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Perfecting The Introduction: How to Write Every GCSE English Literature Introduction

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I like to spend a lot of time explicitly teaching, modelling, and rehearsing with students finely crafted introductions. I do this for each of the questions we face as part of AQA GCSE English Literature. By the time of the exam, students should be able to produce a really precise and confident introduction for any question they are asked, which then sets up the rest of the essay. But their ability to do this is the product of a lot of guidance and explicit instruction.

In this post, I’ll take you through each of these introductions, what they look like, and how they work. But, first, a question: Why place such a high premium on writing essay introductions?

Why Focus on Introductions?

1. Introductions create the argumentative groove for the whole essay. As such, they are vital. Here’s how I explain this to students. I ask them to imagine writing an essay is like bowling (bear with me). We want to release the ball with precision and force. It should carry itself along a planned trajectory, not deviating from this track. As it rolls, it should gather momentum until, with a satisfying thwack, it smashes into the pins. If we release too early or if we release in a clumsy fashion, none of this will happen. The ball will skittle off into the gutter. Our introduction is that moment of releasing the ball and if we get it just right then the ball will hurtle towards a strike. The argument we craft is the route that the ball takes, always deliberate, carrying itself to exactly where we want it to land. The introduction, I say, is the crucial moment that determines the future success of our essay before we have even written it.

2. Getting the introduction right with lots of modelling and scaffolding also serves, I’ve found, a psychological function. Exams, understandably, can be very stressful experiences. Getting into the ‘zone’ if you are already stressed can be even more difficult. I’ve found those first 5 minutes of any new essay to be absolutely central to settling students into the rhythm of the exam. Once they start writing often everything becomes a lot easier. So, helping students to take care of that first 5 minutes of writing (in other words the introduction) can have a significant benefit to the rest of the essay. My aim is for each student to have a clear and well-rehearsed schematic for how to approach the introduction for each question so that those first 5 minutes of writing are as seamless and easy as possible. But, of course getting to that point doesn’t happen by accident or automatically.

3. Finally, there is another psychological benefit, but this time to the examiner. A typical examiner might have 300 scripts to mark in one examination cycle, which, if AQA, means 600 essays for Paper 1 or, if Paper 2, 900 essays. That’s a lot of essays! As such, they are incentivised to mark quickly. The introduction of any essay is going to shape their initial view of the kind of essay they are reading. Of course, they’ll continue to read and form a judgement about the whole piece, but, nonetheless, the introduction is going to help to establish an anticipated horizon of likelihood. If the introduction is amazing an assumption will be made they are reading a good essay. The rest of the essay now just needs to justify that first impression. However, if it’s a bad introduction the rest of the essay has a uphill battle of dislodging the first impression. Up hill is harder than down hill. We want down hill. We want the examiner to arrive at the end of the introduction thinking this is an excellent essay and then the essay can flow forwards from that initial presumption.

So there we have it: why spending time really rehearsing the introduction can pay dividends. But, what do they actually look like?

An Inspector Calls or The Modern Text

For this question, I follow a tripartite structure that looks like this:

1. All the characters are constructs that serve a function

2. How so, related to the question?

3. The text warns/challenges/subverts/attacks/critiques, as relevant to the question

I’ve yet to find a question where this basic structure doesn’t work perfectly.

Here’s an example:

How does Priestley explore the importance of social class in An Inspector Calls?

When considering the ways in which Priestley explores the importance of social class in An Inspector Calls, it is important first of all to stress all characters within the play are dramatic vehicles, representing the damage entranced social divisions can bring about. Mrs Birling, for example, is used to represents the kind of heinous class prejudice that might have been typical of Edwardian society whilst the Inspector, Priestley’s mouthpiece, embodies an emphatic rejection of this mentality. In this, Priestley seeks to pit one ideology against another, underlining the urgent need for equity and the dismantling of social barriers.

Whilst, as we’ll see in a moment, I do have other basic structures for the other questions, this one can also be used for most of the other questions, or at least the Shakespeare play and the nineteenth-century novel. It offers a really flexible and robust opening to any essay and can be pretty much endlessly recycled.

