Contextualizing your discussion – making clear what it is that you are actually writing about – is, of course, fundamental. This may well involve a certain amount of summarizing (events, ideas, plot, etc.). But be aware, first, that your examiners will probably be entirely familiar with the information that you are summarizing, and second, that summary is not analysis. All contextualization should be kept to a minimum as it takes up space for presenting your own ideas. Where summary is necessary, it can be supplemented by providing comment on the information.
 | Jane Austen published Pride and Prejudice in 1813; it narrates the story of Lizzy Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy and ends in their marriage. |
 | When Jane published Pride and Prejudice in 1813, the love plot (which typically resolves in marriage, as is the case with the novel’s protagonists, Lizzy Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy) had established itself as the major form of novelistic fiction. |
