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

Representation of Ethnicity

The representation of people from different ethnicities has changed massively over the years. This is probably because the population in Britain has become much more diverse recently and current society is much more used to mixing with people from all different cultures and backgrounds.

Here are some examples of very negative generic stereotypes that used to be seen (and in some case still are) in film and tv:

• Black people – often shown as exotic, strange, tribal, criminal, poor, in gangs
• Asian people (Chinese, Korean etc) – often shown mainly as intelligent, submissive, quiet, shy, nerdy, and interested in technology
• White people – often shown as good, pure, heroes, strong, or sometimes racist
• Indian people – often shown as being poor, living in large families, very traditional, working in corner shops
• Middle Eastern people (arabs, muslims etc) – often shown as being terrorists, violent, aggressive, rich
• Hispanic (Spanish, Mexican etc) – often shown as being poor, servants, nannies, into gang crime
• Immigrants – often shown as being a drain on society, criminals, illegal, bad for Britain, taking British jobs

People often note that in TV drama, characters from particular ethnicities have storylines that all centre around their culture. For example, Indian characters often battle with the clash between British culture and their traditional culture eg: arranged marriages etc. They rarely have storylines that don’t have something to do with their ethnicity. People also have commented that often characters from minority ethnic groups (eg non white) are often portrayed in a very negative way.

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

• Can I identify what ethnicities people are?
• Are people from different ethnic backgrounds shown as different interests, personalities, attitudes, behaviours? If so, how?
• Is their ethnicity represented as being important in their life?
• Are people from particular ethnicities portrayed as being better, more powerful, than others?
• Are people from particular ethnicities portrayed as being abnormal /weaker/ more pathetic than others?
• How do other characters in the clip treat the characters from different ethnic backgrounds?
• What is the message the clip is trying to portray about ethnicity?
• Don’t ignore the white characters as they need to be analysed too

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

Representation of Disability

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

• Physically Disabled / Disfigured people – often shown as outsiders, unable to do normal things
• Mentally disabled people – Often shown as strange, odd, childlike, outsiders
• Able Bodied / Minded people – often shown as “normal” and “ideal”.

Characters with disabilities are often portrayed in TV Dramas as being outsiders, strange, unable to do everyday activities, immature, weaker than “able bodied, able minded” characters, less attractive etc. Traditionally in films, villains were often given a disability or deformity to make them seem scarier or more evil. Although our association of disability with “evil” has since declined, society often still links disability to weakness and makes disabled characters objects to pity.

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

• Can I identify who is able / disabled in the clip?
• Are people with disabilities shown as different interests, personalities, attitudes, behaviours from people who don’t have disabilities? If so, how?
• Is their disability represented as being important in their life?
• Are people without disabilities represented stereotypically as being normal / better / more powerful? If so, how?
• Are people with disabilities represented stereotypically as being abnormal /weak/ pathetic? If so, how?
• How do other characters in the clip treat the characters with disability?
• What is the message the clip is trying to portray about sexuality?
• Don’t ignore the able bodied characters as they need to be analysed too

Below is a list of links or embedded clips that feature disability of some kind that would be great for analysing as practise for the exam:

Secret Diary Of A Call Girl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auSAGvpM7W8

A Touch Of Frost

The Street


Coming Down the Mountain

Hollyoaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm9utEQTdts

Cast Offs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em4Z0jfOExA

A Whole Collection of You Tube clips showing disability

http://www.youtube.com/user/thsmediastudies#p/c/BBC935847FFC4878

Other Terminology

Agenda – A plan or belief system within a group, normally hidden from others. For example there is a belief that the BNP have a racist agenda.

Antagonist – The leading villain in the show (or the one the protagonist has to go up against)

Archetype – A easily recognised type of character that can be found in many stories. For example, the hero, the princess, the damsel in distress, the loyal friend, the villain, the temptress.

Binary Opposites – Two contrasting characters or scenes that are seen in one show, that are clearly meant to be total opposites. For example there may be a sweet innocent girl who is scared and weak, paired against an evil powerful man. They would be binary opposite characters. Binary opposites could be concepts such as good/evil, light/dark, male/female, old/young

Connotation – Hidden Meaning. For example, “the connotation of the main female character wearing black is that she might be evil and have a dark side.”

Conventional – Something that is seen to be “normal”. So a conventional female character would be quite weak, girly, and may be a mother or a housewife.

Dominant Ideology – A set of beliefs that are widely accepted as being the most normal, or the most accurate. For example, the dominant ideology of men is that they are strong, brave and work to provide money for their families.

Homophobia - Actions, behaviours, feelings or words which seem to discriminate against people because of their sexuality. This is normally because the person who is being homophobic believes there is a difference between sexualities and thinks that one sexuality is better than the other.

Juxtaposition – Two different things placed next to each other to create meaning. For example a shot of a baby may be juxtaposed with a shot of a funeral to emphasise the circle of life.

Male Gaze – A theory by a lady called Laura Mulvey which suggests that all media products encourage the characters and audience to “leer” at and “look” at women. For example, “the camera angle looking down Sarah’s cleavage encourages the audience to take a ‘male gaze’ over the female character”

Media Language – Simply means the combination of technical elements such as camera shots, camera movement, editing, sound and mise-en-scene.

Patriarchy – A type of society where men are dominant over women. Many feminists believe that we live in a patriarchal society where women are forced to be weaker and subservient.

Positioning – how the audience are encouraged to interpret a particular situation. For example, “the audience are positioned to sympathise with the female character.”

Protagonist – The leading character in the show, normally a good character

Realist / Realism – A style of TV show / film which attempts to be as “realistic” as possible. For example, “Shameless is considered a realist programme.” Being a “realist” programme doesn’t necessarily mean the show IS completely realistic or accurate.

Racism – Actions, behaviour, feelings or words which seem to discriminate against people because of their skin colour. This is normally because the person who is racist believes that there is a difference between people who have different skin colours and they believe one skin colour to be better than another.

Sexism – Actions, behaviours, feelings or words which seem to discriminate against people because of their gender. This is normally because the person who is being sexist believes there is a difference between the two genders and that one gender is better than the other.

Stereotype – An overly exaggerated representation of a type of person that is normally negative. For example a stereotypical teenager would be a hoodie wearing, knife carrying, criminal who hated school.

Unconventional – Something which is seen to not be “normal.” For example an unconventional female character might be powerful, the boss of a company, and very dominant over other male characters.

Verisimilitude – A feeling of reality / real life created by particular elements. For example, “The series Outnumbered creates a feeling of verisimilitude for the audience by using a real house, every day storylines that would affect an average family, and improvised dialogue.”

Xenophobia - Actions, behaviours, feelings or words which seem to discriminate against people because of their country of origin. This is normally because the person who is being xenophobic believes there is a difference between the countries and that one country is better than the other. Normally xenophobic people discriminate against anyone from a foreign country.