The Anthology Poetry

Again, we follow a tripartite structure, which looks like this:

1. Specify the chosen poem

2. Thematic similarity

3. Thematic difference

This is very straightforward but works excellently: name the second poem and then bring them together to offer one point of thematic similarity and one point of thematic difference.

Compare how poets present attitudes towards a broken relationship in Neutral Tones and one other poem

When considering how Hardy presents a broken relationship in Neutral Tones one also immediately think of Sheers’ Winter Swans. Both poems depict the deep pain that a broken relationship can cause, reflecting on the difficulties and emotional hardship this can create. However, whilst Hardy’s poem maintains a bitter tone throughout, Sheers concludes his with a sense of reconciliation, suggesting a broken relationship can be overcome.

The key thing here, I feel is to include no language analysis and to maintain a purely thematic overview. This instantly places the essay in the realm of the conceptual, offering an idea or point of view that will then help to drive the analysis forward.

Unseen Poetry

This one is a little bit cheating to include, since it doesn’t, by design, really have an introduction. Or, rather the introduction is a single sentence beginning with ‘Thematically speaking…’.

Here’s what it looks like in answer to this question about Island Man, how does the poet present the speaker’s feelings about home:

Thematically speaking, the poet presents the speaker’s feelings about his home as a vehicle through which to explore the way in which it shapes one’s identity and its deep emotional significance.

For this question, I used to recommend to students they they just dive straight in with an analysis of the poem. However, what I noticied is that the ensuing analysis seemed unmoored. It didn’t have any thematic direction. So, I tried to fix this by asking students to begin by explicitly addressing in the opening sentence their conceptual stance in regards to the question. This then provides a cue for the analysis itself, helping to ensure it is pinned to a wider understanding of the text.

The ‘thematically speaking’ element doesn’t really need to be there to achieve this, but it offers a useful prompt to help remind students the point of their introductory sentence is to root their response and subsequent analysis within a consideration of bigger ideas. Like all good sentence stems, it helps to cue up the thinking that is about to take place.

Macbeth and the Nineteenth-Century Novel

I’ve included these in the same section because I use exactly the same format for both introductions, given they both involve responding to an extract.

First, it’s useful to understand how I ask students to think about this question more generally. I explain whatever extract they’re given will be in some manner an important moment in the play. We need to think about this moment not in isolation but as a kind of pivot onto which the wider play, in some fashion, balances. We might think about how events in the play lead up to this moment or how subsequent events develop. But, the extract becomes a way into the play as a whole.

Here’s a graphic representation of this same idea that I use with when explaining this:

With this in mind, I introduction I advocate follows this format:

1. Express that the given extract is a pivotal moment within the wider play

2. How so? Does it instigate a chain of events within the play or is it the culmination of a chain of events?

3. How is this chain of events relevant to the question being posed?

And, here’s an example from Macbeth:

When considering how Shakespeare presents the character of Macbeth as ambitious one recognises this extract is a pivotal moment in the play. This is largely because the scene is the culmination of a chain of events in which Macbeth has increasingly displayed his almost aggressive ambition, leading to the murder of Banquo. Here, Macbeth is responding to the sight of Banquo at the banquet, suggestive of the violent consequences of his ambition and how it will haunt him.

This is a great way not only to write an introduction but also, more broadly, to encourage students to think about the relationship between the extract and the wider text for this kind of question.

I should also add, though, that the AIC style introduction does still work very well for this question too. And so if, for whatever reason, we wanted to avoid the chain of events style introduction, students could very easily repurpose the AIC one with still excellent results.

I suppose for a post on the introduction I could just leave it there. Who cares about conclusions, anyway?! Well, there is maybe ever so slightly some truth to this. Realistically, in the midst of a time-pressured and tiring exam, the conclusion will naturally get less attention. It also suffers from the law of diminishing returns where, in all likelihood, your mark has been more or less decided before we arrive at the conclusion. It probably isn’t going to add much. So, I do definitely spend less time rehearsing the conclusion.

