What's in the workbook
A printable A4 workbook designed to make essay planning a muscle, not a moment of panic. Every page repeats the same six-box structure so you stop reinventing the wheel under exam pressure.
The workbook contains:
- Five blank planning templates — one per page, identical structure.
- One worked example — Macbeth on the supernatural, fully completed.
- Ten starter prompts across the most-set GCSE Literature texts.
- A 30-minute self-administered practice schedule for the fortnight before the paper.
The planning template
Every template has the same six boxes. Repetition is the point: by template five, the shape should feel automatic.
- Thesis line. One sentence. Argument, not summary. Shakespeare uses the supernatural to externalise Macbeth's ambition rather than to cause it.
- Evidence box 1. Quotation + the AO2 method you will analyse.
- Evidence box 2. A second quotation from a different point in the text.
- Evidence box 3. A third, ideally from a structurally different scene.
- Evidence box 4. A fourth, including AO3 context where it earns its place.
- Counter-argument box. The reading you are pushing back against.
- Synthesis line. One sentence that fuses the four points into a final claim — not a restatement of the thesis.
Worked example: Macbeth on the supernatural
The completed plan shows a thesis (the supernatural reveals Macbeth's existing desires rather than implanting new ones), four evidence boxes drawn from the witches' prophecy, the dagger soliloquy, Banquo's ghost, and the apparitions in Act 4, plus a counter-argument acknowledging the witches' agency, and a synthesis line on Shakespeare's Jacobean audience.
You'll see exactly how much you need to write per box — and how little.
Ten starter prompts
A spread across commonly set texts. Pick one, set a timer, plan in 15 minutes:
- Macbeth — How does Shakespeare present guilt?
- Romeo and Juliet — How is conflict between families used to drive the play?
- An Inspector Calls — How does Priestley present responsibility?
- Jekyll and Hyde — How is the duality of human nature explored?
- A Christmas Carol — How does Dickens present poverty?
- Lord of the Flies — How does Golding present the loss of civilisation?
- An Inspector Calls — How is the older generation presented?