Analysing Literature: Core Skills

Worked examples (6)

• 1Turn an asserted opinion into an earned one
• 2Build an arguable interpretation from the evidence
• 3Acknowledge an alternative reading, then commit (no critics)
• 4Write in the tentative-but-committed register
• 5Sustain ONE independent reading across a whole response
• 6An ambitious reading that stays anchored to the text

Model answers (6)

• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Poetry) style
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Poetry) style
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Poetry) style
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Prose) style
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Poetry) style
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Drama) style

Worked examples (6)

• 1The core move: feature → effect → interpretation on a single image
• 2Analysing DICTION and connotation precisely (why this word, not a synonym?)
• 3Analysing FORM for effect (the sonnet's volta shaping the argument)
• 4Analysing STRUCTURE / movement (where the text turns, and what the shape means)
• 5Integrating language + form + structure in one P-Q-A-C paragraph
• 6Reaching the 'Connection' that lifts Band 4 into Band 5

Model answers (6)

• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Poetry) style — single-stanza close analysis
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Poetry) style — single-paragraph P-Q-A-C analysis
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Poetry) style — whole-poem analysis
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Poetry) style — whole-sonnet analysis
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Poetry) style — integrated whole-sonnet analysis
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Prose) style — opening-passage analysis

Worked examples (6)

• 1Identify the genre and the reader-expectations it switches on
• 2Analyse a DRAMA convention for meaning (stage direction / soliloquy)
• 3Analyse a POETIC-FORM convention for meaning (the sonnet's volta / the elegy)
• 4Analyse a PROSE convention for meaning (narrative voice / free indirect discourse)
• 5Analyse genre SUBVERSION — where the broken convention is the meaning (Stretch)
• 6Use genre to frame a WHOLE-TEXT argument (the genre thesis) (Stretch)

Model answers (6)

• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 Section A (Drama) style
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 Section B (Poetry) style
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 Section C (Prose) style
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 Section A (Drama) style
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 Section B (Poetry) style
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 Section C (Prose) style

Worked examples (6)

• 1Apply the illumination test to accept or reject a contextual point
• 2Turn a biographical fact into a context-illuminates-feature sentence
• 3Use literary (genre) context to read a TURN (the sonnet's volta)
• 4Use social / historical context to read a specific IMAGE
• 5Integrate context into a P-Q-A-C paragraph WITHOUT info-dumping (Stretch)
• 6Weigh context of PRODUCTION against context of RECEPTION on one feature (Stretch)

Model answers (6)

• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 style (context-in-meaning paragraph)
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 style (context-in-meaning paragraph)
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 style (context integrated with analysis)
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 style (set-text essay paragraph)
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 style (sophisticated AO1 paragraph)
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 style (set-text drama paragraph; bracketed extract)

Worked examples (6)

• 1Turn a question into a thesis (answer the EXACT question)
• 2The four-point plan (a spine before you write a word)
• 3Write a P-Q-A-C paragraph that reaches the Connection
• 4Topic sentences + signposting for coherence
• 5Structure a PASSAGE-BASED essay (extract → wider text)
• 6Write a judgement-led conclusion (decide the question, don't restate it)

Model answers (6)

• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Poetry) style — single-paragraph architecture exemplar
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Poetry) style — single-paragraph architecture exemplar
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Poetry) style
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Drama) style
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Prose) style — passage/open hybrid
• ✓Model answer — Cambridge 8695 Paper 2 (Drama) style — passage-based