Extract Explorer: Shakespeare

Not an answer about the extract

You already know how to work an extract: that it holds more than you can use, that the skill is choosing, and that one detail can become one paragraph. You also know that a play extract is a moment in performance rather than a passage on a page. This module is about the thing both of those stop short of, and it is written into the question itself. The extract question asks you to write about the printed moment and to link it to the whole play. That second half is where the marks are, and it is the half candidates most often leave out. An answer that stays inside the extract for forty minutes can be careful, accurate and well written, and it will still be capped, because it has answered a smaller question than the one that was asked. So the sentence to hold on to is this: the extract is where you start, not what you write about. What you are being examined on is what you can say about the play from there.

Words for the move outward

Five terms for the movement this question rewards. None of them is about the extract; all of them are about what you do next.

Match the link to what it does

Which one has made the move

Four sentences appear in answers about the same extract. Which one has actually linked the extract to the whole play?

• The hesitation here matters because the same character acts without hesitating at the crisis later, so the play sets up a change it will pay off
• This is similar to other parts of the play where the character behaves like this
• The short sentences here create tension, which makes the audience uneasy
• Later in the play a great deal happens as a result of this scene

In and out, then in again

Two answers can analyse the same extract equally well and score very differently. The difference is not the quality of the close reading; it is whether the answer travels.

Which two are genuine links

Select the TWO sentences that make a real link between the extract and the whole play.

• The image used here returns at the end of the play, by which point it has taken on the opposite meaning
• The character is guarded here, whereas in the opening scene they spoke openly, which marks how far the relationship has shifted
• This links to the themes of the play as a whole
• After this scene the plot moves quickly towards the ending

Closed book changes the skill

It is worth being clear about why this is hard, because that changes how you revise for it. In the exam you will have the extract in front of you and nothing else. Every outward move therefore comes from memory, under time pressure, about a play you last read weeks ago, and it has to be specific enough to be worth marks. That is why answers drift inward: the extract is the only part of the play you can actually see, so it is the only part that feels safe. The fix is not to read the play more times. It is to know, in advance, four or five moments you could reach for whatever extract appears: a moment near the beginning that shows how something starts, a turning point, a moment where a character is alone and honest, and the end of the line for whichever idea the play keeps returning to. Those are not quotations to memorise; they are places to go. If you have them ready, the outward move takes a sentence and costs nothing in the exam room. If you do not, you will stay where it is safe and answer the smaller question.

The move in a sentence

An extract-based answer should move outward and come back. Start from a specific _____ in the printed moment. Name a particular other _____ in the play rather than gesturing at the text as a whole. Say what the _____ between the two shows, since a connection you do not explain earns almost nothing. Then _____ to the extract, so the idea is visible in the words in front of you. Because the exam is _____ book, the middle two steps have to come from memory, which is what makes them worth rehearsing.

The paragraph that never leaves

Four sentences from one paragraph of an extract answer. Select the ONE that is doing the outward work; the others stay inside the extract.

• The character interrupts twice in six lines, which breaks the rhythm of the exchange.
• The repeated short questions give the impression of someone losing control of the conversation.
• That loss of control matters because the same character dominates every earlier conversation in the play.
• The final line of the extract is left unfinished, which an audience would notice in performance.

Order the shape of a paragraph

Put the parts of a strong extract-based paragraph into the order that makes the outward move work.

• Make a claim that answers the question asked
• Anchor it in a specific detail from the extract
• Analyse how that detail works
• Name a particular other moment in the play
• State what the relationship between the two moments shows
• Return to the extract to close the paragraph on the words in front of you

A moment opened out

Here is the movement in practice. It is written without naming a play, so that you can lay it over whichever one you are studying. Suppose your extract shows two characters speaking, and one of them says much less than usual. The claim comes first, answering the question rather than describing the scene: the extract shows the relationship at the point where trust has started to fail. Then the anchor, a specific detail: one character asks three direct questions in a row and receives no full answer to any of them. Then the analysis: the imbalance in the exchange puts the audience in the position of noticing an evasion the questioner does not yet name. Then the outward move, to a particular moment rather than to the play in general: earlier, in their first scene together, the same two characters finish each other’s sentences. Then what the relationship between those two moments shows: the play has been measuring this relationship by how the two of them talk, so the silence here registers as damage rather than as mood. Then back to the extract, to close on the page: the unanswered third question is left hanging at the end of the printed lines, and it is not answered afterwards either. Notice what that paragraph does not do. It never summarises the plot, it never says this links to the themes of the play, and it never leaves the extract for good. It goes out, and it comes back.

Making the link explicit

Assemble a sentence that links outward properly rather than gesturing at the rest of the play.

Working outward under pressure

You have chosen the extract question. The extract is in front of you and the book is closed. Take the decisions in order.

• You have annotated the extract and have five minutes of planning left. What is the best use of it?
• You can remember roughly what happens in a later scene but not the exact words. Can you use it?
• A paragraph has drifted into retelling what happens after the extract. What is the fix?
• You are running out of time with one paragraph left. What matters most in it?

Explain how you use an extract

A friend in your class writes careful analysis of the extract and scores less than they expect. Explain what the extract question is really asking and how to answer it, referring to the play you are studying.

• Explain what the extract question asks for beyond analysis of the extract itself
• Explain the difference between mentioning the rest of the play and linking to it
• Describe the shape of a paragraph that moves outward and returns
• Explain why a named moment is worth more than a reference to the themes of the play
• Name three or four moments in your own play you could reach for whatever extract appeared
• Explain why closed-book conditions make this a skill to rehearse in advance
• Explain why retelling what happens next is not the same as linking
• Finish by saying what you would check in a paragraph before moving on