How do you write a critical essay on a play or a novel that analyses technique rather than retelling the story?
Writing a critical essay on drama or prose: selecting the right techniques to discuss (characterisation, structure, narrative voice, conflict, stage craft) and analysing them in response to the question.
How to write a strong critical essay on a play or novel in SQA Higher English: choosing the dramatic or prose techniques that answer the question (characterisation, structure, narrative voice, conflict, stage craft) and analysing them with evidence instead of retelling the story.
Reviewed by: AI editorial process; not yet individually human-reviewed
Have a quick question? Jump to the Q&A page
Jump to a section
What this dot point is asking
If you write your SQA Higher English critical essay on a play (drama) or a novel or short story (prose fiction), you must analyse the writer's craft, not summarise the plot. The question will name a focus (a character, a relationship, a theme, a flaw, a turning point) and ask you to discuss how the writer presents it. Your job is to choose the techniques the writer uses to create that focus and analyse them in response to the question, treating a play as performance and prose as a told story.
This dot point is about technique selection and analysis within the two most-chosen genres of the critical essay.
The answer
A critical essay on drama or prose analyses how the writer builds meaning, not what happens. Choose techniques that fit the question. For drama: characterisation, dialogue and soliloquy, stage directions, conflict, and structure (acts, scenes, climax, turning points). For prose: narrative voice and point of view, characterisation, setting and atmosphere, symbolism, and structure. For each technique, quote briefly, analyse how it works, and link back to the question. The decisive habit is selection: pick the few techniques most relevant to the question and analyse them in depth rather than listing many features shallowly. SQA rewards analysis, understanding and evaluation in service of the question; a plot retelling, however accurate, sits in the lower bands because it shows no analysis.
Choose techniques that fit the question
Read the question and decide which techniques the writer uses to create what is being asked about. A question on a character points you to characterisation and dialogue; a question on tension points you to structure and conflict; a question on a theme points you to symbolism, setting and structure. Let the question choose your techniques, rather than importing a memorised list.
Drama: analyse the craft of the stage
For a play, discuss how the dramatist uses dialogue and soliloquy to reveal character and motive, stage directions to create mood and signal action, conflict to drive the plot, and structure (the placing of the climax, the turning point) to shape the audience's response. Always treat the text as performed: a pause, an exit or a lighting cue is evidence you can analyse.
Prose: analyse how the story is told
For a novel or short story, discuss narrative voice and point of view, characterisation, setting and atmosphere, symbolism and structure. Show how the way the story is told (who narrates, how reliably, in what order, with what emphasis) shapes the reader's understanding. Narrative voice is usually the most powerful prose technique because it controls everything the reader is allowed to know.
Examples in context
Take a drama question on how a writer presents a character's flaw and its consequences. Rather than narrating the downfall, a strong essay analyses technique. One paragraph might argue that a soliloquy exposes the flaw directly: the character admits "I cannot let it rest", and the obsessive repetition in the speech reveals a compulsion the character cannot control, so the audience sees the flaw as a fixed trait rather than a passing choice. Another paragraph analyses structure: the writer places the point of no return at the centre of the play, so the second half dramatises consequence, shaping the audience's sense of inevitability.
For a prose question on narrative voice, a strong essay shows the voice shaping judgement. If a first-person narrator describes a rival as "always smiling, always watching", the reader inherits the narrator's suspicion, so the writer uses the limited, partial point of view to control sympathy. Analysing that control, rather than reporting events, is what earns the upper bands.
Try this
Q1. For a question about tension in a play, which two techniques are most relevant and why? [2 marks]
- What the marker wants. Conflict and structure (or dialogue and stage directions), because they stage and escalate the tension the question asks about.
Q2. What is the main difference between a top-band and a lower-band drama or prose essay? [2 marks]
- What the marker wants. The top-band essay analyses technique in response to the question; the lower-band one retells the plot without analysis.
Q3. A prose question focuses on setting. Name two techniques you would analyse and what each could show. [2 marks]
- What the marker wants. Two of: setting description and atmosphere, symbolism in the setting, structural placement of a setting, each tied to how it develops the text's concern.
A note on sources
This guide is AI-written and not individually human-reviewed. The critical essay genres and marking approach follow SQA's specification; verify current detail against the SQA Higher English course documents at sqa.org.uk.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of SQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
SQA Higher 201820 marksChoose a play in which a character's flaw leads to serious consequences. By referring to appropriate dramatic techniques, discuss how the writer presents this flaw and its consequences. (20 marks)Show worked answer →
A drama critical essay question, marked holistically out of 20. The question names the focus (a flaw and its consequences), so the techniques must be chosen to analyse that focus.
Select dramatic techniques: dialogue and soliloquy that reveal the flaw, conflict that exposes its consequences, structure (the turning point at which the flaw becomes irreversible), and stage directions. For each, quote briefly and analyse how it presents the flaw or consequence, linking back to the question.
A plot retelling of the character's downfall, however accurate, stays in the lower bands. The discriminator is analysis of dramatic technique in response to the question, treating the play as performance.
SQA Higher 202120 marksChoose a novel or short story in which the narrative voice shapes your view of a character or event. By referring to appropriate techniques, discuss how the writer uses narrative voice to achieve this. (20 marks)Show worked answer →
A prose critical essay question focused on narrative voice. The 20 marks reward analysis of how the story is told, not what happens.
Identify the point of view (first-person, limited or omniscient third, unreliable narrator, free indirect style) and analyse how it controls what the reader knows and feels about the character or event. Quote briefly and explain how each choice shapes the reader's view, linking to the question.
Markers reward depth on the relevant technique. Drifting into a general character study or plot summary, rather than analysing the narrative voice the question names, caps the essay below the upper bands.
Related dot points
- Structuring a critical essay: building a relevant introduction, a thesis or line of thought, developed paragraphs that address the question, and a conclusion, all under exam time pressure.
How to structure a critical essay in SQA Higher English Question Paper 2: opening with a relevant introduction and a clear line of thought, building developed paragraphs that keep answering the question, and finishing with a conclusion, all within exam time limits.
- Writing a critical essay on poetry: analysing imagery, sound, form, structure and tone in response to the question, and tracing how the poem develops rather than paraphrasing it line by line.
How to write a strong critical essay on poetry in SQA Higher English: analysing imagery, sound, form, structure and tone in response to the question, tracing how the poem develops, and avoiding line-by-line paraphrase.
- Using evidence and technique: selecting and embedding short quotations, naming the relevant technique accurately, and analysing its effect so that every point links evidence to the question.
How to use evidence and technique in an SQA Higher English critical essay: choosing short relevant quotations, embedding them smoothly, naming techniques accurately, and analysing their effect so each point connects evidence to the question rather than dropping in quotations without comment.
- Analysing a Scottish set text prose: reading a printed extract for prose technique (narrative voice, characterisation, setting, structure) and answering the final question that links the extract to the wider text or the writer's other work.
How to analyse a Scottish set text prose work in SQA Higher English Question Paper 2: reading the printed extract for narrative voice, characterisation, setting and structure, answering the analysis questions, and tackling the final question that links the extract to the wider novel, short stories or non-fiction.
- Analysing a Scottish set text drama: reading a printed extract for dramatic technique (dialogue, stage directions, conflict, characterisation) and answering the final question that links the extract to the whole play.
How to analyse a Scottish set text drama in SQA Higher English Question Paper 2: reading the printed extract for dialogue, stage directions, conflict and characterisation, answering the analysis questions, and tackling the final commonality question that links the extract to the rest of the play.
Sources & how we know this
- SQA Higher English Course Specification — SQA (2018)