Module A Textual Conversations: How to Build Your Body Paragraphs

This post is a follow-up to the Module A Textual Conversations essay structure guide. Where that post covered overall essay structure, this one focuses specifically on how to construct body paragraphs for both the complete integration and separate but integrated approaches. Sample teacher responses are included at the end to show both approaches in practice.

As with the previous post, this is not a prescriptive method. There are many valid ways to write a strong Module A body paragraph, and what works best will depend on the question, the argument, and the student’s own reading of the texts. The scaffolds below are offered as one possible approach — take what is useful, adapt what is not, and do not feel bound to follow any of it rigidly.

The P / ET / A Framework

Each body paragraph — regardless of integration style — is built around three components:

P — Point sentence: introduces both texts and the concept or value being explored
ET — Evidence and Technique: textual evidence with language analysis
A — Analysis: your interpretation of what the evidence reveals about the value, the composer’s purpose, and the textual conversation taking place

The focus throughout should be on representation, characterisation, or ideas — not plot. Summarising what happens in the text is not analysis. The examiner is looking for your interpretation of how meaning is constructed and how the two texts speak to each other.

Complete Integration

In a completely integrated paragraph, both texts are discussed within the one body paragraph. The paragraph transitions between The Tempest and Hag-Seed and back again, weaving the two texts together around a single controlling idea.

Paragraph 1

P — Point Sentence

Construct a point sentence that introduces both texts and the concept or value you will be exploring
Start with The Tempest — briefly outline the context that Shakespeare wrote in and how this influenced his attitudes toward the first concept or value

ET / A — Shakespeare

Provide textual evidence and language analysis that supports how Shakespeare is influenced by his context in constructing this particular value
The focus should be on representation, characterisation or ideas, not plot
Your analysis can be quite powerful here, and could involve any of the following:
- Shakespeare's authorial purpose regarding the value and how he is having a textual conversation with his audience
- A clear link to Shakespeare's context and how that frames the audience's understanding of that value

ET / A — Atwood on Shakespeare

Identify how reading Atwood's novel extends, highlights, or subverts the reader's understanding of The Tempest about the chosen concept or value:
- Is it resonant?
- Is it dissonant?
- Does it mirror, align, or collide?
You may find you are writing an additional sentence here, as this is a different text to what you started the paragraph with — it is like doing a P sentence in the middle of your paragraph
Introduce and identify Atwood's context; make links to authorial purpose
Where appropriate, explore how Atwood's context has shaped her attitudes and views on the issues you have discussed
Provide textual evidence and language analysis that supports how Atwood has reshaped the reader's understanding of the idea in Shakespeare — how is Atwood having a textual conversation and at what level? What are the resonances and dissonances?
Your analysis should involve any of the following:
- Atwood's authorial purpose regarding the value and how she is having a textual conversation with Shakespeare, as well as with readers
- A clear link to Atwood's context — think social, literary, personal — and how that frames readers' understanding of that value

Key reminder for complete integration: You should start with The Tempest, transition to Hag-Seed, circle back to The Tempest, and make one final transition to Hag-Seed (as a minimum) within the one paragraph.

Separate but Integrated

In a separate but integrated response, each text has its own paragraph, but both paragraphs are driven by the same value or concept. The evaluation happens through point sentences, linking words, and evaluative connectives between the two paragraphs.

Paragraph 1 — The Tempest

P — Point Sentence

Construct a point sentence that introduces both texts and the concept or value you will be exploring
Start with The Tempest — briefly outline the context that Shakespeare wrote in and how this influenced his attitudes toward the first concept or value

ET / A — The Tempest

Provide textual evidence and language analysis that supports how Shakespeare is influenced by his context in constructing this particular value
The focus should be on representation, characterisation or ideas, not plot
Aim for 3–4 ETAs
Your analysis for each example can be quite powerful here, and could involve any of the following:
- Shakespeare's authorial purpose regarding the value and how he is having a textual conversation with his audience
- A clear link to Shakespeare's context and how that frames the audience's understanding of that value

Paragraph 2 — Hag-Seed

P — Hag-Seed Point Sentence

Construct a P sentence that identifies Atwood's representation of the same value
If possible, identify how reading Atwood's novel extends, highlights, or subverts the reader's understanding of The Tempest about the chosen concept or value
Consider:
- Is it resonant?
- Is it dissonant?
- Does it mirror, align, or collide?

