WASSCE SHS
The literature essay is an argument about a text. The introduction answers the question in a sentence. Each paragraph proves one piece of that answer.
Read the question until you can say what it forbids. A question on one character does not want equal time for the whole cast. A question that says "how" wants methods: language, contrast, a scene. A question that says "examine" wants a judgment with reservations, not pure praise. Plan the paragraphs as claims. Under each claim, note the moment and the short quotation you will use. If you cannot name the moment, you do not yet have a paragraph.
Write in the present tense for what the text does: the poem "shows", the character "refuses". Keep plot summary to the minimum a reader needs in order to understand the point. A conclusion returns to the question's words and states where you have arrived. It does not apologise, and it does not start a new example. Time in the examination is part of the skill. An unfinished last paragraph is weaker than a shorter essay that closes.
Relevance first. A fluent paragraph on the wrong text or the wrong task fails. Then evidence. Then the sentence that ties the evidence to the question, which is where many scripts stop short. Expression matters because a marker cannot reward a point they cannot parse. You are not marked for the length of the quotation. A few words, accurate, beat a memorised page that does not fit the question.
These are practice questions in the style of the paper, with a model answer and a mark scheme. They are not a promise of what your paper will ask.
2 marks
A question reads: "How does the writer present fear in the poem?" What is wrong with an introduction that only retells what happens in the poem? (2 marks)
It has not mentioned fear or the writer's methods. The reader still does not know the answer. A retelling is not an introduction to an argument.
2 marks
Write a one sentence thesis for that question. You may invent a plausible line of argument. It will be marked on whether it answers "how", not on matching a real poem. (2 marks)
The writer presents fear through short, broken sentences and through a speaker who will not name the thing they are afraid of.
3 marks
Give two things a concluding paragraph should do, and one thing it should not do. (3 marks)
It should return to the question and state the answer you have earned. It should not begin a new example or apologise for the essay.
More questions on this topic are inside GLearn, marked as you answer, with the reason written out. The first ones need no account.
Practise Literature in English freeWith a sentence that answers the question. If the question is how fear is presented, the opening should name a method and tie it to fear. A plot summary can wait until a paragraph needs it, and even then it should be short.
A short phrase that you can actually explain. The marks sit in what you say about the phrase. A long quotation you do not discuss is space taken from the argument. Accuracy matters more than length. All WASSCE Literature in English past questions