a QA english-language paper - question 4 is a 16 mark question assessing a o3 compare writer's ideas and perspectives as well as how these are conveyed across two or more texts as the assessment objective suggests this question is a comparison question requiring you to compare how the writers of sources a and B convey their ideas and perspectives on a certain topic let's look at a sample question taken from mr. brusque I to GCSE English language available in paperback on Amazon or ebook at Mr brough com refer to source a and source B the letter from
Edgar Thompson to mr. Bullock compare how the writers convey their difference attitudes to education in your answer you should compare the different attitudes compare the methods used to show these attitudes support your ideas with quotations from the text sixteen marks now let me just point out that although my example here is a comparison of different ideas and perspectives the exam paper could ask you to compare similar ideas and perspectives towards a topic - this is a sixteen mark question so you should spend around twenty minutes on it there are really two distinct parts to this
question number one students have to demonstrate an understanding of ideas and attitudes in both texts and compare those ideas and attitudes and number two students have to compare the methods used to show these attitudes and it's this second bullet point and what is meant by the term methods that many students struggle with given that this question is not assessing al2 the use of language and structure the possible confusion is well which methods can I actually write about well the good news is I've looked through the past exam mark schemes and you can write about pretty
much anything imperative verbs emotive language frivolous tone juxtaposition irony structural viewpoint repetition alliteration humorous imagery metaphor simile symbolism structural opening structural ending narrative perspectives soup relatives hyperbole and that's just the things that have come up in the papers we've had so far so essentially what this question is saying is this if that method is used to present the idea or perspective you're writing about then you can include it in your analysis and in your answer let me point out one simple mistake to avoid this question is explicitly about the attitudes of the writers and you
need to be very careful to make sure you're analyzing the attitudes of the writers and not the viewpoints of characters presented in the text for example in source a our writer is Liam Murphy so you're looking at his attitude to education even though the article is an interview with Andrew brough you've got to pick up the writers attitude not that of someone who appears in the text you can prepare for this by reading nonfiction texts which include more than one point of view and trying to pick out the point of view of the writer and
the methods used to present it so what are the writers attitudes to education in the sources well I think we could definitely pick out the following the relaxed informal attitude to education of Liam Murphy compared to the formal strict approach of Edgar Thompson now identifying those ideas and perspectives across both texts and seeing a contrast between the two writers is really addressing that first bullet point in the question to address the second bullet point we need to look at the methods used to present those attitudes and I think it's quite clear that the use of
humor from Murphy with his joke about being a brain surgeon highlights his informal attitude to education for Thompson we have a very serious tone seen throughout the text in numerous examples such as the line of course we fully believe in creating a rounded child so as you can see not only am I looking for evidence of the writers viewpoints or perspectives I'm looking to identify the methods they use to present those viewpoints one simple way to look at this question is like this step one what are the attitudes step two what methods you use to
present those attitudes and step three can you analyze why those methods are used let's look at a sample paragraph both writers have different attitudes to education Murphy writes in an informal tone that matches his more modern and relaxed attitude to education he states I'm inclined to agree with the bloke which seems almost out of place particularly considering that the form of the text is a public article the use of language is deliberately informal and this enforces the ideas presented in the article that we should be less restrictive with children and let them manage their own
learning however Thompson's attitude is completely different the normal tone seen in such lines as of course we fully believe in creating a rounded child shows that he sees education as purely a formal experience we sense that there is no personal or informal element to his letter because he does not believe that personal feelings are appropriate in an educational sphere I hope you found this video useful if you'd like to see a longer video on this question then you can see one just here click on the screen and you'll be taken to that video please do
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