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 Acknowledgements
Written and edited by Andrew McCallum
Cover: Rebecca Scambler
© English and Media Centre, 2017

With thanks to the following publishers for permission to reproduce copyright material:
Anna Kessel, Eat, Sweat, Play: How Sport Can Change Our Lives with kind permission of Pan
Macmillan, © Anna Kessel, 2016; Random House UK for the extract from The Narrow Road to the
Deep North by Richard Flanagan published by Vintage © Richard Flanagan (2015); Climbing Days
by Dan Richards, Faber and Faber, © Dan Richards, 2016.

This downloadable publication is copyright © English and Media Centre. Permission is granted only to reproduce the
materials for personal and educational use within the purchasing school or college (including its Virtual Learning
Environments and intranet). Redistribution by any means, including electronic, will constitute an infringement of
copyright.

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 Contents
−− Introduction 4

Sample papers for OCR English Language GCSE (9-1) 5

−− Paper 1: Communicating Information and Ideas 5
−− Texts 5
−− Section A: Reading Information and Ideas 9
−− Section B: Writing for Audience, Impact and Purpose 10

Sample papers for OCR English Language GCSE (9-1) 11

−− Paper 2: Exploring Effects and Impact 11
−− Texts 11
−− Section A: Reading Meaning and Effects 15
−− Section B: Writing Imaginatively and Creatively 17

Activities to Boost Reading for OCR GCSE English Language, Papers 1 and 2 18
−− Recognising What Each Paper Requires 19
−− What Should I Write About Language? 20
−− Writing About Sentences 21
−− Writing About a Single Sentence 22
−− Writing About Structure 23
−− Writing About Word Choice 24
−− Critically Evaluating a Text 25
−− Working Out What Is Important 26
−− Comparing Texts: Areas to Consider 28
−− Comparing Texts: Similarities and Differences 29

Activities to Boost Writing for OCR GCSE English Language, Papers 1 and 2 30
−− Recognising What Each Paper Requires 31
−− Thinking About Paper 1 – Writing for Audience, Impact and Purpose 31
−− Writing for Audience, Impact and Purpose: Just a Minute Cards 32
−− Thinking About Paper 2 – Writing Imaginatively and Creatively 33
−− Imaginative and Creative Writing Cards: Just a Minute Cards 34
−− Planning for Paper 1 – Writing for Audience, Impact and Purpose 35

Sample Responses for Paper 1 Reading and Writing 38

−− Example Answers: Paper 1, Section A, Reading Information and Ideas 38
−− Example Responses: Paper 1 Section B, Writing for Audience, Impact and Purpose 41

Sample Responses for Paper 2 Reading and Writing 43

−− Example Answers: Paper 2, Section A, Reading Meaning and Effects 43
−− Example Responses: Paper 2 Section B, Writing Imaginatively and Creatively 47
−− Assessment Grid for Written Responses 49

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 Introduction
The GCSE English Language examination is unusual in that it does not require any revision of
content. Consequently, these ‘revision’ materials are designed to boost students’ abilities in
tackling various aspects of the reading and writing sections of both papers.
It is worth bearing in mind the following when using these materials:
−− Teachers can take students through the activities sequentially, or in any order they wish.
They can also choose to omit certain activities and add in different ones of their own.
−− Teachers can use the materials in conjunction with the sample texts and examination
papers included, or with alternative texts of their own choice.
−− The materials are designed to remind students about key aspects of their exams, but
also to help them to engage with those aspects in ways that will improve their general
understanding and confidence.
−− The materials can be used in classrooms, or photocopied for students to use at home as
part of their general revision.
−− The materials can be shared across a school or college, with teachers and students, but
cannot be disseminated more widely.
−− The materials have been designed using sample materials freely available on the OCR
website as models. They are not in any way endorsed by OCR and teachers should use
them alongside any guidance available from the official awarding body.

Reading (50%) Read and understand a range of texts to:

AO1 Identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas

Select and synthesise evidence from different texts

AO2 Explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language and structure to
achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to
support their views

AO3 Compare writers’ ideas and perspectives, as well as how these are conveyed,
across two or more texts

AO4 Evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual references

Writing (50%)

AO5 Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting

tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences

Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to

support coherence and cohesion of texts

AO6 Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for
clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation. (This
requirement must constitute 20% of the marks for each specification as a
whole.)

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 SAMPLE PAPERS FOR OCR ENGLISH
LANGUAGE GCSE (9-1)
Paper 1: Communicating Information and Ideas
Time: 2 hours
[NB. These materials have been devised following the model offered by the awarding body in their
sample materials. They have not been approved by the awarding body and teachers should use them
in conjunction with their own understanding of the AB’s assessment criteria.]

Text 1
Boating and Sculling1, by Miss A.D. McKenzie (1892)
Perhaps of all the outdoor amusements, rowing is one of the healthiest for
ladies, besides being one of the most enjoyable. Just at first, of course, learning
to row is rather tiring, but very soon one will find how far one can go without
feeling any fatigue. For a girl who is learning, the great thing is to have someone
who can row well to tell her all about it; and then, if she will only row bow2 and 5
keep her eyes on stroke’s3 back, without looking round every minute to see what
her oar is doing – she will find she will soon get on. The great secret, of course, in
rowing is not to dip the oar too deeply in the water, but merely to cover the blade,
and then pull it well towards one. In going forward one ought to feather one’s oar
an inch above the water, and get well forward before raking another stroke. 10
Sculling is really quite as easy, if not easier, than rowing; and though at the
start a beginner finds the sculls are apt to get rather unmanageable, still, after a
little practice, she will much prefer it. Rowing is more one-sided than sculling,
and the latter is naturally the better exercise, as both arms have a freer motion
than in rowing. But, above all things, one should remember that the stretcher4 15
is made for use, not ornament, and that one cannot use it too much. So many
ladies make the great mistake of merely rowing with their arms, when, if they
only knew it, they could save themselves half the labour by bending forward, and
bearing on the stretcher, in pulling each stroke.
It is essential for every English girl to learn to row, and no one can say 20
anything against a lady rowing – though, of course, there are ‘some folks’ who
would run down anything that a lady does in the way of athletic exercises,
more for the sake of argument than anything else. Twenty years ago it was very
different: it was not considered comme il faut⁵ for a lady to row and she never
dreamt of doing so. Now, however, that everything is changed, it is clearly to be 25
seen that it is the very best thing for her, and affords an amusement that having
once gone in for, she would be very sorry to give up.
Living nearly all the summer by the river gives one many opportunities
of observing the river world, and it is often remarked that ladies know as
much about managing a boat as men. On the Thames, between Cookham and 30
Wargrave, ladies have for some time indulged in a great deal of rowing. At the
former place a few years ago, a ladies’ eight⁶ was started, and the crew were all
well trained, and kept good time, etc. At the Wargrave Town Regatta ladies have
this last year or two come very much to the fore. Double-sculling and punting7
races have been competed for by them with much success. A gondola this year at 35

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 Henley Regatta, pioneered by a lady, went along well and kept clear of the other
boats. A ladies’ eight was also to be seen paddling up and down, and the rowers
here again seemed proficient in the art. Last year there appeared at Marlow
Regatta an eight which had come about seven miles down the river, and had been
successfully steered through crowded locks; and the rowers looked none the 40
worse for the long pull.
Ladies who are not adept on the water should not attempt to go out alone
in boats and punts. This year at ‘Henley’ three most beautifully ‘gowned’ ladies
appeared in a punt, and, as everyone knows, a punt is, for an amateur, a by no
means easy thing to manage. The three fair occupants found themselves, after 45
they had tried for some time unsuccessfully to move along, struggling in the
water, with the punt gaily floating away! They had had quite enough of the river
by the time they were helped and pulled onto terra-firma; and it was thought then
by a good many who saw their deplorable condition that this would be a lesson to
them for the future. But, alas! how perverse human nature is. The following day 50
the same thoughtless three were again in their punt, running into the other boats
with the sweetest unconcern, and evidently enjoying themselves very much.

1 Sculling: pulling a boat with two oars,one in each hand (in rowing, one oar is held in both hands).
2  Bow: rower at front of boat.
3  Stroke: rower at back of boat (the rowers sit facing backwards, which is why the person at the front can see the person at the back).
4  Stretcher: device inside a boat that feet are attached to; it slides back and forth with the action of rowing.
5  Comme il faut: French phrase, correct in behaviour.
6  Eight: the number of rowers in a boat.
7  Punting: propelling a flat-bottomed boat using a long stick, or punt.

