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Literature Shakespeare (English Literature Shakespeare play)

6 dot points across 6 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do you analyse a printed Shakespeare extract and open it out to the whole play?

Analysing the printed Shakespeare extract: reading the passage closely for verse, imagery and dramatic method, selecting short quotations and reaching the effect on the audience, then using the extract as a springboard to trace the idea across the whole play (AO1 and AO2).
How to analyse a printed Shakespeare extract in WJEC GCSE English Literature: reading the passage closely for verse, imagery and dramatic method, selecting short quotations and reaching the effect on the audience, then using the extract as a springboard to trace the idea across the whole play from memory (AO1 and AO2).
9 min answer →

How do you approach the WJEC Shakespeare play and the kind of question it asks?

Approaching the WJEC Shakespeare play: studying one play in full, knowing it is examined by a question that engages the whole play (often through a printed extract that opens out to the play as a whole), and analysing Shakespeare's methods rather than retelling the story (AO1 and AO2).
How to approach the WJEC GCSE English Literature Shakespeare play: studying one play in full, knowing it is examined by a question that engages the whole play, often through a printed extract that opens out to the whole text, and analysing Shakespeare's methods rather than retelling the story (AO1 and AO2, with AO4 context).
9 min answer →

How do you analyse character and theme across a Shakespeare play?

Analysing character and theme in Shakespeare: tracing how Shakespeare develops a character or a theme across the whole play through dramatic method and motif, and arguing what the play suggests, supported by quotation from across the text (AO1 and AO2).
How to analyse character and theme across a Shakespeare play for WJEC GCSE English Literature: tracing how Shakespeare develops a character or a theme through dramatic method and motif, and arguing what the play suggests, supported by quotation from across the whole text (AO1 and AO2, with AO4 context).
9 min answer →

How do you use Shakespearean context to sharpen a WJEC Shakespeare answer?

Using Shakespearean context: relating the play to the beliefs, social order and theatrical conventions of Shakespeare's time, and embedding relevant context as a clause that explains how a moment would strike the original audience, rather than as bolted-on background (AO4).
How to use Shakespearean context in a WJEC GCSE English Literature answer: relating the play to the beliefs, social order and theatrical conventions of Shakespeare's time, and embedding relevant context as a clause that explains how a moment would strike the original audience, rather than as bolted-on background (AO4, woven with AO1 and AO2).
9 min answer →

How do you analyse Shakespeare's dramatic methods and reach the effect on the audience?

Analysing Shakespeare's dramatic methods: verse and prose, soliloquy and aside, imagery and antithesis, dramatic irony and stagecraft, always moving from naming the method to explaining its effect on the audience (AO2).
How to analyse Shakespeare's dramatic methods for WJEC GCSE English Literature: verse and prose, blank verse and broken lines, soliloquy and aside, imagery and antithesis, dramatic irony and stagecraft, always moving from naming the method to explaining its effect on the audience for AO2.
9 min answer →

How do you structure and write a top-band WJEC Shakespeare essay?

Writing the Shakespeare essay: building an idea-led argument that engages the whole play, opening from the extract where one is printed, using flexible memorised quotations, reaching the effect on the audience, embedding context and writing with accuracy (AO1, AO2 and AO4).
How to structure and write a top-band WJEC GCSE English Literature Shakespeare essay: building an idea-led argument that engages the whole play, opening from the printed extract where one is given, using flexible memorised quotations, reaching the effect on the audience, embedding context and writing with accuracy (AO1, AO2 and AO4).
9 min answer →