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🔎 Your PEEL Paragraph Has a Hole in It
🔎 Your PEEL Paragraph Has a Hole in It
PEEL (Point – Evidence – Explain – Link) is the most widely taught essay framework in English. It also produces more Grade 5 responses than any other single habit. Not because the framework is wrong — but because most students “leak” somewhere between E and the next E, and never notice.
Examiner reports from AQA consistently flag the same pattern: a paragraph opens analytically, quotes the text, then drifts — the Explain becomes description, and the Link disconnects from everything before it.
What is a PEEL leak?: A PEEL leak happens when the Explain sentence describes what the quotation says rather than interpreting what specific words do, or when the Link disconnects from the analytical work and restates the theme instead.
English Language glossary
- What is a PEEL leak?
- A PEEL leak happens when the Explain sentence describes what the quotation says rather than interpreting what specific words do, or when the Link disconnects from the analytical work and restates the theme instead.
📈 The Three Leak Points
A PEEL paragraph leaks at one of three places. Each one looks like analysis but loses the analytical thread.
Now try it yourself
Quiz · Question 1 of 10
What does it mean when a PEEL paragraph 'leaks'?
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