GCSE English Language topics

Weighing alternative interpretations

Hold two defensible readings of the same moment and weigh which one the text supports better.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.1

Builds on: Comparing two texts — “Weighing readings needs comparison skill.” · Analysing a writer's word choices

Evaluating a critical statement

Respond to a statement about a text — ‘the writer makes the ending feel inevitable’ — by agreeing, disagreeing, or both, with evidence.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.1

Builds on: Evaluating a writer’s success — “You weigh a critic's claim the way you weigh a writer's success.” · Weighing alternative interpretations · Analysing a writer's word choices — “Half the credit is for the writer's methods, which is language analysis again.” · How a whole text is structured

Grammar as a writer’s tool

Treat grammar as a set of levers — a minor sentence for shock, a passive for distance — chosen the way a writer chooses images.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.2

Builds on: Active and passive voice — “Using grammar as a tool builds on knowing voice.” · Varying sentence openings

Ambitious vocabulary, precisely used

Reach for rarer words only when they say something the plain word can’t — precision first, sparkle second.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.2

Builds on: Word connotations · Roots, prefixes and suffixes — “Ambitious words are built from roots and affixes.” · Spelling harder words correctly

The GCSE presentation

The assessed talk: a prepared formal presentation of up to about ten minutes on a subject agreed with the teacher, with questions afterwards. It is graded Pass, Merit or Distinction (or Not Classified) and reported beside the GCSE grade, but carries no marks towards it.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.3

Builds on: Giving a presentation — “The assessed talk is a longer presentation like the ones you planned in Year 8, now formal and graded.” · Speaking in Standard English — “The assessed talk has to be given in Standard English.”

Paper 1: what it asks

One unseen extract from a novel or short story written in the 20th or 21st century, four reading questions worth 4, 8, 8 and 20 marks, then one piece of creative writing worth 40. What each question wants and roughly how long to give it.

Written against: AQA 8700 4.2 · AQA 8700 2

Builds on: Retrieval & inference · Planning before writing

Analysing a writer's word choices

Taking a short passage, choosing the few words and phrases that do the most work, and explaining the effect of each on the reader with the right term.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.1

Builds on: Word connotations — “The effect of a word comes from its connotations, which you learned to read in Year 8.” · Analytical paragraphs — “Each point is still made as an analytical paragraph: point, evidence, zoom-in.” · Using terminology precisely

How a whole text is structured

Following what the writer makes the reader look at first, where the focus moves, and how the ending changes what came before, to explain one named effect such as tension.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.1

Builds on: Analysing openings and endings — “Openings and endings are the two fixed points of any structure answer.” · Building tension and pacing — “Tension and pace are the effects a structure question most often asks about.” · Linking details across a text

Structural features by name

The terms for what a writer does with order: a turning point, two things set side by side, a flashback, a shift in focus, mood or viewpoint, contrast, and a change of pace.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.1

Builds on: Flashback and foreshadowing — “Flashback and foreshadowing are two of the features, already met as a writer.” · Understanding narrative perspective · How a whole text is structured — “A named feature only earns credit inside an explanation of how the whole text works.”

Descriptive writing from a picture or prompt

Writing a description from a picture or a prompt in about 45 minutes: choosing what to show, moving the reader's eye, building a mood, and using the picture as a start, not a list to copy.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.2 · AQA 8700 4.2

Builds on: Describing with the five senses — “Description is still built from the five senses, now sustained for a whole piece.” · Show, don’t tell — “Showing instead of telling is what lifts a description above a list.” · Setting and atmosphere

Story writing in exam time

Writing a short story or just its opening in about 45 minutes: one or two characters, a small setting, a clear shape, and a start that makes the reader want more.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.2 · AQA 8700 4.2

Builds on: Writing a story opening — “The task is often the opening of a story, which you first wrote in Year 7.” · Shaping a story arc — “A whole story in 45 minutes needs a simple arc decided before you start.” · Writing dialogue that works

Choosing a narrative voice and keeping it

Deciding who tells your story and in which tense, then holding that choice steady so the piece reads as one voice from first line to last.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.2

Builds on: Understanding narrative perspective — “You pick from the same narrators you learned to recognise as a reader.” · Keeping tenses consistent — “A steady voice needs a steady tense.” · Writing in role

Spelling harder words correctly

Getting complex and irregular words right, including the ambitious ones you choose to use: common patterns, the usual trouble spots, and how to check.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.2 · AQA 8700 4.5

Builds on: Roots, prefixes and suffixes — “Most long words are spelled from roots, prefixes and suffixes you already know.” · Proof-reading your own work — “Most spelling marks are saved in the check at the end.”

Answering questions after your talk

Listening to a question or a piece of feedback, answering what was actually asked in some detail, and asking for a point to be made clearer when you need it.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.3

Builds on: Listening and building on ideas — “A good answer starts from hearing exactly what was asked.” · Rebutting on your feet · The GCSE presentation — “The questions come at the end of the assessed presentation.”

