Comics+ Quality Guide
This guide describes an analytical essay about a graphic novel for a reader who knows the text and expects an interpretation. It is formative: use it to plan, self-check, and give peer feedback. It contains no scores, bands, levels, or confidential marking material.
How to use this guide. Read the whole guide before you draft. Choose one criterion to work on in each revision pass. A useful self-check names a specific sentence or choice, not a general feeling.
1. An arguable interpretation
What strong work does. The essay makes a claim about how the graphic novel works, not just what it is about.
Ask your draft. What would a reader who disagrees with me point to?
Revision move. Rewrite the thesis as a claim about a pattern, not a theme word.
2. Precise visual evidence
What strong work does. Panels, gutters, colour, gaze, and layout are described accurately enough for a reader to find them.
Ask your draft. Can someone locate this panel from my description?
Revision move. Add the page position and one visual detail that proves the point.
3. Technique and effect
What strong work does. The essay explains how a visual choice shapes the reader’s understanding, not just that it is used.
Ask your draft. What does this choice make me notice or feel?
Revision move. Add a sentence beginning “This makes the reader … because …”.
4. Pattern across the text
What strong work does. The essay connects a single panel to a recurring pattern or a change across the text.
Ask your draft. Where else does this visual move appear, and how is it different?
Revision move. Add one later page and explain the shift.
5. Structure and cohesion
What strong work does. Paragraphs build an argument in a deliberate order; transitions show the relationship between claims.
Ask your draft. What does each paragraph add?
Revision move. Reorder two paragraphs and test which order is stronger.
6. Control of language
What strong work does. Expression is precise, varied, and proofread. Visual terms are used accurately.
Ask your draft. Have I used “image” when I mean panel, gutter, or page?
Revision move. Read aloud and fix the three least clear sentences.
Peer feedback protocol
- Read or view the whole draft once without writing anything.
- Name one strength using the language of the guide: “The … works because …”.
- Ask one genuine question about a choice you could not follow.
- Offer one specific next move that the maker can complete in the next lesson.
Do not give a score, a band, or a level. The purpose is to help the maker see their own draft more clearly.
Draft checklist
- My thesis is an arguable claim about how the text works.
- Every body paragraph has a precise visual detail and an explanation of effect.
- I connect one moment to a pattern elsewhere.
- I distinguish description from analysis.
- I have proofread visual terminology.
Teacher note
Use this guide formatively. Select two criteria for a feedback lesson rather than all of them. Model the difference between a general comment (“make it better”) and a specific one (“the second paragraph names a technique but does not say what it makes the reader notice”).
This page is not an assessment instrument. It contains no scores, bands, or confidential marking material.