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 Text 2
From Eat, Sweat, Play, by Anna Kessel (2016)
This extract comes at the end Anna Kessel’s book exploring the role that sport and exercise
play in women’s lives.
So how do we create change in our own lives? I’m not talking diets, boot
camps, or even joining a sports club. I’m talking about sustainable, incremental
change. Change that is do-able, and change that makes us feel good – not
overwhelmed with extra pressures to adopt a new lifestyle.
5
Sometimes it’s just about making the tiniest adjustments in your brain, being
open to new things. Like when my husband asked if I wanted a game of pool and,
instead of running in the opposite direction as I usually would, terrified of being
awful, I said yes. And so we played – and we laughed. We were both terrible, and
my hands shook and wobbled inelegantly as the cue rested on my fingers, and I
chipped the white up in the air, and missed the easiest of shots. ‘We must be the 10
worst sports journalist pool players ever,’ I joked.
And then, something happened. Because I was having fun, I began to relax.
The twenty years since I last played pool as a teenager floated away, and in my
hands the cue took on a renewed purpose – and I potted a ball. I felt amazing!
15
I punched the air! ‘Are you trying to hustle me?’ my husband asked, grinning.
It was game on. Off we went, then, potting balls, missing balls, laughing and
joking and enjoying ourselves together. Negotiating the edges of the green baize
with my six-month pregnancy bump, I immediately thought of ten-times world
champion snooker player Reanne Evans, an inspirational female figure battling
for equality in her sport – who once won a world title while seven and a half 20
months pregnant. How triumphant must she have felt that day? ‘I did it for both
of us,’ she told me in 2015, ‘me and my daughter. It was two against one …’ In the
end my husband’s skills won over, and he potted the black while I still had three
balls on the table. But it didn’t matter. We’d been competitive together. And it
made us smile.
Writing this book helped the changes sink into my own brain. When my 25
daughter asked me to run down the street with her, I stopped automatically
saying, ‘I can’t because Mummy’s got a baby in her tummy.’ Instead I started
saying, ‘OK … race you!’ Out of breath, hips sore, shopping bags bumping by
my side, I lollopped along with her. We both laughed our heads off, and the baby
was fine. Or we’d be in the park, Ella pedaling furiously on her bike with pink 30
stabilizers, me lightly jogging alongside her in my winter boots, or chasing after
her, racing in the wintry rain with my husband, the three of us grinning with
delight. And each and every time I couldn’t help but marvel how physical activity
brings such an unadulterated joy, unmatched by anything else.
Over the Christmas holidays I grew more and more aware of each time our 35
family interacted with sport, as for example, my husband sat watching Tottenham
on the TV, while I, an Arsenal fan, quietly seethed in the background, and Ella
delighted in this game of divided loyalties between her mum and dad. She would
cosy up next to my husband and cheer her head off – occasionally for Arsenal, just
to see the look on his face – and ask lots of questions. She wanted to understand 40
what was happening, and she was most fascinated that adults had to follow rules,
enforced by a referee handing out punishments to those who transgressed. ‘I want
to be a referee, Daddy,’ she told my husband, ‘or a goalkeeper’.

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 Conscious of how much men’s sport is on TV, and of the lack of female role
models for my daughter to follow, I took her down to our local athletics track 45
where elite coach Christine Bowmaker, a rare example in her sport of a female
coach, had invited us to watch her training sessions. Determined to make sure
that my daughter has a better relationship with sport and her own body than I
ever did, I was thrilled – and awestruck – as together we watched women and
girls thundering around the bends of the indoor track, leaping onto boxes and 50
into sandpits, and powering through circuits in the weights room.
[Source: © Anna Kessel, Eat, Sweat, Play: How Sport Can Change Our Lives, Pan Macmillan]

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 Section A
Reading Information and Ideas
Answer all questions in section A.
You are advised to spend one hour on this section.

Question 1 is about Text 1, Boating and Sculling, by Miss A. D. McKenzie

1.
a.
❚❚ Look again at lines 1-10. Find two quotations which describe physical actions that make for
successful rowing.
[2 marks, AO1]
b.
❚❚ Explain Miss McKenzie’s attitude to ‘sculling’ compared to ‘rowing’ in lines 11-19.
[2 marks, AO1]

Question 2 is about Text 1 Boating and Sculling, and Text 2, Eat, Sweat, Play.
2.
Miss A.D. McKenzie and Anna Kessel both write about women taking part in sport and physical
exercise.

❚❚ What other similarities do Miss A.D. McKenzie and Anna Kessel share in these texts? Draw
on evidence from both texts to support your answer.
[6 marks, AO1]

Question 3 is about Text 2, Eat, Sweat, Play, by Anna Kessel.

3.

❚❚ Explore how Kessel uses language and structure in this extract to present her argument
about sport and exercise.
[12 marks, AO2]

Question 4 is about Text 1, Boating and Sculling, and Text 2, Eat, Sweat, Play.
4.
‘These texts are powerful because they show a positive attitude towards taking part in sporting
activity and exercise.’

❚❚ How far do you agree with this statement?

In your answer you should:
−− discuss what you learn about what the writers see as the positive value of taking part in
sporting activity and exercise
−− explain the impact of their ideas and beliefs on you as a reader
−− compare the ways the ideas and beliefs about the positive value of taking part in sport
and exercise are presented.
Support your response with quotations from both texts.
[18 marks, AO3: 6; AO4: 12]

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 Section B
Writing for Audience, Impact and Purpose
Choose one of the following writing tasks.
You are advised to spend one hour on this section.

In this section you will be assessed on the quality of your extended response; these questions
are marked with an asterisk (*). You are advised to plan and check your work carefully.

EITHER

5.
Write a report for your school’s headteacher and senior management team in which you
support their proposal to put a wider range of sports on the school curriculum.

In your report you should:

−− explain why sport has an important role to play in the school curriculum
−− give some examples to support the proposal
−− convince your readers that sport has an important role to play in the school curriculum.
[40 marks]*

OR

6.
Write an article for a teenage magazine which gives advice to young people about how they can
stay fit and healthy. You are not required to include any visual or presentational features.

In your article you should:

−− identify different aspects of being fit and healthy that young people might focus on
−− suggest why staying fit and healthy is important
−− explain some of the ways in which young people can stay fit and healthy.
[40 marks]*

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 SAMPLE PAPERS FOR OCR ENGLISH
LANGUAGE GCSE (9-1)
Paper 2: Exploring Effects and Impact
Time: 2 hours
[NB. These materials have been devised following the model offered by the awarding body in their
sample materials. They have not been approved by the awarding body and teachers should use them
in conjunction with their own understanding of the AB’s assessment criteria.]

Text 1
From The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan
This passage is from a novel set in Tasmania, Australia. In this part of the story, set in the late
1940s, Dorrigo Evans and his family, trapped in a car, escape from a ferocious forest fire.
A fireball, the size of a trolley bus and as blue as gas flame, appeared as if
by magic on the road and rolled towards them. As the Ford Mercury swerved
around it and straightened back up, Dorrigo found he had no choice but to ignore
the burning debris that appeared out of the smoke and hurtled at them – sticks,
branches, palings – sometimes hitting and bouncing off the car. He grunted as he 5
worked the column shift up and down, spinning the big steering wheel hard left
and right, white-walled tyres squealing on bubbling black bitumen, the noise only
occasionally audible in the cacophony of flame roar and wind shriek, the weird
machine gun-like cracking of branches above exploding.
They came over a rise to see a huge burning tree falling across the road a 10
hundred yards or so in front of them. Flames flared up high along the tree trunk
as it bounced on landing, its burning crown settling in a neat front yard to create
an instant bonfire that merged into a burning house. Wedging his knee into the
door, Dorrigo pushed with all his strength on the brake pedal. The Ford Mercury
went into a four-wheel slide, spinning sideways and skidding straight towards the 15
tree, slewing to a halt only yards from the flaring tree trunk.
No one spoke.
Hands wet with sweat on the wheel, panting heavily, Dorrigo Evans weighed
their options. They were all bad. The road out in either direction was now
completely cut off – by the burning tree in front of them and the fire front behind 20
them. He wiped his hands in turn on his shirt and trousers. They were trapped.
He turned to his children in the back seat. He felt sick. They were holding each
other, eyes white and large in their sooty faces.
Hold on, he said.
He slammed the car into reverse, backed up towards the fire front a short 25
distance, then took off. He had enough speed up to smash down the picket fence
in the garden where the burning tree crown had landed. They were heading
straight into the bonfire. Yelling to the others to get down, he double-declutched
the engine into first, let the clutch out and flattened the accelerator.
The V81 rose in a roar, tappets clattering, and they crashed into the burning 30

