2A - Guide for answering the UNSEEN question

 [11:59 AM] Nick Williams

Here is a simple guide for answering section A

THE BASICS FOR TOMORROW’S EXAM!!

1. Your questions are on SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL. You must answer on SOCIETY AND THE INDIVIDUAL in BOTH SECTIONS OF THE EXAM!
2. You should spend about 1hr 5 mins on SECTION A, and you should aim to write an introduction plus about SIX analytical paragraphs.
3. You should spend about 1hr 20 on SECTION B, and you should aim to write an introduction plus about FOUR COMPARATIVE PARAGRAPHS (These will be longer than the paragraphs in section A as they are comparing two texts – Gatsby and Larkin).

HOW TO ANSWER SECTION A – THE BASICS

1. As it is unseen, carefully read everything you are told and make sure that you are confident about what its GENRE, AUDIENCE and PURPOSE are. Make sure you KEY WORD the question, as it is ESSENTIAL that you answer the question directly. If it says to discuss how the author reveals the FEARS, for example, then EVERY POINT must relate back to their FEARS. If the question is simply about the author’s ATTITUDES, then every  point must relate back to their ATTITUDES. It is that simple.
2. Include the following in your intro:

*Tell the examiner what the text is, who it is likely to be aimed at, and what its main purposes and sub-purposes are likely to be

*Make a sensible comment about CONTEXT (such as, ‘As this is a text from the mid 1800s and is about women, we can expect that we will see oppressive attitudes that do not align with modern day beliefs about gender’)

*Tell the examiner what sort of tones and features we would EXPECT from this genre. (eg, ‘As this is a review, we would expect opinionated and biased toned, with some inter-textual references)   

3. Find your points. You have FAR MORE FREEDOM in this question than in the component 1 question. For example, provide you are answering the question, you can make points about MOOD, VOICE, TONE, LINGUISTIC FEATURES, LITERARY FEATURES, CONTEXT and many more. You just have to find about 5-6 very interesting points which ANSWER THE QUESTION. 

4. Structure your paragraphs like this:

*Include a topic sentence that makes an interesting point about voice, tone, features etc, and precisely answers the question. Have a look at the EXAMPLE ESSAYS on FILES.

*Include at least one quote from the text which proves your point, and start to unpack it using terms.

*Make sure you comment on why certain key words and features are important.

*Make sure you have extended your point by talking about the EFFECT ON THE READER, or how the text reflects the CONTEXT OF THE TIME.

*Read back over your paragraph to make sure it answers the question.

*Repeat 

5. For your conclusion, simply write a couple of sentences summing up your main arguments. It doesn’t really matter what you say, as long as the essay seems finished.