Still, like now, there needs to be something. As a personal stylistic quirk, I suggest students conclude with the word ‘fundamentally’ (probably to do with that satisfying thwack I’m hoping to see) and that they cycle back to the initial claim they made. This will usually involve some variance of reiterating what the text is doing, whether warning, celebrating, challenging, admonishing, and so on.

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3 thoughts on “ perfecting the introduction: how to write every gcse english literature introduction ”.

• Pingback: Unseen poetry, sonnets, and important knowledge – Passing It On

thank you so much for making this it ha helped me so much your structure is incredible x

This is unbelievably helpful, thank you. My class are really struggling to create lines of argument, so providing them a structure really helps.

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Macbeth Essays

There are loads of ways you can approach writing an essay, but the two i favour are detailed below., the key thing to remember is that an essay should focus on the three aos:, ao1: plot and character development; ao2: language and technique; ao3: context, strategy 1 : extract / rest of play, the first strategy basically splits the essay into 3 paragraphs., the first paragraph focuses on the extract, the second focuses on the rest of the play, the third focuses on context. essentially, it's one ao per paragraph, for a really neatly organised essay., strategy 2 : a structured essay with an argument, this strategy allows you to get a much higher marks as it's structured to form an argument about the whole text. although you might think that's harder - and it's probably going to score more highly - i'd argue that it's actually easier to master. mainly because you do most of the work before the day of the exam., to see some examples of these, click on the links below:, lady macbeth as a powerful woman, macbeth as a heroic character, the key to this style is remembering this: you're going to get a question about a theme, and the extract will definitely relate to the theme., the strategy here is planning out your essays before the exam, knowing that the extract will fit into them somehow., below are some structured essays i've put together., macbeth and gender.

GCSE Exam Past Papers

This section includes recent GCSE exam past papers for many GCSE subjects. Click on the links below to go to the relevant subject's past papers, they are free to download.

Business (including Economics)

Combined Science

Computer Science

Design and Technology

English Language

English Literature

Food Preparation and Nutrition

Physical Education (PE)

Religious Studies (RS)

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GCSE results day 2024: Grade boundaries and marking explained ahead of results day

• GCSE results day is now a little over a week away.
• All papers are now being graded using the new system, with six passing grades available.
• This year’s grade boundaries for each subject will also come out on results day.
• Each exam board has a slightly different process for marking and setting its grade boundaries .

While the wait for secondary school students who sat their A Levels to see how they did will finally be over this week, GCSE candidates still have another week of waiting to go.

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This year’s GCSE results day will be next Thursday, on 22 August. More than 5.8 million pupils across England will be able to go and collect their results from their school that morning, either opening them then and there, or taking them home to share the experience with their loved ones.

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The grades a young person gets on their GCSE can be important, playing a part in earning a spot at a competitive sixth form college, or even helping determine what A Levels they are able to study towards. As such, it’s only natural that results day can be a stressful and anxiety inducing time for many, particularly if it turns out they have not done as well as they had hoped.

But with the new grading system now in place for all subjects, which grades actually equal a pass? And how can students and their families find out what this year’s grade boundaries were? Here’s what you need to know:

What grades can you get on your GCSEs, and what do they mean?

GCSEs used to be graded using a letter system, just like the A Level exams many pupils sit at the end of secondary school. But that has been slowly changing over the past few years, and now all final results come in the form of a number grade.

The new numerical scale runs from 9 to 1. Nine is the highest grade and loosely equivalent to the old A*, while one is the lowest. Fewer students are typically awarded 9s than the old A* top mark, as the new grading system works out to be more detailed so as to better reflect the breadth of the student’s knowledge, according to Ofqual.

Any grade above 4 is considered a pass, so if you see a number higher than that by any given subject on your results sheet then congratulations - you have achieved that GCSE. The new grading system does not exactly correlate with letter grades from the old one, but a 4 is considered a ‘standard pass’ equivalent to the old C grade, while a score of 7 or up roughly aligns with getting an A grade.

It is worth noting that if you don’t receive at least a passing grade of 4 in their Maths and English exams, then you will need to continue studying those subjects until you either pass a resit exam, or turn 18.

