Subject content
AS Level content (Paper 1 and Paper 2)
In Paper 1, candidates are primarily assessed on skills and techniques related to reading.
In Paper 2, candidates are primarily assessed on skills and techniques related to writing.
The examples listed in the content below are suggested rather than prescribed ways in which candidates can
demonstrate knowledge and understanding. These examples are not exhaustive.
Paper 1 Reading
Learners are encouraged to read widely throughout their programme of study, continually deepening their appreciation of an increasingly rich array of reading material. They should develop an intimate knowledge and understanding of the conventions and discourses associated with a diverse range of genres, styles and contexts. Furthermore, learners should continue to cultivate their personal relationship with reading, enabling them to respond reflectively, analytically, discursively and creatively, as is appropriate to the task or context.
Knowledge and understanding
Candidates should be prepared to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
• the conventions of a wide range of written textual forms
Examples:
advertisements, brochures, leaflets, editorials, news stories, articles, reviews, blogs, investigative journalism, letters, podcasts, (auto)biographies, travel writing, diaries, essays, scripted speech, narrative writing, and descriptive writing
• the linguistic elements and literary features of texts
Examples:
parts of speech / word classes, vocabulary, figurative language, phonology, morphology, rhetorical devices, voice, aspect, tense, modality, narrative perspective, word ordering and sentence structure, paragraph and text-level structure, formality/informality of tone, pragmatics
• the significance of audience in both the design and reception of texts
• the ways in which genre, purpose and context contribute to the meaning of texts
Skills and techniques
Candidates should be prepared to demonstrate the following skills and techniques:
• reading a range of unseen texts
• analysing the ways in which linguistic elements come together in a text to create meaning
• recognising different nonfiction textual forms and their conventions
• writing analytically about the effects produced by a range of linguistic elements and literary features
• integrating individual analytical points into broader overall responses to texts
• selecting and interpreting words and phrases from a text with care and precision
• recognising and commenting on the overall style of a text, and exemplifying this through specific instances of language analysis
• using quotations and evidence, with judgement, to produce precise, meaningful commentaries
• using appropriate language to link quotations and evidence with explanatory comments
• integrating quotations and evidence into a cohesive argument
• writing short, directed pieces in response to a text
• writing in the same style as another text
• writing in a different style from a text at the same time as re-using the content/material
• comparing the style and linguistic elements of their own writing with those of a given text.
Paper 2 Writing
Using their reading as inspiration, learners should explore and experiment with a similarly extensive variety of genres, styles and contexts in their writing. In addition to refining their ability to express themselves with precision and clarity of purpose, learners should become increasingly reflective writers, capable of adapting the style of their writing to fit a diverse range of forms, audiences, purposes and contexts.
The knowledge and understanding that candidates are required to demonstrate in Paper 2 is the same as is covered in Paper 1.
Knowledge and understanding
Candidates should be prepared to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
• the conventions of a wide range of written textual forms
Examples:
advertisements, brochures, leaflets, editorials, news stories, articles, reviews, blogs, investigative journalism, letters, podcasts, (auto)biographies, travel writing, diaries, essays, scripted speech, narrative writing, and descriptive writing
• the linguistic elements and literary features of texts
Examples:
parts of speech / word classes, vocabulary, figurative language, phonology, morphology, rhetorical devices, voice, aspect, tense, modality, narrative perspective, word ordering and sentence structure, paragraph- and text level structure, formality/informality of tone, pragmatics
Candidates should be prepared to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
• the significance of audience in both the design and reception of texts
• the ways in which genre, purpose and context contribute to the meaning of texts
Skills and techniques
Candidates should be prepared to demonstrate the following skills and techniques:
• writing for a specified audience and purpose, to fulfil the brief provided
• producing an appropriate structure for longer pieces of writing
Examples:
Freytag’s Pyramid in imaginative writing; dialectical structure in discursive writing; introductory, summary and evaluative sections in review writing
• organising writing to achieve specific effects
Examples:
withholding key information in imaginative writing; juxtaposing counterarguments in discursive writing; evidentiary logic in critical writing
• structuring paragraphs
Examples:
topic sentences, connectives, internal coherence, discourse markers
• using a range of appropriate linguistic elements and literary features
Examples:
imagery in descriptive writing; rhetorical devices in argumentative writing; evaluative lexis in critical writing
• expressing ideas accurately and clearly at both sentence and word level
• reflecting upon and evaluating the qualities of their own writing, including aspects relating to its purpose, form and audience
- for AS Level Students
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