Review by Gwen Nelson

Somewhat surprisingly  for an English teacher, I am incredibly nervous of sharing my own writing with pupils – academic writing especially. As one of the generation who was never taught grammar, or how to write an academic essay properly, the neurosis and imposter syndrome run through me like a stick of Blackpool rock. So I was excited for this collection of exemplar essays for GCSE literature, and I wasn’t disappointed. It will prove useful for my pupils’ progress – and mine.

The introduction is thorough. Set out using familiar Ofsted terminology of intent, implementation and impact, it’s helpful for any quality assurance, internal or external. The rationale of the book and the merits of using exemplar answers with pupils are rooted in the authors’ own teaching, and it’s comforting to know this is more than well-intentioned pedagogical theory, but based on their pupils’ successes.

The exemplar essays cover three commonly taught literature texts – Macbeth, A Christmas Carol and An Inspector Calls – as well as the “Power and Conflict” comparative poetry option. These are wise choices given their popularity, but I let out a small whelp of disappointment that my school’s 19^th-century novel, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, was not included.

Each section is well thought out and carefully structured with at least two extracts and exam questions, including different planning formats with “clear”, “thoughtful” and “critical” exemplar essays for those questions. A further three extracts, questions, plans and “critical” exemplar essays complete each section, and I was pleased that the language of grades was not used, placing the emphasis instead on quality writing.

Three different standards of essays allows for comparison and useful analysis to learn why one is better than another. There are a myriad of other uses for them, and my mind is still whirring with what I could do with this resource to prepare my pupils for their exams.

I particularly liked the use of the same quotations across each of the three essays of different quality, showing that it is what a candidate does with the quotations that really matters. Pupils and teachers would have benefited from the inclusion of the “10 key quotations per text” resource mentioned in the introduction too.

Even if you teach different texts, it is still worth investing in this book. The beauty of the essays, tasks, plans and comment prompts in the margins make it a useful crutch to build your confidence and ability to write model essays of your own.

Any criticisms that I might have are not directed at either author or the content, but at the publishing format. The text was created as a means of saving English teachers their most precious resource: time. The standard paperback format somewhat negates that. It cannot fold flat under a visualiser or on a photocopier bed without cracking the spine and wrecking the binding. Spiral binding would have been much more suitable.

It would also have been useful to have access to an electronic version in order to manipulate the text (for example by placing three introductions side by side to compare this specific element). Should a teacher wish to do that, it would either need scanning and cropping, or old-school photocopying, cutting and glueing to create the resource you want. Surely password-protection could have made this possible? If a resource is meant to save teachers time, then the time-saving element needs to be a consideration for the publisher too.

That aside, Essays for Excellence is a much-needed addition to subject-specific educational publishing for English teachers, no matter how many years you’ve been teaching. There is scope for additional volumes, given the range of text options for GCSE alone. I hope to see more resources like this one.