English, Paper 1, Section A/Section B

PAPER 1 SECTION A

You will need to think about

• Genre
  • The Type of text
    • recipes
    • directions
    • adverts
• Audience
  • Who the text is for
    • age group
    • people in certain place
    • specifically qualified people

• Purpose
  • What the text is meant for. To...
    • explain
    • inform
    • persuade
    A good way to rember these is GAP

An easy way to remember this is LIST

• Language
  • How is it written
    • Persuasively
    • Emotively
• Information
  • Is it a fact or an opinion
    • Be careful, sometimes they are written to catch you out!
• Style
  • How does it look on the page
    • Is it illustrated?
    • What colours are used?
    • Do some words stand out more than others?
• Tone
  • It can be tricky to define, but Tone tells you how the writer feels about the subject
    • Light-hearted
    • Formal

PAPER 1 SECTION B

An argument concerns an issue on which people hold different views and opinions

• Begin with a bold opening statement, making the point clearly at the start.
• Continue your argument by making a good first point
• Follow up with a second point
  • This adds substance to your argument
    • To back up your argument use facts and figures
• Counter possible opposing views respectfully and with evidence
  • for every point the opponent could make, have an answer
• Wrap up your argument with a final statement which should leave your audience in no doubt about what you are saying.

When you write to persuade you should show a single minded goal, that you have an opinion or particular way of thinking and you want to change everyone else to your opinion or way of thinking.

When writing to persuade you can use seven powerful techniques to give weight to your view.

• Anecdotes
  • Give an example of something that really happened to you or someone else that backs up your view
• Facts
  • Facts make your arguments more convincing
• Opinions
  • Opinions add weight to your arguments
• Rhetorical Questions
  • These make people stop and think about your views
• Emotive Language
  • Shows people that you feel strongly about the points you are making

Continued on the next page

• Similes and Metaphors
  • Express your ideas more vividly (clearly)
• Triplets
  • Three words, one after the other
  • All with the same sound
    • Personal, Private, Protected
    • Prosperity, Power, Profit making

An easy way to remember all of these is 'a forest'

• Anecdotes

• Facts
• Opinions
• Rhetorical questions
• Emotive language
• Simile and metaphor
• Triplets

Offering helpful, unbiased information in a friendly way

The questions you need to ask before starting to write

• Who?
  • Who are you writing for?
• What?
  • What are you writing about?
  • What do your audience need to know?
• Why?
• Where?
• When?

These questions should help you make a plan for your essay.

Continued on the next page

Next is a selection of rules which should get your essay a few more marks

• Use a friendly tone (card two, front)
• Address the reader directly
  • Use 2nd person
    • You etc
• Build the readers confidence
  • Show them that you know what you are talking about, even if you don't
• Set out the options
  • Let the person make their own final decision
    • feel free to give your own opinion on the options
      • but don't try to persuade them either way

PAPER 2 SECTION A

Try to work out

• Who is writing
  • adult, child, woman, man
• What about
  • The subject of the poem
    • Love
    • Hate
    • Loss
• When and
  • consider the cluster of the poem
    • Pre 1914
    • Post 1914
• Where the poem is set
  • consider the cluster of the poem
    • Other cultures
    • Etc

Try to think about...

• How many verses are used
• How many stanzas are used

Try to read the poem out loud, even if your only whispering. It should help you understand how the words are being used

Try to think about...

• Sound
• Rhyme
• Repetition
• Alliteration
• Onomatopoeia
• Simile
• Metaphor

Why has the poet used...

• The chosen Language
• The chosen Imagery
• The chosen Vocabulary

Take an educated guess at what the poets intentions were.

• Try to find other meanings to the poem
  • eg 'A Difficult Birth' in your anthology, it has the birth of the lamb, Easter, and the end of the Irish war.
• Support it with
  • Quotations
  • Other Evidence, eg the structure (perhaps the visual shape of the poem)

Remember, NOTHING is in a poem by accident

• Look for clues and work out another interpretation from YOUR view
• Find good quotes to back up your points

Comparing two different poems with similar themes. Such as

• Cultural differences
• Conflict
• Relationships

• Find the theme/themes
• Find a poem to contrast it with
  • It would be useful if you are familiar with the poem
  • It should be different from the other one, but
• It should have a similar theme

Your essay should have...

• A short opening paragraph
  • entailing which poems you will be writing about.
• Make your first point
  • Compare choices of imagery, tone etc

Continued on the next page

• • Less is more.
    • Three words are often better that three sentences or lines.
• Cross Reference all the way through
  • (refer to both poems throughout your answer)
• Make more comparisons
  • In total you should have about three or four
• Write a concluding paragraph
  • Summarise the main points you've make
  • finish with something that sums up your personal response to the original question

Both ... and ... are poems which describe ... (but the choice of ... and ... in the poems suggests two very different attitudes). While ... presents ... , using ... . The ... of ... is more ... , yet it ends on a ... .

This is a little obscure but it is a good template to use

PAPER 2 SECTION B

Giving facts clearly and in an unbiased way

• Use the present tense
  • this is happening (not happened or about to happen)
• Use the GAP technique
  • See on card 1 - back
• For the audience, if you don't know the audience, assume they are an intelligent adult

Your work must be...

• Unbiased
• Factual
• Reliable

Makes someting clear or says how or why something happened

You might be asked to write about someone you admire

• It shouldn't matter who you write about
  • Just so long as you EXPLAIN the reason you admire them

This puts a vivid (clear) image in the readers head

Description techniques

• Check your senses what can you...
  • See
  • Hear
  • Taste
  • Touch
  • Smell
• Use imagery
  • Compare one thing to another
• Use adjectives and adverbs
  • These will give the audience a clear sense of what you are describing