Essay planning sheet

The task

1 · The agreed title

Copy the full title exactly as agreed. Underline the instruction words (explore, compare, in light of) and circle the key terms your essay must define.

2 · Your line of argument

Two sentences at most, and it must be an argument, something a reader could disagree with, not a description of what the texts contain.

3 · The theme bridges you will cross

Tick the two or three bridges your title actually needs. More is not better; an essay of this length can walk two or three bridges well.

• Power and violence
• Confinement and the home
• Marriage and exchange
• Gender and agency
• Guilt, complicity and redemption
• Transformation and identity
• Your own:                               

4 · The paragraph plan

One row per paragraph. Every row needs both texts in it; AO4 is won or lost at the level of the paragraph, not the essay.

	The step in the argument	Carter: story and material	Your novel: chapter and material	Context and critics
Opening
Para 2
Para 3
Para 4
Para 5
Close

5 · Before you draft

• Comparison lives inside every paragraph, not in a bolted-on section
• Context is woven into the reading of passages, not delivered as history
• At least one critic is tested against your own view, not just quoted
• Quotations are short, verified against the text, and cited by story or chapter
• The plan fits the advisory 2,500 to 3,500 words