Building the part (a) comparison: reading a thematically linked unseen prose or drama extract quickly, comparing it with the printed extract from your studied text, and integrating language and method across both (AO1 and AO2, with AO3 inferred from the extracts).

What this dot point is asking

Part (a) of Component 01 Section A prints the extract from your studied text next to an unseen extract in the same genre on a similar theme, and asks you to compare how the two writers present that theme. Both extracts are on the page, so this part tests reading and comparison skill, not memory. You integrate language and method across both (AO1 and AO2), inferring any context from the extracts (AO3).

Read the unseen extract first

Because the unseen extract is the part you have not prepared, give it your first attention. Read it twice, quickly, for its central idea and its dominant method before you start writing.

Build an idea-led comparison

The structure that scores is one where both extracts appear together in every paragraph, organised by points of similarity and difference rather than by extract.

Integrate language, form and structure

For each extract in each paragraph, name a method and explain its effect, then compare. In a drama-with-drama pairing, compare stagecraft and dialogue: how each playwright uses a stage direction, a pause, or an interruption to shape a relationship. In a prose-with-prose pairing, compare narrative method: how each narrator's voice, sentence rhythm or chosen detail positions the reader. Keep the quotations short and precise, and make sure every quotation is doing AO2 work, naming the technique and reaching the effect. Balance is rewarded, so check that neither extract is analysed richly while the other is mentioned in passing.

Handle context from the page

OCR assesses AO3 in this question, but because the unseen extract is genuinely unseen, the context you use is inferred from the extracts and the short introduction printed with them, not learned in advance. If the unseen extract clearly depicts a domestic argument, a wartime setting, or a class divide, you may comment on that social or cultural context as it shapes the writing. What you must not do is bolt on a paragraph of historical background about your studied text that the comparison does not need.

Try this

Q1. Which extract should you annotate first, and why? [2 marks]

• Cue. The unseen extract, because you already know your studied text and the marks depend on reading the new one well.

Q2. Where does your AO3 context come from in part (a)? [2 marks]

• Cue. From the extracts themselves and the printed introduction, inferred rather than learned in advance.