Selecting the relevant material

You have established the question and the text you are writing about in the Higher Critical Essay paper. Now you have to start planning. This means selecting the relevant information for the essay. Resist the temptation to write everything you know about this text or paraphrase the story.

Your task, before you start answering the question, is to select the relevant items of information from a range of possibilities. The features and techniques used in the text might include:

• theme/minor themes

• characterisation: main/minor characters

• setting: time; period; place

• plot and structure: parallels; repetition; key scene; cliffhanger; turning point; resolution

• narrative technique: first/second/third person

• language: dialogue; poetic devices; tone

• symbolism: imagery; simile and metaphor