How to find out what the 2024 grade boundaries were

Grade boundaries, which are the exact amount of marks needed to achieve each individual number grade, are set by each individual exam board, so they can vary slightly. In England, your exam board will usually be AQA, OCR, Pearson Edexcel, WJEC or CCEA.

They are decided on by a panel of experts after all of the papers for a particular subject have been graded. This means the board is able to take into account how difficult students found the exam when setting the boundaries, in order to keep grades consistent across different years.

A full list of the 2024 grade boundaries will also be released by each exam board on results day. To find out exactly what they were, you should check in on your exam board’s website. Most have a dedicated webpage they keep up to date with the most recent grade boundaries, in spreadsheet form. AQA’s, for example,  can be found here .

Looking at last year’s grade boundaries, students who received a 9 frequently scored more than 80% of all possible marks in their exam. A lower passing grade of 4, however, only required 30-40% of possible marks for many subjects.

How was my exam marked?

Ofqual, the government’s qualifications regulator, says that once GCSE exams finished on 19 June this year, they were securely packed up and sent off to whichever exam board the school or college uses for marking.

As such, how exactly your exam paper was marked during the weeks-long grading process can vary somewhat depending on the board responsible for marking it. It may have been looked over by one person or several, uploaded online and marked digitally, or sent to them in person. If your exam involved a performance or other type of assessment, this may even have been graded by your teacher - with their grades sent over to the exam board.

All grading still needs to be in line with Ofqual’s official standards, and will have been quality checked. AQA, for example, has its markers attend standardisation meetings so they fully understand the mark scheme and where to award marks before the grading period even begins.

The board also has its highly experienced senior examiners review samples of marking by each examiner throughout. If any examiner are found not to be marking correctly, they can't continue - and their scripts will be given to another examiner.

The government has issued some advice for parents and carers supporting students as they wait to receive their exams results. This can often be a tense and emotionally fraught time, especially if things don’t go as expected. You can check this advice out online here .

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My Child Is Starting Their GCSEs: Essential Information for Parents

If you have a child who will be starting Year 10 and their GCSEs this month, it’s important to understand what lies ahead.

Here’s our comprehensive guide to studying GCSEs in the UAE to help you support your child over the next two years.

Understanding the curriculum

Students study towards GCSEs over a two-year period, from Year 10-11. They will study the following:

Core Subjects: Typically includes English Language, English Literature, Mathematics, and Science (which may be taken as Combined Science or as separate subjects: Biology, Chemistry, Physics).

Optional Subjects: Depending on your child's interests and school options, your child will have chosen three or four subjects like History, Geography, Modern Languages, Art, Design & Technology, and more.

Can my child change GCSE courses after starting Year 10?

It is possible for students to change their GCSE courses after starting Year 10, but it’s crucial to act swiftly. If your child wishes to change courses, it’s important to consult the school or exam board as soon as possible.

Changes are often subject to deadlines, and late changes may incur additional fees. Schools may have their own policies regarding course changes, so it’s advisable to check with them directly to understand the implications and costs involved.

Will my child take Arabic as a GCSE?

In Dubai private schools, students of all nationalities except Emirati are required to study Arabic from Year 2/Grade 1 through to the end of Year 10/Grade 9.

For students with an Arab passport, Arabic as a first language is compulsory from Year 2/Grade 1 through to the end of Year 13/Grade 12. It must also be studied in Years 11 and 12/Grade 10 and 11 to meet the UAE's secondary education certificate requirements.

During these years, non-Arab students are required to attend four Arabic lessons per week. After Year 10, students have the option to continue studying Arabic as part of their secondary education. Most schools offer Arabic as a GCSE option, and students can sit this exam at the end of Year 10 or Year 11. 

Mock GCSE exams

Typically, mock exams usually take place in Term 1 or Term 2 of Year 11. These mocks are vital for checking your child's progress and identifying areas for improvement.

Private candidates and online students studying GCSEs

Students taking I/GCSEs without attending a physical school, such as those in online schools or home-schooling, are known as private candidates. These students may incur additional admin fees charged by the school, college, or private candidate center where they sit their exams.

Online schools like King’s InterHigh assist their students in finding a local exam centre. However, as a private candidate, you are responsible for registering with your chosen centre and paying the exam fees directly to them.

