Feedback for sexuality essays

You have all been emailed your feedback as well as your mark for this essay. Check your school email account, and respond if you have any questions.

Overall: much better analysis of editing, so keep revising that glossary and keep using it when analyzing extracts in preparation for the exam.

Top tips for improvement:

• Revise Barthes' narrative codes: click here Some of you were not using them accurately, which will lose you marks; get them right.

• Start your essay by outlining what stereotypes you may expect to see of that particular area of representation in the media. (You can do this for EVERY area of representation.)

• Make sure you cover all of the areas of textual analysis (the bullet points). If you need to write about each bullet point separately to ensure you do this, go for it.

• Some of you were not using the guidance about representations of sexuality to inform your knowledge of the stereotypes - instead you were making stereotypes up. You need to revise the stereotypes for each area, so you can pick up RELEVANT examples in the extracts. Use the teaching blogs (the search function), your class notes and your past essays to revise the stereotypes.

To demonstrate how you can link to stereotypes perceptively, whilst keeping your response technical, please see the example student essay below. This was completed in timed conditions, and has been typed-up to show you examples of strong student work.


It received a mark of 40/50.

Student Example. Timed Essay. Ashes to Ashes Extract (40 Out of 50 B+/A-) by teachermisskp

General feedback: regional identity essays.

• How to begin your essay: answer the question. The director uses mise en scene, sound, camerawork and editing to construct a representation of the east End of London by meeting/challenging stereotypes of the region? Or both? Tell the examiner the stereotypical representations of the region that you will be looking for. - spell it out.  Start strong and focused.
• EVERY example you give from the extract must be accompanied by at least one piece of key terminology. Some of you were describing the example in detail, but forgetting to explain which camera shot/angle etc captured these things, or which sound device was used to have that effect on the audience
• Revise your key terms - use your big glossary to do this. This is the difference between a poor, vague response and a good, specific one. If you are technical and use your terms accurately, the rest of your exploration sprouts from there. You need the solid foundations of good technical knowledge to see you through. REVISE IT
• Signpost which area of textual analysis you are using, so it is clear that you are covering them all.  e.g. 'Regarding the lighting in the scene....'  'In terms of the protagonist's costume...'  'The mise en scene portrays...'
• Editing: if you don't understand it, do something about it. There are plenty of past extracts on my blog and Mr Ford's - simply search for them in the search bar of the blog. Watch one of the clips and use the big glossary to analyse it purely for editing. We will be working on activities like this in the lesson, but you will need to have a go at home if you are not comfortable with analysing editing.

Mark scheme here.

Representation Exam. Revision tools.

Use the blog to revise the key areas of representation and the 4 areas of textual analysis.  Here are some useful links to help you to revise:

• This link will take you to all the posts with the label 'representation'. Revise the key stereotypes.

• Re-read the detailed feedback on the bottom of your essays, as well as the feedback report on your essays, here.

• Revise key terms, using the big glossary, here.

• This article tells you how to write a successful representation essay.  Click to access.

• And click here for some example A grade answers, to inspire you.