Embedded Files
To what extent do you agree?
To what extent do you agree?
This question assesses your ability to:
Evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual references.
In this question, you should be evaluating the text (may be the entire text or a significant section of it) and explain to what extent you agree with a statement made by a student. The purpose of this question is to see if students can utilise language and structural techniques to explain how a writer conveys or builds an idea throughout the text and evaluate how successful the author is.
Suggested time: 20 minutes
Top tips:
Make sure you use short, precise quotes in your response to ensure that you can support your answer.
Ensure you use language and structure techniques in your answer to help analyse the text.
Give your opinion - there is no judgement, but you do need to give an opinion and support it with evidence.
Remember to focus on the question and link your ideas back to that statement (and how they agree or disagree with it).
It's okay to be somewhere in the middle; I somewhat agree, the [student] is partially correct, I mostly disagree...
What are some structure techniques? Write them down, then check your answer.
What are some structure techniques? Write them down, then check your answer.
Short, snappy sentences
Short, simple sentences
Long, complex sentences
Short paragraphs
Long paragraphs
Dialogue
Description
Action
Shift in focus
Shift in topic
Shift in time
Shift in character
Zoom out
Zoom in
Exposition
Rising Action
Climax
Falling Action
Resolution/Denouement
Inciting Incident
Connectives
Repetition
In media res
1st person/2nd person/3rd person POV
Past/present/future tense
Temporal references (references to time)
Withholding information
Endings
Order of the events
Flashback
Flashforward
Circular narrative
Justaposition
Chronological structure
Rule of 3
Direct speech
What are some language techniques? Write them down, then check your answer.
What are some language techniques? Write them down, then check your answer.
Simile
Metaphor
Onomatopoeia
Alliteration
Sibilance
Sensory Language
Emotive Language
Repetition
Asyndetic List
Oxymoron
Hyperbole
Personification
Pathetic Fallacy
Assonance
Consonance
Colloquial language
Dialect
Dialogue
Dissonance
Imagery
Irony
Pathos
Rhyme
Symbolism
Lexical (Word) Choice
Semantic Field
Need some revision to build your confidence with these techniques? Try the links below.
Sample Question and Answer
Sample Question and Answer
Source A
Source A
This extract is from the beginning of a novel by Graham Joyce. A young married couple, Zoe and Jake, are on a skiing holiday in the French Pyrenean mountains.
[...]
But at the edge of the slope, near the curtain of trees, she felt a small slab of snow slip from underneath her. It was like she’d been bucked, so she took the fall-line* to recover her balance. Before she’d dropped three hundred metres, the whisper of her skis was displaced by a rumble.
Zoe saw at the periphery of her vision that Jake had come to a halt at the side of the piste and was looking back up the slope. Irritated by the false start they’d made, she etched a few turns before skidding to a halt and turning to look back at her husband.
The rumble became louder. There was a pillar of what looked like grey smoke unfurling in silky banners at the head of the slope, like the heraldry of armies. It was beautiful. It made her smile.
Then her smile iced over. Jake was speeding straight towards her. His face was rubberised and he mouthed something as he flew at her.
‘Get to the side! To the side!’
She knew now that it was an avalanche. Jake slowed, batting at her with his ski pole. ‘Get into the trees! Hang on to a tree!’
The rumbling had become a roaring in her ears, drowning Jake’s words. She pushed herself down the fall-line, scrambling for traction, trying to accelerate away from the roaring cloud breaking behind her like a tsunami at sea. Jagged black cracks appeared in the snow in front of her. She angled her skis towards the side of the slope, heading for the trees, but it was too late. She saw Jake’s black suit go bundling past her as he was turned by the great mass of smoke and snow. Then she too was punched off her feet and carried through the air, twisting, spinning, turning in the white-out. She remembered something about spreading her arms around her head. For a few moments it was like being agitated inside a washing machine, turned head over heels a few times, until at last she was dumped heavily in a rib-cracking fall. Then there came a chattering noise, like the amplified jaws of a million termites chewing on wood. The noise itself filled her ears and muffled everything, and then there was silence, and the total whiteness faded to grey, and then to black.
Glossary * fall-line – the most direct route downhill
Q4: Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the source, from line 28 to the end.
In this part of the story, where Zoe and Jake are caught in the avalanche, it sounds really dangerous.
To what extent do you agree?
In your response, you could:
consider Zoe’s reactions in this part of the story
evaluate how the writer makes the situation sound dangerous
support your response with references to the text
Check Your Answer
Check Your Answer
In order to self-evaluate your answer, compare it to the sample below. Please note, that this is not a model or complete answer for each section and should only be used for the basis of comparison to see how detailed your paragraphs are by comparison.
Here is a sample of what a top-marks answer may look like:
Here is a sample of what a passing answer may look like:
Remember, your answer should be multi-paragraph and detailed. Only use the responses above to help judge the quality of your paragraphs and self-assess your work.
Sample question and answer taken from AQA Language Paper 1 November 2019
Other helpful resources
Other helpful resources
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse