Essay Writing Tips

Look through the following tables to get advice on using connective, analytical words, and how to structure phrases.

ANALYTICAL WORD	MEANING
... establishes...	sets up, creates
... signifies...	Shows / acts as a sign for (e.g. red signifies danger)
... connotes...	Suggests or offers a cultural or interpreted meaning
... suggests...	provides a possible interpretation
... implies...	suggests
... illustrates...	provides a clear example of
... foreshadows...	hints at what is to come
...contrasts with...	offers a very different image / interpretation to (another example)
... is juxtaposed with...	creates opposite feelings/readings (compared with another e.g.
...demonstrates...	Is an example
...identifies...	Pinpoints, makes clear

Audience Readings

This shot/scene/example (etc.)...

PHRASE	HOW TO CONTINUE THE PHRASE
... allows/invites the viewer to...	... deduce / infer / understand / realise, sympathise with
...creates and expectation that	... X or Y will happen
... heightens the sensation of...	... fear / dread / excitement / passion etc.

If you struggle remembering what technical elements you should mention, try and remember these to give you some hints:

CAMERA – CAMS	SOUND - DVDN	EDITING - PECT	MISE-EN-SCENE - PLACES
Composition Angles Movement Shot sizes	Dialogue Voice Diegetic sound Score and other non diegetic sound	Pace Effects Cutting Transitions	Props Lighting Appearance Costume Expression Setting

If you are worried about how to structure your answer, just make sure that with every point you make you include the following information

TERMINOLOGY	MEANING FOR THE CHARACTER	MEANING FOR THE SOCIAL GROUP
Use a key piece of terminology to describe a technical element	Explain what the meaning of this aspect is and what it suggests about the character it relates to	Explain what wider significance this has in relation to representing the social group in question eg gender / class etc
In ‘Monarch of the Glen’, the low angle medium close-up on Paul, from Amy’s height...	... signifies Paul’s dominance from Amy’s perspective.	It reminds the audience that adults use their physical presence to dominate younger people – seen from Amy’s perspective this could be read as unfair
In ‘Primeval’, the last shot of the tiger sequence is on Cutter, rather than Abby, who fired the gun.	This establishes the male rather than the female point of view, de-spite the girl’s heroism...	... representing an old-fashioned masculine dominance of the narrative.
In ‘Feather Boy’, both the children and the elderly residents exhibit negative body language, backing away from each other on first meeting.	This suggests that both groups are unfamiliar and fearful of each other, because of their different ages.	It represents the idea that in modern Britain, the young and old no longer spend time together and have grown far apart.

Hints & Tips

Make sure you stick to the TERMINOLOGY – WHAT IT SAYS ABOUT THE CHARACTER – WHAT IT SAYS ABOUT THE WIDER SOCIAL GROUP model you see in the table on the following page for each of your points

Use Precision Terminology – for example, colours aren’t “dull” they are “de-saturated”. A shot isn’t “big”, its a “close-up.”

Remember that although a character may be represented in a particular way, an audience might be positioned to feel something totally different about them.

Make sure every point you make contains evidence from the clip

Be precise about who you are talking about. Don’t say “they used a close-up”, say “the director has chosen a close up”. Don’t say “they may view this character as being aggressive,” say “the audience may view this character as being aggressive.” Otherwise we don’t know who you are talking about!

Keep sentences to a manageable length. Commas and full stops are our friends!

Make sure you mention all FOUR KEY AREAS in your essay (camera, sound, editing and mise-en-scene). If you only mention 2 or 3 areas, you cannot get higher than a C

Be concise and don’t waffle. There is nothing worse than a student repeating the same point over and over in very slightly different ways.

Proof-read! Make sure you read your paragraphs through after you’ve written each one, and then read the whole essay again before handing it in. Spell checking computer written documents is essential, BUT remember that spell check doesn’t pick up everything!

Make sure your points are relevant to the social group being asked about. There’s no point wasting your time mentioning things that are relevant to their age or ethnicity if the question is about class or gender!

Representation of Gender

Gender Identity refers to whether the characters are men or women. It could also include transgender, transvestite, and androgynous characters.

