Securing an Academic Voice in Essays

 Academic voice in essays

Personal voice and academic style are worth considering to challenge students to write more clearly and convincingly. It really does not take long to improve a student’s written voice to be more critical and academic. I want to be clear here that this can be achieved by any student regardless of year group or perceived ability.  This can have a real impact both on the quality and precision of their thinking, their essays and ultimately their grade.

At the outset of tackling an essay remind students about their own ‘voice’. Highlighting the difference between the more informal versus an academic style is key. Two things I have taught immediately help to eliminate the informal voice. Firstly, students remove first person from their essays- those who find English challenging absolutely can do this if they are taught how. Most sentences starting, ‘I think Dickens’  or ‘I think Lady Macbeth’ can be edited to easily remove the first person and still make sense. Teachers can edit sentences live on the board to show students how to do it. Another bête noir is an analytical paragraph, which instead of embedding the quotation says, ‘This is shown when Dickens quotes’ or ‘seen in the quotation’. Writing quotes or quotation in this context is incorrect. Dickens does not quote himself in his own novel and writing ‘quotation’ before then writing the quotation actually makes no sense. 

However, we also encounter another type of student who think they need to write in some impressive overblown style, and as a result we can get verbose essays which sound impressive but contain empty phrases or worse yet, waffle on and make no sense. These essays are self penalising. It is arguable that AO1 is in reality the key driver because it underpins everything. Students may have perceptive and sophisticated interpretations however if they do not convey them precisely and with a sharp focus on the question all the words in the world are a waste of time. It is worth looking at exemplars from your exam boards or ones you have from previous years which can highlight either a waffly or a cogent style and compare them. Then as a task students could make the ‘waffly’ version sharper. 

Sentence starters or key words can be given to students to scaffold this process, which can be reduced as they get more adept at using them such as: evokes, conveys, effectively, positions the reader to, illuminates, challenges. Recently, twitter teachers have been great at sharing resources doing this. The more we model using these, the more any student of any age or ability will just pick them up. It’s just a word afterall. 

Other very useful phrases to show a considered approach are tentative ones linked to the writer: perhaps, might, could have, which indicate a thoughtful, evaluative understanding eg ‘Perhaps Shakespeare positions the audience to admire Macbeth’s loyalty and bravery at the start to make his downfall seem greater’. Additionally, this tentative approach opens the door to alternative interpretations ‘Perhaps Duffy… on the other hand it could be argued…’ which can be a feature of a higher level essay.

Finally, ‘writing from the writer’ is key to show they understand the text is written as a construct to convey ideas. This is relevant for a good pass in Literature. Furthermore, in GCSE especially it can help them to discuss the writers concerns and themes, opening up AO3 for them. Really simple phrases which support this are those such as: the writer, Shakespeare presents, the writer positions the audience, perhaps the text challenges… These approaches can be useful in enabling students to achieve that more convincing, critical style in their essays. 

Modelling the thinking behind What How Why sections would be an effective activity to complete as a class. You can demonstrate a paragraph before and after academic phrases and talk through what is different. This allows students to see the thinking behind the phrasing perhaps tweaking bits and tailoring them to what they particularly want to say. Students get to practise seeing the context in which ‘evokes’ works better than ‘challenges’ for example. Follow up tasks can be students having a go themselves (in pairs even) using and modifying sentence starts, which you can eventually fade out as they get more confident with their own academic voice.

A Never Ending Story...?

My first Never Ending Story blog about the A Level NEA summarised the intended beauty and the hurdles we can encounter in the preparation and planning stages. I also gave advice and practical strategies on how to get your students to the point of writing. 

What follows is where to go next in facilitating students’ journeys as budding critics and adding to the ongoing academic conversations about their texts.

