ideas across three columns: what is represented, the cultural values underneath, and the stylistic choices. Examiners say the top band goes to paragraphs that do all three together, and that essays doing a theme paragraph and then a technique paragraph lose it. One word "Analysis" lets you do the technique, feel finished, and quietly drop six marks.
So the self-check is
  • Have I said what the choice does to the audience?
  • Have I named the belief or assumption it rests on?
  • Does my last sentence say the question's own words back?

2 · The thesis gym

One sentence decides your Ideas mark before you have written a paragraph. A credible thesis gets you a solid essay. A discriminating one gets you the top band. Write yours, then climb the ladder.

3

Write a thesis, then climb

ideas

Write one sentence that takes an arguable position on this exact question and hints at how Shakespeare does it. Then open the ladder and find your rung.

Your question 
Reveal the four rungs for this question
The move from rung 3 to rung 4
  • Name what kind of thing it is, not just that it exists ("a social illusion", "a construct", "a performance")
  • Say who it serves or who pays for it
  • Make it something a sensible person could disagree with

3 · State the argument

The topic sentence, on its own, ten times. Most lost marks in Structure are here: the paragraph opens by announcing a topic ("Iago manipulates people") instead of making a claim ("Iago's power is a performance, not a lie").

4

Topic sentence only

structure

Do not write the paragraph. Write one opening sentence that makes the claim. Thirty seconds each, then next.

This paragraph is about 
Reveal a topic-shaped one and a claim-shaped one
What makes the second one work
  • It could be argued against
  • It says something about the play, not about the plot
  • The rest of the paragraph now has a job: prove that

4 · Build the paragraph

The real thing in miniature. All five moves, one paragraph, no time limit. This is the single most valuable thing on this page. Want it as a sequence? The paragraph ladder runs this shape nine times, one sitting each, with a box to send at the end of every rung.

5

Full body paragraph

ideas

Point, Evidence, How, Value, Link. Take your time. Write the whole thing before you reveal anything.

Your task 
Reveal a strong version, tagged by move
Mark your own against these
  • All five moves present, in order
  • The quote is inside your sentence, not dropped after a colon
  • The How says the effect, not the technique name
  • The Value names a belief the play runs on
  • The Link uses the question's own words

5 · Land the link

The last sentence of every paragraph, on its own. You are given the point, the evidence and the analysis. You write only the link. Ten of these takes five minutes and fixes the most-skipped move in the essay.

6

Link sentence only

structure

Read the paragraph so far and the question it is answering. Write the one sentence that ties it back.

The question 
Reveal a strong link
A link is working when
  • It repeats a key word from the question
  • It says what the play is doing, not what a character did
  • It adds a small step, rather than repeating the point sentence

6 · Word banks

Not decoration. Each of these carries analysis by itself, which is why swapping one word can move a sentence up a rung. Steal freely.

Verbs that think

Replace "uses" and "shows". These already contain an argument.

suggestsrevealsexposesevokes undercutsreinforcespositionsinvites foreshadowsjuxtaposesimpliescritiques highlightsconveysunsettlesdestabilises framesconstructsdramatisesinterrogates complicateslegitimisesnaturaliseswithholds amplifiescollapsesalignsestranges

Naming the value underneath

The six marks most people miss. These are the nouns for what a society took for granted.

assumptionexpectationhierarchyideology normcodeanxietyprivilege entitlementobediencedeferencehonour legitimacybelongingothernessorder reputationproprietysocial standingpatriarchal authority
The test: could a Venetian in 1604 have disagreed with it? If no, it is a value the play is running on, and naming it is worth marks.

Stating the argument

Openers for a topic sentence that claims rather than announces.

  • Shakespeare presents X not as the obvious reading, but as your claim.
  • The play's real interest lies less in X than in Y.
  • What makes X so destructive is that it is your claim.
  • For all its X, the play insists that Y.
  • X functions in the play as a kind of thing, rather than the obvious thing.
  • The audience is positioned to see X as your claim.

Linking back to the thesis

The final sentence of a paragraph. Say the play, not the character.

  • In this way the play suggests that thesis, in fresh words.
  • The scene therefore locates X not in Y but in Z.
  • What the audience is left with, then, is your claim.
  • This is the play's answer to the question's own words.
  • Shakespeare thus makes X inseparable from Y.
  • The comment the play makes, here, is that thesis.

Weighing and qualifying

"Well-considered" is a word in the marking guide. These are how you get it without hedging into mush.

althoughwhileeven asyet to some extentmore preciselyless a matter ofnot simply arguablyit is tempting to readon this readingultimately
The move: concede the obvious reading in half a sentence, then turn. "While Othello appears to be undone by jealousy, the play locates the damage earlier, in how readily he accepts what he is told about himself."

Register: the kill list

Colloquialisms destroy authority, and examiners name this every single year. Left is what to cut.

  • a lot of / heaps of  →  considerable, repeated
  • really / very / super  →  cut it, or pick a stronger word
  • shows / talks about  →  exposes, interrogates
  • good / bad guy  →  the antagonist, the figure of
  • you can see that  →  the audience is positioned to
  • this quote proves  →  this moment suggests
  • back in the day  →  in early modern Venice
  • Othello is stupid  →  Othello is constructed as
The rule underneath: characters are textual constructions, never real people. "Shakespeare constructs Othello as" always outranks "Othello feels".

Where this fits

This page is where you make writing. The practice page has the quote-embedding drill. The essay page shows the values layer in full, with the five values Othello runs on. The questions page has real question shapes when you are ready for whole essays.

from Nat

You do not have to do a whole section. Three topic sentences is a real session. The two that pay the most are number 4 and number 6, because almost nobody practises the first sentence or the last one, and they are the two the markers notice first. Write badly on purpose if it gets you moving. We fix it together.