how are we exactly supposed to write an essay for literature?

Some tips to writing a good literature essay:

One of the most important things behind all good literature essays is planning. Planning before writing an essay is essential to writing a well-structured and coherent piece. It is needed to prevent your writing from becoming repetitive and to ensure all key points and aspects have been covered.

A good literature essay will be divided into distinct paragraphs each of which follows a certain format (PEEPL). P is for Point, E is for Evidence, E is for Explanation, P is for Purpose, and L is for Link. Each paragraph begins with a thesis statement that covers a specific point to be discussed in the lines to follow. Typical essays include 3-4 body paragraphs sandwiched between an introduction and a conclusion.

Whether you are writing an essay for a poem, novel, short story, or drama, it is very important to not repeat the text in your answer but to actually analyze it. This is a very common mistake made by students as they tend to summarise the text instead of answering the question.

As your teachers would have told you, when analyzing any text it is important to consider and provide a wide range of literary techniques in your essays. However, identifying them is not enough, you must show how each literary device such as a symbol, quotation, etc. has been effectively used by the writer to create an effect on the reader and understand both its literal and figurative purpose.

Although you are not directly awarded any marks for your language and style of writing, using a wide range of vocabulary and good sentence structure will go a long way to creating a good impression for the examiner and will help you distinguish yourself from the other candidates and achieve higher grades.

Please go check our resources for some high-achieving English Literature sample essays.