There are several gender stereotypes widely seen on television:

Male Stereotypes

• Traditional masculine man – often shown as being muscly, strong, brave, heterosexual, working in manual jobs such as building, plumbing etc. They are often aggressive, tall, and dominant over women, works to provide for family, does no cleaning, cooking or childcare
• New Man – Often shown as being less masculine but still heterosexual, very peaceful, looks after the family, stays at home to look after family, does cleaning and cooking etc, shown as equal to women
• Gay Man – Often shown as being very feminine, weak, working in jobs such as fashion or hairdressing, bitchy, etc

Female stereotypes

• Traditional feminine woman – often shown as being girly, likes pink, wears dresses, does feminine jobs such as working in fashion, hairdressing or stays at home to look after the children, needs a man to cope, weak, scared of things, needs rescuing, pure and innocent
• Sexy woman – very flirty, dresses in a revealing way, more powerful than traditional women, uses men to get what she wants, no loyalty to other women, bitchy
• Lesbian Woman – Often shown as dressing in a masculine fashion, doing masculine roles, hating men, looking masculine

It is important to remember that not all characters will fit into these categories and you may have characters that are mixtures. All you need to do is work out what the technical elements say about them. If you get “gender” as an issue in the exam, you should be thinking about the following things when watching the clip:

• Can I identify what gender the characters are in the clip?
• Are people from different genders shown as having different interests, personalities, attitudes, behaviours? If so, how?
• Is their gender represented as being important in their life?
• Are people of different genders portrayed as being better, more powerful, than others?
• Are people from different genders portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ more pathetic than others?
• How do other characters in the clip treat the characters of different genders?
• What is the message the clip is trying to portray about gender?

Here are some clips featuring gender that you should watch to practise for the exam:

Representation of Regional Identity

Regional Identity refers to the part of the United Kingdom someone is from. It could refer to a general area such a “north” or “south”, a country such as “English” or “Scottish” or specific towns such as “London” or “Manchester.”

There are several regional stereotypes widely seen on television:

• Scottish – often shown as being money obsessed, won’t pay for anything, drinks a lot of alcohol, loves the outdoors, wears kilts, eats haggis, quite aggressive and violent
• Welsh –Often shown as living in the middle of the countryside, with people making jokes about them “shagging sheep”
• Irish – often shown as living in the countryside, working in rural areas such as farms, being very religious, being good at dancing and singing, very friendly but less intelligent
• English – often shown as being racist, obsessed with beer and football living in London. Sometimes the stereotype goes in the opposite direction of showing English people as very rich, posh, happy, living in castles and being very “royal.”
• London – There are 2 main stereotypes of Londoners. One is that they are often shown as being rich, posh, snobby, upper class, Hugh Grant types from central or west london. The other is that they often shown as being from north, east or south London, poor, common, lower class, criminalistic, violent “Kidulthood” style
• Manchester / Newcastle / Liverpool – Often shown as being “chavs”, wearing fake designer labels, or tracksuits, drinking a lot, being aggressive, uneducated, criminals
• Essex – often shown as being glamourous but cheap, footballer’s wives, lots of partying, being quite stupid
• Yorkshire – Often shown as living in rural countryside, with rolling hills and cobbled streets, being quite old fashioned
• Cornwall / Somerset – Often shown as being “backwards”, living in rural areas, working on farms
• South England – often shown as being the centre of culture, modern, classy, clever, sunny, richer, doing middle class jobs such as managers etc
• North England – often shown as being poorer, bad weather, lower class, aggressive, less culture, less clever, doing working class jobs such as builders etc

If you get “regional identity” as an issue in the exam, you should be thinking about the following things when watching the clip:

• Can I identify where the characters are from within the country?
• Are people from different areas shown as having different interests, personalities, attitudes, behaviours? If so, how?
• Is their regional identity represented as being important in their life?
• Are people from particular regions portrayed as being better, more powerful, than others?
• Are people from particular regions portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ more pathetic than others?
• How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different regions?
• What is the message the clip is trying to portray about regional identity?

Here are some great clips that feature regional identity that you can watch to practise for the exam:

Representation of Age

The representation of people of different ages has changed massively over the years. Up until the 1950s, there were really only two age groups shown in films and television (adult and child). This was because that most children left school at a young age and went straight to work and became adults. In the 1950’s more young people started staying in education and began leading very different lives from both children and adults and so developed the idea of the “teenager”

Having said that, there are still some stereotypes associated with different ages:

• Children – often shown as being young, innocent, naive, pure, sweet, helpless, powerless
• Teenagers – Often shown as being aggressive, moody, lazy, criminals, hate school,
• 20’s-30’s – Often shown as the ideal age for love, parties, fun, making money, being glamourous and attractive. In films the heroes are often this age group.
• Middle Aged – often shown as being past it, unattractive, not aware of popular culture, uncool, boring lives, powerful, dominant over others, no real connection to their kids, grumpy. In films the villains are often from this age group.
• Elderly – often shown as being unattractive, slow, weak, ill, confused, pathetic, powerless, not important, dependent on others.

If you get “age” as an issue in the exam, you should be thinking about the following things when watching the clip:

• Can I identify what approximate age the characters are?
• Are people from different age groups shown as having different interests, personalities, attitudes, behaviours? If so, how?
• Is their age represented as being important in their life?
• Are people from particular age groups portrayed as being better, more powerful, than others?
• Are people from particular age groups portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ more pathetic than others?
• How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different age groups?
• What is the message the clip is trying to portray about age?

Here are some great clips featuring age that you can watch to practise for the exam:

Skins - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ho69_sCkwyI

Representation of Class and Status

The representation of people from different classes has changed massively over the years. Up until the 1950’s, the upper classes were the class mainly shown on TV and in film. This is because they were some of the only people able to afford to go to the cinema and own a television. As more and more people from working class background watch TV, more and more TV programmes feature working class characters.

Having said that, there are still some stereotypes associated with different classes:

• Upper Classes (eg Made in Chelsea) – often shown as rich, clever, snobby, very posh
• Middle Classes (eg My Family)– often shown as “normal”, good family values, well behaved
• Working Classes (eg Coronation Street) – often shown as poorer, less happy, less intelligent, but with strong community links
• Lower / Under Classes (eg Shameless) – often shown as being criminals, no family values, no community links, bad parents etc

People have often noticed that in many TV shows, people of different classes, don’t mix. And when they are shown together, they are often shown as clashing and being very different.

If you get “class” as an issue in the exam, you should be thinking about the following things when watching the clip:

• Can I identify what class/status characters are?
• Are people from different classes / statuses shown as having different interests, personalities, attitudes, behaviours? If so, how?
• Is their class / status represented as being important in their life?
• Are people from particular classes / statuses portrayed as being better, more powerful, than others?
• Are people from particular classes / statuses portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ more pathetic than others?
• How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different classes / statuses?
• What is the message the clip is trying to portray about class / status?

Here are some great clips featuring class and status to watch so you can practise for the exam:

Representation of Sexuality

Sexuality tends to still be represented in terms of stereotypical characters. For example:

• Gay Men – camp, feminine, funny, outrageous OR very attractive, and sleep around
• Lesbian Women – Butch, manly, blunt, man haters
• Straight men / women – often portrayed as being “normal” and “ideal”

Despite changing equality laws and a wider acceptance of different sexualities within much of society, TV has always remained quite conservative as they are scared of offending their viewers. Heterosexual (straight) characters are represented as the “norm” and homosexual (gay) characters are often represented as being different, strange, or separate from mainstream society. Some critics say that when TV does feature gay characters, they are never just characters that “happen to be gay.” Their sexuality always plays a key part in their storylines and they don’t seem to have any issues outside of their sexuality.

If you get “sexuality” as an issue in the exam, you should be thinking about the following things when watching the clip:

• Can I identify what the sexualities of the characters are?
• Are people of different sexualities shown as having different interests, personalities, attitudes, behaviours? If so, how?
• Is their sexuality represented as being important in their life?
• Are particular sexualities represented as being normal / powerful / better? If so, how?
• Are particular sexualities represented as being abnormal? If so, how?
• What is the message the clip is trying to portray about sexuality?
• Don’t forget that “straight” is a sexuality too. Don’t ignore the straight characters as they need to be analysed too!

Here are some clips featuring sexuality that you can watch to practise for the exam:

Flash Forward - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-ayQfoNBEk

Sugar Rush - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyKb5Gx0XQg&list=SL

Shameless - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a056OjNHuCw