Personal voice and academic style

At the outset of this writing process I will remind students about their own ‘voice’ for their essay writing. Highlighting the difference between the informal and a more academic style is key. Often students think they need to write in some impressive overblown style reminiscent of Hamlet’s Polonius and sounding just as ridiculous. Ambition ‘o’erleaps’ itself and what they write is merely ‘words, words, words’. As a result we receive verbose essays which sound impressive but contain empty phrases or worse yet, waffle on and make no sense. These essays are self penalising. Another reason this also comes about can be that students who write like this do so to mask a skimpy or generalised understanding of their texts. I think it’s arguable that AO1 is in reality the key driver of the NEA because it underpins everything. Students may have perceptive and sophisticated interpretations however, if they do not convey them precisely and with a sharp focus on the question all the words in the world are a waste of time. It is worth looking at exemplars from AQA or ones you have from previous years that can highlight either a waffly or a cogent style and compare them. Then as a task students could make the waffly version sharper.

I also print my students the exam report for the NEA and usually use it as a flipped homework task. Students highlight, identify and summarise the salient advice. We have a discussion about what key take aways they found from the report. From this we make an agreed class criteria of what successful NEAs do and then what the least successful NEAs do. Students can use this to refer back to for self or peer assessment later. 

Conceptual starts

Another thing I will recap with students is how to write a thesis statement focused introduction. Essentially, in writing their literary analysis a student’s objective is to convince the examiner that they have supported the idea they are developing. A thesis statement involves a declarative sentence that states the purpose of their essay. Indeed it is the crux of the argument students are trying to make: their ‘argument in a nutshell’. I will show students exam board exemplars and previous students’ introductions and we will read, annotate and rank them and discuss strengths or improvements. I would always advocate no first person ‘I’ or second person ‘you’ and that it should capture an argument with reasons. Thesis statements should be conceptual and use the key words of the question. Students may benefit from defining themes in the question and how they link to their texts. We might practise by writing them in pairs on texts we have already studied- if that helps. The word ‘through’ is really excellent in helping to phrase thesis statements e.g. Through the characters of Gatsby and Myrtle Fitzgerald criticises the hollowness of the American Dream. We then move into completing our own introductions, getting feedback and making tweaks. I feel it is utterly vital to make time to allow for students to have a sharply focused introduction ‘setting out their stall,’ because it crystallises for them what they are arguing. Furthermore, the examiner will be clear what the student is arguing and by association - hopefully - have a favourable opinion of the student and essay right from the start.

At this point, students begin to write their main arguments up from their plan. Some I might advise to have argument headings above each section for clarity. I then give students two options either to write in the order they naturally intend their arguments to follow (as might be seen as the norm). Alternatively, something I have done with some students is get them to start with what they feel is their strongest argument to help them find their feet and build confidence. The beauty of editing on computer means we can organise the individual sections later in the order that makes the strongest, most logical argument.

Peer feedback

Here it is possible after each section is written students can be one another’s critical friend. One aspect often cited in the examiner’s report is that coverage of texts is uneven. This is a fair point, it’s hardly a comparison when one text is more heavily discussed than the other. Another interpretation of this is that students read one book well and skim the second, which means their understanding is not as thorough, and this will really be evident to the examiner. In the planning stage it is key students have a fairly equal amount of ideas from both books and which range from start to end of the texts. Indeed, sometimes students rely on quotations from the first part of the texts and it looks as though they might not have read the whole thing. It might just be the case they have not realised they do not have a range and this is why planning and peer critiques can be vital. 

After a whole comparative argument is drafted students can read through and give peer feedback on all assessment objectives. Often what we do is get out the highlighters and colour code sections covering specific AOs so students can weigh up the balance they have or what features less at that point in time. However, since AO1 is a key driver students really need a keen eye on clarity of the argument being developed. Pointers to consider might be:

• Is there a comparative statement to introduce or foreground the argument being made?
• Are arguments substantiated with reasoned and thorough use of frequent, embedded evidence?
• Is there a focus on the ‘how’ or ‘the ways’ and not the content of the storyline?
• Is the line of argument sharp and being clearly referred back to the question?
• Are students tying in context and alternative interpretations whilst coming out of their text or discussion rather than bolting them on?
• Is there evaluation of typicality or reception of the text's ideas and characters?
• If a critical view is present, is it relevant to the argument, supported and debated?
• The exam report highlighted quite bluntly that there were many occasions where students had not proof read and edited their essays. There seemed to be an understandable disappointment that there were mistakes in: titles, author names and basic grammar from students at this level.

