Practise writing about character, theme and narrative in prose. Try each before revealing; all named characters and quotations are our own invention, not from a set text.
1In our original novel, a character named Eli hides letters he never sends. Write the opening of an essay arguing how the writer uses this habit to present regret.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: State an argument about regret; use the unsent letters as your central evidence; plan development across the text.
Model opening: The writer uses Eli's unsent letters as a quiet emblem of regret: by writing but never posting, he keeps his feelings alive and unresolved, unable either to act or to let go.
Checklist:
- Clear argument about the theme
- Uses a specific narrative detail as evidence
- Focuses on the writer's choices
- Signals whole-text development
2Write a body paragraph analysing how a first-person narrator can be unreliable, using our original line: 'I remember it clearly, or I remember remembering it, which is nearly the same.'
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Make a point about narration; analyse how the line undermines the narrator's authority.
A trial lesson can start from your child's attempt at Prose essay practice tasks, with feedback from an experienced teacher.
Model opening: The writer signals unreliability through the narrator's own hesitation: the admission that he 'remembers remembering it' quietly separates memory from truth and invites the reader's doubt.
Checklist:
- Focuses on narrative method
- Analyses the quotation closely
- Links technique to reader response
- Stays on the essay's line of argument
3Write the conclusion to an essay on how a writer presents a minor character who changes the protagonist, drawing on our original figure, a night-bus driver named Rosa.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Gather the argument; explain the minor character's larger significance; avoid introducing new evidence.
Model opening: Though Rosa appears in only three scenes, the writer uses her to mark the protagonist's turning point, proving that in this novel change arrives through small encounters rather than grand events.
Checklist:
- Consolidates the argument
- Explains significance beyond plot
- No new points added
- Focuses on the writer's craft
See the worked annotated model response for prose essay, or the method in our prose essay skills guide.