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To Write A Successful Mod A

This document provides guidance on writing a successful essay for Module A, which requires comparing two texts to analyze how their contexts and values illuminate each other. It emphasizes developing a thesis comparing key aspects of the texts and discussing throughout how the comparison enhances understanding. Sample paragraphs compare Pride and Prejudice to Letters to Alice on their examination of relationships and marriages to demonstrate this approach. Comparing texts from different eras prompts reflection on societal progress and the role of perspective in analysis.

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Lexie Trần
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51 views5 pages

To Write A Successful Mod A

This document provides guidance on writing a successful essay for Module A, which requires comparing two texts to analyze how their contexts and values illuminate each other. It emphasizes developing a thesis comparing key aspects of the texts and discussing throughout how the comparison enhances understanding. Sample paragraphs compare Pride and Prejudice to Letters to Alice on their examination of relationships and marriages to demonstrate this approach. Comparing texts from different eras prompts reflection on societal progress and the role of perspective in analysis.

Uploaded by

Lexie Trần
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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To write a successful Mod A, essay you will have to show your

marker that you are able to analyse nuanced interplay between


the context of a text and the values that its author or characters
engage with. In addition, you will have to make comparisons
between two different texts by extrapolating points of similarity
and difference. In order to receive top marks, you should keep in
mind the value of a comparative study. Ask yourself, how can
studying one particular text enrich your understanding of the
context and values of another (and vice versa)?
When you are given a practice essay question, the best thing that
you can do is to immediately identify the key words that have
been put forward. From here, you need to develop a strong
thesis that you will be able to return to throughout the essay
when you link your paragraphs and write your conclusion. Below, I
have included an example of one such question and introduction
for the texts Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Letters to
Alice by Fay Weldon:
Texts on their own are interesting but when you compare
them to other texts they become illuminating and
dynamic'. Discuss.
Texts read independently are interesting, nevertheless, when
comparatively studied, Jane Austens 1813 regency social
satire Pride and Prejudice and Fay Weldons 1984
postmodern epistolary work Letters to Alice on First
Reading Jane Austen, become illuminating and dynamic.
Weldons assertion that writers create houses of Imagination,
from which whose doors generations greet each otherby such
discussionwe understand ourselvesour pasts and our futures
encapsulates the notion that interpretation of texts is not
static. Imbued, according to academic D.G Myers, which
plurality of meaning, both works engage with dominant and
emerging discourses in their respective contexts. In light of
shared authorial desire to examine relationships and the
significance of education, comparative reappraisal mutually
elucidates new insights.

Ive put half of the last line of this introduction in bold, as the
notion expressed here is representative of what you need to
argue throughout your comparative essay. Even if texts are
seemingly unrelated, by reading or watching them in conjunction
with each other your study of them will be enhanced through the
act of comparison.
From the copy of the BOS syllabus provide online, I have pulled
out the two most essential chunks of information regarding
Module A:
(1) This module requires students to compare texts in order to
explore them in relation to their historical or cultural contexts. It
develops students understanding of the effects of context and
questions of value.
(2) Students examine ways in which social, cultural and historical
context influences aspects of texts, or the ways in which changes
in context lead to changed values being reflected in texts. This
includes study and use of the language of texts, consideration of
purposes and audiences, and analysis of the content, values and
attitudes conveyed through a range of readings.
To give you an idea of what my own comparative essays looked
like, Ive included the next two paragraphs that follow the
introduction above for you to take a look at:
Examination of relationships undertaken by Austen, in
conjunction with Weldons scrutiny of Regency, feminist, and
post-feminist concerns, enhances the readers understanding of
contextual and authorial values regarding the function and
experience of the institution of marriage. Influenced by the
sentiment of Regency thinkers John Locke and David Hume who
valued epistemological development, Austens exploration of
various marriages in Pride and Prejudice promulgates the
sentiment that a union between two people should progress
towards a balance between love and rationality. Austen
acknowledges the essentiality of mercenary unions for middle
class women despite confining the content of her novel to a

particular social milieu, marriage being the only provision for


well-educated young women of small fortunehowever uncertain
of giving happiness. Circumscribed by expectation, Charlotte
Lucas (a foil for Elizabeth Bennett who seeks to marry on her
own terms) accepts Mr Collins marriage proposal and
pragmatically states that she only desires a comfortable home.
By capitalising Elizabeths emotive response, in every view it is
unaccountable! Austen, the omniscient narrator, critiques the
reality of marital opportunities in her world. Reflecting the
concerns of contemporary thinker Mary Wollstonecraft, who
warned that women taught to please will soon find that (their)
charms are oblique sunbeams, Austen further characterises
marriages such as that of Mr and Mrs Bennett or Lydia and Mr
Wickham, in which participants are not mutually attuned, as
unfavourable. Through use of balanced sentences, Austen places
emphasis upon the moral, epistemological journey of both
Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, who emphatically states (Elizabeth)
shewed me how insufficient were all my pretensions to please a
woman worthy of being pleased. Ultimately, by highlighting the
essentiality of introspection to the success of this union, Austen is
able to advocate for marriages ruled by reason and love, in which
both parties have excellent understanding of each other and
share a deep bond of friendship.
Fay Weldon utilises Letters to Alice to reappraise the fundamental
significance placed upon marriage during the Regency Period,
thus prompting the responder to reflect upon the reality of
modern female emancipation and martial opportunities.
Influenced by the writings Betty Freidan, whose novel The
Feminine Mystique was adopted as a manifesto by many second
wave feminists, Weldon notes that marital relationships are not
the sole preoccupation of women in the 1980s. Examination of
female freedom to travel, peruse a career and attend university
fosters an enhanced appreciation of the restrictions placed upon
Regency women. Nevertheless, via analogy, Weldon comments
upon the trivialisation of marriage as the stuff of womens
magazines in Alices post-modern context. Illustrating the
constraints of primogeniture and conditions under which women
lived with factual detail that only 30%...married, the persona of

Aunt Fay seeks to revise the responders understanding of Mrs


Bennetts anxiety for her five unmarried daughters. Though
Aunt Fay admits that she is looking at society from the outside
in, not the inside out, by taking a self professed tender view of
this character she is able to effectively elicit pathos from the
responder. Furthermore, Weldon encourages reconsideration of
Charlotte Lucas entry into marriage (a metaphoric prize) by
highlighting the position of disenfranchised women in
contemporary society. Stating that now the pretty girl from Java
marries the rancher from Australiato escape hunger and
poverty Weldon lays bare the paradox of having come so far and
yet, in some parts of the world, having gained so little.
From reading these samples, here are a couple of essential points
about Module A that I hope you take away and apply to your own
writing:
1) A comparative study allows the responder to appreciate the
contiguity of context and values and encourages the responder to
reflect upon their own societys preoccupations and concerns.
2) A comparative study of a text from a bygone era and a
relatively modern text prompts the responder to consider the
extent of societal progress and the importance of perspective
when analysing texts (as well as the notion that the responders
context becomes an important determiner of meaning.)
3) The act of comparison can deepen analysis.
4) Context and questions of value have a significant impact upon
literary and authorial intentions.
Finally, as with all Modules, Mod A asks you to consider the
language of a text and its impact upon an audience. What this
means it that in order to write a band 6 essay you will need to
include extensive close textual analysis and demonstrate your
understanding of the ways in which literary techniques and
authorial ideas are employed to elicit a response from the
responder.
Although Mod A essays can be difficult, with a little bit of practice,
you can master the act of comparison

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