1 V8 – reference to shape and size of the car’s engine

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 bush at the point closest to the house, where the flames were largest but, Dorrigo
had gambled, the branches would be smallest. For a moment all was fire and
noise. The engine screamed with wild intent, a heat of such ferocious intensity
seemed to penetrate the glass and steel that to breathe hurt, everything was a
dull red; there was the crack of flame, of branches snapping, metal scratching 35
and groaning as panels distorted and bent, of wheels losing and gaining traction.
The driver’s side rear window smashed. Sparks, embers and a few burning sticks
flew into the car, Ella and the children began screaming as the children cowed
on the far side of the rear bench seat. For a terrifying second or two the car
slowed almost to a halt when something caught underneath its chassis. And then, 40
as quickly, the bonfire was somehow behind them, and they were accelerating
towards another decrepit paling fence that Dorrigo also smashed through in
a momentary blizzard of breaking timber. The windscreen transformed into a
white cloud of fragments, he yelled at Ella to kick it out, and when it fell away they
found themselves back on the road, past the fallen tree, heading towards Hobart. 45
He was steering with one hand, while leaning over grabbing burning sticks from
the back seat with his other – his surgeon’s hands he had always tried so hard to
protect – and tossing them out the smashed window.
As the 1948 Ford Mercury, green paint blackened and blistering, screeched
and slithered its way back down that burning mountain, Ella looked across at 50
Dorrigo, the fingers of his left hand already swelling into blisters the size of small
balloons, so badly burnt he would later need skin grafts. Such a mystery of a man,
she thought, such a mystery.
[Source: ©Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Vintage]

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 Text 2
From Climbing Days, by Dan Richards
This passage is from a memoir about climbing. Two climbers, Dan, the narrator, and Tim,
meet a group from Catalan in Northern Spain, who had overtaken them earlier in the day, on
their way to the top of a mountain in the Swiss Alps.
We knew we would still have to get back down once up and we were just
talking about how much further it might be when we heard voices ahead and
there, on a crest, were the Catalan men returning over a precipitous pitch beneath
the steeple of the Grand Gendarme – the icy crux below the summit climb – and 5
making a hash of it.
One was already over, watching the other two. The second man was picking
his way back, an axe in each hand, trailing a rope which he dropped halfway
across so one end of it fell down the mountain, useless. The last man, the one
we’d spoken to the night before, waited his turn, now ropeless, exposed and 10
unprotected if he fell.
Earlier in the day when we’d first seen the party’s tracks, Tim had told me
they were climbing as individuals, without a rope, each to his own. With no
backstop. They’d moved faster and further on the mountain than us because of
15
this but if we’d thought that was due to their confidence and skill – that they were
good enough to do without – this scene disabused us of that. They’d clearly no
idea how to use a rope. The two on our side of the crux now stood silent, watching
their third flail. They offered no help. No words. It was compelling and surreal,
but most of all sad – like a rite of passage or a hazing1: the others had done it,
now it was his turn. So he came, sidestepping iffily, axes chipping, toes kicking 20
little notches for purchase in the couloir2 wall; fresh air below his boots – the sort
of sheer drop pictures seldom convey. Breathing hard he edged and inched, a
terminal star-jump.
Turning away, cold from standing, I met the eye of one of the silent two. Had
they made it alright to the top? I asked, pointing. He understood. No. They were
heading back, it was still a long way. Too far, he said. Too far. 25
I exchanged a look with Tim. We’d walked into something, a frostiness
nothing to do with the weather; and then, behind us, bang on cue, the third
Catalonian fell.
Or rather he slid; dropped ten metres until his axes bit into hard snow and he 30
stopped and, stopped, stayed put; nose an inch from the wall.
Tim decided the best thing to do was get over and drop him a line. The silent
two were doing nothing, even now, and we were keen to keep moving and help
so, single axe in my right hand, I began to cross to the man. I dug the axe into
the hard snow and stamped my right outstep crampon spikes3 in, then I stepped
on and buried my instep spikes likewise, axe out, hack hack, axe in, repeat. I was
higher than the Catalonian and once above him found a good rock bollard to
secure a sling. This I did. Then I dropped him a belay4. He didn’t move. I called
out, still watched over by his dour friends. The lowered rope was beside him. It
bumped his hat. Nothing.

1 A hazing: an initiation ceremony that involves being humiliated

2 Couloir: a steep, narrow gully
3 Crampon spikes: spikes fitted to boots to stop slipping on ice.
4 Belay: a rope fixed to a secure point, like a rock.

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 I balanced above him, shivering now. There was no need for this – we were
all getting cold. The day had been overcast throughout and dusk wasn’t far away.
I shouted, I told him to take the damn rope, and he did – sullenly, slowly. ‘Okay,
okay,’ he said into the snow, as if doing me a massive favour.
[Source: ©Dan Richards, Climbing Days, Faber and Faber]

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 Section A
Reading Meaning and Effects
Answer all the questions in Section A

You are advised to spend one hour on this section.

Question 1 is about Text 1, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan
1.
Look again at lines 1 to 9.
a. Identify one phrase from these lines that shows the strength of the fire that Dorrigo is
trying to escape.
[1 mark, AO1]
b. What does this show about his situation?
[1 mark, AO1]
c. The fire is extremely strong.

Give two more examples of the strength of the fire.

[2 marks, AO1]

Question 2 is about Text 1, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan
2.
Look again at lines 10-24.
How does Richard Flanagan use language and structure to make his description of the fire
frightening?
You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.
[6 marks, AO2]

Question 3 is about Text 2, Climbing Days, by Dan Richards

3.
Look again at lines 1-28.
Explore how the writer presents Dan and Tim’s attitude towards the climbers from Catalan.
Support your ideas by referring to the language and structure of this section, using relevant
subject terminology.
[12 marks, AO2]

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 Question 4 is about Text 1, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, and Text 2, Climbing Days.
4.
‘In these texts the act of helping others is presented as something that people do naturally
without thinking.’
How far do you agree with this statement?
In your answer you should:
−− discuss your impressions of the characters involved in helping others
−− explain what you find interesting about the situations in both texts
−− compare the ways the writers present the act of helping others.
[18 marks, AO3: 6; AO4: 12]

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 Section B
Writing
Choose one of the following writing tasks.
You are advised to spend one hour on this section.

In this section you will be assessed on the quality of your extended response; these questions
are marked with an asterisk (*). You are advised to plan and check your work carefully.

EITHER

5.
Imagine you are writing an account of a rescue you were involved with, as part of your memoir.
Describe your experiences of this rescue.
You could write about:
−− the other people involved in the rescue
−− the ways in which you behaved
−− the way you feel about these events now.
[40 marks]*

OR

6.
The Rescue
Use this as a title for a story, or the beginning of a story or piece of personal writing.
In your writing you should:
−− choose a clear viewpoint
−− describe the setting
−− explore what having to rescue someone means
[40 marks]*

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 ACTIVITIES TO BOOST READING
for OCR GCSE English Language, Papers 1 and 2
−− Recognising what each paper requires
−− Working out what to write about language
−− Writing about sentences
−− Writing about a single sentence
−− Writing about structure
−− Writing about word choice
−− Critically evaluating a text
−− Comparing texts: areas to consider
−− Comparing texts: similarities and differences
−− Working out what is important

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 Recognising What Each Paper Requires
Before starting to revise different aspects of the GCSE English Language papers, it is worth
reminding yourself about what you will be examined on.

❚❚ In a pair, read the Assessment Objectives against which the papers are designed.

❚❚ Highlight any key words, such as ‘structure’.

❚❚ Discuss what each key word means in relation to English study and write down as concise a
definition for each one as you can.

❚❚ Hold a whole class discussion about the terms in which your teacher will clarify exactly
what each one means.

AO1 Identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas.

Select and synthesise evidence from different texts.

AO2 Explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language and
structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant
subject terminology to support their views.

AO3 Compare writers’ ideas and perspectives, as well as how these are
conveyed, across two or more texts.

AO4 Evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual
references.

AO5 Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and

adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes
and audiences.

Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical

features to support coherence and cohesion of texts.

AO6 Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence

structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling
and punctuation.

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 What Should I Write About Language?
There is so much that you can potentially say about the language of a piece of writing – but you
can only say so much in timed conditions. So it is crucial that you identify and comment on what
is important.
These questions and instructions all relate to ways of exploring the language of a text.

