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Here is an example response to the GCSE English Lord of the Flies question:** How does Golding present Simon as different from the other boys on the island?**

I found writing a few full-length and timed essays before the exam was a good way to practise and boosted my confidence on the day, one of the revision techniques I employed to achieve a Grade 9 in English Literature and Language GCSEs.

This document is one of the practice essays I wrote out, feel free to use this to take a look at the structure and approach I use at GCSE English level (I sat AQA, but this works across exam boards), and to consider my analysis of ideas. I recommend planning if not writing out the essay before, and comparing approaches (but if you just want to read it, go ahead!)

The key ideas of my essay:

Plan:

• Less driven to violence, is the only character who doesn’t commit a savage act - refer to piggy and ralph involved in the murder although he is flawed, fire and attracted to ralph
• He is presented as insightful with knowledge about humanity and morality which the other characters don’t have - piggy

Writing full essays is time consuming and tiring, especially when balancing many other subjects at the same time, so I recommend planning out as many essays as you can, and writing in full 5-10 of them closer to the exam date.

A good essay structure is TEAL:

• Topic sentence (just state what your point is, no evidence or explanation)
• Evidence (not just quotes! you could reference moments in the book, themes, etc etc)
• Analysis (explain your evidence, what does it show, and how does it show this?)
• Link (link back to your topic sentence and key question to show the examiner you’re not off-track - they get tired marking essays so you need to keep your ideas clear!)

When** planning your essays**, I suggest writing down:

• three topic sentences
• 2-3 pieces of evidence for each topic sentence
• a couple words analysing the evidence, linking back to the main question and topic sentence
• then writing an introduction and conclusion (if you want to - I personally found intros and conclusions hard to keep concise, so I practiced this frequently)

If you have any questions do let me know, and please leave a review if you found this helpful!