Neil Bowen on
Extract from 'The Art of Writing English Literature essays, for A-level and Beyond'
Effective Use of Textual Evidence
There is a clear hierarchy in the use of textual evidence. Imagine it as a ‘textual evidence ladder’. At the foot of the ladder is narrative summary, or storytelling. This involves summarising the action or content of a text. One rung up from narrative is description. Again this focuses on re-telling the story of the text, but here this summary is embellished with some colourful details.
Identification, the third step up, involves a better focus on the techniques used by a writer and less attention to action. At this level, however, features tend to be spotted and labelled. The next step up towards the top is commentary, which combines narrative summary with some identification of features of interest and some comments on these. The penultimate rung on the ladder is, of course, analysis. Moving into analytical mode means that you are beginning to access the higher grades, from C upwards at A-level.
How is analysis different to identification? When you are analysing a piece of language or a literary device, such as personification, you are seeking to explain how it works, considering why it has been used and the effect it has within the text and upon the reader. Effective analysis entails relating the part you are examining to other aspects of the text. Effective analysis explores the significance of textual details. The highest grades go to students who reach the top rung of the ladder, those who can develop and sustain analysis. To use exam board speak for a moment, ‘A’ grade students are able to ‘connect detailed critical analysis of significant features to the meanings’ in the text and demonstrate ‘critical understanding’.
Some examples should help to clarify the picture. For each of the following examples try to identify where it sits on ‘the ladder of textual evidence’.
1. Nick Carraway in ‘The Great Gatsby’ is a youngish, seemingly honest, man who tells the story of Gatsby. Though he is nowhere near as rich as Gatsby, Nick lives near Gatsby’s amazing mansion and is a frequent visitor. Nick is also involved in the story as he falls in love with another character with dubious morals, Jordan Baker.
2. After meeting up with the Buchanans, Nick ends up at a flat with Tom, his mistress and some associates. There is a general feeling of unease, exacerbated by the heat and the heavy consumption of alcohol. When his mistress, Myrtle Wilson, annoys Tom he suddenly lashes out, revealing the essential brutality of his character.
3. Fitzgerald uses a number of key images to convey the quality of the world in which Gatsby exists. For example, Fitzgerald describes the fruit juice extraction machine and the used up oranges. This is a metaphor for Gatsby’s exploitative character.
4. After meeting up with the Buchanans, Nick ends up at a flat with Tom’s mistress. During the party all the characters get drunk and then things turn rather nasty when his mistress, Myrtle Wilson, annoys Tom he suddenly lashes out and hits her.
5. Nick Carraway is both inside and outside the action. He is the narrator, but also a principal character. This double role clearly generates a conflict of interest. In telling Gatsby’s story, Nick is also telling his own, so we should expect him to be partisan, despite his protestations that he is a truth teller. Our understanding of the story is filtered through and fundamentally shaped by his words and thoughts. Fitzgerald raises questions of the reliability of Nick’s narration a number of times. Arguably the most significant examples are the novel’s narrative structure, which rearranges the story in a way favourable to Gatsby, Nick’s intrusive summative comments on Gatsby being better than the other characters and his emblematic act at Gatsby’s funeral of erasing the swear words scrawled on the mansion’s steps...
Hopefully, you’ll agree that example 1 is descriptive character summary. The descriptive nature of the writing is signalled by its use of adjectives such as ‘youngish’, ‘amazing’ and adjectival phrases such as ‘nowhere near as rich as..’ and ‘with dubious morals’.
Example 2 also is narrative based. But this time there’s also some commentary on the atmosphere of the scene and how this is generated.
The writer of example 3 correctly identifies an important motif in the novel, the repeated images of exploitation. However, in this paragraph they do not develop this observation. So this is an example of identification.
Example 4 is simple narrative. The use of temporal discourse markers are the giveaway clues. If you find yourself repeatedly using words such as ‘after’, ‘during’, ‘when’, ‘then’, ‘next’ you know you’re writing narrative summary, which is always worth very, very few marks. So don’t do it; you’re not a novelist, you’re a literary critic!
Example 5 In this paragraph the most significant examples are picked up and the analysis is more detailed and developed. This example can look down on the others from somewhere at the top of the ladder; this is sustained analysis.
It should be obvious too that low level responses tend to view the story from the perspective of the characters. High level responses, by contrast, focus on what the writer is doing and saying and/or the effects of the text on the reader. In other words, better candidates are more aware of ‘how’ questions and of the significance of textual details in terms of the communication of meaning.