Paper 2

Section A - Direct writing (40 marks):

• Must answer one compulsory question on one or two texts totalling 650-750 words in length.

Use, develop and evaluate the information in the text(s) to create a discursive, argumentative, persuasive speech, letter or article.

• Extract the ideas from BOTH texts - advantages and disadvantages - positives and negatives.

• Evaluate these ideas - react and respond to them from the writer’s perspective.

• Give your own views - have a concluding paragraph where you offer your recommendations, which will be based on your earlier evaluations of both sides of the argument.

• You get 15 marks for reading - this is your extraction of the ideas from both texts (the ideas are more or less ‘there’) and 25 marks for writing, so this assessment has more focus on WRITING.

• Capture the speaker’s voice and the text type - should seem real.

Typical Feedbacks:

• Be more specific + write more viewpoints/personal response

• Emotive language

• Be more personal

• This is a writing assessment. You should use the space available and ensure it is error free.

• You should ‘show’ rather than ‘tell’

• You should balance your time in the exam so that you can do both pieces to the best of your potential.

• Vary syntax - different sentence openings, types and lengths.

Section B: Composition (40 marks):

• Candidates answer one question from a choice of four titles: two descriptive and two narrative.
  

  • Candidates use the title to develop and write a composition.

  • Candidates write about 350–450 words.

• Narrative
  

  • Strong features of narrative writing, such as plot, characterisation, dialogue, clear ending

  • A narrative task is more challenging as all the pieces need to ‘fit’ together - the structure is more difficult.

• Descriptive
  

  • Should not have a storyline. Rather you are creating a picture with words

  • You should use a range of descriptive language techniques, particularly sensory imagery

Technique & Examples:

• Beginning with an adverb - Gently, the snowflakes floated down and settled softly, creating a vast expanse of white carpet.

• -ly words/pairings - Quickly and silently, the haze filled the air.

• Adjectival pairings - Grey and heavy, haze filled the air.

• Short exclamation(s) - Oh my God! I can’t believe it!

• Rhetorical questions(s) - What is going on? Why is this happening?

• One word sentence(s) - Dead. Gone. Silence.

• Rule of three - It’s over. They are gone. Finished.

• Repetition - We are finished. Finished.

• Minor sentence(s) - (not a complete sentence) Done. Really over. Hopelessness. A dead end dream.

• Short sentence(s) - The dream has ended. They are dead.

• List - Dead bodies are everywhere – on the grass, on the floor, in the hole. Everywhere.

• Anaphora - It is over. It is finally over.

• Long sentence - Something enormous is moving towards us – so slowly, so surely – and all I can feel is terror, dread, because I know, I just know that this is it – this is the end.

• Alliteration - It is a terrible tragedy.

• -ing words - Lying heavily in the air, the haze was thick.

• Subordinators: (Despite, Since, Because, While, As, etc) Despite the sunshine, the haze hung thick in the air.

• Embedded clause - The grass, so lush and green, felt soft beneath my bare feet.