❚❚ Place them in terms of what you think is their order of usefulness for looking at the
language in a piece of writing.

❚❚ When you have an order, see how well the first three of four in your order apply to a specific
text. Re-arrange the order if you think this will help you to explore your particular text more
effectively.

• Find 3 words that really stand out in your text and explain why.

• Find 2 or 3 different clusters of words and explain their signficance.

• Look for examples of colloquial language and non-standard forms in the text.
Explain their effect.

• Find examples of figurative language (e.g. metaphors, similes, allusions, hyperbole,

litotes, symbolism, personification). Say something significant about what you have
found.

• How sophisticated is the vocabulary? Is it the same all the way through?

• Are there any interesting sound effects in this text? E.g. alliteration, assonance,
consonance, onomatopoeia, interjection

• Are there any patterns in this text? E.g repetition, pairing and opposition
juxtaposition, tricolon

• Which word classes are doing most work in this text? What exactly are they doing?

• What is the tone of voice used in this text? Is it the same all the way through?

• What is the level of formality in the text? Is it the same all the way through?

• Who is speaking in this text? What is interesting about their voice?

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 Writing About Sentences
Writing about sentences can be very difficult. Are you supposed to write about what types you
can find (simple, compound, complex), how they are made up (main clauses, subordination,
adverbials etc.), how they all link together, or their effect? The answer lies in a combination of
the above – but with the ultimate stress on their effect.
These cards have been designed to help you think about some of the technical aspects of
sentences and their effect at the same time.

❚❚ See which ones apply to an extract you are looking at.

❚❚ Identify two or three that are particularly important for your extract.

Go sentences! Questions, questions

It doesn’t do to get too carried away Feeling in an interrogatory mood? Questions
when writing, but every so often a writer are sentences too, you know, and they can
feels the need to express themselves in really help a writer to direct a reader in a
an exclamatory mood. Some say that particular way. Rhetorical questions are
the popularity of social media has led to especially effective in this respect.
this being used too much. Maybe. Maybe
not!

The fragment, or minor sentence The show off

This is a bold sentence indeed: a sentence Sometimes you just have to sit back and
that is not really a sentence because it lacks admire a sentence, particularly a really
all of the required parts. It can be employed long one – almost certainly complex, quite
to great effect, though, because if a writer possibly multi-clause – that shows perfect
is in control, then meaning is implied, control, what with its fancy punctuation,
regardless of whether a sentence is complete its well-handled subordinate clauses, its
or not. No doubt! potential use of parenthesis, and its adept
use of referents.

Punctuated to perfection The holding sentence

Sometimes it is not necessarily the words Sometimes the beauty of a sentence lies in
in a sentence that impress, but those little it hardly being noticed. It is simply there, a
dots and dashes that help the words to make bridge between other sentences. Likely to be
sense: punctuation, the tricky stuff without declarative in mood, this sentence doesn’t
which meaning would start to crumble. do much, but a piece of writing would fail
without it.

The back to front Short and to the point

Back to front you can make your sentences What this sentence lacks in length it makes
if you want to, drawing perhaps on fronted up for in impact. Most likely, technically,
adverbials. Stylewise, this doesn’t always to be a simple sentence, this sentences is
work, but it’s certainly a good option if you positioned carefully to really drive home a
want to highlight a particular point. point.

Sentence patterns Make up your own sentence card

A writer can be an artist, painting patterns
with sentence lengths and shapes. A
long, complex one here, packed with
subordination, a short simple one there, to
drive home a point. Or maybe a series similar
in type and length to create a particular
rhythm. Spotting such patterns can be
useful when thinking about structure: how
do sentences shift as a piece of writing
develops?

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 Writing About a Single Sentence
Sometimes you might focus on writing about the effect of a single sentence.
Here’s a particularly evocative sentence from The Narrow Road to the Deep North. (You will need
to have read the whole of the extract to understand its context.)

As the Ford Mercury swerved around it and straightened back up,

Dorrigo found he had no choice but to ignore the burning debris that
appeared out of the smoke and hurtled at them – sticks, branches, palings
– sometimes hitting and bouncing off the car.

❚❚ Below are some notes about the sentence, some technical, some about its effect. Use the
notes to write an answer to the question:
How does the writer convey a sense of danger in this sentence?
You do not have to use all of the notes if you think some of them are not particularly useful to
your answer.

❚❚ Next, find another sentence from the same extract that also conveys a sense of danger and
write a response to the same question for that sentence.

• It is long and slithery, just like the path the car takes through the
burning debris.

• Placing the car at the start of the sentence in an extended

adverbial clause, gives the sense that the subject (Dorrigo) is not
fully in control.

• Placing the objects that are hurtling at the car in parenthesis

(‘ – sticks, branches, palings - ’) increases the impression that
Dorrigo has no control over what is going on – they are outside
the car, just as they are outside the main part of the sentence.

• It is a complex sentence.

• It uses lots of subordination.

• The car is foregrounded in the sentence.

• The sentence uses powerful verbs to do with force and

movement.

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 Writing About Structure
Structure refers to the way a piece of writing is built and held together.

❚❚ Use this grid to identify how a particular piece of writing, or an extract from a piece of
writing, is structured.

❚❚ Identify the most important elements of structure to comment on in order to answer this
question:
How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?
You could write about:
−− what the writer focuses your attention on at the beginning
−− how and why this focus develops and changes as the text continues
−− any other structural features that interest you.

How the text is built

• Beginning – how is the reader

engaged? Foreshadowing?

• Development – how does

the text move on? Gradual or
sudden shifts in focus? Different
sentence lengths and types
to signify shifts? Continuation
or change in tone? Build up
of suspense? Elaboration?
Complication?

• Ending – how does it link back

to the beginning? Is there a
definite conclusion or an open
ending? Unexpected twist?
Logical culmination?

How is the text held together

(textual cohesion)?

• word clusters

• patterning – repetition,
contrasting pairs, tricolons,
sound effects, sentence types

• discourse markers – adverbials

of time, synonyms, referents

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 Writing About Word Choice
There are lots of different things you can say about a writer’s choice of words.

❚❚ See if the statements on the cards apply to a text you are reading. You can focus on the
whole text, or an extract of about 200 - 300 words.

❚❚ Choose 2-3 of the cards that you think you have most to say about and use them to write a
response to this question:

How does the writer’s word choice affect the meaning of this extract?

A single word or phrase can play an Clusters of words linked to the same
important role in a piece of writing, topic, or synonyms used to describe the
perhaps shifting the emphasis suddenly, same thing, give a real clue as to the
or reinforcing an important point. focus and emphasis of a piece of writing.

While people are often told to put in Placing a particular word at the beginning
more adjectives and adverbs to make a of a sentence can draw attention to it and
piece of writing more descriptive, more be particularly powerful.
often powerful description comes from
verbs and nouns.

If a significant word is repeated several Word choice is often linked to the way
times, the author is probably drawing that a piece of writing sounds – so
deliberate attention to it. certain words might create a particular
tone of voice, or words might be chosen
for alliterative effect, so drawing attention
to what they say.

Sometimes the simplest words can be the Sophisticated language is sometimes

most powerful. used to make very precise points,
sometimes to write with a flourish.

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 Critically Evaluating a Text
When critically evaluating a text, you can often signpost the point you want to get across by
using particular words or phrases to start a sentence.

❚❚ Working with a partner, take it in turns to try and say different things about a text using as
many of these ‘evaluative hooks’ as you can.

❚❚ Next attempt to answer a practice evaluative question, such as question 4, in your sample
Paper 1, Section A. Keep an eye on how the evaluative hooks do or don’t help your
response.

1. 2.
By stating that … It seems likely that …

3. 4.
The suggestion that … There’s a particularly XXX (e.g. poignant)
moment when …

5. 6.
The first thing to notice is … Having …

7. 8.
Whenever … Interestingly …

9. 10.
Signficantly … Gradually …

11. 12.
Clarification of this point comes when … Ultimately …

13. 14.
While initially … as the piece goes on … Thematically there is a focus on … when
…

15. 16.
The use of … Perhaps the biggest impact …

17. 18.
The juxtaposition of … and … suggests … The tension builds when …

19. 20.
If … then … Surprisingly …

21. 22.
To be clear … The author’s use of …

23. 24.
There is a signicant change of focus It’s possible to suggest that …
when …

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 Working Out What Is Important
It is possible to say a lot about the language and structure of quite a short piece of writing.
However, it is not worth saying everything that you can in exam conditions if not many marks
are on offer. The task here, for example, is worth 6 out of a possible 40 marks in Paper 2, Section
A.

