Writing Your Text Response

When you set about to write your text response to Look Both Ways it is important to consider your approach. Taking a step-by-step approach ensures you cover every aspect you need to think about to do your best. When you break the process of writing a text response down, there are four key steps:

1. Unpack the topic
2. Plan
3. Write
4. Review and edit

The initial steps are crucial to setting yourself up to write well on an essay topic. So, what do you need to consider at these stages?

1. Unpacking the topic: What are you being asked to write about? Make sure you fully understand what words of the topic mean. What are the key aspects of the topic? Highlight them. NB: You must answer all parts of the question. What will your contention be? Remember: you do not have to fully agree with the topic.

2. Plan/Brainstorm: Focuses on the text itself. What ideas do you have about the text that might be relevant to the topic. What characters and events should you discuss? Which themes and values will you consider in your discussion? How will you incorporate metalanguage into the essay?

Use the some of the essay questions at your disposal to practise these two steps. Being able to unpack and plan for an essay topic quickly is vital when you face the exam. Extend yourself by also practising writing the introduction and first paragraphs to an essay. Being able to do these things well puts you in a confident position to develop essays that follow through in directly responding to the topic/question.