Component 3 - Sustaining and revising an argument

Give the response a controlling idea

An argument is the developing answer to the question, not a disagreement with the reader. For the focus “How do the writers present lasting consequences?”, a controlling idea might be that a sudden disruption ends one way of living while its effects continue in time, memory and other people’s actions. Each text can develop a distinct aspect of that idea.

These excerpts support a short exercise in organising an argument. The complete Assignment A must develop understanding and analysis of its selected whole texts; these passage-level exercises isolate the planning and revision skills. A is from a wounded veteran’s imagined future and present; B follows a boy’s fatal accident; C follows ten years spent paying for a replacement necklace. The letters distinguish texts and retain original anthology line numbers.

Disabled — extract

By Wilfred Owen

[A40] Now, he will spend a few sick years in Institutes,
[A41] And do what things the rules consider wise,
[A42] And take whatever pity they may dole.
[A43] Tonight he noticed how the women's eyes
[A44] Passed from him to the strong men that were whole.
[A45] How cold and late it is! Why don't they come
[A46] And put him into bed? Why don't they come?

“Out, Out–” — extract

By Robert Frost

[B29] He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
[B30] And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright.
[B31] No one believed. They listened at his heart.
[B32] Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it.
[B33] No more to build on there. And they, since they
[B34] Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.

The Necklace — extract

By Guy de Maupassant

[C200] They lived like this for ten years.

[C201] By the time ten years had gone by, they had repaid everything, with not a penny
[C202] outstanding, in spite of the extortionate conditions and including the accumulated
[C203] interest.

[C204] Madame Loisel looked old now. She had turned into the battling, hard, uncouth
[C205] housewife who rules working-class homes. Her hair was untidy, her skirts were askew,
[C206] and her hands were red. She spoke in a gruff voice and scrubbed floors on her hands
[C207] and knees. But sometimes, when her husband had gone to the office, she would sit by
[C208] the window and think of that evening long ago when she had been so beautiful and so
[C209] admired.

[C210] What might not have happened had she not lost the necklace? Who could tell? Who
[C211] could possibly tell? Life is so strange, so fickle! How little is needed to make or break us!

An opening should give a useful direction. “These texts all use language and structure” announces the assessment but says little about the reading. A more useful opening is: “These passages make consequences outlast the moment of disruption. Owen imagines continuing dependence, Frost separates a life that has ended from lives that must continue, and Maupassant places completed repayment beside a past that still occupies Mathilde’s thoughts.” This forecasts a line of enquiry without claiming to settle every issue.

The conclusion should answer the focus using what the discussion has established. It may refine the initial idea: continuing life does not simply mean recovery, but neither is it identical to helplessness. Do not add an unexamined quotation or a new text in the closing lines.

Order paragraphs so the reasoning develops

You can organise by text, by idea, or by a mixture that remains easy to follow. Separate text-based sections are legitimate; comparison is not compulsory and AO3 is not assessed in coursework A. An idea-based structure can also work if it develops each text sufficiently. It should not turn into a rapid circuit of one quotation from each text with no space for analysis.

Here are two workable plans for the supplied passages:

There is no equal-paragraph or equal-word rule. Proportion should give each required text enough developed reading and analysis. If one text disappears after the introduction, redistribute attention or reconsider the argument. Balance means meaningful coverage, not mechanical symmetry.

A transition explains why the next point belongs. “Another technique is repetition” simply changes the subject to a method. “The future restrictions become immediate in the final unanswered questions” develops a relation inside Owen’s passage. Between text sections, “Frost’s ending also asks what continues after a catastrophe, but shifts attention to those who survive” connects the focus while preserving difference. Such a link is useful when it serves your argument; it is not a compulsory comparison sentence.