Question 2 is about Text 1, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard
Flanagan.
Look again at lines 10-24.
How does Richard Flanagan use language and structure to make his description
of the fire frightening?
−− Spend 2-3 minutes coming up with as much to say as you can in response
to the task.
−− Now look at the long list of possible things to say on page 27. Combine it
with your own to come up with 3-4 points you can make in response to
the task.
−− Complete the task yourself, spending no more than 5 minutes on writing.

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 • Extended noun phrases emphasise the complexity of the danger faced
– there is so much to say about it!

• Alliteration (e.g. ‘flames flared’) – sound effect draws attention to the

danger

• Burning repeated four times – to show that the fire is everywhere

• Repetition of ‘flared/ flaring’ – suggest the flames shoot out

aggressively

• Short simple sentences break up the longer ones, each emphasising the
seriousness of the situation. ‘No one spoke’, ‘They [their options] were
all bad’, ‘They were trapped’, ‘He felt sick’, ‘Hold on, he said.’

• The short simple sentences create suspense – will they escape the
danger?

• Sibilance (‘four-wheel slide, spinning sideways and skidding straight

towards the tree, slewing ‘) draws attention to how out of control the
car is.

• Evocative verbs and verb phrases show the physical effort Dorrigo is
going to (‘wedging’, ‘pushed with all his strength’)

• Adjective ‘instant’ creates a sense of just how quickly the fire is

developing

• Fronted adverbials lead reader into the danger (‘Hands wet with sweat
on the wheel, panting heavily, Dorrigo Evans weighed their options.’)

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 Comparing Texts: Areas to Consider
❚❚ Working in a pair, or small group, cut out these cards and place them face down on your
desk.

❚❚ Take it in turns to pick up a card and apply it to both of the texts you are looking at.

❚❚ Keep going until you have spoken to all of the cards, then select the 3 or 4 that led to the
most interesting points of comparison.

❚❚ Tell your class which cards you have selected and why.

Word Choice Sentences Beginning

Think about clusters of Compare different Compare how both texts
words, words that are used lengths and use of start. Do they create
in both texts, different subordination. Look similar or different
levels of sophistication, a for use of questions or impacts? What is
focus on particular word interrogatives. Compare memorable about each
classes etc. how sentences are used beginning?
to guide readers.

Development Ending Voice

How does each extract How does each extract What is similar or
move on? What do end? How does each link different about the tone
they do to maintain the back to its beginning? Is of voice of each text? Is
interest of the reader? it a definitive ending, or one more formal than
Compare how they open? the other? Is one more
change significantly, or consistent than the
stay the same. other? Do they speak to
each other in any way?

Purpose Audience Language features

Are both written for Is each piece primarily What language features
the same or different addressing the same does each text use to
purposes? Does either or different groups of draw attention to what it
have more than one people? Is the audiences has to say? Do they use
purpose? How does the quite broad, or defined similar features in similar
language fit the purpose? tightly by things like age, or different ways? Does
background, interests, one use features that
gender etc. draw attention to how it
is written more than the
other?

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 Comparing Texts: Similarities and Differences
A comparison question requires you to think aout the similarities and differences between
the texts. One way to tackle such a question is initially to identify similarities. In stating what is
similar, it is then possible to go into detail about the different ways in which such similarities are
presented or conveyed.
Below are five similarities between the two texts in your sample Paper 1.

❚❚ Find evidence to back up the similarities in the texts, then jot down differences in how they
are presented in the grid provided. You might like to draw on some of the vocabulary at the
bottom.

Similarities How the similarities are presented in different ways

Both writers want

women to take part
in sports

Both writers present

sport and physical
activity as enjoyable

Both writers present

sport and physical
activity as good for
you

Both writers draw

on anecdotes to
make their points

Both writers feel

that women need
to overcome certain
negative attitudes
that exist about
women and sport

Some words to draw on:

−− tone
−− vocabulary
−− point of view
−− levels of formality
−− emphasis, detail
−− evidence
−− argument
−− development
+ relevant linguistic terminology that you know (though the comparison questions are not
specifically marked for this).

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 ACTIVITIES TO BOOST WRITING
for OCR GCSE English Language, Papers 1 and 2
−− Recognising what each paper requires
−− Getting in the mood: Just a minute fiction cards
−− Getting in the mood: Just a minute non-fiction cards
−− Planning descriptive writing
−− Planning for a story
−− Planning for writing a viewpoint or perspective
−− Planning a written response

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 Recognising What Each Paper Requires
In the short time you have to write your responses to Paper 1 and Paper 2, Section B, it is
important that you plan out your work as quickly as possible.
These activities offer quick ways into the different kinds of questions you are likely to encounter
in the different papers: descriptive writing about an image or creative writing in Paper 1, and
writing from a viewpoint or perspective in Paper 2.
Some of the approaches are designed to encourage you to think about the ideas and language
resources you will draw on in your responses. Others are to help with your planning.

Thinking About Paper 1 – Writing for Audience, Impact and

Purpose: Just a Minute Cards
You can use these cards for either of the non-fiction writing tasks. You can use them in a number
of different ways. Here are three examples:

1. Talking to a card at random

−− In small groups, place the cards face down and take it in turns to pick one at random.
−− Try to keep talking for up to 30 seconds (one minute if you’re feeling ambitious) about
how you would apply what is on the card to your writing task. If the card does not apply
to your task, then take another one.
−− Keep going until you have used up all of the cards.

2. Selecting cards
−− On your own, choose the 5 cards that you think are most relevant to how you will
approach your writing task.
−− Compare your choices with those of a partner and discuss reasons for any similarities or
differences.

3. Writing challenge
−− On your own, select a card that you are particularly interested in using for your writing.
−− Write a short paragraph that highlights the feature on the card.
−− Share your work with a partner and discuss what you have done particularly well.

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 Writing for Audience, Impact and Purpose

Audience Viewpoint/perspective
Who are you addressing in your writing? What is the viewpoint/perspective
Are you addressing them directly, or adopted for this piece of writing? How
indirectly? Are they a broad or narrow mainstream or extreme is it? How will
group? How will you use pronouns? E.g. you give your viewpoint/ perspective a
singular ‘I’, or plural ‘we’ sense of authority?

The opening Development/structure

How are you going to get the attention How do you want your piece of writing
of your reader? What is distinctive about to move forward? What are the various
your very first sentence/ sequence of stages it will go through? Will there be
sentences? What do you want your any sudden shifts of emphasis?
reader to think/feel?

The ending Use of rhetorical devices

How are you going to round everything How are you going to add rhetorical
off? Are you going to repeat key points flourish to your writing? How will you
from earlier in a new way, or add use strategies like rhetorical questions
something entirely new? How emphatic and listing to keep the attention of your
are you going to be with your ending? reader?

Tone of voice Dealing with opposing points of view

What does your writing ‘sound’ like? How much time will you give to points
What particular effects are you aiming of view that do not fit in with your own?
for – such as humour, or seriousness? How will you present them? How will
How will you achieve them? What you dismiss them?
degree of formality will you adopt?

Sentences Vocabulary
How will your sentences be patterned? What groups of words are you going to
In what different ways will you begin use? Do you want one or two words to
sentences? How will you use different stand out and be repeated? If so, which
sentence types for particular effect? ones? How would you describe your
vocabulary choices in general?

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 Thinking About Paper 2 – Writing Imaginatively and Creatively:
Just a Minute Cards
You can use these cards for either of the imaginative and creative writing tasks in Paper 2. You
can use them in a number of different ways. Here are three examples:

1. Talking to a card at random

−− In small groups, place the cards face down and take it in turns to pick one at random.
−− Try to keep talking for up to 30 seconds (one minute if you’re feeling ambitious) about
how you would apply what is on the card to your writing task. If the card does not apply
to your task, then take another one. E.g. you may feel that the ‘character’ card is not
relevant to a descriptive writing task.
−− Keep going until you have used up all of the cards.

2. Selecting cards
−− On your own, choose the 5 cards that you think are most relevant to how you will
approach your writing task.
−− Compare your choices with those of a partner and discuss reasons for any similarities or
differences.

3. Writing challenge
−− On your own, select a card that you are particularly interested in using for your writing.
−− Write a short paragraph that highlights the feature on the card.
−− Share your work with a partner and discuss what you have done particularly well.

