English Language

GCSE

What will you study?

Paper 1 Section A: Unseen 20th or 21st Century Fiction:

• An extract from fiction text of  approximately 650 words
• Students will be required to answer short comprehension-style questions which focus on close reading of the text and longer response questions to show their  understanding of the whole text 

Paper 1 Section B: Creative Writing

• Students will have a choice of two tasks linked to the theme of the text
  in Section A
• One of these tasks will include images as an optional stimulus for students
• Assessed for writing for audience, purpose, tone and style as well as spelling, punctuation and grammar

Paper 2 Section A: Comparison of two unseen texts from the 19th, 20th or 21st Century

• One will be non-fiction; the other literary non-fiction
• Extracts will be up to 1,000 words in total
• Shorter response questions will focus on the close reading of the individual texts; a longer response question will ask students to compare the writers’ use of language

Paper 2 Section B: Transactional Writing

• Choice of two writing tasks linked to the theme of Section A
• Choice of newspaper article, letter etc.
• Assessed for writing for audience, purpose, tone and style as well as spelling, punctuation and grammar

Spoken Language Endorsement

• Presenting, listening to questions and responding and the use of standard English
• Teacher set and assessed
• Separate endorsement reported as a separate line on the certificate. Not included in the GCSE grade

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