What is "Point-Evidence-Explanation (PEE)"?

"Point-Evidence-Explanation" is the basic structure that all good essay answers should follow. First you have the POINT, the argument that you want to make about a particular book, character, passage etc, for example: "Shakespeare suggests in "Macbeth" that Lady Macbeth rejects her feminine identity so that she can take part in Duncan's murder." This is ultimately what you want to convince the examiner is true. Next comes the EVIDENCE, which is a quote or multiple quotes from the text that you think help prove this. For example: "Come, you spirits/That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here/And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/Of direst cruelty!...Come to my woman's breasts/And take my milk for gall". You must expand upon this with your EXPLANATION, where you extract your overall argument from your chosen quote(s), and add in some context if it is appropriate and strengthens your argument. For example: "Lady Macbeth's call to "unsex" herself before the "direst cruelty" displays that she must renounce her uniquely feminine traits in order to engage in an act as horrific as murdering Duncan, her king and guest. It would be a mark of her cruelty to an Elizabethan audience that she begs for someone to come to her breasts and "take my milk for gall" as she is effectively renouncing her role as not just a hostess but a woman to take part in an act seen as unthinkable for someone of her gender." This ties the POINT and EVIDENCE together to create a well-rounded answer.