Writing About Literature: Critical Style and Quotation

Writing well about what you read

In a literature exam you are marked not on knowing the story but on how well you write about it. The same skills work for a play, a novel or a poem, so learning them once pays off everywhere. This module works through five skills: - A critical style: analysing a text rather than retelling its story.\n- Embedding quotations: weaving a short quoted phrase into your own sentence.\n- The analytical paragraph: making a point, giving evidence, and explaining the effect.\n- Subject terminology: naming the methods a writer uses, such as metaphor or imagery.\n- An informed personal response: your own view, supported by the text. Every example here is invented, so nothing depends on a set text. The skills are what carry across to whatever you have studied.

Words for writing about literature

Five terms you need before you use them. Learn what each one means.

Match each writing skill to what it does

Retelling against analysing

The line between a weak answer and a strong one is usually the line between retelling and analysing. Learn to hear the difference.

Which sentence analyses?

Which of these sentences analyses the writing rather than just retelling the story?

• The writer uses a dark image to make the reader feel uneasy
• Then he walked into the room and sat down
• The story is about a man who is sad
• It was a really good and interesting book

Tap the two marks of a critical style

Tap the TWO habits that belong to a critical style of writing.

• Using tentative words such as perhaps and suggests
• Naming the methods a writer uses and their effects
• Retelling the whole plot from beginning to end
• Saying only whether you liked the book

How to work a quotation in

A quotation is not proof on its own. It only works when you choose it well and then do something with it. Keep it short: a few well-chosen words carry more than a whole copied sentence. Weave it into a sentence of your own so it reads smoothly, and quote it accurately, word for word, without bending it to fit. Then, and this is the part that earns the marks, explain the effect: say what the chosen words do to the reader and why the writer might have chosen them. A short quotation followed by real explanation beats a long quotation followed by silence every time.

Pick the true facts about literature essays

Select the TWO statements that are true.

• A short quoted phrase is usually better than copying a long passage
• Explaining the effect of a method earns more than just spotting it
• Retelling the whole plot is the best way to show understanding
• A quotation may be changed to fit your sentence even if it alters the words

Order the parts of an analytical paragraph

Put the parts of a strong analytical paragraph in the order they usually come.

• Make a clear point about the text
• Give a short quotation as evidence
• Name the method the writer uses
• Explain the effect on the reader
• Link back to the point or the question

One paragraph, built properly

Here is a single strong paragraph about an invented poem, to show how the parts fit together.\n\nThe point: the writer presents the sea as something to fear.\n\nThe proof: a short quoted phrase, the hungry waves, is woven into the sentence rather than dropped in on its own. The method and effect: calling the waves hungry gives them an appetite, as though the sea itself might swallow the boat, which unsettles the reader. The link: this fear of the sea then runs through the whole poem. Notice how short the quotation is, how neatly it sits inside the sentence around it, and how most of the paragraph explains the effect rather than repeating the story.

Complete the literature writing facts

Writing that analyses a text rather than retelling it shows a _____ style. Weaving a short quotation smoothly into your own sentence is called _____. A short, well-chosen quotation is your _____. Naming a method correctly means using the right subject _____.

Build a critical sentence

Choose the words that complete this statement about a strong answer.

The literature writing run

Five questions on writing about literature. Three lives.

Improve the writing

Read each piece of weak writing and choose the best way to improve it, then think about why.

• A student writes: the book is about a sad man and then he dies. What is the main problem?
• A student copies a whole long paragraph from the text as a single quotation. What is the better approach?
• A student writes only that they really liked this book. What is missing?

Explain how to write well about literature

A student in the year below does not know how to turn what they have read into a strong exam answer. Explain how using what this module has covered.

• Explain what a critical style is and how it differs from retelling
• Explain how to embed a short quotation as evidence
• Explain the parts of a strong analytical paragraph
• Explain why subject terminology and accuracy matter
• Finish by explaining how to give an informed personal response