AQA GCSE English Language · Paper 1
Question 2: language
You look closely at one short part of the source and explain how the writer’s language works on the reader. It’s about depth, not how many techniques you can spot: two or three well-explained ideas beat eight labels.
- Marks
- 8
- Minutes
- 10
- Tests
- AO2
What the question looks like
Look in detail at the second and third paragraphs of the source.
How does the writer use language here to describe the causeway and the sea?
You could include the writer’s choice of: words and phrases; language features and techniques; sentence forms.
Practice source: The CausewayRead it
Written by LycoLearn for practice. It’s from the middle of a novel.
The tide table had promised her an hour. Mara checked it again, though she knew the numbers by heart, and then she looked at the causeway.
It was thinner than it had been. That was the only word for it: thinner. The long grey spine of stones that joined the island to the mainland had been wide enough for a cart when she set out, and now it was barely wider than her shoulders. Water slid in from both sides, unhurried, as if it had all the time in the world and knew she did not.
She walked faster. Her boots slapped on the wet stone. Behind her, the lighthouse had shrunk to a white tooth on the horizon; ahead, the village lights blinked on one at a time, small and warm and impossibly far away.
Halfway, the old marker post leaned out of the mist. Somebody had painted a line on it years ago, and beneath the line, in careful white letters, a single word: TURN.
Mara stopped.
Her father had walked this road every day for thirty years. He had laughed at that post. He had told her, at breakfast, with his mouth full, that the sea had never once hurried for anybody.
The water touched her heel. It was so cold that for a moment it felt like nothing at all.
She did not turn.
How to answer it
Underline the focus
Here it’s “the causeway and the sea”. Every paragraph has to be about that, and only the named lines count.
Choose two or three short quotations
Look for the words that do the most work. One to five words is plenty: you can’t zoom in on a whole sentence.
Say what the writer is doing, then quote
Start with an idea, not a technique: “The writer makes the sea seem quietly threatening.” Then put the quotation inside your sentence.
Zoom in on one word
What does that word suggest? What else could it have been? Name the technique here, if there is one, as part of explaining it.
Finish with the reader
What does it make us feel or expect, and why would the writer want that? Avoid “it makes the reader want to read on”: be exact.
How it’s marked
- Level 47 to 8 marks
- You analyse: you pull apart how the writer’s choices work on the reader, using carefully chosen short quotations and exact terms.
- Level 35 to 6 marks
- You explain clearly what the writer’s choices do, with relevant examples and accurate terms.
- Level 23 to 4 marks
- You try to comment on effects, with some suitable examples and some terms.
- Level 11 to 2 marks
- You make simple comments, or just spot a feature or copy a quotation.
In our own words. Your teacher can show you AQA’s full mark scheme.
Sentence forms are a good way to show range, but only if you explain the effect. There’s no bonus for naming more techniques.
A model answer
The answer
Why it scores
The writer presents the sea as quietly menacing rather than violent. The water ‘slid in from both sides, unhurried’, and the verb ‘slid’ suggests something smooth and deliberate, like a predator closing in with no need to rush.
Opens with an idea that answers the question. The quotation is short and built into the sentence, then one word is pulled out.
This is developed through personification: the clause ‘as if it had all the time in the world and knew she did not’ gives the sea a knowing, almost cruel patience. The reader feels that Mara is up against something that can’t be reasoned with, which is more frightening than a storm would be because nothing about it is dramatic.
The technique is named while explaining what it does. “More frightening than a storm” is a real thought about the effect, not a stock phrase.
The causeway itself seems to be disappearing. The writer repeats ‘thinner’ and isolates it after the colon in ‘That was the only word for it: thinner’, so the sentence narrows down to a single word just as the path narrows. The metaphor of a ‘long grey spine’ makes it sound like something fragile and bony, and alive enough to be broken.
Sentence form is linked to meaning: the sentence gets narrower like the path. A second technique is explored, not listed.
What a weaker answer looks like
The writer uses personification when it says ‘unhurried’. This makes the sea seem like a person and makes the reader want to read on.
Why it stays low: It spots a technique and stops. “Seem like a person” only explains what personification is, and “want to read on” could be said of any text. That’s Level 1 to 2.
How to lift it: Ask “what kind of person?” The sea is patient and knowing, which makes it frightening, because Mara can’t hurry it or stop it.
Exam tips
- Write about what a word suggests, and say “perhaps” or “could”: examiners like more than one possible meaning.
- Three paragraphs in 10 minutes is about right. Then stop: Question 4 is worth more than twice as much.
- A wider choice of word classes helps: a verb, an adjective and a noun show more range than three adjectives.
What loses marks
- Writing about the whole source instead of the named lines.
- Quoting two whole sentences, then having nothing to zoom in on.
- Writing about structure: that’s Question 3.
- “This creates a picture in the reader’s mind”, which is true of everything and earns nothing.
Now try it
Questions people ask
- How many paragraphs for AQA Paper 1 Question 2?
- Two or three developed paragraphs is enough in about 10 minutes. Depth matters more than length.
- Do I need to use PEE or PETAL for Question 2?
- Any structure works as long as you have an idea, a short quotation, a close look at the words and the effect on the reader. Rigid “this quote shows” paragraphs tend to stay in the middle levels.