GCSE exam fees: What to expect

While tuition fees cover the cost of teaching and school facilities, examination fees are charged separately. Understanding how these fees work and planning ahead can help you manage the costs more effectively.

Examination fees for GCSEs are charged per subject. Regardless of whether a subject involves one or more exam papers, coursework, or practical exams, there is a single fee for that subject. These fees are determined by the exam boards and not by the schools themselves. In UAE schools, the main exam boards are:

• Cambridge International
• Pearson EdExcel

Each exam board sets its own fees for the various subjects they offer, and schools typically share the schedule of exam fees between September and December, once they have been released by the exam boards.

GCSE Exam Fees for 2025

To give you an idea of what to expect, here are some average costs from recent years:

 In 2024, the average cost was £48 (AED 220), up from £43.91 in 2021. Fees can range from AED 200 to 800, so if your child is taking nine subjects, you can expect to pay at least AED 2,000.

Besides the standard exam fees, you may incur additional charges, including:

Admin Fees: Schools might charge an admin fee for invigilation costs, typically around AED 450.

Moderator Fees: An extra fee of approximately AED 100 may be charged for Art, Drama, and PE exams to cover the cost of a visiting moderator from the UK.

Payment deadlines

You can expect to receive an invoice for exam fees in mid-February to mid-March, ahead of the exams in May-June of the same year. Missing the payment deadline can result in late entry fees, which can be double or even triple the standard fees. Amendment fees also apply if your child changes their subject entry.

GCSE exams and grades

Most GCSEs are assessed through a combination of written exams and coursework or practical assessments. GCSEs are graded from 9 to 1, with 9 being the highest. The equivalent of the old A* is a 9.

For further details on GCSE grading, you might find this guide helpful:  What do GCSEs grades mean?

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GCSE English Language

Our extensive collection of resources is the perfect tool for students aiming to ace their exams and for teachers seeking reliable resources to support their students' learning journey. Here, you'll find an array of revision notes, topic questions, fully explained model answers, past exam papers and more, meticulously organised to simplify your search.

AQA GCSE English Language

Edexcel gcse english language, edexcel gcse english language 2.0, ocr gcse english language, wjec eduqas gcse english language: paper 1, wjec eduqas gcse english language: paper 2, wjec gcse english language, articles and resources for gcse english language students.

Find Your Perfect Revision Routine for GCSEs

Discover the secret to effective gcse revision, how to analyse language in an english language exam, how to analyse structure in an english language exam, narrative perspective and point of view, got questions we've got answers, what is english language gcse.

GCSE English Language assesses a student's proficiency in the English language. It covers various aspects of language and the three main areas are: reading, writing, speaking and listening. For the Reading section, students are tested on their ability to understand and analyse fiction and non-fiction texts; for the Writing section, students are required to produce written pieces in different formats, such as essays, articles and letters; for the Speaking and Listening section, students often have to deliver a prepared presentation or discuss a topic.

How many marks do you need to pass English Language GCSE?

The passing grade for GCSE English Language GCSE is typically determined by the examining board and different boards have various grading systems. In the UK, the grading scale generally ranges from 9 to 1, with 9 being the highest grade and 1 being the lowest. To pass GCSE English Language, students usually need to achieve a grade 4 or higher (usually known as a grade C in other grading systems).

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Want to write a college essay that sets you apart? Three tips to give you a head start

1. Keep it real. It’s normal to want to make a good impression on the school of your choice, but it’s also important to show who you really are. So just be yourself! Compelling stories might not be perfectly linear or have a happy ending, and that’s OK. It’s best to be authentic instead of telling schools what you think they want to hear.

2. Be reflective . Think about how you’ve changed during high school. How have you grown and improved? What makes you feel ready for college, and how do you hope to contribute to the campus community and society at large?

3. Look to the future. Consider your reasons for attending college. What do you hope to gain from your education? What about college excites you the most, and what would you like to do after you graduate? Answering these questions will not only give colleges insight into the kind of student you’ll be, but it will also give you the personal insight you’ll need to choose the school that’s right for you.

Have questions about college prep? We're here to help.

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