Guidelines: your essay must have a clear structure.
1. Your paragraphs must start with the big picture concepts and then focus on specific examples.
2. Be clear about the author’s persuasive agenda: (what is their dot-point plan?).
- Are they attacking a scheme?
- Are they defending a scheme or proposal?
- Are they analysing a problem? providing solutions?
3. Starting point: the first paragraph should start with the context/background and critical aspects relating to the author and the message (problem: defence or attack)
- Who is the person: (portrayal of writer/ group) how does the main contention reflect this author’s personal or professional background?
- On what grounds are they defending or attacking a proposal or scheme?
- From what and whose perspective?; see page. 10 (the author) and 11 (most important evidence).
4. Refer to the author’s most important supporting reason(s): personal/professional experience/tone and analyse how he or she uses the evidence to prove a key point. Think about which parts of the text best reflect the author’s main agenda/objectives; group together key points/descriptions so that you can better analyse the author’s intentions and purpose.
- focus on parts of the text that are rich in meaning: eg. analogies/ comparisons + emotive language + tone + appeal
- don’t cover every detail: choose aspects that best support the big picture
The backbone: an author’s typical persuasive agenda/ dot-point plan (the basis for your response)
Here’s a typical example of an author’s plan
- main contention: eg. to show the dangers and consequences of trolling and attack those who troll as malicious people
- uses a real-life example (case study/people) to show the exact dangers and consequences – i.e. death – describe depiction
- author uses this to generalise and show how this is typical of the problems (i.e. not confined to one specific time, place, person)
- impresses upon the audience that the consequences are severe; prepares those who would dismiss her concerns as over-anxious; we must recognise their folly; (shame those who troll and who are flippant)
- Two forms of attack: those who defend trollers on the grounds that they are out of touch (show that their views are naïve and indefensible; makes it difficult for readers to justify trolling); attacks trollers: specifically because they hide behind a shield of anonymity and because the hunt in packs ; describe the depiction; (purpose – shame /fear and alarm)
Return to Summary Page: Orange Workbook tasks