Drama text analysis (Edexcel A-Level English Language and Literature) quiz

AO1 for accurate terminology, AO2 for shaping meaning and AO4 for the required comparison made across the two set texts

AO4 for comparison together with AO5 for creative re-writing

AO5 only, assessing creative re-creation

AO1, AO2 and AO3

Using spoken-language frameworks while recognising the dramatist engineered the talk for effect

Treating the dialogue as a completely genuine unscripted transcript of a spontaneous real conversation

Ignoring pragmatics entirely

Only counting how many lines each character is given to speak

Is by definition always a more polite, face-saving move

Signals resistance or conflict in the exchange

Always brings the scene or play to an end

Has no real effect on the meaning

Their fixed position on the stage as set out in the opening stage directions

The colour and intensity of the lighting around them

Their distinctive set of speech habits (lexis, register, grammar, rhythm)

The total number of scenes they appear in

Is simply the plain literal dictionary meaning of the spoken words

Refers only to the printed stage directions in the script

Counts the number of syllables in each line

Carries the subtext, what characters mean beneath what they say

Showing how a period's attitudes explain why a particular line would land as shocking

Opening with a long paragraph of detached historical background that never refers to the text

Listing the key dates of the playwright's life

Naming the theatre where the play first premiered, with no analysis

Simply sounds more formal and impressive to the examiner

Keeps the focus on authorial method and signals AO2

Is strictly required in the introduction only

Lets you avoid mentioning the characters at all

Following the scene order, summarising the action as it unfolds on stage

Working through a list of every single device found in the extract

Idea-led paragraphs that each develop an aspect of the thesis

The order in which the characters first enter

Summarise the whole plot of the play in scene order and only then add one or two supporting quotations at the very end

Quote a long passage at length and leave it without any analytical comment

Spend the paragraph discussing the writer's biography and life

Anchor in the extract, analyse the construction, reach into the whole play, integrate context, return to the question

A complete, argued essay scores across the objectives, whereas an unfinished one loses its missing argument and conclusion

Examiners only ever read and credit the final concluding paragraph of the whole response, so the rest can simply be left rough

Longer essays always score higher regardless of whether the argument is finished

Only the very first paragraph of the essay is actually marked