Paper 1 Question 4: Evaluate

This question tests your ability to engage with and form opinions about a text. This question is worth a lot of marks, so it's important to get this right! This question also wants you to include a bit of language analysis. If you're rusty on you're language analysis skills, have a look at the guide to question 2.

This question will ask you to look at a large portion of the text and this is why it's the last question; they're hoping that by this point in the exam, you will have formed some strong opinions about the text and its characters. The question will also give you a statement that you must agree/disagree with, for example: "The writer encourages us to dislike the character Clarissa in this story. She is clearly the villain of the story." 

At a basic level, you're expected to mostly agree (there will generally be more evidence for this). Failure to acknowledge the statement or give your opinion (stating if you agree/disagree) will result in failing this question! 

The statements you get for this question usually have two parts e.g. "The writer encourages us to dislike the character Clarissa in this story. She is clearly the villain of the story." Your first step should be to always try to split the statement into the two parts: 1) we're encouraged to dislike Clarissa and 2) Clarissa is a villain. You can then write one paragraph to answer each part and start with a sentence telling us which part of the statement you're focusing on e.g. "I agree that we're encouraged to dislike Clarissa because..."

The second thing you absolutely must include in your answer is evidence. For example, if you are stating that you agree that the author is trying to make us dislike Clarissa, what evidence is there for this? Does she come across as lazy? Is there a quote that shows she's lazy? If so, "I agree that the author is trying to make us dislike Clarissa, because she comes across as being very lazy. For example, the author states that Clarissa 'never cleans' and 'hardly ever made a genuine effort at work.'"

Finally, this question also calls for some language analysis! So have a look at your quotes that you've selected and see if there's anything interesting that you could comment on. Is there an interesting word, verb, or adjective you could discuss? Maybe there's some emotive language or a comparison? For example: "The use of the adjective 'genuine' might even suggest that Clarissa pretends to work in order to get out of doing any real work."

Key points to consider:

• Remember to take information from the line numbers that the question directs you to

• Make sure to split the statement into two

• Ensure that you agree with the statement and tell us which part you're agreeing with

• Make sure you give an opinion and try to make it sound like a strong opinion i.e. that you're invested in the text and that you care

• Make sure you say why you agree and where that opinion has come from i.e. quotations

• Include some language analysis i.e. look at your quotation and see if there are any words you can discuss