How do I choose which excerpts to compare and contrast and how do I structure my answer in the ELAT?
- Give yourself time to plan. You have an hour and a half for the task, and you need to use a full 30 minutes at the beginning to read through all of the excerpts and to start planning your answer. You will be given roughly 9 excerpts, and I would recommend choosing 3 to compare and contrast in your answer.
2) The excerpts will cover a variety of different time periods, authors and genres, and it is important to choose at least one text to focus on that is slightly outside of your comfort zone in terms of time period, as the Oxford course is focused on the historical context of literature, so they want to see how you handle unfamiliar styles. When picking the older text, look out for a sentence that jumps out at you either for its irregularity or its connection to a theme or line in another text.
3) Once you have chosen your three texts, create a strong thesis statement to end your introduction with which indicates where your essay is going to take you. E.g. 'In these three excerpts, childhood is portrayed as a state which one never truly leaves.'
3) In the main bulk of your essay, do not worry about context. The examiners only want to see your raw skill in linguistic analysis so don't worry about peppering your answer with technical vocabulary - it is perfectly legitimate to focus on how a particular word or phrase makes you feel, as long as you keep comparing the three texts as you go. Quote liberally.
4) Come back to your thesis statement at the end of every paragraph, and make sure your conclusion matches up to your introduction.
