Command words and question types (H474): decoding the recurring command words (explore, compare, in the light of this view) and question types (single-text analysis, comparison, view-based, recreative, commentary) across the components, so you answer precisely what each asks.

What this dot point is asking

Across the H474 components a handful of command words and question types recur, and answering precisely means decoding each correctly: what "explore", "compare" and "in the light of this view" demand, and how the question types (single-text analysis, comparison, view-based, recreative, commentary) differ in what they want. This dot point covers the recurring commands and types and how to decode them, so you answer the question asked rather than the question you expected.

The answer

Examiners reward answers that meet the precise demand of the question, and that demand is carried by the command word and the question type. Misreading either, treating an evaluative question as a one-sided argument, or a production task as an analysis, loses marks no matter how good the writing. Two things deliver precision: decode the command words, and recognise the question type.

Decode the command words

A few command words recur across the components, each with a precise demand:

• Explore: investigate analytically and openly. It invites a developed, exploratory analysis, weighing the text's workings, rather than a narrow argument. Treat it as an invitation to analyse fully.
• Compare: set texts against each other in idea-led comparison, with both texts live in every paragraph (AO4). It is satisfied only by genuine comparison, not parallel analysis.
• In the light of this view: engage and evaluate the given critical view, weighing how far it holds, where it is true and where complicated, and arriving at an evaluated position. It does not mean "agree with this view".
• Analyse language, form and structure: the AO2 instruction, inviting the full integrated toolkit on how meaning is shaped.
• Consider relevant contexts: the AO3 instruction, requiring context read into features.

Reading these words precisely tells you what to do; the commonest error is reading "in the light of this view" as a cue to agree rather than evaluate.

Recognise the question type

Beyond the command words, the question type sets the task and the objective mix:

• Single-text analysis (the poetry, drama and prose essays): analyse one text's method, AO1, AO2, AO3.
• Comparison (Component 01, the NEA essay): compare two texts, adding AO4.
• View-based: a critical statement to engage and evaluate, layered onto a single-text or comparison task.
• Recreative (Component 03 Section B): a production task, AO5 dominant, "informed by the original" (AO2), write the piece, do not analyse.
• Commentary (Component 03 Section B): analyse your own writing with the integrated method, AO1, AO2, AO3, not more creative writing.

Recognising the type tells you the mode (analyse, compare, write, or analyse-your-own) and the objectives, so you answer in the right register. The sharpest distinction is between the analytical types (explore, compare) and the production type (recreate), which demand opposite things.

Examples in context

The questions vary by series, so the moves below are illustrative.

Evaluating a view. "Decoding 'in the light of this view' correctly, I do not simply agree that the play's meaning lies in its conflicts; I test it, showing where conflict does carry the meaning (the public scenes) and where the meaning lies elsewhere (the unspoken tension of the quiet scenes), and arrive at an evaluated position. The command word demanded evaluation, and the essay delivers it." The evaluative demand met.

Recognising a production task. "Decoding 'recreate' correctly, I write the new piece from the specified point of view, crafted and informed by the original, rather than analysing the novel. Recognising this as a production task (AO5), the opposite register from an 'explore' question, keeps me from wasting the answer on analysis." The right register for the type.

Try this

Q1. What does "in the light of this view" demand? [2 marks]

• Cue. Engage and evaluate the view, weighing how far it holds and arriving at an evaluated position; not simply agreeing and illustrating it.

Q2. How does a recreative task differ from an "explore" task? [2 marks]

• Cue. Recreative is a production task (AO5): write a crafted piece informed by the original; "explore" is an analytical task: analyse the text. They demand opposite registers.

Q3. "The play's meaning lies in its conflicts." Explore the playwright's presentation of conflict in the light of this view. [32 marks]

• What the marker wants. Genuine evaluation of the view through integrated analysis, weighing where conflict carries the meaning and where it does not (AO1 to AO3), reaching an evaluated position, not a one-sided illustration.

A note on command words

This guide is AI-written and not individually human-reviewed. The command words and question types are set by OCR and may be refined across cycles; confirm them against the current OCR H474 past papers and examiners' reports. The technique, decoding the command and the type to answer the actual demand, transfers across the components.