← Written text essay: respond critically to written texts
9 Building a quotation bank in advance
The exam gives you no time to search a text for evidence — the quotations need to already be in your head, chosen for flexibility rather than for one single essay topic.What makes a quotation worth memorising
- SHORT — a phrase or single sentence you can embed exactly, not a passage you would have to paraphrase or truncate live.
- FLEXIBLE — usable for more than one statement category (a quotation revealing character often also reveals theme or language choice).
- ATTACHED to a technique you can name precisely, so you are never just reciting words without analysis ready.
- 8-12 quotations across your text's key characters, turning points, and central symbol or motif is a realistic, memorisable target.
Memorising quotations with no plan for how to use them
A quotation memorised in isolation, with no technique or effect already attached to it, forces you to improvise the analysis live under time pressure — which is exactly where marks are lost. Attach the analysis to the quotation when you memorise it, not when you write the essay.A quick pre-exam quotation-bank self-check
- Can I recall each quotation exactly, without paraphrasing?
- Does each quotation already have a NAMED technique attached, ready to state?
- Could I use at least half of them for more than one statement category?