ET / A — Hag-Seed

Provide textual evidence and language analysis that supports how Atwood has reshaped the reader's understanding of the idea in Shakespeare — how is Atwood having a textual conversation and at what level? What are the resonances and dissonances?
The focus should be on representation, characterisation or ideas, not plot
Aim for 3–4 ETAs
Your analysis should involve any of the following:
- Atwood's authorial purpose regarding the value and how she is having a textual conversation with Shakespeare, as well as with readers
- A clear link to Atwood's context — think social, literary, personal — and how that frames readers' understanding of that value

Sample Teacher Responses

The following sample responses demonstrate both approaches applied to the theme of the ‘Other’ across The Tempest and Hag-Seed. Read them alongside the scaffolds above to see how each component is working in practice.

Complete Integration — Sample

Both William Shakespeare and Margaret Atwood, in their respective texts, embed representations of the ‘other’ through the construct of characters who are marginalised, displaced, or seeking retribution, reflecting societal forces of each context. Shakespeare, in his penultimate play The Tempest, written during the Age of Discovery, presents first peoples as New World ‘savages’ and confronts audiences with the contemporary debate at the time regarding the humanity of native peoples. The adherence to the colonial macro narrative is immediately made evident in the vitriolic dialogue and animalistic imagery used to describe Caliban — the native on Prospero’s inhabited island — ‘malignant thing’, ‘poisonous slave’, ‘hag-seed’ and ‘half fish, half monster’, which gives us an insight into the racist, colonial sentiment towards native peoples during Shakespeare’s time. Atwood deconstructs this colonial view of native peoples and recontextualises this to her postcolonial and postmodern readership. Set within Fletcher Correctional Facility, Atwood is explicitly exploring those incarcerated, representing a disenfranchised and disempowered social structure. Yet, she also similarly establishes the prisoners as outsiders to mainstream society, evident in the conversation between Estelle and Felix, the dialogue and ellipsis of ‘I wouldn’t want you to…’ followed on by violent imagery of Felix dying with ‘a puddle of blood spreading around him’, which also establishes a clear stigma associated with the prisoners. Yet, both Shakespeare and Atwood challenge these mainstream perceptions of the Other by showcasing that both the natives and the prisoners are capable of the depth of human morality and reasoning. Shakespeare, in his play, makes an indirect intertextual reference to Montaigne’s ‘Of Cannibals’ via Gonzalo, where he embeds the uncommon view of first peoples’ manners being ‘more gentle’. Shakespeare also gives Caliban, interestingly anagrammatic of ‘cannibal’, some of the most beautiful lines of the play… In Atwood’s text, through the staging of The Tempest, all the prisoners want to play Caliban…

Separate but Integrated — Sample

Both William Shakespeare and Margaret Atwood, in their respective texts, embed representations of the ‘other’ through the construct of characters who are marginalised, displaced, or seeking retribution, reflecting societal forces of each context. Shakespeare, in his penultimate play The Tempest, written during the Age of Discovery, presents first peoples as New World ‘savages’ and confronts audiences with the contemporary debate at the time regarding the humanity of native peoples. The adherence to the colonial macro narrative is immediately made evident in the vitriolic dialogue and animalistic imagery used to describe Caliban — the native on Prospero’s inhabited island — ‘malignant thing’, ‘poisonous slave’, ‘hag-seed’ and ‘half fish, half monster’, which gives us an insight into the racist, colonial sentiment towards native peoples during Shakespeare’s time. Yet, Shakespeare challenges this mainstream colonial perception of ‘the Other’ by showcasing how the natives have a hidden beauty and humanity unbeknownst to the colonialists. Shakespeare makes an indirect intertextual reference to Montaigne’s ‘Of Cannibals’ via Gonzalo, where he embeds the uncommon view of first people’s manners being ‘more gentle’. Shakespeare also gives Caliban, interestingly anagrammatic of ‘cannibal’, some of the most beautiful lines of the play…

Atwood deconstructs this colonial view of native peoples and recontextualises this to her postcolonial and postmodern readership. Set within Fletcher Correctional Facility, Atwood is explicitly exploring those incarcerated, representing a disenfranchised and disempowered social structure. Yet, she also similarly establishes the prisoners as outsiders to mainstream society, evident in the conversation between Estelle and Felix, the dialogue and ellipsis of ‘I wouldn’t want you to…’ followed on by violent imagery of Felix dying with ‘a puddle of blood spreading around him’, which also establishes a clear stigma associated with the prisoners. Resonant with Shakespeare, Atwood spends much of the narrative revealing the depth of morality and understanding these prisoners exhibit, firstly evident through the staging of The Tempest, when all the prisoners want to play Caliban…

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