GCSE: English Literature: Drama: By Author: Willy Russell Coursework

"There is little analysis of the book presented here. What reads is like a play review. It is admittedly quite astute about the staging decisions made by the director of the West End show but often the points made about some interesting decisions are capitalised on, and instead of talking about what message or reaction it creates in the audience; instead, the author analysis whether or not it made the play good to see. It is, admittedly, one approach of writing an article and play review: but not a GCSE essay in which mark schemes like analysis and intelligent evaluation. TSR User:DavyS"

"This is an excellent essay. The analysis is very good, as is the evaluation of the points that are made. It is, however, a bit lacking in analysis of some very key points. No mention is made of structure or form and the musical is considered more as a piece of prose which misses out some very astute points that could've been made to capitalise on some of the messages the author of the essay wants to put forward. Another weakness is a slight misunderstanding of the play. For example, he claims in his conclusion, that Mrs. Lyons shot the two boys, which is simply not true. These are slight (but serious) complaints, though, against an essay which raises intelligent points and uses evidence throughout the play to reach an informed conclusion on the subject of the essay. TSR User:DavyS"

"This is an essay with some very confident and astute points about the way in which impressions and feelings are born in Blood Brothers. However, the interpretation of the language is at a very surface level. The quotes are integrated poorly, and are often accompanied with text essentially offering a summary of the passages that they quote, rather than putting forward an analysis or interpretation. The one thing that I love about this essay is the way in which it doesn't forget that Willy Russell is a playwright, and analysing Blood Brothers as a play rather than any other form of written media - a subtle but vital difference. TSR User:DavyS"

"Some of points made in this essay are interesting and show a deep understanding of how Blood Brothers fits into a wider historical and social context. However, the points are made erratically. There is no essay title, which means the essay has no focus and reads as a collection of evidence for a socio-economic reading rather than an essay. The writing style is poor: often casual, and overusing brackets, often incorrectly. Still, the understanding that one can read into the play makes it a good summary of one key theme: "class." TSR User:DavyS"

"This is an interesting essay. Some of the techniques and devices that were brought up are really quite sophisticated — more sophisticated than you would expect from a GCSE candidate. However, just because one can bring up very wide ranging theatrical context, from Aristotle to Brecht, doesn't mean the essay will amaze you. The points were simply brought up and then abandoned. There was often no attempt to link the more sophisticated points to the play (we learn about threepenny opera, but not its relevance to Blood Brothers); and when there was, there was a very surface level degree of comparison and the effects caused are not evaluated. Mentioning Aristotle's rules of drama was very confident but we don't learn how breaking two thirds of them helps in communicating the message of the plays as the latter half of the essay title suggests we should. TSR User:DavyS"