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 Imaginative and Creative Writing Cards

Narrative point of view The setting The opening

Who is speaking/what What is distinctive about How are you going to
is the position of the where your writing takes get the attention of
person describing place? What are the your reader? What is
events? Is the narrative sights/sounds/smells/ distinctive about your
from a single point of physical sensations? very first sentence/
view? Is it in the 1st or sequence of sentences?
3rd person? What effect What do you want your
are you aiming for? reader to think/ feel?

Development/structure The ending Use of generic

conventions
How do you want your How are you going to
piece of writing to move round everything off? Will you follow the
forward? What are the Are you going to explain conventions of a
various stages it will go everything to your particular genre, such as
through? Will there be readers, or leave them crime, or science fiction?
any sudden shifts or wanting to know more? If so, how will this affect
surprises? your writing?

Tone of voice A moment of crisis/ Main character

a turning point
What does your writing What are they like? What
‘sound’ like? What Does something are they doing? What do
particular effects are unexpected happen? If you want readers to think
you aiming for – such so what? How will you and feel about them?
as humour, or creating make sure readers find
tension? How will you any moment of crisis
achieve them? believable?

Vocabulary Sentences Dialogue

What groups of words How will your sentences How do you plan to use
are you going to use? be patterned? In what dialogue? Who will speak
Do you want one or two different ways will you to whom and in what
words to stand out and begin sentences? How way? Which character
be repeated? If so, which will you use different will say most and why?
ones? How would you sentence types for
describe your vocabulary particular effect?
choices in general?

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 Planning for Paper 1 – Writing for Audience, Impact and Purpose
❚ Use this grid on page 36 to plan five key points to put forward when writing from a
particular viewpoint or perspective.

❚ When you have finished your planning, develop the points into paragraph groups and work
out how you will promote your own viewpoint or perspective, while also acknowledging
those of others.

Planning for Paper 2 – Imaginative and Creative Writing

In a way imaginative and creative writing answers two basic questions if it is a straightforward
account of events as they took place, told in chronological order.
1. What happened?
2. And then?

❚ Working in a group of three, complete the grid on page 37 for the task: The Rescue: Use this
as the title for a story or the beginning of a story, or a piece of personal writing.

❚ When you have finished the grid discuss how and why the things you have listed might
have happened.

❚ Now, working on your own, spend 20 minutes writing up the plan in any way that you
choose.

❚ After 20 minutes, take it in turns in your group to read aloud your own versions of the story.

❚ Talk about the decisions that each of you made and their effect. For example:
−− The type or genre of story/narrative
−− The point of view events are seen from
−− Who tells the story/narrative (a narrator, a character, different characters)
−− The order of the events
−− The style (mainly description, narration or dialogue? Chatty and conversational, or more
formal? Long, complicated sentences, or short simple ones?)

❚ Go back to your own bit of writing and experiment with 2-3 different ways of telling. Here
are some of the experiments that you could try:
−− Start at a different point in the story
−− Change all of the verbs
−− Take out all of the adjectives
−− Tell the story/narrative in a different style or genre
−− Change the narrative point of view. For example, switch from 1st to 3rd person, or write
from the perspective of a different character.

❚ Leave your writing for a short period. Come back to it next lesson, or for homework, and
draw on some of your planning and writing to attempt the task from the very beginning
again, this time completing it in exam conditions.

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 Paper 1:
Writing for Audience, Impact and Purpose

Points to consider How I will develop my points

General conclusions

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 Paper 2:
TASK. E.g. write the opening of a story called 'The Rescue'

(Write only one point in each box; stick to basic factual details.)

What happens/ happened?

And then?

And then?

And then?

And then?

And then?

And then?

And then?

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 SAMPLE RESPONSES FOR PAPER 1
READING AND WRITING
Example Answers for Paper 1, Section A, Reading Information
and Ideas
The following contains complete answers for all of the questions in the model paper for Paper
1, Section A: Reading Information and Ideas. They have been written in timed conditions by
someone who is good at English. However, because they were done within a time limit, they will
not be perfect and you might well spot some things that can be improved.

❚❚ Have a go at answering the question paper on pages 5-9 in timed conditions.

❚❚ Now compare your answers to the ones here.

❚❚ Decide what you might have done differently having looked at the sample answers? What
do you think that you have done better?

❚❚ Finally check your own answers and those in the model against the Assessment Objectives
that apply to each question. How effectively have you written your answers with the AOs in
mind? How effectively have the sample answers been written with the AOs in mind?

Question 1 is about Text 1, Boating and Sculling, by Miss A. D. McKenzie

1.
a.
❚❚ Look again at lines 1-10. Find two quotations which describe physical actions that make
for successful rowing.
[2 marks, AO1]
b.
❚❚ Explain Miss McKenzie’s attitude to ‘sculling’ compared to ‘rowing’ in lines 11-19.
[2 marks, AO1]

1a.
• ‘not to dip the oar too deeply in the water, but merely to cover the blade’
• ‘feather one’s oar an inch above the water’

[You could also have ‘get well forward before raking another stroke’]

1b.
• She thinks sculling is as easy, if not easier, than rowing and that after ‘a little practice’ people
are likely to prefer it to rowing.

[You could also say that she thinks it is ‘the better exercise'.]

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 Question 2 is about Text 1 Boating and Sculling, and Text 2, Eat, Sweat, Play.
2.
Miss A.D. McKenzie and Anna Kessel both write about women taking part in sport and
physical exercise.

❚❚ What other similarities do Miss A.D. McKenzie and Anna Kessel share in these texts?
Draw on evidence from both texts to support your answer.
[6 marks, AO1]

2.
Both Kessel and McKenzie believe that it is important for women simply to have a go at sport
and exercise, even if they are not, at first, particularly good. For example, Kessel, recounts how
she was laughing away with her husband even though she was terrible at playing pool and
McKenzie explains that ‘a beginner finds the sculls are apt to be rather unmanageable’. They both
stress that it does not take long to get better though. Kessel explains how she soon began to
relax and then potted a ball, while McKenzie writes that after ‘a little practice’, sculling becomes
manageable.
Both authors recognize that there are some barriers in the way of women being active. McKenzie
explains that ‘some folks would run down anything a lady does in the way of athletic exercises’
while Kessel finds the barrier is in her own mind, but that writing a book helped ‘changes sink into
my own brain’.

Question 3 is about Text 2, Eat, Sweat, Play, by Anna Kessel.

3.

❚❚ Explore how Kessel uses language and structure in this extract to present her argument
about sport and exercise.
[12 marks, AO2]

3.
Anna Kessel argues that it is relatively easy for women to introduce more sport and exercise into
their lives if they focus on ‘change that is do-able, and change that makes us feel good’. She then
gives a series of do-able examples from her own life, all of which were positive experiences.
Her language is direct, but personal and positive. For example, the passage starts with a direct
question to her readers in the first person plural – ‘So how do we create change in our own lives?’
This makes it clear that she is making an argument on behalf of her readers, the majority of whom
are presumably women. Almost all of the rest of the passage, however, is written in the first
person singular, as she applies her own experience to model how everyone else might go about
achieving change. This comes across in a positive way to the reader because her tone is relatively
light and confessional, letting readers into her own life as a way of sharing experiences rather
than dictating what other people should do. She uses humour to create this tone, for example
joking with her husband that ‘we must be the worst sports journalist pool players ever’, and using
a word like ‘lolloped’ to describe her running style while pregnant.
While the tone is light and anecdotal, she punctuates it with moments of seriousness and
reflection. For example, her anecdote about playing pool while pregnant leads her to reflect on
the achievements of Reanne Evans, who won the world snooker championship while seven and a
half months pregnant.
There is, then, a deceptively robust argument being presented by Kessel. She structures the work
so that she lures her readers in with her light touch, reassures them that what she is suggesting is
possible, while simultaneously making more serious points about the role of women in sport.

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 Question 4 is about Text 1, Boating and Sculling, and Text 2, Eat, Sweat, Play.
4.
‘These texts are powerful because they show a positive attitude towards taking part in
sporting activity and exercise.’

❚❚ How far do you agree with this statement?

