Topic Five (1.5): Critical Writing

Critical Writing – Unit 16 pp.164-171

All the assignments in the IGCSE English Literature course require you to write an essay about one or more texts, so it’s a good idea at this point to look at how to write about texts and how to write essays. The next three topics focus on these aspects of your work.

This topic focuses on the right ways to write critically about texts and will help you in all your literature essays. (Don’t worry, therefore, that the texts used as examples in these three topics are mainly poems, rather than pieces of prose fiction. There’s nothing to stop you going over them again when you write your poetry essays for Assignments 3 and 4!)

 Read

Read the advice on critical writing on pp.164-167, then read ‘Hedge School’ by Owen Sheers on pp.168-169.

 Interact

Complete Activities 1-2 on pp.169-170. Make sure you refer to ‘Check Your Progress’ on p.171, so that you are confident you have completed all of the tasks.