How to Annotate an Extract (WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature): Revision Note

What does it mean to annotate an extract?

Annotating means picking out the most useful parts of a text and writing short notes beside them. In the exam, your annotations are the first stage of your plan: they show you which evidence you will use and what you will say about it.

Your English Literature exams are closed-book, so the printed extract or poem is the only text in front of you. Annotating it carefully gives you evidence that is ready to use. Examiners notice the difference: they report that “candidates who planned their responses often managed to produce more focused, coherent discussions”.

How to annotate an extract in your exam

Here is a way to annotate an extract in GCSE English Literature that works for any printed text, in five steps:

• Read the question first: underline its key words, so you know what you are looking for

• Read the extract once without writing on it: no introduction is printed above it, so work out where this moment comes from in the text and what is happening at that point

• Underline the details that link to the question: choose four to six short quotations, often a single word or phrase

• Note what each detail shows: write a few words in the margin about how it links to the question and why the writer chose it

• Link to the rest of the text: note where else in the text the same idea appears, if the question asks about the whole text, as the Post-1914 and 19th-century prose questions do. The Shakespeare extract question is about the extract only

Keep your annotation symbols simple, and use the same ones every time. Underline a detail, number it, star your best idea and draw an arrow (→) to link two ideas.

Here’s how you might annotate part of a Macbeth extract. The key words in the question and your own placing note are underlined, as well as the textual details selected. The details are numbered, and the table below the extract shows the margin note for each one.

Question: Look at how Macbeth speaks and behaves here. How do you think an audience might respond to Macbeth at this point in the play? Refer closely to details from the extract to support your answer. [15] (Practice question in the WJEC Eduqas format)

Notes 1 to 3 show what holds Macbeth back, and notes 4 and 5 show that ambition alone is not enough to make him act. Note 5 is starred because it answers the question about the audience’s response most directly.

How do you turn your annotations into a plan?

Your annotations are already most of your plan. When you have finished annotating:

• Star your best idea: the detail that answers the question most directly becomes the core of your thesis statement (your overall answer to the question)

• Group your notes into three or four main ideas

• Number the ideas in the order you will write about them

Here is the plan these Macbeth annotations give you:

How long should you spend annotating?

Annotate during your planning time, not as a separate task. A few minutes is usually enough for one extract or poem. Stop once you have enough evidence for your plan: annotation is only useful if it saves you time when you write. The table at the end of this page shows how this fits each question.

What should you look for when you annotate?

Look for details that help you answer the question, such as:

• Words and images linked to the focus: for example, anything about ambition, power or kindness, depending on the question

• Changes and turning points: words such as “But” or “Besides” often signal a change of thought or mood

• Contrasts: between characters, between ideas, or between how the extract begins and ends

• The ending: the last lines of an extract or poem often show the writer’s message most clearly

• Links to the rest of the text: what happens before or after this moment, for the Post-1914 and 19th-century prose questions

What should you avoid?

• Technique labels on their own: examiners warn against “forcing techniques and subject terminology into” an answer, “either incorrectly or very tenuously”, so only label a method when you can say what it does

• Highlighting everything: if you underline or highlight most of the extract, nothing stands out when you plan

• Writing full sentences in the margins: keep your notes to a few words. A note only needs to remind you of your idea, because you will explain it fully in your essay, and writing sentences uses up planning time

• Writing out quotations first: examiners note that “full pages of quotes written down before the question often lead to shorter responses”

How to annotate a poem for a comparison question

Annotating a poem uses the same five steps as an extract. Poems pack a lot of meaning into a few words, so read slowly and look for who is speaking, repeated words, a shift in tone and the last line. In a comparison question, it’s a great idea to annotate with your second poem in mind. There are two kinds of comparison question, and you annotate them differently.

How do you annotate for the anthology comparison?

In the anthology section, only one poem is printed. You write about it on its own first, in the first question (15 marks), and you must refer to its contexts. Then, in the comparison question (25 marks), you choose the second poem and write about it from memory. Annotate the printed poem for the question, including a short note on its context, then:

• Jot down your second poem: write two or three short quotations from it in the margin, from memory

• Link the two poems: use an arrow to show where the two poems are similar or different, and add a word or two to say how

The table below shows annotations of Blake’s ‘The Schoolboy’ for a comparison question, with ‘Kamikaze’ as the second poem. The third column shows the link each note makes to ‘Kamikaze’.

Practice question (in the WJEC Eduqas format, not a past paper question):

First question: Read the poem below, ‘The Schoolboy’, by William Blake. ‘The Schoolboy’ is a poem about control. How does William Blake present control in the poem? Remember to refer to the contexts of the poem in your answer. [15]

Comparison question: Choose one other poem from the anthology in which the poet also writes about control. Compare the way the poet presents control in your chosen poem with the way William Blake presents control in ‘The Schoolboy’. [25]

Jotted in the margin from ‘Kamikaze’: “a shaven head / full of powerful incantations”, “they treated him / as though he no longer existed”, “which had been the better way to die.”

The starred note gives a thesis about control, and the links give you the comparison. Both poems show people controlled by others, but in ‘The Schoolboy’ school traps a child, while in ‘Kamikaze’ a family’s silence shuts out a father who turned back.

For the first question, add a context note beside the printed poem too, such as what the poem suggests about schooling in Blake’s time. Examiners found that context shown in the first question was often not repeated in the comparison, so jot a context note for your second poem as well.

How do you annotate for the unseen comparison?

In the unseen comparison, both poems are printed and you won’t have studied either of them. Annotate them in this order:

• Read the questions first: the paper also prints a statement that tells you what both poems are about, such as “The two poems are about different times of the year.”

• Read the first poem without writing on it: work out who is speaking and what the situation is

• Read it again and underline: pick out the details that answer the question

• Annotate the second poem for its meaning and methods: the comparison question is worth 25 marks, so underline details to compare with the first poem, and note which part of the first poem each one links to

Annotating in your WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature exam

In your WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature exams, you cannot take your set texts in with you. You can only annotate what is printed on the question paper, and that is different for each question.

Annotating text under timed conditions takes practice. When annotating a text, English Literature students follow the same steps every time, but what is printed and how long you have change from question to question.

This table shows how to annotate a text in each part of your two exam components: