What does Paper 1 Telling Stories cover?

Telling Stories covers four linked areas studied through the integrated language and literature method: a prose set text analysed as narrative and language; the AQA Anthology: Paris, a collection of non-fiction about one place studied for representation and unseen comparison; imagined worlds and point of view, the conceptual core of narration, focalisation, deixis and modality; and narrative and genre, how texts follow and subvert conventions. The unifying idea is narrative as construction.

How is the Telling Stories exam structured?

Telling Stories is assessed by Paper 1, a written exam worth 100 marks and 40 percent of the A-level. It tests the prose set text, the Paris Anthology (including comparison with an unseen non-fiction extract) and the conceptual material on point of view, narrative and genre. The paper rewards integrated analysis that links named linguistic features to narrative effect, so analysis and accurate method are decisive.

What is the Paris Anthology and how is it examined?

The AQA Anthology: Paris is a collection of non-fiction texts that all represent the city of Paris, drawn from genres such as travel writing, memoir, journalism and online writing. It is studied not as literature to interpret but as representation of place: how each writer selects detail, takes a perspective and uses language to construct a particular version of Paris. In the exam you compare an anthology text with an unseen non-fiction extract.

Why is point of view central to Telling Stories?

Point of view is the hinge of the whole paper because narration, focalisation and deixis control what a reader sees, knows and feels, so the same events told differently become different stories. You analyse narration type, focalisation (whose perspective we experience), deixis (here, now, you), modality (certainty and attitude) and speech and thought presentation, and link each to how the reader is positioned within the imagined world.

How should I revise for Telling Stories?

Read the prose set text several times, mapping its narrative structure and point of view, and build a bank of short references for closed-book conditions. Summarise each Paris Anthology text by genre, perspective and how Paris is represented, and practise unseen comparison under timed conditions. Drill the linguistic toolkit (deixis, modality, transitivity, speech presentation), and always move from a named feature to its narrative effect rather than feature-spotting.

EnglandEnglish Language & Literature

AQA A-Level English Language and Literature Paper 1 Telling Stories: a complete overview

A complete overview of AQA A-Level English Language and Literature Paper 1 Telling Stories, covering the prose set text, the Paris Anthology of non-fiction, imagined worlds and point of view, narrative and genre, and the integrated method and assessment objectives the paper tests.

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What Paper 1 Telling Stories demands
The prose set text
The Paris Anthology non-fiction
Imagined worlds and point of view
Narrative and genre
The integrated method and assessment objectives
Check your knowledge

What Paper 1 Telling Stories demands

Telling Stories asks you to study how narratives are built across three kinds of text: a prose set text, the AQA Anthology: Paris (non-fiction about one place), and the conceptual material on point of view, narrative and genre. You apply an integrated method that fuses literary criticism with linguistic analysis, treating every text as both a crafted story and a structured piece of language. The paper rewards close attention to perspective, structure and genre, evidenced with precise terminology.

This guide ties the four areas together; each has its own dot-point page with practice questions.

The prose set text

The set text is studied as a complete narrative and as language. You analyse structure (how events are ordered, where chronology breaks), characterisation (how the reader is led to judge characters), theme, and the narrative voice that holds it together. Because the exam is usually closed-book, build a bank of short, memorised references and know exactly where the narration shifts. Every literary claim must be evidenced with concrete features: modifying noun phrases for character, verb tense and aspect for time, transitivity for power, and deixis and pronouns for perspective.

The Paris Anthology non-fiction

The anthology is a body of non-fiction representing a single city. Study it for representation: how each writer constructs a particular Paris through selection, perspective and language, across genres such as travel writing, memoir and journalism. In the exam you compare an anthology text with an unseen non-fiction extract, so build a quick method, genre and purpose, perspective, representation, and the linguistic features that create it, and compare throughout rather than in separate blocks.

Imagined worlds and point of view

This is the conceptual core. An imagined world is built by point of view: the narration type, the focalisation (whose eyes we see through), and the language of perspective. Deixis anchors the reader; modality encodes the narrator's certainty and attitude; and speech and thought presentation controls access to minds. Distinguishing narration from focalisation is essential: a neutral narrator can focalise through a biased character to shape sympathy without overt comment.

Narrative and genre

All texts follow patterns. Narrative models (such as the move from equilibrium through disruption to a new equilibrium, and the gap between story and discourse) describe how a text is shaped. Genre supplies the shared conventions a writer follows or subverts to guide a reader's expectations. Identify the genre and its conventions first, then analyse how the text meets or breaks them for effect, in non-fiction as well as fiction.

The integrated method and assessment objectives

The connecting skill is the integrated language and literature method: a literary interpretation proved by concrete linguistic evidence, not asserted. Paper 1 is dominated by AO1 (method and terminology), AO2 (how meanings are shaped) and AO3 (context), with AO2 and AO1 carrying the most marks, so analysis and accurate method are decisive.

Check your knowledge

A mix of recall and application questions covering Paper 1 Telling Stories. Attempt them, then check against the solutions.

Name the four areas covered by Paper 1 Telling Stories. (4 marks)
Explain why point of view is central to the paper. (3 marks)
Define representation in the context of the Paris Anthology. (2 marks)
Distinguish narration from focalisation. (2 marks)
Give one narrative model and explain how it helps you analyse structure. (3 marks)
State the three-part structure of an integrated analytical paragraph. (3 marks)

Solutions

Q1: The prose set text, the Paris Anthology of non-fiction, imagined worlds and point of view, and narrative and genre.
Q2: Narration, focalisation and deixis control what the reader sees, knows and feels, so the same events told differently become different stories; analysing point of view explains how the reader is positioned.
Q3: Representation is the way a text constructs a particular version of a place through selection and language, rather than showing it neutrally.
Q4: Narration is who tells the story and in what person; focalisation is whose perspective events are experienced through, which can differ from the narrator.
Q5: The equilibrium, disruption, new equilibrium model lets you describe how a text builds and releases tension and where it withholds or refuses resolution for effect.
Q6: Claim (a literary point about meaning or effect), evidence (the named linguistic feature that creates it), analysis (the effect on the reader).

Sources & how we know this

AQA A-level English Language and Literature (7707) specification — AQA (2015)