How should I structure my paragraphs?

I strongly advise students to follow the PEEL approach.First you write your point, in a relatively short, focused and simple sentence. You proceed to offer the quote from the text that your point relates to. Be careful that the quote is not too long, and that you choose only the relevant part of the text to use as support. Then you explain your point. In effect, you elaborate on what you stated above, commenting on detail, offering varying interpretations and analysing the components of the quote you provided for support. Finally, you link both back to the question (the prompt) and to the point of your next paragraph. For example, if your point was ‘The poet describes the furniture in the room to highlight the alienation the character felt’ then that could be linked to the point of your next paragraph, which could be something like ‘The poet juxtaposes the description of the cold room to the warm smell of dinner from the neighbour’s window.’So PEEL: state your Point, provide your Evidence, Elaborate further and then Link it back to the title and the next point.

XK
Answered by Xenia K. English Literature tutor

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