Literature
Domain 5: Literature
This domain examines prescribed prose, poetry and drama. It tests appreciation and criticism: your knowledge of the text and your ability to build an argument about how meaning is made.
Core rules
- Know the whole text: plot, characters, setting, conflict, themes, narrative voice and structure. For drama, know stage directions and dramatic irony; for poetry, know speaker, tone and form.
- Write criticism, not retelling. A paragraph should make a claim, give close evidence (short quotation or precise reference), analyse the effect, and link back to the question.
- Poetry devices: imagery, metaphor, simile, personification, repetition, parallelism and rhythm. Name the device only to explain its work in the poem.
- Drama: consider dialogue, silence, stage space and audience. A character's words in a soliloquy may not be reliable.
- Use the wording of the question: "How does the writer present ..." requires technique and effect, not a character summary.
Worked example
Question: how does the writer present conflict in a prescribed prose text? Weak answer retells the quarrel. Strong answer: "The conflict is presented through the narrator's clipped dialogue and the repeated image of the closed door. The short exchanges show that neither side will explain itself; the door image turns the disagreement into a physical barrier. This prepares the reader for the later separation." The reasoning: claim, evidence, analysis and link are all present, and the plot is used as proof, not as the whole answer.
Traps
Retelling the plot; listing devices without effect; quoting long passages with no analysis; ignoring the question's focus; judging a character by modern values without evidence from the text; confusing author and narrator.