Paper+2+Reading

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** Paper 2: Reading **  ** __Bring highlighters to help annotate the text__ ** The exam paper refers to not using them on your answer booklet, not the question paper.  ** __They want evidence of planning__ **  Put your collation of information and the paragraphed order on your answer booklet and use it. ** Paper 2 Question 1 - Response to Text ** V – Voice A – Audience R – Register P – Purpose
 * Question 1 – Reading Response – Aim for roughly ½ page per bullet point and the bullet points **__are__** intended to give you a structure.
 * Q1 is very much about ‘re-modeling’ the material in a different form. It is nearly always in-role and will involve you modifying the genre. The acronym Marion Cox (chief examiner) recommends is VARP

 1. Newspaper Report - (informative)  2. Magazine Article - (discursive) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> 3. Formal Report - (chronological) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> 4. Formal Letter - (linkage) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> 5. Speech - (As formal as writing) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> 6. Interview - (Q&A – One-sided) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> 7. Dialogue - (50/50 balance) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">These genres will always be different between Paper 2 and Paper 3.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Picking up on implied meanings is important
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The 7 Genres they ask for are:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">There is usually a persuasive focus in the response.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">They really want to see a structure and shape to the response
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Keep your content closely tied to the extract – it is 15 marks for content; 5 for writing.
 * The passage will be literary and/or contain description of a person or place or both. You will have to be sensitive to atmosphere and show appreciation of the feelings of the characters in your response.
 * This question is rewarded not only for identification of relevant material in the passage but also inference, development of the ideas and use of supporting detail. There are therefore four types of content required to show advanced comprehension for a top mark out of 15 for Reading.
 * For full marks out of 5 for Writing you need to demonstrate structure, sequence, and ‘a wide range of original and appropriate language’.
 * It will help you enormously to highlight the material you are going to use in the text, and then write a quick plan in order to organise it into a logical structure before you start writing your response. This will enable you to avoid repetition and to make sure you are fully answering the question.
 * Use everything which is relevant, not just some of the material. On the other hand, there may be some parts which you should ignore because they are not covered by the question.
 * Do not drift away from the text; everything you write must be ‘tethered’ to the passage i.e. have a direct connection with it and be supported by references to it.
 * Before you start writing, decide how formal the task is and adopt an appropriate tone. No question in an exam assessing your ability to use educated English will expect you to use slang or jargon or non-sentences, so expect to have to write in a reasonably formal style whoever your audience is and whatever the task. Even a letter to a relative will be someone distant or older, such as an uncle whom you haven’t met recently, and a report to your fellow students will be official or for publication in the school magazine. It is essential to remember who your audience is and to address them directly as ‘you’.
 * Though you can use short quotations from the passage within your response, you should not copy big chunks of text and you should use your own words when not actually giving details.
 * If the question has several parts you can either integrate the two, e.g. advantages and disadvantages, or deal with them separately. You can decide on your own structure for your answer, but what matters is that there should be a structure of some kind, and one which the reader can discern.
 * It is time-wasting and does not achieve anything to try to design your answer in the layout which you think might be appropriate in real life, e.g. dividing a newspaper report into columns and adding drawings and extraneous advertising material. This cannot be rewarded and can distract you from the real task of providing appropriate and accurate content for your response.
 * What is important is that your answer should be divided into paragraphs, as all continuous prose should be.
 * If you are given bullet points to remind you what should be included, use them to check you have covered what is required, and they can also help you to structure your answer. The material from the passage should be put into the appropriate section and not repeated.
 * Do not add extra sections, for instance where you are given which questions to ask in an interview, stick to those questions only. It makes the response too fragmented or less focused if you add more

** Paper 2 Question 2 - Analysis of Language **


 * The second half of this question will be more demanding than the first. You need to give equal attention to each part and provide at least half a page for each.
 * You should aim for 5 relevant quotations in each part of the question. Give the quotation, in quotation marks, explain its meaning, and then explain its effect on the passage. You cannot get higher than 3 marks if you only identify quotations, or higher than 6 marks if you discuss only meanings.
 * For 10 out of 10 you should give a full range of explained effects and link them into an overview which shows understanding of what the writer was trying to achieve in the passage as a whole.
 * Do not select a quotation which you do not understand as you will not be able to explain either its meaning or its effect.
 * When explaining a quotation do not repeat the words used in it. Do not repeat quotations; you cannot get credit more than once.
 * Generalised and ‘gushing’ comments such as ‘The writer makes me feel as though I am there’ and ‘The passage is cleverly written’ gain no marks and give the impression that you are failing to find things to say.
 * There is no need to use technical terms, and they are no substitute for explaining an effect in your own words; if you do use technical terms, such as onomatopoeia, make sure they are actually correctly used.
 * Select brief quotations only, of between one and four words. Do not lift whole chunks of text, or clump quotations together, or list them. Each one must be focused on specific use of language and explained separately.
 * Introduce your choices of language with phrases such as ‘gives the impression of’, ‘suggests that’, ‘makes me think that.’ Do not say over and over again ‘This has the effect that...’
 * Once you have arrived at an overview, do not contradict yourself, e.g. do not say that one quotation makes a character seem physically old and another one makes her seem physically young. This is not likely therefore you need to look at the passage again. However, there are no ‘right answers’ to this (or any other) part of the exam and you can score highly by engaging with the text and thinking about the way language is being used, whether or not your comments are what the examiner is expecting.
 * Things to look for are: use of the five senses; use of contrast; use of colour; use of noise; links between subject and environment; surprising, or unusual words; words which create sound effects; unusual or dramatic punctuation; imagery (similes and metaphors)

** Paper 2 Question 3 - Summary (easiest marks ever!) **
 * Though this question is called Summary it is not a summary in the sense of being a general description of a situation but instead it is a focused list of the specific ideas or details contained in the passage, after anything irrelevant to the two questions has been removed.
 * Find all the points you can for each part of the question; do not stop when you get to 15 as these may not be the same ones the examiner has on their list. The only way to be sure of getting all 15 Reading marks is to use everything relevant.
 * To get all 5 Writing marks you need to show evidence of clear and concise summary style throughout, precise focus and the use of your own words.
 * Do not attempt to synthesise the two passages as this is not required, is not rewarded; it makes your task more difficult to attempt to do so as they may not be directly comparable. Treat the passages separately and focus on the exact wording of the question.
 * Do not give your summary in the wrong form as this is penalised i.e. do not offer bullet points or a list, or write in the first person, or comment on the content of the passages, or present a narrative, or use quotation.
 * The lengths of the summaries of each passage should be roughly equal.
 * Though you must use your own words whenever possible, you do not have to find synonyms for technical objects e.g. solar heaters.
 * Both halves of the question are equally important and should be done in the same way and given the same length of about half a page.
 * Summaries much longer than half a page are no longer summaries and will be penalised in the Writing mark.
 * To be concise enough for summary style and to get in all the points you should use complex sentences containing two or three points in each.
 * Do not repeat points, or express them vaguely; (these will be given an R (repetition) or PNM (point not made) respectively in the margin, and discounted.
 * There is no need to introduce or conclude a summary, and doing so wastes time andwords. Start by using the wording of part of the question e.g. ‘The features of the desert were...’
 * Passage B on Paper 2 always has 23 or 24 points that you could make. In your summary you only make 15. There is lots there to find.