Educating Rita. How the character of Rita changes.

Review of essay

Rating: 3 star(s)

Response to the question

This is a sound essay with a confident analysis of how the character changes. However, the concentration on what the actual question asks is limited to the last few paragraphs, so the candidate does not always provide answers that are directly answering the question. There is a fine understanding of character and the candidate does well to include this, as it will aid them in establishing the differences in Rita's character as she progresses through the play.

I would recommend though, that at the end of every point and commentary made, the candidate link back to the question by briefly describing how the point they just analysed shows a difference in Rita's character; just so that the points are nicely rounded off and the examiners are made aware the candidate is explicitly linking their analysis back to the question.

Level of analysis

The Level of Analysis here is good. Though not exhaustive, the candidate has shown a clear understanding of the character of Rita, her interactions with Frank, and the ways in which Russell uses motifs, themes and stage directions to develop Rita's characters. However, as with all essays, there can be improvements made. These vary from larger things such as neglecting to comment at length on the use of language - how does the dialectal and accentual differences between Rita and Frank show their differences in character, class/social background and education level? How does this change throughout the play? Other, small things are just minor irks that need correcting, such as remembering to refer to Russell as a playwright, and not a write or author (as would be the case with a novel), or perhaps remembering to be very precise in their comments, e.g. "This is symbolic as it means the academic world is not easy to get into" does not actually ring true completely, and should be finished with "for the lower classes", as the academic world was very easy to access for those with the money to pay for it. The candidate is unlikely to lose huge amounts of points on these two discrepancies, but it does prevent them (were they aiming to) from reaching the A/A* grade boundaries. As this stands, because not a great deal of the analysis is directed at the question, at a low/middle C grade for GCSE.

To improve, I would recommend the candidate make sure they do not spend too long on aspects of their essay that are unlikely to earn marks, e.g. the symbolism, unless it is directly linked with change in the character of Rita; or perhaps the description of stage directions, again, unless it is explicitly focused on exploring Rita's development throughout the play.

Quality of writing

The Quality of Written Communication is fairly good throughout, aside from the glaring error in the first line - where the title is mistakenly referred to as "Education Rita". This strikes me as a minor errors and not one that shows a flawed knowledge of the play, as elsewhere it is referred to with it's proper name. It is therefore hugely important candidates re-read and spell-check their work for even simple errors like this one, as this kind of error so early on in the essay may give the impression to the examiner that the candidate was not paying full attention to what it is they have written.