Practise following a theme across a whole text. Try each before revealing; all texts, characters and quotations are our own invention.
1In our original novel, the theme of belonging recurs. Write the opening of an essay tracing how the writer develops it, using the motif of 'a chair kept empty at every meal'.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: State how the theme is developed; introduce the motif as your thread; plan to track it across the text.
Model opening: The writer develops the theme of belonging through the recurring motif of 'a chair kept empty at every meal', a quiet insistence that the family is defined as much by who is absent as by who is present.
Checklist:
- Focuses on how the theme develops
- Uses a motif as a thread
- Signals whole-text tracing
- Embeds a short quotation
2Write a body paragraph on how the theme of ambition is presented, using our original line: 'she wanted the view from the top, but not the climb.'
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Make one point about the theme; analyse the line; connect it to the writer's overall treatment.
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Model opening: The writer presents ambition as double-edged: the wish for 'the view from the top, but not the climb' captures a longing for reward without effort that the novel goes on to test.
Checklist:
- Point clearly tied to the theme
- Analyses the quotation
- Links to the wider text
- Explains the writer's stance
3Write the conclusion to an essay tracing the theme of forgiveness across our original play. Draw the thread together.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Gather how the theme has developed; reach a considered view on the writer's message; add no new evidence.
Model opening: By the close, the writer presents forgiveness not as a single act but as a slow, imperfect process, offered more than once and never quite complete.
Checklist:
- Draws the theme's development together
- Reaches a considered overall view
- No new points introduced
- Focuses on the writer's message
See the worked annotated model response for theme analysis, or the method in our theme analysis skills guide.