Paper 1 Question 4: Model Answer (AQA GCSE English Language)

Paper 1 Question 4: Model Answer

Paper 1 Question 4 assesses your ability to evaluate the effectiveness of a text. This means you must come to an informed, evidence-based personal judgement about a text and the choices made by the writer.

The examples below are all based on the following AQA GCSE English Language November 2019 past exam question. The source document can be found here:

Choosing what to evaluate in Question 4

When evaluating the extract, it is crucial to employ a thoughtful and analytical approach. Ensure you fully understand the text, paying attention to its purpose, tone and style. You will already have considered the writer's choices in terms of language, structure and literary techniques, so now you need to evaluate how these choices contribute to the overall impact and effectiveness of the text in conveying its message and engaging the reader.  

• Look for evidence within the text to support your observations 

• Your evaluation should reflect a perceptive analysis that demonstrates your understanding of the writer's intentions, allowing you to make well-reasoned judgements about the text's strengths and weaknesses.

• Express your personal opinions based on the evidence you've gathered, as this will demonstrate your ability to form an informed and balanced assessment of the writer's choices and their impact on the reader

Remember, choosing what to evaluate in the extract requires careful consideration of the question. By following the points outlined below and selecting relevant and significant quotes, you'll be able to focus your analysis and provide a well-supported response in the exam.

• Thinking before writing encourages you to provide a clearly structured argument, incorporate a range of ideas from the text, explore methods and embed references

  • Create an outline by organising your ideas, evidence and supporting examples which allows for a logical and coherent flow

• Consider your own impressions in relation to the statement before you began to write, rather than forming an opinion during the course of your writing

  • Start with a sense of your own evaluation and then construct an argument with a focus on the what and the how

• Separate the different elements of the statement, re-read the source and select relevant evidence

  • Then draw evaluative conclusions accordingly

• Prioritise elements that are most relevant and significant to the question

• Choose aspects that best support your evaluation and which provide the most substantial insights

Structuring your evaluation in Question 4

Every point you make in your response should be supported with evidence from the text and have an evaluative comment. However, following a rigid structure, such as writing in point-evidence-explanation (PEE) paragraphs, can limit the range and depth of your analysis, so it is always best to avoid using this type of frame to structure your response. You should always consider which of your ideas would allow you to write the most developed evaluation.

You should aim to structure your answer in the following way:

• Develop a thesis statement

  • Based on your evaluation, develop a clear thesis statement that captures your main argument or interpretation of the text

  • This will serve as the guiding focus for your evaluation

• Provide evidence and evaluate

  • Support your evaluation with specific evidence from the text

  • Explain how these quotes support your thesis and contribute to your overall interpretation of the text

• Consider alternative viewpoints 

• Acknowledge and address alternative possible viewpoints or interpretations of the text 

• Revise and refine your evaluation 

  • Review your evaluation, ensuring clarity, coherence and logical progression of ideas

  • Revise and refine your response so that it gives a cohesive and insightful evaluation of the text

You should aim to write around four to five paragraphs for this answer, with a different topic sentence in each paragraph focusing on different aspects of the question.

Developing your evaluation in Question 4

Remember, developing an evaluation of a prose text takes time, careful reading and critical thinking. To produce an effective evaluation, you should aim to make your comments as detailed and specific as you can. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you evaluate the extract effectively:

• Re-read the extract carefully

  • Start by re-reading the lines from the extract which you have been directed to

  • You should use this time to reconsider the extract with the student statement in mind

• Analyse language choices

  • Look for literary devices and any other unique vocabulary used by the writer which will support your argument

  • Examine how these language choices contribute to the tone, mood and overall impact of this part of the extract

  • Consider how the writer’s use of language helps to create specific effects or convey emotions

• Consider structural elements

  • Analyse the overall structure of the prose extract, including the use of paragraphing, organisation and sentence structures

  • Look for any patterns or changes in the length and style of paragraphs or sentences

  • Consider how the structure contributes to the coherence and flow of the text

• Evaluate the use of dialogue

  • Assess how the dialogue adds depth to the characters and advances the narrative

  • Analyse the dialogue for any particular stylistic choices

• Explore characterisation

  • Analyse how the author develops and portrays the characters in the extract

  • Look for direct and indirect characterisation techniques used to make the characters more realistic and relatable

• Assess the narrative voice and point of view

  • Consider the perspective from which the story is told (first-person, third-person omniscient, etc.)

  • Evaluate how the narrative voice and point of view influence the reader's engagement with the extract 

• Evaluate the effectiveness of descriptive language

  • Analyse any descriptive passages and assess how they contribute to the reader's understanding of the setting and atmosphere

  • Consider how the writer’s descriptive language evokes emotions and engages the senses 

• Consider themes and ideas

  • Identify the central themes or messages conveyed by the extract

  • Evaluate how effectively the writer conveys these themes and whether they resonate you as a reader 

• Reflect on the writer’s intention

  • Consider the author's purpose and intended effect on the reader

  • Reflect on how successful the writer is in achieving their goals and what impression the extract gives

• Provide a balanced evaluation

  • Try to offer a balanced evaluation of the extract 

  • Highlight its strengths and weaknesses, supporting your claims with specific evidence from the text

• Write coherently and concisely

  • Structure your response with clear paragraphs and cohesive arguments

  • Use accurate quotations from the text to support your evaluation

Approaching the bullet points in Question 4

Below are some examples of how you might begin to write your ideas into a response. They focus separately on the bullet points from Question 4 and are based on the 2019 AQA Paper 1 past paper. It is useful to read through this extract and the wording of Question 4 before exploring the model responses below.

When approaching Question 4, it is important to consider the student statement that you have been given and the three bullets points below it:

• Once you have re-read the extract, you should select the quotations which agree with the statement from the text

  • In the above example, it means selecting quotes which “makes the situation sound dangerous”

  • You should take note of whether these quotes are predominantly found at the beginning, middle or end of the extract

• Evaluate the extent to which you agree with the writer’s portrayal of a dangerous atmosphere in the extract

• Note any literary devices employed by the writer within your chosen quotes and other sections of the source text

• Elaborate on how these devices influence the reader's perception and emotional response

Next, we will examine how you might begin to write up your response. Below you will find an opening thesis to the above question and reasons why this is a Level 4 response:

Next, we will examine the first bullet point in the question which refers to “Zoe’s reactions in this part of the story”. Please note that you should always refer to all three bullet points in your answer. However, in some of the examples below we have simply chosen to explore the first or second bullet point separately and then integrated the third bullet point throughout each answer.

We will now examine another paragraph which addresses the same bullet point:

The second bullet point will always ask you to evaluate the writer’s craft and will contain the word ‘how’. This is an invitation for you to find examples of what the writer has done deliberately in the extract, how they have done it and why.

Below you will find one point which could be made about how the writer makes the situation sound worse in the extract. Several techniques have been identified, alongside their intended effect:

We will now examine another paragraph which addresses the same bullet point:

We will now consider how you might conclude your response:

Question 4: Level 4 Model Answer

Below is an example of a full-length Level 4 model answer:

Why would this answer get 20/20 marks?

Key points to remember for Question 4

• Remember, there will always be more to agree with than disagree

  • Therefore, base your evaluation initially on agreeing, as there will be more evidence in the text to support this

• Use “I think”, “I agree” and “I feel” in your answer, making sure you use textual evidence proving your point

• This is an extended response question

  • You need to manage your timings and write more than your answers to Questions 2 and 3