Personal response and essay questions
What this domain tests
This domain tests sustained argument and judged personal response. You are expected to answer a precise question, use textual evidence, evaluate alternatives and reach a conclusion. Personal response means a reasoned position, not anecdote or unsupported opinion.
Core rules
- Decode the command word: “discuss,” “assess,” “how far,” “to what extent.” Each demands a different kind of conclusion.
- State a thesis in the first paragraph and keep returning to it.
- Build paragraphs as claim, Greek evidence, analysis, link. A quotation without analysis is decoration.
- Include a counterargument or alternative reading, then evaluate it.
- Cite line references and translate short Greek phrases. Use literary terms precisely.
- Conclude by answering the exact question, not by summarising.
Worked example
Question: “How far does Homer present Achilles’ anger as destructive?”
A strong opening claims that the poem frames μῆνις as destructive because it causes withdrawal and death, but also as heroic because it drives the return to battle. One paragraph uses the proem’s focus on wrath and the Achaean losses that follow Achilles’ withdrawal; the next concedes that his anger is bound to honour and pity for Patroclus. The conclusion distinguishes the poem’s evaluation from Achilles’ own: the cost is real, yet the energy is heroic.
Traps that cost marks
Retelling the story; ignoring the exact wording of the question; offering opinion without evidence; omitting a counterargument; a long introduction with no thesis; and a conclusion that repeats rather than resolves.