AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2, question by question

The paper, question by question

Allow about 15 minutes to read both sources. Objectives and marks from the AQA 8700 specification.

What the reading questions want

Question 2 is a summary with inference. It does not want language analysis. It wants you to pick evidence from both sources and say what it suggests about the difference: 'In Source A the children's lives are ruled by work, whereas in Source B leisure is expected, which suggests attitudes to childhood have changed.' Each point should make an inference, not just quote.

Question 3 is a fuller version of the Paper 1 language question, worth 12 marks, so it needs more depth: three or four developed points on words, phrases, devices and sentence forms, with effects explained.

Question 4 is the most demanding reading question. Perspectives means attitudes: what each writer thinks or feels about the topic. You compare those attitudes and how each writer conveys them, through tone, language, structure and evidence. The best answers move between the sources throughout and treat the older text with the same confidence as the modern one.

A model approach to Question 5

1. Underline form, audience and purpose. A speech to Year 11 needs a different voice from a broadsheet article.
2. Decide your view and three main arguments; add one counter-argument you can rebut.
3. Open with a hook that suits the form: a direct address, a striking fact you invent responsibly, or a short anecdote.
4. Develop each argument in its own paragraph with an example and a clear link back to your view.
5. Use rhetoric with control: a rhetorical question, a list of three, direct address. Too much becomes a checklist.
6. End with a call to action or a memorable final line, then proofread.

Worked example: a Question 4 comparison paragraph

Sources (invented for this page): Source A, written in 1870, is a letter from a factory inspector who describes children working twelve-hour days and argues that education would 'raise them from the condition of machines'. Source B, from 2024, is a newspaper column by a parent worried that children now have so many scheduled activities they never play freely.

Model paragraph: 'Both writers are concerned about how children's time is controlled by adults, but their perspectives differ sharply. The inspector sees work itself as the danger, and his formal, moral tone, with phrases like "the condition of machines", presents the children as dehumanised. The columnist, by contrast, worries about too much organised improvement rather than too little; her conversational style and gentle irony suggest she sees the problem as well-meaning rather than cruel. Where the inspector appeals to the reader's conscience to rescue children from labour, the columnist appeals to shared experience, inviting parents to recognise themselves.'

Why it scores: it compares perspectives, not just content; it explains how each is conveyed (tone, word choice, appeal to the reader); and it keeps both sources in every sentence.

Common mistakes

• Q1: shading more or fewer than four statements.
• Q2: analysing language instead of inferring differences, or writing about one source only.
• Q3: writing about the wrong source or lines.
• Q4: comparing what happens instead of the writers' attitudes, or writing about the texts separately.
• Q5: ignoring the form (no greeting in a letter, no headline in an article) or ranting without structure.
• Spending too long on Section A and writing Q5 in 30 minutes.

How one-to-one lessons help with Paper 2

The 19th-century source is where many Gulf students lose confidence: long sentences, unfamiliar vocabulary and a formal voice. A tutor reads older non-fiction with the student regularly, a letter or a newspaper report each week, until the style stops feeling foreign. The student learns to find the writer's attitude first and then the evidence for it.

For Question 4 the tutor teaches a comparison grid (attitude, tone, method, effect) and has the student build a paragraph from it, then marks it against the AQA descriptors. Question 5 is practised in every form the paper can ask for, with short timed openings and full timed pieces, and the tutor builds a checklist of the student's personal accuracy errors.

Self-check

• Q1: exactly four statements, checked against the right lines?
• Q2: points from both sources, each with an inference about the difference?
• Q3: developed language analysis from the right source and lines?
• Q4: perspectives compared throughout, with methods explained?
• Q5: form, audience and purpose clear from the first line, with a planned argument?
• Did I leave five minutes to proofread Q5?