How to Make a Good Point for PEAD (ATM)
A step-by-step guide to making good points for the Point part of your GCSE or A-Level PEAD paragraphs.
What is this Guide for?
This guide is to help people who find writing interesting and informative points difficult when answering exam questions. When you are writing essay or exam paragraphs in English literature or English language at GCSE or A-Level, it’s highly recommended you use the PEAD method to organise your argument. PEAD stands for Point, Evidence Analysis Development, and using this structure makes it much more likely that you will talk about all the things you need to for those high-level scores.
Note: Other teachers and organisations use different acronyms to describe PEAD, you might see PEAL, PEA, PEEL, or something similar. They all mean the same thing.
Our Example: Remains by Simon Armitage
To give examples of what I am talking about, I will be using an extract from the Simon Armitage poem “Remains”. The BBC have a helpful AQA revision guide with a full audio reading if you want to see more of the poem.
What are the Main Steps? (ATM)
I’ve broken making good points down into 3 different steps with the acronym ATM:
Author Focus.
Technique.
Motivation.
You can find out more about each part of ATM in the detailed steps below.
Step 1: Author Focus
This step is all about focusing your point on the author to show that you understand they made a deliberate choice to write what they wrote. So, take a look at the examples below of how you can focus your point on the author and what they did instead of other things:
Author Focus ✔
“Armitage uses…”
“The author uses…”
“Simon Armitage has used…”
Other Focuses X
“There is juxtaposition...”
“The language used is…”
“I think…”
“Armitage uses…”
“The author uses…”
“Simon Armitage has used…”
Step 2: Technique
What exactly is the author doing? They are always using some sort of device, technique, or type of word to make the effect you are talking about.
Literary Devices
Here are some examples of literary devices or techniques you might spot and talk about:
Juxtaposition
Metaphor
Simile
Personification
Ceasura
Hyperbole
…this is a very long list.
Type of Word
You don’t have to talk about a technique or device; you can talk about how words and phrases are used:
adjective
verb
pronoun
proper noun
adverb
…there are quite a lot of these too.
Structural element
Rhyming couplets
Cyclical structure
Flashbacks
Rhythm
Punctuation
…you get the idea.
Not sure? Describe it!
First word of every line (Anaphora)
Different lengths of stanzas
Using the wrong word deliberately
Including words and phrases related to wartime
“… a semantic field…”
“…an allusion to…”
“… a repeating motif…”
“… to demonstrate the distress felt by the soldier.”
“… to bring awareness to PTSD.”
“…to force the reader to experience these memories from the soldier’s point of view.”
Step 3: Motivation
This last step is all about why. What did the author use that device, type of word, or structural element for?
You will quite possibly get this idea from your analysis section, which can feel a little backwards, as the point comes first in your paragraph. But, this is where planning can help! Make sure you know what you are going to say before you write it out, or be extra sneaky and leave a gap you can come back to and fill in once your analysis is complete.
What Is the Intended Outcome?
Ask yourself what the general aim was for using this tecnhinque, device, or language. What was the author trying to highlight or show to you?
Be Broad!
In the Point section of your PEAD paragraph we don’t want to get into lots of detals; that is what the Analysis and Development sections are for, so keep your description of the intended outcome very short and non-specfiic.
Our Final Point Section
Here is our complete example point section:
“Armitage uses violent verbs in the sixth stanza to demonstrate the threat the soldier still feels under after returning from war.”
After this, you would move on to the evidence section.
Need More Help with PEAD?
If you need any support for your Point, Evidence, Analysis, Development paragraphs that you can’t find here, there are other resources here that might help you:
PEAD: Evidence Section - a guide to picking the best quotes to analyse.
PEAD: Analysis Section - a step-by-step guide to analysing quotes.
PEAD: Development Section - a guide to developing your analysis.
PEAD: Putting it all together - putting point, evidence, analysis, and development all together concisely (coming soon).