AQA GCSE English Language · Paper 1
Question 3: structure
You write about the whole source and how it’s been put together: what we’re shown first, how the focus moves, and where it leaves us. You’re looking at the order of things, not the meaning of single words.
- Marks
- 8
- Minutes
- 10
- Tests
- AO2
Changed from 2026. From 2026 this question names one effect, such as “to create tension”, and tells you where in the novel the text comes from. The bullet points suggest what to write about. Older papers asked how the writer had structured the text “to interest you as a reader”.
What the question looks like
You now need to think about the structure of the source as a whole.
This text is from the middle of a novel.
How has the writer structured the text to create tension?
You could write about: how tension has increased or decreased by the end of the source; how the writer uses structure to create an effect; any other structural features, such as changes in mood, tone or perspective.
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
Use the effect in every paragraph
If it says tension, your whole answer is about how the order of events builds, holds or releases tension.
Note where the text comes from
A middle of a novel can start without any introduction, and end without an answer. That tells you something about why the writer starts and stops where they do.
Track start, middle, end
Three boxes on your plan. What are we focused on at the start? Where does the focus shift, and why there? Where does it leave us?
Name the structural feature
Pivotal point, shift in focus, flashback, a single-line paragraph, a repeated idea, a contrast, slowing the pace, a cliffhanger. Then explain what it does at that point.
Say why it’s placed there
Words like “immediately”, “only then”, “by delaying” and “finally” keep you talking about order, which is what’s being marked.
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.
Marks here are for structure: writing about a word’s connotations earns little. Quote only to show where something happens.
A model answer
The answer
Why it scores
The writer builds tension from the opening sentence by starting with a promise of safety and immediately undermining it. Because this is the middle of the novel, we’re dropped straight into Mara’s crossing with no explanation, and the focus moves at once from the ‘tide table’ to the causeway itself, showing us the gap between what she has been told and what is really happening.
Answers about tension straight away, and uses the fact it’s from the middle of a novel. The focus shift is named and explained.
The focus then widens, in the third paragraph, to the lighthouse behind her and the village ahead. Placing these two points of safety side by side, both of them far away, makes us feel how exposed she is at the exact moment she begins to hurry.
“Then widens” and “at the exact moment” keep the answer on order and timing rather than on the words.
The pivotal point comes when the marker post appears ‘halfway’, the point where going back is as dangerous as going on. The single-sentence paragraph ‘Mara stopped.’ halts the narrative just as she halts, and the writer delays what happens next with a flashback to her father. Tension rises because the reader has to wait, watching the sea come in, while the story looks backward.
Three features linked together: a pivotal point, a one-line paragraph and a flashback. “Has to wait” explains why the delay works.
The ending returns to the water, now at her ‘heel’, and to the word on the post, as ‘She did not turn’ answers ‘TURN’. By ending on this short line with nothing resolved, the writer leaves the tension at its highest point and doesn’t let us see the outcome.
A clear point about the ending, with a link back to earlier in the text. Says how tension has changed by the end, as the bullet point asks.
What a weaker answer looks like
At the start the writer uses a short sentence. Then in the middle it talks about the post. At the end it says ‘She did not turn’ which is a short sentence and makes it tense.
Why it stays low: It tells the story in order and notices short sentences, but doesn’t say why anything is placed where it is. That’s Level 1 to 2.
How to lift it: Add why: “By placing this short sentence last, with nothing resolved, the writer leaves the tension at its highest point.”
Exam tips
- Use “structural” words all the way through: focus, shift, pivotal point, zoom in, flashback, contrast, repetition, pace.
- One good comment on the ending is often what lifts an answer: students run out of time and forget it.
What loses marks
- Analysing language: “the verb ‘slapped’ suggests…” is Question 2’s job.
- Retelling the story with “first”, “then” and “next”, and no effect.
- Writing only about the first half.
- Forgetting the effect named in the question.
Now try it
Questions people ask
- What changed in AQA Paper 1 Question 3 in 2026?
- The question now focuses on one named effect, such as creating tension, and says where the text comes from (for example the middle of a novel). It’s still worth 8 marks and still about structure.
- What counts as a structural feature?
- Anything about how the text is organised: shifts in focus, time or perspective; a pivotal point; flashbacks; contrasts; repeated ideas; paragraph or sentence length used for pace; how it opens and ends.