How do you read two unseen non-fiction texts from different times, draw ideas together, compare perspectives and write to argue a viewpoint?
Analysing how a writer uses language in a non-fiction text to achieve effects (AO2), including persuasive and rhetorical devices, tone and word choice in one named text.
How to answer the AO2 language question on AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2: analysing how a writer of non-fiction uses language, including rhetorical and persuasive devices, tone and word choice, to influence the reader of one named text.
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What this dot point is asking
One Paper 2 question is an AO2 language analysis, focused on a single named non-fiction text. You analyse how the writer uses language to achieve effects, with the same evidence-method-effect discipline as Paper 1, but on non-fiction. Because non-fiction often aims to persuade or inform, you also analyse rhetorical and persuasive devices, tone and word choice, and how they influence the reader.
Non-fiction language is purposeful
Non-fiction is written to do a job: to persuade, argue, inform or entertain. So the writer's language choices are tools aimed at the reader. Your analysis should connect a choice to the writer's purpose and the effect on the reader.
Same method, different material
The marking habit is identical to Paper 1: evidence, method, effect, with the effect carrying most marks. The difference is that you frame the effect in terms of how the writer positions the reader towards a viewpoint.
Tone and word choice
Tone (the writer's attitude as conveyed by their language) is central in non-fiction, and Question 3 sometimes names it directly ("how does the writer convey their attitude"). Notice whether the tone is angry, ironic, sympathetic or measured, and analyse the word choices that create it. Because Paper 2 uses one nineteenth-century or early-twentieth-century source and one modern source, watch for how an older text's formal register and elaborate syntax create their effects differently from a modern text's punchier, more direct style; you are not penalised for archaic language being hard, but you are rewarded for reading its effect.
Try this
Q1. Name three persuasive devices common in non-fiction writing. [3 marks]
- Cue. For example direct address, rhetorical questions, emotive language, statistics or the list of three.
Q2. Why should your analysis link a device to the writer's purpose? [2 marks]
- Cue. Non-fiction language is used to persuade or inform, so the effect on the reader is best explained in terms of that purpose.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of AQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AQA 201912 marksPaper 2, Question 3. You now need to refer only to Source A, the nineteenth-century letter. How does the writer use language to describe the conditions of the journey? You could include the writer's choice of words and phrases, language features and techniques, and sentence forms.Show worked answer →
This is the AO2 non-fiction language question, twelve marks, on one named source. Method is identical to Paper 1: short quotation, named method with subject terminology, effect on the reader, but framed by the writer's purpose. Select two or three quotations and build a developed point for each, including any rhetorical or emotive choices. For "the air itself seemed to sicken us", name the personification and emotive verb, then explain it conveys the oppressive, dangerous conditions and positions the reader to pity the travellers. Markers reward analysis of effect with judicious terminology across the twelve marks; they penalise listing devices without effect.
AQA 202112 marksPaper 2, Question 3. Refer only to Source B, the modern article. How does the writer use language to persuade the reader to support the campaign? Analyse the writer's choice of words, rhetorical devices and tone.Show worked answer →
A persuasion-focused AO2 question. A strong answer ties each language choice to the writer's persuasive purpose. Quote a rhetorical question and explain how it pressures the reader to agree; quote emotive vocabulary and explain how it stirs sympathy; identify the tone (for example urgent, indignant) and the choices that build it. The twelve marks reward developed analysis of how the writer shapes the reader's response, not a list of spotted devices. Markers reward effect explained in terms of purpose (to persuade) and reward judicious subject terminology.
Related dot points
- Selecting and synthesising evidence and ideas from two non-fiction texts (AO1), including the true-or-false retrieval question and the question that summarises differences across both texts.
How to answer the AO1 reading questions on AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2: handling the true-or-false retrieval question and the synthesis question that draws inferences about differences across two unseen non-fiction texts.
- Comparing writers' ideas and perspectives and how these are conveyed across two non-fiction texts (AO3), including identifying viewpoint, methods and the integrated comparison structure.
How to answer the AO3 comparison question on AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2: identifying each writer's viewpoint, comparing how they convey it through method, and writing an integrated, idea-led comparison across two unseen non-fiction texts.
- Writing non-fiction to present a point of view for the Paper 2 Section B task (AO5 and AO6), including matching form, audience and purpose, building an argument and using rhetorical devices and accuracy.
How to tackle the non-fiction writing task on AQA GCSE English Language Paper 2 Section B: matching form, audience and purpose, structuring a persuasive argument, deploying rhetorical devices for AO5, and securing the 16 accuracy marks for AO6.
- Recognising and naming language techniques with accurate subject terminology, and using terminology to analyse effect rather than to label, across fiction and non-fiction reading questions.
A reference to the language techniques and subject terminology for AQA GCSE English Language: what each term means, how to use terminology to analyse effect rather than to label, and why precise naming supports AO2 across both papers.
- Identifying tone, mood and register in a text and explaining how a writer's choices create them, across fiction and non-fiction reading questions and for comparison of perspectives.
How to read tone, mood and register for AQA GCSE English Language: telling the three apart, identifying them from a writer's choices, and using them to analyse effect and compare writers' attitudes across both papers.
Sources & how we know this
- AQA GCSE English Language (8700) specification — AQA (2015)