How to Answer Question 2 (WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Language)

How to Answer Question 2

Paper 1, or Component 1, is the “fiction” paper. You will be given five reading questions to answer about an extract from a longer piece of literature or a short story in Section A. You should always begin by dividing up the reading passage into the sections specified by each question, and you should complete these questions in the order they are given.

The following guide to how to answer Question 2 includes:

• Question 2 overview

• How to answer Question 2

• Exam tips

Question 2 overview

Question 2 will be on 10–15 lines of the passage. It is important that you only answer on the lines specified as you will not receive any marks for any information that you take from outside of these lines.

This question tests AO2, where you are expected to explain, comment on and analyse how a writer uses language and structure to achieve particular effects. However, this is a 5-mark question, so it is not necessary to go into too much detail in order to achieve full marks.

Most commonly, the question prompt is “what impressions”. This means that you will be asked what impressions the writer creates of a character or characters in the section of the passage. In other words, what you think the character is “like”.

You should spend no more than 10 minutes on this question (including time to read, highlight and annotate the relevant section of the passage) and your answer should be only 1–2 paragraphs in length (the maximum mark you can be given is 5, so writing more is just a waste of time).

How to answer Question 2

Let’s look at Question 2 from the November 2018 exam:

Just like Question 1, you should start by identifying the correct section of the passage which the question is about, and highlight the focus of the question (what you are looking for evidence about in the text).

The steps are:

1. Identify the correct section of the reading passage

2. Read the question and highlight the focus (the character you are being asked about)

3. Scan the section of text:

   • Highlight any information you are given about the character or characters

   • Annotate in the margins what your selected evidence tells you about the character(s)

For the above question, you might highlight the passage like so:

4. Start your answer using the wording of the question and an overall summary statement, summarising what the character or characters are “like”:

• For example: “The impressions the writer creates of Samuel and Liza are that they are very different characters and do not seem well-suited to each other.”

5. Make at least five separate points about the character (or, in the above example, 3–4 about Samuel and 1–2 about Liza):

• For each point you make, support it with evidence from the text

• For example: “Samuel appears to be a man of integrity and someone you can trust because ‘he was totally honest’. The emphatic adverb ‘totally’ reiterates this.”

Exam tips

• Do not “feature spot”:

  • This means identifying literary techniques a writer may have used without any context of how the technique contributes to the impression being created

  • You will get more marks by concentrating your answer on the focus of the question, summarising your impressions and supporting your points with the evidence from the passage

• Make sure you make a range of points from the whole of the section of text:

  • Do not just limit your answer to the first few lines you read

  • The examiners are looking for a well-chosen “range of evidence”

• If the question asks you about more than one character, only make a maximum of four points for any one character:

  • You must ensure you include all of the characters in your response

• Avoid the temptation to spend too long on this question:

  • While it is better to have too much to say than too little, you do need to bear in mind that the question is only worth 5 marks

• Ensure you make a clear distinction between the “writer”, the “narrator” and the “characters”:

  • Do not confuse them and make sure all of the points you make are directly relevant to the focus of the question

• Avoid using prescriptive answer structures such as PEE:

  • As already mentioned, examiners are looking for a range of perceptive comments supported by well-chosen evidence, not just one point per paragraph you write

• Embed your quotations so that they form part of your sentences:

  • This helps to ensure your quotes are short and relevant

  • Avoid phrases such as, “This is shown by the quote…”

For an exemplar model answer to an example of Component 1 Question 2, please see Question 2: Model Answer.

You can find a more detailed guide to analysing language in our article How to Analyse Language in an English Language Exam.