How do you read OCR command words and question types so you do exactly what each question asks?
Reading OCR command words and recognising question types so each answer does exactly what is asked, distinguishing identify, summarise, analyse, compare and evaluate and matching each to its assessment objective.
How to read OCR command words and question types in GCSE English Language: distinguishing identify, summarise, analyse, compare and evaluate, matching each to its assessment objective, and decoding a question's focus, scope and tariff before answering.
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What this dot point is asking
OCR questions are built from command words (identify, summarise, analyse, compare, evaluate) that tell you exactly what action to perform, and each command word maps to an assessment objective. Reading them precisely, and decoding the rest of the question (its focus, scope and tariff), is what lets you do exactly what is asked instead of a nearby task that scores less. This dot point covers the command words and the habit of decoding a question fully before answering. The transferable skill is treating the question stem as an instruction set: the command word sets the action, the focus sets the subject, the scope sets the boundaries, and the tariff sets the length.
The core command words
Each command word asks for a specific action, mapped to an objective.
The command word is the first thing to read, because it sets the whole answer. An "identify" question wants located points, not analysis; an "evaluate" question wants judgement, not description. Matching your action to the command word is the foundation of answering correctly.
Decoding focus and scope
The command word is not the whole question. Two other elements must be decoded before you write.
Ignoring the focus is a common, subtle error: analysing language in general when the question asks how the writer creates a sense of menace means your best points may be off-target. Ignoring the scope is a blunter error: taking evidence from outside the named lines, or from one text when both are required, scores nothing however good the point.
Reading the question as an instruction set
The most reliable habit is to decode every question fully before writing: command word (the action), focus (the subject), scope (the boundary), tariff (the length). A few seconds spent decoding prevents the most common avoidable losses, doing the wrong action, drifting off the focus, or straying outside the scope.
Try this
Q1. What action does each command word ask for: identify, analyse, evaluate? [3 marks]
- Cue. Identify means locate information (AO1); analyse means explain method and effect (AO2); evaluate means judge against a statement with evidence (AO4).
Q2. Besides the command word, what two elements must you decode from a question, and why? [2 marks]
- Cue. The focus (the subject your evidence must match) and the scope (the text or lines you must stay inside); ignoring either loses marks.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of OCR exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
OCR 20198 marksExam strategy. Match each command word to what it asks you to do and to its assessment objective: identify, summarise, analyse, compare, evaluate. (Assesses understanding of command words.)Show worked answer →
This models command-word knowledge, which tells you exactly what each question wants. The matches: "identify" asks you to locate and list information (AO1); "summarise" or "synthesise" asks you to combine information, on Component 01 across both texts (AO1); "analyse" asks you to explain how a writer's method creates an effect (AO2); "compare" asks you to set two texts against each other on perspective and method (AO3); "evaluate" asks you to judge how well the text achieves something, against a statement, with evidence (AO4). Markers reward answers that do what the command word asks; doing the wrong action (analysing when asked to identify, describing when asked to evaluate) wastes effort on the wrong objective.
OCR 20226 marksExam strategy. Beyond the command word, name two other things you should decode from a question before answering, and explain why each matters. (Assesses understanding of question types.)Show worked answer →
A knowledge question about decoding questions. A strong answer names the focus (what the question is about, for example "a sense of menace" or "the writer's attitude to the city"), which matters because your evidence and effects must match that focus, not language in general; and the scope (which text or which lines, for example "look again at lines 10 to 16" or "using both texts"), which matters because evidence from outside the named scope scores nothing. It might also name the tariff, which signals how much to write. Markers reward answers that stay on the focus and inside the scope; ignoring either is a common, avoidable way to lose marks.
Related dot points
- Understanding the four reading assessment objectives AO1 to AO4 and how they map to the reading questions on both OCR components, knowing what each objective rewards so every reading answer targets the right skill.
What the four reading assessment objectives (AO1 to AO4) reward in OCR GCSE English Language and how they map to the reading questions on both components: retrieval and synthesis (AO1), language and structure analysis (AO2), comparison (AO3) and critical evaluation (AO4).
- Understanding the two writing assessment objectives AO5 and AO6 and how their marks split on each Section B task, knowing that AO5 rewards content and organisation and AO6 rewards technical accuracy so every writing choice targets both.
What the two writing assessment objectives (AO5 and AO6) reward in OCR GCSE English Language and how their marks split on each Section B task: AO5 for communication, content and organisation (24 marks) and AO6 for technical accuracy (16 marks, a fixed and guaranteed share).
- Managing time across both OCR components by weighting effort to the mark tariffs, planning the two-hour papers so the high-tariff reading questions and the 40-mark writing task each get proportional time.
How to manage time in OCR GCSE English Language: weighting effort to the mark tariffs across both two-hour components, splitting time evenly between the 40-mark reading and 40-mark writing sections, and keeping the short questions brief so the high-tariff questions get their share.
- Selecting and synthesising evidence from two unseen non-fiction texts (AO1), the synthesis question on Component 01 Section A, drawing points from both the 19th-century and the modern text and combining them clearly.
How to answer the AO1 synthesis question on OCR GCSE English Language Component 01: selecting evidence from both the 19th-century and modern non-fiction texts and combining it into clear, paired points, without analysing language or comparing how ideas are conveyed.
- Comparing writers' ideas and perspectives, and how these are conveyed, across the two literary prose texts (AO3), the comparison element of the final question on Component 02 Section A, building linked, evidenced points about both idea and method.
How to handle the AO3 comparison on OCR GCSE English Language Component 02: comparing the two literary writers' ideas and perspectives and how they convey them, building linked points that set one prose text against the other with evidence from both.
Sources & how we know this
- OCR GCSE English Language (J351) specification — OCR (2015)