Marking a draft

Ensure students are really clear they do not get lots of attempts on this. Beware: this is not like the old days of GCSE coursework where students could get lots of feedback and make many drafts. It must be made really clear to students you can only lightly check one draft of their essay. Here we must be really careful not to make rubric infringements and stick to the strict guidelines from AQA's specification :

'When checking drafts of a student’s work, you must not comment or provide suggestions on how they could improve it. However, you can ask questions about the way they are approaching their work and you can highlight the requirements of the marking criteria'

I think asking questions to the student in a tutorial basis could be one way forward here. Students need to independently action these questions in the time they have left before the deadline. Additionally, once a student submits their work for marking - that is it. They cannot have any more time or feedback on their essay. It's probably worth also at this point, printing the AQA student coversheets for them to sign simply because once the exam season hits you may have trouble chasing students and it can cause you unnecessary stress. When you mark the final draft you will want to annotate where the student hits the assessment objectives and this can be done throughout the essay, indicating where criteria is met or in a summative comment referencing sections in the student's essay. My preference is to annotate as I go as it is a record of my thought processes that I can read back and it leads me to my final decision on a mark.  

Plagiarism

Like the ghost of future yet to come, this is the most terrifying phantom in our story. I have had students in the past who either did not understand that they had plagiarised or refused to admit that is what they had done. Mostly it is easy to spot as it sounds different to their own voice that you are used to reading, and it will probably only take a quick internet search on a few phrases to confirm this. Previously I have printed out and highlighted passages to show students and parents if that is deemed necessary. Therefore, it really is worth spending a lesson talking through with students what constitutes plagiarism and the impact it could have on individual and class results. This is also where keeping a list of sources from as early as possible helps as it can inform their bibliography. Here are other things AQA cite in the specification as malpractice:

'submit work that is not their own

lend work to other students

allow other students access to, or use of, their own independently-sourced source material

include work copied directly from books, the Internet or other sources without acknowledgement

submit work that is word-processed by a third person without acknowledgement

include inappropriate, offensive or obscene material.'

Standardisation

The deadline for AQA NEA is usually 15th May, but you want their final draft in way before this.  Teachers need to give themsleves enough times to standardise, fill out forms and agree marks and rank orders. Certainly setting aside some department meeting time for this would really help. Standardisation can be done in a variety of ways and depends on the staff and time at your disposal. If the class has two teachers, you could split the marking, swap and standardise one another's . We also have a member of staff teaching the Language and Literature course who also teaches Literature who can help to standardise. AQA do have their online teacher standardisation and it can be accessed through eAQA . This link gives more details here and it is really useful. These can then be referred to as points of reference for your students essays. Essays can then be discussed in a team meeting and you can even print the essays you mark and share with students at a later date.

End of story

So imagine a utopian world where it’s now term four and the NEA is complete. Students can now totally focus on the exam. It is worth, at this point, asking students to reflect on the whole NEA process:

• What did they find difficult?
  
• What strategies did they use to overcome their difficulties in essay writing that they could use again in the future?
  
• What surprised them about their NEA?
  
• What would they do differently next time?
  
• What have they improved on?
  
• What lessons have they learnt that they need to be aware of for their revision?
  
• Which essay skills and strategies do they need to hone over weeks to come?

Hopefully, students will have lots of positives to take away. Often during the writing of the NEA they do not see the light at the end of the tunnel so taking time for some metacognitive reflection can make them see more clearly what they got out of the NEA. In the past my students have stated they improved essay writing in all the other subjects as they used a similar process to that of their NEA. Some look back in bemused amazement at what they managed to contribute to the ongoing conversation about their texts. Others have said they found they had become more confident in asserting and supporting their viewpoints and writing academically. The main thing for me is often exactly this: students find or strengthen their voice and by doing so contribute to the ongoing conversation about those texts. 

I believe, to support our students in becoming articulate communicators and critical thinkers is to give them a powerful gift. It helps them to navigate a world where words create all kinds of narratives. Ultimately, our students need to be adept at reading life’s never ending stories and hopefully we imbue them with the necessary skills to do so.

A Never Ending Story...?

