Writing your NEA: Planning and Drafting Process

In an ideal world, you would have the time to plan and draft every essay – it is a valuable process which allows you to test ideas, think your argument through and check your work carefully. Many years of teaching A Level English has shown me that students rarely make a habit of this though.

However, when it comes to writing your Non-Exam Assessment (NEA), it is vital that you invest time in the planning and drafting process. Your teachers are likely to break the task down into manageable steps and are usually allowed to give some level of feedback on your ideas and the first draft that you submit. You would be doing yourself no favours if you didn’t listen to them– not many of us can afford to ignore good advice!

If you feel overwhelmed by the enormous task of writing your NEA, try breaking it down into these stages. As most NEAs for English involve a comparison element, my advice is tailored for comparative essays.

1. Choose your texts really carefully. Your teacher may have taught you one of the texts and should have given you suggestions for suitable pairings. You can, of course, come up with your own idea for the second text but don’t disregard your teacher’s advice. In my experience, many students struggle to find great points and evidence from a text they have chosen themselves, especially if it is modern, popular fiction text. If you have chosen a book the teacher has not read or does not think is suitable, they will not be able to help you. Also, think ahead at this stage; if you intend to apply to study English at university, choose texts which will sound interesting or impressive at an interview. You might think that comparing the latest Emily Henry romance to a Jane Austen classic will work, but it certainly won’t show a university that you are an ambitious reader.
2. Before you start reading, read summaries of the book so that you have a rough idea of what your focus/title will be. This will be essential in ensuring that your reading is focused.
3. Do your reading in plenty of time. You may change your mind about your choices so you want to ensure there is plenty of time to make another choice; if you leave your reading until the last minute, you will be stuck with your first choice.
4. As you read, make notes – lots of them! Highlight quotations that will help to prove your point and make a note of where key incidents are so that you can find them again when you are drafting.
5. When you have completed your reading, jot down all the ideas you have; you are unlikely to use them all. I always use a spider diagram for this bit as it’s easy to expand them and add further ideas. Use a different colour for each text as this will make it easy to see how balanced your initial ideas are and whether you need to think more about one of the texts.
6. When you think your spider diagram shows all of your ideas, start numbering the ‘legs’ so that you have a rough structure to follow. Keep in mind that first and last impressions count most.
7. Write a one paragraph synopsis in which you map your argument/thesis statement and discuss this with your teacher. Don’t be tempted to go beyond this stage until you have had this discussion as their advice should set you on the right path and save you time pursuing a weak idea.
8. Produce an essay plan (see other article about Mapping and Planning)
9. Write your first draft fairly quickly in a few sections so you have whole essay in rough form. Don’t worry about making it perfect yet. Having this quick rough version will help to remove some of the stress on you as blank pages can be very daunting!
10. Rewrite the introduction; this is far easier if you have completed one whole draft. Review your thesis at this stage – change it if you need to.
11. Start writing your second draft (this is the one you should be giving to your teacher; most boards allow feedback on one complete draft). Read your first draft.
    1. Cut anything that’s not directly contributing to the development of your argument.
    2. Make sure you have enough evidence to support your argument; if you haven’t, add it.
    3. Tidy up your wording – you need to write concisely and succinctly if you want to sound authoritative.
    4. A good tip is to write the first sentence of every paragraph on a piece of paper – if the essay is well written, it should provide an answer to your question, albeit with no evidence.
12. Check your work against the assessment objectives. See the checklist at the bottom of this article. Be willing to add anything that’s missing.
13. Proofread to check for accuracy; try to read it through a stranger’s eyes or, better still, read it aloud.

Assessment Objective Checklist

• Have you proofread and made corrections?
• Does your introduction mention both texts and offer a thesis statement?
• Do your paragraphs begin with topic sentences which clearly signpost the focus of your argument in that paragraph?
• Have you used a range of evidence from different places in the texts?
• Have you embedded evidence seamlessly or put it in brackets?
• Have you included analysis in each paragraph which explores how meaning is shaped in each text?
• Have you shown understanding of the writer’s craft?
• Have you included relevant subject terminology?
• Have you considered the significance and influence of contexts (social, historical, literary, biographical) in which the texts are produced and received?
• Have you considered what the authors might have been trying to communicate? Is there a message they are trying to convey?
• Have you clearly indicated comparison by using appropriate discourse markers?
• Have you exhibited a connected approach to comparison? (i.e. back and forth rather than one text and then the other)
• Have you referenced the question throughout?
• Have you concluded your essay?