I’m starting to think my English teacher may have been teaching essay structure incorrectly for the past few years and I’m worried because exams are really close.
Basically, she’s always taught us that each quotation + explanation is only worth 1 mark total. So for a 30-mark question, we’d supposedly need around 30 separate quotations all explained differently to get full marks.
For example:
“He’s lost his colour very far from here.”
“Colour” could represent blood, youth, or happiness, showing how war physically and emotionally destroys soldiers.
According to her, that would only be worth 1 mark, so we’d need to repeat that process over and over for the whole essay.
But recently I’ve been reading Pearson Edexcel examiner reports and high level model answers, and they seem completely different. Most Grade 8/9 responses use fewer quotations but develop them in much more depth, with longer paragraphs linking multiple ideas together.
Also, barely anyone in her class gets above a 6 using her method. The only person who got a 9 apparently used a completely different structure closer to what Pearson model answers look like.
So now I’m stressed because I don’t know what to do this close to exams.
Would the “single quotation = single mark” method actually limit marks in Edexcel English Literature? And if so, how do I transition into writing stronger analytical paragraphs this late without messing myself up before exams?