In your answer you should:
−− discuss what you learn about what the writers see as the positive value of taking
part in sporting activity and exercise
−− explain the impact of their ideas and beliefs on you as a reader
−− compare the ways the ideas and beliefs about the positive value of taking part in
sport and exercise are presented.
Support your response with quotations from both texts.
[18 marks, AO3: 6; AO4: 12]

4.
Both writers have the positive attitude that it is relatively easy for women to take part in sport
and exercise, though they have different definitions of what this might be. Kessel includes just
about all physical exercise in her argument, both organised and unplanned. For example, she
writes about running down the street with her daughter while carrying her shopping. McKenzie,
in contrast, only writes about rowing and sculling, both of which need specialist equipment and
organisation in order to take part. For Kessel, then, one of the positive values of taking part in
sport and exercise is that it can be done almost anywhere, while for McKenzie the value is linked
to actively learning about a new sport.
Both also have the attitude that anyone can take part in sport. However, they perhaps have
different definitions of ‘anyone’. Because of the examples she draws on, it is clear that Kessel’s
ideas could apply to people in all walks of life doing all kinds of things; McKenzie’s argument
could only really apply to people with access to a river and boats. Linked to this is the idea
that sport and exercise should be part and parcel of everyday life. However, while Kessel gives
examples that suggest that this is the case, McKenzie’s definition of everyday only applies to
those living in the ‘river world’. For these reasons, Kessel’s piece appeals to me more as a reader,
as I feel it relates to the life of people around me rather than a rarified few.
McKenzie gets her argument across in a relatively straightforward way. She presents declarative
statements such as ‘Rowing is one of the healthiest activities for ladies’ as fact and generally
uses a tone that does not allow for any questioning of her opinions. Kessel is more measured.
She develops an argument by asking a question at the very start of her passage and then
answering through giving a series of examples, all the whole using phrases that reinforce the
positive value of sport and activity, such as ‘unadulterated joy’, ‘thrilled’ and ‘awestruck’.

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 Example Responses for Paper 1 Section B, Writing for Audience,
Impact and Purpose
5.
Write a report for your school’s headteacher and senior management team in which you
support their proposal to put a wider range of sports on the school curriculum.

In your report you should:

−− explain why sport has an important role to play in the school curriculum
−− give some examples to support the proposal
−− convince your readers that sport has an important role to play in the school
curriculum.
[40 marks]*

Acorn Comprehensive, at senior management level, has recommended that a wider range of
sports be made available to its student body. This report sets out how and why this should be
done.
Currently the sport on offer follows a traditional model, based around the seasons and the
professional sports calendar. This means that boys play rugby in the Autumn term, while girls play
netball; both do cross country running in the Spring term; and the boys play cricket and the girls
hockey in the Summer.
This model has some benefits. In tracking the professional sporting calendar, it allows students
to learn from the experts in their sport by watching them on television or live at an event. It
also offers a mixture of team and individual participation. Significantly, all of the team sports
encourage a range of different skills depending on position, so allowing people with different
physical capabilities to play side by side. These sports are part of the very fabric of school life
at Acorn Comprehensive and must be allowed to continue to flourish. Generations have been
inspired by the past successes of various teams, with several noteworthy individuals having gone
on to international glory. The PE department has a proven track-record of being able to get the
best out of pupils in these areas and their expertise must continue to be valued.
There are also, however, notable drawbacks to this model. First, it seems anomalous in this
day and age to separate the genders in such an extreme way; additionally, these are all highly
competitive sports and provide little room for those interested in non-competitive physical
activities; and finally, these are not necessarily the most popular sports among young people.
Students are well aware that sports such as rugby, hockey, netball and cricket are famed for the
way that they cultivate team spirit, with all of the players depending on each other. They are also
aware of the physical demands of cross country and the way that this can develop character.
However, in the modern world, it must be accepted that there are lots of other ways to develop
these characteristics.
Taking the benefits and drawbacks of the current model into account, this report has the following
recommendations for the headteacher and her senior management team. Most importantly, it
would like to suggest that the gender division about who can play which sport is dropped. If
girls want to play rugby and boys hockey, for example, then they should be able to do so. Hand
in hand with this point, comes the proposal that the definition of sport is broadened to include
activities such as dance, yoga and aerobics. The non-competitive nature of these activities makes
them more appealing as mixed gender activities. Finally, room needs to be made for more popular
sports, most specifically football. This is the sport that by far the largest number of students are
interested in and so room needs to be made for it in Acorn Comprehensive’s calendar.
There will be challenges to these proposals. Traditionalists, numbering teachers and parents in
their ranks, will argue that the current model has served the school well for over one hundred
years and so should not be tampered with. They will also contend that some of the proposed new
activities are not sports at all, simply gentle forms of exercise. But we believe that these voices
will be in the minority. There is already a sizeable minority of students for whom the current model

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 does not work. They are neither gaining a positive experience of sport, nor becoming significantly
fitter, given that they do everything in their powers to avoid taking part fully in what is on offer.
These are the people we must thing of most in taking the plunge to go with these proposals. This
report wholeheartedly concludes that the school should do just that.

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 SAMPLE RESPONSES FOR PAPER 2
READING AND WRITING
Example Answers for Paper 2, Section A, Reading Meaning and
Effects
The following contains complete answers for all of the questions in the model paper for Paper 2,
Section A. They have been written in timed conditions by someone who is very good at English.
However, because they were done within a time limit, they will not be perfect and you might
well spot some things that can be improved.
−− Have a go at answering the question paper on pages 11-16 on your own in timed
conditions.
−− Now compare your answers to the ones here.
−− Decide what you might have done differently having looked at the sample answers?
What do you think that you have done better?
−− Finally check your own answers and those in the model against the Assessment
Objectives that apply to each question. How effectively have you written your answers
with the AOs in mind? How effectively have the sample answers been written with the
AOs in mind?

Question 1 is about Text 1, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan
1.
Look again at lines 1 to 9.
a. Identify one phrase from these lines that shows the strength of the fire that Dorrigo
is trying to escape.
[1 mark, AO1]
b. What does this show about his situation?
[1 mark, AO1]
c. The fire is extremely strong.

Give two more examples of the strength of the fire.

[2 marks, AO1]

1a.
• ‘A fireball, the size of a trolley bus’

1b.
• It shows the enormous size of the danger confronting him and his family.

1c.
• It melts the road so it turns into ‘bubbling, black bitumen’
• It is so powerful that it makes branches explode and sound like machine guns.

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 Question 2 is about Text 1, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan
2.
Look again at lines 10-24.
How does Richard Flanagan use language and structure to make his description of the fire
frightening?
You should use relevant subject terminology to support your answer.
[6 marks, AO2]

2.
The language in this extract is heightened and dramatic to make the fire appear frightening.
‘Burning’, for example, appears four times to leave the reader in no doubt that a forest fire is the
source of the danger. The writing creates the sense that the fire is everywhere and that there is
little or no means of escape. It is there when the family drive over the rise of a hill, it is in the sky
as the alliterative ‘flames flared’ high into the sky and it is ‘in front of them’ and ‘behind them’.
The verbs are particularly evocative and make the fire seem frightening because they suggest
that the situation is outside of human control. For example, ‘flared’ and ‘bounced’ show the
movement of the fire, while the sibilance of ‘spinning’, ‘skidding’ and ‘slewing’ creates an image
of the car being almost out of control.
The structure changes in middle of the extract when it says ‘No one spoke’ to suggest how
frightened the family are. They are speechless in the face of such danger. The writer uses very
short sentences to create suspense. After each short sentence, the reader is left to anticipate
what danger will follow: ‘They were all bad.’ ‘They were trapped.’ ‘He felt sick.’ ‘Hold on, he said.’
Each short sentence cranks up the tension and prepares the reader for what looks at this point
like a highly unlikely escape.

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 Question 3 is about Text 2, Climbing Days, by Dan Richards
3.
Look again at lines 1-28.
Explore how the writer presents Dan and Tim’s attitude towards the climbers from Catalan.
Support your ideas by referring to the language and structure of this section, using relevant
subject terminology.
[12 marks, AO2]

3.
From the first paragraph of this passage it is clear that Dan, the narrator, has no respect for
the Catalonians as climbers, and that he finds them incompetent at best, stupid and reckless
at worst. He does not reveal this absolutely straight away, structuring that paragraph so that
readers can picture the men ‘returning over a precipitous pitch’ before dropping in right at the
end that they are ‘making a hash of it’. The picture of incompetence builds in the next paragraph,
again with a delayed adjective, this time ‘useless’ placed at the end of a sentence. The following
sentence extends this by using three adjectives, pointing out that the last climber is ‘ropeless,
exposed and unprotected’.
Dan is not so much dismissive of the climbers as incredulous at their behaviour. This is
emphasised in the third paragraph by the use of a sentence fragment to highlight this incredulity,
when he writes, ‘With no backstop’. As this paragraph continues, he starts to describe them in
terms that suggest he has no respect for their behaviour, which seems to be out of place on a
dangerous mountain. He describes them in a way which makes them sound selfish and like a
group of irresponsible students. For example, he describes how two of them stood silently and
watched ‘their third flail’ and he likens what is happening to a ‘rite of passage or a hazing’. This
language of student foolishness seems completely out of place for a mountain description –
suggesting the Catalonians should not be there.
It is not just Dan who feels this way towards the men. When he describes the look he exchanges
with Tim, it is implied that they are reading the situation in the same way. The fact that the
Catalonian falls at the end, shows the reader that Dan is justified in everything he has said.
He is writing after the event and has structured his recount carefully so that this almost seems
inevitable – his attitude towards the climbers is entirely justified.