Synthesising two non-fiction texts

Pull information from two texts on the same subject into one combined, accurate account.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.1

Builds on: Linking details across a text · Following an argument — “Synthesis links arguments across two texts.” · Summarising a passage · Reading non-fiction from the 1800s

Unseen extracts at exam pace

Apply your whole reading toolkit to an unfamiliar extract in the tight timing of a GCSE paper.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.1 · AQA 8700 2 · AQA 8700 4.2 · AQA 8700 4.3

Builds on: Evaluating a writer’s success — “Exam pace is evaluation, on a clock.” · Paper 1: what it asks — “The routine is built around the questions on Paper 1.” · Paper 2: what it asks — “The same routine has to stretch to two texts on Paper 2.”

Timed writing, calm method

Produce your best writing inside exam minutes — a settled routine of plan, write, check.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.2 · AQA 8700 4.2 · AQA 8700 4.3

Builds on: Redrafting for impact — “Calm timed writing is redrafting, internalised.” · Story writing in exam time · Viewpoint writing, exam style · Spelling harder words correctly

Viewpoint writing, exam style

Given a statement, taking a clear position and arguing it for a named reader in a set form, in about 45 minutes.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.2

Builds on: Rhetoric & persuasion · Matching tone to audience — “Viewpoint writing matches tone under exam pressure.” · Paper 2: what it asks

Paper 2: what it asks

Two unseen non-fiction texts on one theme, one of them from the 1800s, four reading questions worth 4, 8, 12 and 16 marks, then one piece of writing that argues a point of view, worth 40.

Written against: AQA 8700 4.3 · AQA 8700 2

Builds on: Identifying purpose and audience · Paper 1: what it asks

Reading non-fiction from the 1800s

Making sense of a nineteenth-century article, letter or diary: long sentences, formal words, and attitudes that belong to their time.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.1

Builds on: Reading pre-1914 language — “Older vocabulary and longer sentences were first unpicked in Year 8.” · Reading with historical context — “Knowing when a text was written explains attitudes that would otherwise puzzle you.” · Working out words from context

The forms non-fiction comes in

Telling an article from a report, an essay, a letter, a diary, travel writing or a life story, and knowing what readers expect of each.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.1

Builds on: Identifying purpose and audience — “Each form exists for a purpose and a reader, which you learned to identify in Year 8.” · Fact vs opinion

Analysing language in non-fiction

Explaining how a non-fiction writer uses words, tone and persuasive methods to describe an experience or win the reader over.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.1

Builds on: Rhetoric & persuasion — “The persuasive methods you learned to use are the ones you now spot in someone else.” · Detecting irony and sarcasm · Analysing a writer's word choices — “The method is the Paper 1 language answer, carried over to a non-fiction text.” · Reading non-fiction from the 1800s

Comparing two writers' viewpoints

Setting two writers side by side on the same subject: what each thinks and feels, where they agree and differ, and what time and circumstance have to do with it.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.1

Builds on: Comparing two texts — “This is Year 9 comparison, now on two non-fiction texts and with viewpoint as the thing compared.” · Inferring the writer’s viewpoint — “You cannot compare two viewpoints until you can infer each one.” · Reading non-fiction from the 1800s — “One of the two writers is always from the nineteenth century.” · Synthesising two non-fiction texts

Comparing the methods two writers use

Comparing how two writers get their views across (their words, tone and structure) and keeping both texts in play through the whole answer.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.1

Builds on: Comparing two texts — “Holding two writers side by side without losing either is the Year 9 skill.” · Comparing two writers' viewpoints — “You compare the how only after you have compared the what.” · Analysing language in non-fiction — “You need to be able to analyse one writer's methods before comparing two.”

Judging how useful a text is for a purpose

Deciding how relevant and how reliable a text is for a particular reader or task, and comparing two texts on that.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.1

Builds on: Identifying purpose and audience — “A text is useful or not for a purpose, so you must first know its own purpose.” · Spotting bias in non-fiction · The forms non-fiction comes in

Context and wider reading

Using when, where and why a text was written, and what you have read elsewhere, to judge it more sharply; and borrowing what works in your reading for your own writing.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.1

Builds on: Reading with historical context — “You already read a text with its time and place in mind.” · Linking details across a text · Reading non-fiction from the 1800s

Writing in the form the task names

What the form named in the task needs. An article wants a headline and a strong opening, a letter an address to the reader and a sign-off, a speech words built to be heard. These three are examples: the task can name another form.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.2

Builds on: Writing formal and personal letters — “The formal letter is one of the forms, and its layout was learned in Year 7.” · Scripting a speech — “The speech is one of the forms, and you scripted one in Year 9.” · Viewpoint writing, exam style · The forms non-fiction comes in

Rhetorical devices in your own writing

Using a rhetorical question, a balanced contrast, an aside in brackets or dashes, a group of three or direct address where it strengthens the argument and not as decoration.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.2

Builds on: Rhetoric & persuasion — “This is Year 9 persuasion with more devices and tighter control.” · Colons and semicolons

Writing from information you are given

Taking facts, notes or a text someone else has provided and turning them into your own piece in a different form: choosing what to keep, putting it in a new order and in your own words.

Written against: AQA 8700 3.1.2

Builds on: Writing to inform and explain — “The piece still has to set information out clearly for a reader who does not know it.” · Summarising a passage · Writing in the form the task names