Imagine a library where the bookshelves stretch up way above your head and as far as the eye can see. Sunlight creates golden twinkles of inspiration in the air. You can choose any book. Any two books actually. To read and study these pieces of art in depth. Indeed, to contribute to the already ongoing conversation these texts create about the human condition...

Welcome to every A level Literature teacher’s dream: the non examined assessment!

Long gone are the days of enforced GCSE texts, our budding critics at A level can choose different books from their peers and not ones picked by their teacher. In fact our budding critics can now pick any two books that really spark their interest, that speak to them and that they are passionate about. Alan Bennett said that the best moments in reading are when, “a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is...And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.” Our students have the opportunity to do exactly this.

Except...in my experience the NEA never completely lives up to this glorious ideal. In fact it can overwhelm the most able of students when taken in the context of all the other work they have to do. So when teaching it I try to sell that ideal dream right from the start. That’s one reason why we teach literature surely: because we love to have opportunity to read, discuss and interpret texts in detail.

Over the years I have taught the NEA in many different ways, covered many different texts and am always refining how I approach it. Even this year, something I never considered would be an approach: remote teaching!

What follows is the start of a series of blogs featuring some advice and practical approaches to teaching this beast so it doesn’t turn into a never ending story. Hopefully, you still reach for that A level literature ideal, imbue your students with the golden possibilities, even if in practice it’s slightly messier.

The Pitch

I usually start with selling them the real positives they can benefit from: of working independently and researching books they really love. This, they like. Furthermore, I highlight how refining their essay skills will improve essay writing in other subjects. Finally, another plus side is that it’s a great run up to university assignments.   

Which Texts?

A comparison of two texts from two different authors. For AQA, one text has to be pre 1900 (both can be) and can be from any genre: prose, play or poetry collection. AQA have a list of suggested texts and also a list of texts you cannot use since they are exam texts and it is worth printing both lists for your students which you can access here. Choosing texts? Your context and individual students are key here. Ideally you will have students who are voracious, independent readers who know what they want to study and might have even read one or two of their chosen texts already. More often than not though, my students need more help than this.

In the past I have let freedom of text choice reign and at other times chosen one core class text to focus on. This depends on your students and you could do a mix of both. Core texts I have taught include: ‘Dr Faustus’, ‘Frankenstein’, ‘Hamlet’, ‘Birdsong’ and ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’ . Most of these are pre 1900, mainly because students I have worked with were less likely to read pre 1900 texts or found them intimidating. 

It might be that, honestly, some students do not read independently, or are not well organised outside of lessons and so to have a core text and some nudges to key moments and themes is really helpful. As a springboard, this can give them confidence to approach another text as they have some models and strategies on how to start on the second text.

Another factor is that students might have a first text but do not have the breadth of reading to simply decide on another text. Teacher guidance here might begin by asking them which A level or GCSE texts they particularly liked that they have studied so far and what were the particular themes or contexts that interested them in those. Alternatively, it can be helpful to get students to google themes or ideas in their first book and see what other books contain similar ones. Additionally, I have developed a pre made list of books (which I tweak each year) with concepts linked to each one. That way students may start to see links more easily between texts on: theme, character, genre or narrative structure. One year when I had a very small class and we were doing one core text, I put a large selection of possible ‘other texts’ on a desk and we spent a lesson skimming through and discussing potential links and themes. It led to students choosing different texts in a comfortable context where they could discuss their thoughts before making a choice.

Prep work

Once texts have been chosen students need to assemble a body of key moments, arguments, quotations and other notes about their texts. It can be useful to draw up a schedule of what notes should be produced for when. The reasoning here is three fold. Some students will disappear down a rabbit hole; others will do very little and some will do too much. Ideas for your schedule might  include:

• character studies
• chapter summaries
• theme studies
• 8 key moments with reasoning and evidence
• timelines
• narrative structure and perspective
• relevant context research and genre features. 

Previously, I have also tasked students with comparing the opening couple of pages of each text and consider:

• What are we being told about events and character and why?
• What is the author withholding?
• Why this setting?
• Why this narrative perspective?
• What interests you about the opening most of all?

Critical Reading and Literature Reviews

Students need directing towards some critical reading to inform their ideas. Without this you could be sending even your best student back down that rabbit hole! The English and Media Centre's emagazine articles are perfect for this. You can get a department subscription or open it up to students as well. I would also recommend the British Library's Discovering Literature pages, The Guardian interviews and reviews, Massolit and JSTOR for articles. One strategy could be to direct them with links you have found or hand them specific articles from EMC or The British Library and ask them to summarise the main arguments and three golden nugget quotations as take aways to be cited later perhaps. If there is time they could always develop these links later into a mini presentation to the class. Additionally, it could be that as a homework task you set them a literature review. Students go away and research what has been written already on the aspect or theme they are interested in and summarise salient points, their own thoughts about their possible arguments or areas of focus. At this point it is probably a good idea to advise students to start a bibliography to track their reading and sources.

Critical Perspectives

It is worth noting students do not have to mention lots of critics’ quotes. Indeed, students can refer to a performed version’s interpretation of their text or their own alternative perspective. Having said that, I find this can be an aspect of their essay where students do struggle. Often students do tend to choose a quotation they either do not understand or do not unpick. Or worse, a quotation that does not relate to their argument at all. It must be made clear it needs to illuminate their argument, not simply be thrown in and left there. A way to combat this is for them to spider diagram the reference they want to use. First summarise what the quotation is stating. Next, state how it links to their argument, then list what evidence or examples they have to support or refute it. Exam boards have also made note of how often students make sweeping statements about feminism or patriarchal society for example. A way round this could be to ensure you have taught some mini lessons on relevant theoretical perspectives (feminist, Marxist, new historicist) so that students can plan them relevantly into their arguments.

At this point you may want students to consider possible essay question ideas. Good starting points are: themes, characterisation, genre. Crucially students need to consider what is the big conversation writers want to have with their respective audiences? AQA cite this list of ideas as examples of the sort of things students might focus on:

• the struggle for identity
• crime and punishment
• minds under stress
• nostalgia and the past
• the Gothic
• satire and dystopia
• war and conflict
• representations of race    and ethnicity
• representations of sexuality
• representations of women
• representations of men
• representations of social class and culture.

Creating Questions

Students are to design their own question based on their own interests and with teacher guidance. For example: Compare and contrast the ways in which Elizabeth Gaskell and Henrik Ibsen present the relationships between Margaret Hale and John Thornton in North and South (1854-55) and Nora and Torvald Helmer in A Doll’s House (1879). Examine the view that in both texts, ‘the personal is political’ or often having a viewpoint before the question can help. For example: “Women in literature are often portrayed as weak victims” In light of this view compare and contrast the ways [ insert text titles] present women and to what extent they are victims. This way it sets up the possibility for a debate. Key also is ‘the ways’ as it focuses clearly on AO2: analysis of methods a writer uses the convey their ideas. I always run our draft questions by the advisor assigned to us by AQA. That way I can receive objective opinion and feedback on the suitability of questions and their phrasing for my own peace of mind. My next steps are that I have mini tutorials with my students in a follow up lesson to discuss any question tweaks. 

Planning as a Priority

Next up students need to be encouraged to plan in whatever way works for them. It’s surprising how many of them neglect this element in favour of just starting to type the essay itself! I ask them to draw up a list of main links or similarities and differences between the texts focused on their question steer. Now students can look to see if these could be grouped together or ordered into a logical argument. Once they have done this, I try to get them to write comparative statements that will be the main sections of their essay. These sections they then use to plan each argument and might note down: key moments, quotations, relevant methods or context, analysis, effects and any of their critical reading. Only once they have planned out sections can they start.

Clarifying through Talk

What I am currently doing this year is having a weekly Teams live lesson solely for students to have a healthy discussion, present ideas and arguments to their peers, and receive feedback on them.  I think that whilst in this period of not teaching students face to face at school, this dialogic approach is more important than ever to help them test out and clarify their arguments in from the comfort of their own homes! Students then send me a document of what their main points were and I give them feedback.

So this is where my students are up to at the moment. They have a long climb ahead. They will have to devote more time to completing this independent piece than they probably realise. I am interested to see what each student contributes to the ongoing conversations about their texts and to read their "way of looking at things".