The exam-style question
This is a prose essay question, in the style of the Literature in English papers. Read it as you would in the exam, then compare your plan with the model.
Read our original prose extract below. Write an essay on how the writer presents the character of Mr Petherick and our changing attitude towards him.
Use embedded evidence. This is our own teaching passage.
Mr Petherick's Ledger
Mr Petherick counted his change twice before he left any shop, and the shopkeepers of Marrow Lane had long since stopped taking offence. He was not, they agreed, an unkind man, merely a careful one, who wore his good coat until it shone at the elbows and heated only the one room. Children thought him a miser and dared each other to knock at his door; he never answered.
What none of them knew was the ledger he kept in the second drawer, its columns headed not with his own expenses but with names: a widow's coal, a boy's school shoes, the doctor's bill for a family three streets away, each sum entered small and paid in secret, each debt he never meant to collect. He counted his change twice, it was true. He had learned that every coin he saved was a coin he could give away without anyone thanking him for it, which was, he had decided long ago, the only sort of giving worth the name.
Model response: Prose essay
Writing about character means tracing how the writer shapes our view, often by controlling what we are told and when. You then argue about the effect.
Reading a model answer helps. In a paid one-hour trial, a teacher helps your child write one like it on Prose essay.
Common errors we see
- Describing the character rather than how the writer presents them
- Ignoring narrative method (what we are told, and when)
- Not tracing how our attitude is shaped and changed
- Evidence summarised rather than embedded and analysed
- A flat verdict ('he is nice') instead of a developed argument
How this maps to the mark scheme
Examiners mark against assessment objectives. These are the skills the paper rewards.
For prose essay, the objectives in play are listed below. The wording is summarised for Cambridge IGCSE Literature in English (0475) on our qualification page.
- Show detailed knowledge of the content of literary texts across the three forms (drama, poetry and prose), supporting points with reference to the text.
- Analyse the ways writers use language, structure and form to shape meaning and create effects.
- Communicate an informed, sensitive personal response to literary texts.
Marks reward knowledge of the text shown through apt quotation, analysis of the writer's methods and a considered personal response.
Other boards word their objectives differently, but the same skills earn the marks. Your board's official syllabus gives the exact weighting.
Where to go next
Learn the method in our guide to prose essay, then try the prose essay practice tasks. You can browse every annotated model response or see how we teach this in our Literature in English tuition.
When you have written your own answer, take it to a paid one-hour trial lesson and the teacher who would continue will mark it with you.