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Component 01: Exploring language
Quick questions on Comparing and contrasting texts: the Section C comparison - OCR A-Level English Language
6short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is structure by idea, not by text?Show answer
The single biggest lever on the mark is structure. A text-by-text answer (all of Text A, then all of Text B) describes two texts but barely compares them, and AO4 is the casualty. An idea-led answer organises around points of comparison, and each paragraph holds both texts: how each handles audience, how each represents the subject, how each is structured. Within the paragraph the texts are woven together, with features from both as evidence.
What is a model comparative paragraph?Show answer
"Both texts address their readers directly, but the relationship each constructs differs with its mode. The blog post uses inclusive deixis and colloquial lexis ('we have all been there') to build a peer-to-peer intimacy suited to an online readership choosing to read, whereas the public-health leaflet uses imperatives and formal Latinate vocabulary to construct an authoritative, institutional voice addressing a mass audience it must instruct. The shared strategy of direct address thus produces opposite relationships, because the contexts, voluntary reading versus official instruction, pull in different directions."
What is a weak approach upgraded?Show answer
A text-by-text answer might analyse the blog's features in full, then the leaflet's. Upgraded, it is reorganised by idea, so each paragraph compares the two on a single axis (address, representation, structure), and AO4 is satisfied by sustained, integrated comparison.
What is q1?Show answer
Which objective is unique to Section C on Paper 1, and how is it satisfied? [2 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Why is "both texts use rhetorical questions" a weak comparative point? [2 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
Compare and contrast how two unseen texts use language to represent their subject, in relation to their different contexts. [18 marks]
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