OCR A-Level English Literature: the unseen close reading (Component 02 Section A) overview quiz quiz

A close reading of an unseen prose extract from your topic area

A comparison of two set texts studied during the course, judged side by side for similarities

A close reading of an unseen Shakespeare passage chosen from one of the prescribed tragedies

A coursework essay submitted before the exam, marked internally and then moderated by the board

AO3, at 75 percent

AO2, at 75 percent

AO4, at 50 percent

AO1, at 75 percent

AO1 (argument) and AO2 (method), the two objectives that close reading mainly draws upon

AO2 (method) and AO3 (context), leaving only argument and connections to be rewarded here

AO4 (connections) and AO5 (interpretations)

All five assessment objectives are assessed together in this single close-reading task

Introduction, body and conclusion, the three structural parts that organise the essay as a whole

Summarise the extract, set out its historical context, then compare it with one of your set texts

Describe what happens, define any difficult terms, then list the literary devices that you can find

Name the method, quote briefly, read its effect on meaning

Narrative voice, diction and imagery, syntax and rhythm, structure

Plot, character, setting and theme, the broad story elements rather than how the prose works

Rhyme, metre, stanza and refrain, the formal terms that belong to the analysis of verse not prose

Author, date, publisher and genre, the bibliographic details that label a text rather than analyse it

It does not help at all, because the unseen passage is deliberately chosen from outside your topic area

You can recognise the topic's conventions and concerns, which orients and deepens your reading

It tells you the answer in advance, since the unseen passage is always taken from one of your set texts

It lets you skip the reading and rely instead on what you already know about the topic and its writers

It is against the rules of the examination to name a genre, so labelling the convention is penalised

Labels are always wrong because the unseen passages are deliberately chosen so that they never actually belong to any recognisable genre convention

AO2 rewards analysing how the passage realises the convention through its specific method, not naming the genre

It wastes paper and examiner time, so candidates are expected to keep their answers as short as possible

It dominates the answer, so most marks come from setting out the historical background of the passage

It is not allowed at all, so any reference to context is ignored or actively penalised by the examiner

It replaces the close reading entirely, so a well-judged context paragraph can stand in for analysis

It is light and supporting (12.5 percent), welded to the reading

Roughly evenly, around 70 to 75 minutes per section, with reading and planning time

Spend most of the available time on Section A, since the unseen passage is the harder of the two tasks

Spend most of the available time on Section B, treating the comparison of set texts as the main event

There is no real time limit to worry about, so you may give whichever section you prefer the most time

A list of every device that appears, worked through one by one in the order they are noticed

A controlling idea, with paragraphs often tracking the passage's development

A summary of the plot, retelling the events of the extract before any analysis is attempted

The author's biography, using details of the writer's life to organise the whole response

Reading patterns across the passage and showing how repeated methods build a single sustained effect

Building a controlling idea that gives the whole response a clear spine and a sense of direction

Feature-spotting: naming devices without reading their effect

Moving carefully from each feature to its specific effect, which is exactly what strong answers do