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 Question 4 is about Text 1, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, and Text 2, Climbing Days.
4.
‘In these texts the act of helping others is presented as something that people do naturally
without thinking.’
How far do you agree with this statement?
In your answer you should:
−− discuss your impressions of the characters involved in helping others
−− explain what you find interesting about the situations in both texts
−− compare the ways the writers present the act of helping others.
[18 marks, AO3: 6; AO4: 12]

4.
The central protagonists in both of these pieces of writing certainly help others, even at risk to
their personal safety, but only in Text 1 is this presented as something that people do naturally
without thinking. It is perhaps significant when stating this to point out that Dorrigo had little
option but to act, otherwise he and his family would have perished in the fire, while Dan, in Text 2,
made an active choice to help the climber who fell.
Dorrigo is presented in heroic terms, but it is clear that conscious thought is not really involved
in what he does when the first paragraph states that he ‘he found he had no choice but to ignore
the burning debris’ when driving through it. The interesting thing about his heroism and his
desire to help is that it is presented in a way that might annoy some readers. It might be seen
as stereotypical that, as the father, he is driving, while his wife and children remain inactive and
silent, only making a noise for the first time when they scream and need further help from their
father as he removes burning sticks from the back seat. This act, though, is an instinctive and
selfless one. It is done to save his children, even as he badly burns a hand he needs to carry out
his job as a surgeon to such an extent that ‘he would later need skin grafts’.
Dan and Tim’s actions, on the other hand, are not done without thinking, though the narration
does create the impression that they do not see how they could do anything else. This seems
to be because of a bond they have between them that makes them behave in a particular way
on the mountain. In the very first paragraph the third person pronoun, ‘we’ alerts readers to
their collaborative efforts when climbing, and is in sharp contrast to the Catalonians, who ‘were
climbing as individuals’. The mindset of the Catalonians means it is definitely not natural for
them to help others. They stand by while one of their group slides down a dangerous slope, and
still they do not help. The fact that Tim and Dan help, even as the man’s companions ignore
him, shows that they are compelled to behave in a certain way. This is not perhaps natural, but
it is certainly a way of behaving that they believe in. What is particularly interesting about this
presentation of helping others, is the reaction of the man who has fallen. He actually resists being
rescued, taking the rope ‘slowly’ and ‘sullenly’. Perhaps this account is gendered like the first.
The men do not like admitting that they need help.

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 Example Responses for Paper 2 Section B, Writing Creatively and
Imaginatively
5.
The Rescue
Use this as a title for a story, or the beginning of a story or piece of personal writing.
In your writing you should:
−− choose a clear viewpoint
−− describe the setting
−− explore what having to rescue someone means
[40 marks]*

A response to the above task has been printed out below.

❚❚ Read it through and discuss in a small group your general impressions of it as a piece of
writing. For example, do you think it is well written? Did it hold your attention? Were there
any bits you liked more than others? Is there anything you don’t like about it?

❚❚ Now discuss it in relation to the Assessment Objectives for writing, reproduced here:

AO5 Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting

tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences.
Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to
support coherence and cohesion of texts.

AO6 Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity,
purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.

❚❚ Finally consider the response in relation to the skills descriptors published by OCR in
their mark scheme. You can find these online and your teacher can point you in the right
direction. You can use the grid on page 49 to help you. It is based on the skills descriptors at
the top end of the mark scale.

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 Jamie, as ever, found it difficult to work out what was going on. There was a noise and he was
sure that there was something important about the noise, but he could not work out exactly what
it was, nor locate it with any precision. As he looked up and down and from side to side, to try
to locate this auditory intrusion on his senses, his head began to spin, in the way that it so often
did, making him feel vaguely nauseous and in need of sitting down. Why was everything about
his existence so complicated? he thought. Why couldn’t he work things out quickly, like everyone
else.
Perhaps it was because his mind was on higher things. That’s what his mum used to tell him.
But then his mum would tell him that, wouldn’t she. She worshipped the ground he walked on,
wouldn’t have a word said against him, saw the positives in even the most ridiculous things
that he did. So perhaps his mind wasn’t on higher things at all. Perhaps his mind simply didn’t
function in a normal way, made him the hesitant, bumbling goof that he always felt himself to be.
His mind wasn’t on higher things any way. His mind was on this strange noise that he couldn’t
locate. It was also on Esme Bloomberg because at this precise moment he was walking past her
house, as he did every morning on his way to school. Perhaps that was why he felt so confused
and couldn’t work out what he was hearing. Esme Bloomberg scrambled his mind in myriad
ways.
Strange noise … Esme Bloomberg … strange noise … Esme Bloomberg … strange noise …
Esme Bloomberg. His befuddled brain shuttled back and forth between the two, as he continued
to look up and down and round and round. He did not look in one direction, though. He did not
look at Esme Bloomberg’s bedroom window. He never did, never could, not since THE THREE
DAYS IN MAY.
THE THREE DAYS IN MAY shattered his schoolboy fantasy forever: that one day he would be
walking past Esme Bloomberg’s semi-detached 1960s red-bricked family home, with its neatly
manicured lawn, its bright red front door, and gleaming windows, and he would be called upon to
rescue her. She would be calling from her front-room bedroom, like a damsel in distress, fearful
of some as yet unspecified danger, and Jamie would come to the rescue, her knight in shining
armour. Because, let’s face it, only by rescuing her from the most terrifying of ordeals, would he
ever come to the attention of a girl like Esme Bloomberg.
Before THE THREE DAYS IN MAY, every day Jamie would glance up at Esme’s bedroom window
as he walked past her house, his ridiculous fantasy playing out in his bewildered mind. And if
the fantasy couldn’t play out – and let’s face it, how on earth was that going to play out? – there
was still the forlorn hope that she would be looking out and would catch his glance – and that
something deep and meaningful would pass between them in that moment. She was never
looking back though, had probably left for school already, because she was such a timely and
punctual girl. But then occurred THE THREE DAYS IN MAY. On May the fifth Jamie glanced up
at Esme Bloomberg’s window as he walked past. There, a vision to match the rising sun on this
beautiful morning, was Esme Bloomberg. Their eyes met. And then Jamie found himself twitching
and jerking and blushing and quickening his pace, all the while unable to remove his gaze from
the top floor window. When he finally did so he felt that his life was over and spent the rest of the
day making sure not to share a meaningful glance with anyone in the whole of his school. On May
the sixth he glanced up again. It was a reflex habit, just something he did when he was outside
number 64 Algernon Road. And exactly the same thing happened again. Grand humiliation as his
eyes made contact with those of the previously elusive Esme. And on May the seventh … you
guessed it, the same all over again.
From that day forward, Jamie vowed never to look up at Esme’s window. This was unfortunate,
because on this particular day, four month’s later, at the start of the new school term, Esme was
at her bedroom window, frantically banging on the glass and calling out for help.

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 Assessment Grid for Written Responses
❚❚ Comment on how effectively the sample response matches with ideas based on the OCR
skills descriptors for Paper 1, Section B and Paper 2, Section B.

Aspect of writing Comments

AO5 communication and organisation

• The form is deliberately adapted

to position the reader, showing a
sophisticated control of purpose and
effect.

• Tone, style and register are

ambitiously selected and deployed to
enhance the purpose of the task.

• There is a skilfully controlled overall

structure, with paragraphs and
grammatical features used to support
coherence and cohesion and achieve
a range of effects.

AO6 vocabulary, sentence structure, spelling and punctuation

• Ambitious range of sentence

structures used to shape meaning and
create impact.

• Accurate punctuation used to

enhance clarity and achieve particular
effects.

• Vocabulary is precise and subtle,

expressing complex ideas with clarity.

• Spelling of irregular and ambitious

words is accurate.

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