EnglishQ&A by dot point

Crafting creative writing: controlling the conventions of prose fiction, poetry or drama - narrative voice, structure, imagery, form, dialogue - to create a complex, sophisticated piece shaped for purpose and audience.

Crafting discursive writing: controlling argument structure, rhetorical technique, persona, tone and evidence in a persuasive, argumentative or personal reflective piece, shaped for purpose and audience and written with sophistication.

The writing portfolio: producing writing of any genre for external marking, worth 30 marks, that shows skilled control of genre conventions, a strong sense of purpose and audience, sophisticated style and technical accuracy.

The writing process and redrafting: planning, drafting and systematically redrafting a portfolio piece against the marking criteria to improve ideas, structure, style and technical accuracy before submission.

Applying critical approaches: drawing on critical perspectives such as feminist, Marxist, postcolonial, psychoanalytic and narratological readings as tools to open up a text, judged by the insight they yield rather than the label applied.

Genre conventions of the four genres: the distinctive conventions of prose fiction, prose non-fiction, poetry and drama, and how knowing them equips you to analyse any text and write in any form across the course.

Literary terminology and concepts: using critical terms such as narrative perspective, free indirect discourse, tragic form, lyric voice, satire and the unreliable narrator accurately, to name techniques precisely and analyse their effect.

Reading texts in context: using literary, social, historical and cultural context to deepen the interpretation of a text, kept subordinate to close analysis and always returned to the text.

Analysing whole texts in depth for Literary Study: detailed engagement with characterisation, structure, style and language across a complete text, using close textual evidence rather than summarising the plot.

Genre and context in Literary Study: analysing how each text uses the conventions of its genre, and drawing on literary, social, historical and cultural context where it illuminates meaning, kept subordinate to close textual argument.

Sustaining a comparative line of argument: framing a thesis, ordering paragraphs so the argument develops, using comparative connectives, and reaching an evaluative conclusion across two or more texts.

The Literary Study comparative critical essay: responding to a comparative task on studied literature in one genre with a single sustained argument built across two or more texts, marked out of 20 in a 90 minute paper.

Analysing unseen drama: reading dialogue, stage directions, dramatic structure, conflict, subtext and performance implications in a previously unseen extract to show how the dramatist creates meaning and effect on stage.

Analysing unseen poetry: reading form, structure, sound, imagery, voice and tone in a previously unseen poem to show how the poem creates meaning and effect, rather than restating what it says.

Analysing unseen prose fiction: reading narrative voice, focalisation, characterisation, structure, setting and style in a previously unseen passage to show how the writer creates meaning and effect.

Analysing unseen prose non-fiction: reading argument structure, rhetorical technique, persona, tone and selection of evidence in a previously unseen essay, speech, memoir or piece of journalism to show how the writer persuades or moves the reader.

The Textual Analysis task: producing a critical analysis of one previously unseen literary text chosen from prose fiction, prose non-fiction, poetry or drama, marked out of 20 in a 90 minute paper, as a critical essay or extended bullet points.

Choosing a topic and framing a thesis: selecting related literary texts and a focused, arguable topic, then framing a thesis sharp enough to drive a 2,500 to 3,500 word argument without becoming too broad or too narrow.

Referencing and academic conventions: acknowledging primary and secondary sources consistently, integrating quotations accurately, including a bibliography and word count, and meeting the conditions of authenticity SQA requires of submitted coursework.

Structuring the dissertation argument: building an introduction that frames the thesis, body sections that each develop part of it through comparative analysis, and a conclusion that reaches an independent judgement, across the whole word count.

The dissertation task: an independent critical study of literature of 2,500 to 3,500 words, worth 30 marks, presenting sustained personal analysis of two or more related literary texts, on a topic and texts that must not overlap with the Literary Study paper.

Using evidence and secondary criticism: anchoring the argument in close analysis of primary texts and drawing on secondary criticism to support, extend or challenge your reading, without letting critics replace your own independent judgement.