The Component 3 paper (Non-Literary Texts): comparative analysis of unseen spoken and non-literary texts (AO1, AO2, AO3, AO4) and analysis of a studied non-literary prose text (for example In Cold Blood, Homage to Catalonia), worth 20 percent over 2 hours.

What this dot point is asking

Component 3, Non-Literary Texts, is the third written paper (2 hours, 20 percent) and it extends the integrated method to texts beyond literature: spoken language and non-literary writing. Section A compares unseen spoken and non-literary texts; Section B analyses a studied non-literary prose text. The paper tests the tools of spoken-language and non-literary analysis, mode-aware and comparative, alongside the integrated method. This dot point sets out the paper's structure and what each section rewards.

The answer

Component 3 applies the integrated method to text types beyond literature, so it tests the tools of spoken-language and non-literary analysis on top of the core method. The two sections reward different things.

Section A: the unseen comparison

Section A sets unseen spoken and non-literary texts for comparative analysis, foregrounding AO4. The texts may include transcripts of interaction, planned speeches, and written non-literary texts, and each is read as the kind of text it is, a transcript with discourse and pragmatics, a speech as a scripted-spoken hybrid, a written text with the language levels. The answer weaves the texts together around shared ideas, comparing how each makes meaning and positions its audience, framed by mode, audience and purpose (AO3). The comparison and the analysis of spoken and multimodal language are central.

Section B: the studied non-literary text

Section B analyses a studied non-literary prose text from the Eduqas list (examples include In Cold Blood and Homage to Catalonia). It is read with the integrated method, and because many set non-literary texts are literary non-fiction (reportage, memoir, literary journalism), they reward the literary methods, narrative technique, voice, structure, alongside the language levels. The loading is AO1, AO2 and AO3, framed by the text's genre, purpose and period.

Examples in context

The unseen texts and the set non-literary text vary, so the moves below are illustrative; confirm your text against the current Eduqas A710 list.

Comparing across modes (Section A). "Both texts persuade, but where the speech builds its case aurally through an accumulating tricolon and an inclusive 'we', the transcript shows persuasion negotiated live, the speaker conceding and recovering the floor turn by turn; the comparison is sharpest read as two modes of persuasion, the projected and the interactional." A point that exists only as comparison.

Literary non-fiction analysed (Section B). "The reportage borrows the novel's techniques: it focalises a scene through a participant, builds suspense by withholding, and lets evaluative lexis colour a supposedly factual account, so the 'non-fiction' shapes the reader's response with literary method. Reading it as literary non-fiction, not bare reporting, finds the craft." Literary technique in non-fiction.

Try this

Q1. How is Component 3 structured, and what is its weighting? [2 marks]

• Cue. A 2 hour written paper worth 20 percent, in two sections: a comparison of unseen spoken and non-literary texts (Section A) and an analysis of a studied non-literary prose text (Section B).

Q2. What are the dominant contexts (AO3) on the non-literary paper? [2 marks]

• Cue. Mode, audience and purpose, the conditions that make a non-literary or spoken text mean what it does, more than the period and tradition that lead in the literature papers.

Q3. Analyse how the writer of your studied non-literary text presents their subject, considering contexts. [out of 60]

• What the marker wants. Integrated analysis of the text's method (lexis, grammar, structure, and literary technique where it is literary non-fiction) read to effect (AO1, AO2), framed by genre and purpose (AO3), not summary.

A note on Component 3

This guide is AI-written and not individually human-reviewed. The set non-literary prose text is chosen by your centre from the current Eduqas list, and the exact sections, tariffs and timing are set by WJEC Eduqas; confirm them against the current A710 specification and sample assessment materials.