Develop a focused critical coursework argument
Choose an arguable question about presentation · Use whole-text evidence and a developing judgement · Apply the form and length guidance for the correct cycle
Section C1-2028 · 2028–2030 · Drama coursework
Exam scope and assessment notes
0408 preparation for exam year(s) 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030. The assessment changes in 2028; follow the component and selected texts for your year. Original StudyForA teaching and practice, with fictional examples labelled. Other well-supported literary readings can be valid. Model answers are for self-checking and do not award Cambridge marks or grades. Full set-text reading and text-specific teaching, complete timed papers and qualified literature-teacher assessment remain unfinished. Coursework must be the candidate’s own work, assessed through the centre and moderated by Cambridge.
Before you begin
- Confirm your exam year and centre-selected full texts. Coursework and both papers are compulsory; private candidates cannot enter 0408.
Work on paper. Try each question before revealing help, and explain why your method works.
Quick readiness check
What should support a claim about a literary text?
What you will learn
- Choose an arguable question about presentation
- Use whole-text evidence and a developing judgement
- Apply the form and length guidance for the correct cycle
A critical essay needs a question it can analyse
An assignment on how a writer makes a character’s authority unstable gives scope for knowledge, interpretation, methods and personal judgement. A title asking only for a plot summary or a list of adjectives gives less scope. Keep the response on its one approved text; comparison with a second text is not a compulsory part of this 0408 assignment.
The cycle controls eligibility and length
For 2025–2027, the critical essay guidance is 800–1200 words, including quotations but excluding references or bibliography. It uses one eligible text, distinct from the empathic text and absent from the Paper 3 set list. A short-story selection requires coverage of at least two stories.
For 2028–2030, the critical essay uses one drama text and the guidance is approximately 1000 words, including quotations. It may use the same play as the empathic essay. Verify the full work and assignment with your centre; the site’s fictional excerpts are skill exercises, not complete coursework texts.
Sources for this lesson
Pause and explain
Does a critical essay have to compare two texts for 0408?
Worked example
Improve the practice title “Describe the leader” for an original play where a leader offers choices but repeatedly restricts them.
Show the worked solution
- Focus on the presentation of unstable authority.
- Choose contrasting moments and explain dialogue, action and audience response.
Answer “How does the play make the leader’s apparent authority questionable?” gives a focused analytical direction.
Try a topic test
Choose Easy, Normal or Difficult. Save your answers and open worked review after finishing.
Test this topic →From guided practice to a new situation
Write your answer and reasoning first. Use a hint only if you are stuck. The model solution is for self-checking; your written work is not automatically marked.
Turn “What happens in the play?” into an analytical practice question about authority.
Give me a hint
Ask how the presentation creates meaning.
Compare my reasoning
- Identify a tension such as apparent choice versus restriction.
- Frame a question about how the writer presents it.
A possible question is “How does the play challenge the leader’s claim to offer freedom?”
Look for these in your work
- Create an arguable focus
- Allow analysis of methods
For a 2026 critical essay on an eligible short-story selection, can the essay discuss only one story?
Give me a hint
Check the minimum range.
Compare my reasoning
- The syllabus specifies at least two stories for a selected short-story text.
- Choose evidence relevant to the focus across that required range.
No; the essay must cover at least two stories.
Look for these in your work
- Use the current rule
- Keep the discussion focused
A 2029 critical coursework plan uses a novel and the old 800–1200 range. Identify the main change needed.
Give me a hint
The revised component uses drama.
Compare my reasoning
- Replace the novel with an eligible complete drama text agreed with the centre.
- Use approximately 1000 words as the revised guidance.
Use an approved drama text and the revised approximately 1000-word guidance.
Look for these in your work
- Apply the correct cycle
- Do not substitute an old format
Common mistakes
- Confirm the cycle’s text eligibility.
- Develop analysis rather than a plot list.
What can you explain now?
Does a critical essay have to compare two texts for 0408?
Compare with the explanation
No; the assignment focuses on one eligible text.
The two coursework assignments and their text-selection rules are distinct from a comparative essay requirement.
After trying it yourself, choose your next review. This is your self-assessment.
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Make it stick
Does a critical essay have to compare two texts for 0408?
If you needed the solution, close it and solve the problem again from a blank page. A correct answer is stronger when you can explain the reason for each step.