English Language & Literature syllabus, dot point by dot point

Analysing language for effect: examining a writer's word choices, imagery and language techniques in unseen texts, and explaining the effect on the reader using subject terminology (AO2).

Analysing structure for effect: examining how a text is organised, including openings, shifts, focus, paragraphing and endings, and explaining the effect on the reader (AO2).

Comparing perspectives and attitudes: synthesising information across two texts and comparing writers' ideas, viewpoints and attitudes, supported by evidence (AO3).

Editing at word, sentence and text level: demonstrating understanding of a short text by correcting and improving it for accuracy and clarity in the editing task (AO4).

Evaluating a text critically: judging how effectively a text achieves its purpose, recognising bias and viewpoint, and supporting an evaluative response with evidence (AO3).

Inference and deduction: reading between the lines to work out implied meanings, attitudes and feelings, and supporting each inference with evidence from the text (AO2).

Locating and retrieving information: finding and selecting explicit facts and details from unseen texts accurately, including short list and find questions (AO2).

Reading non-continuous texts: interpreting information presented in non-continuous forms such as lists, tables, graphs, captions and layout features, and using it accurately (AO2).

Argumentation writing: constructing a reasoned, balanced argument on an issue for the Unit 3 writing task, using logical structure, evidence and counter-argument, written accurately (AO5 and AO6).

Communication and organisation: communicating clearly and imaginatively and organising writing with paragraphing, cohesion and structure across the writing tasks, for half the writing marks (AO5).

Description writing: crafting vivid descriptive writing of setting, atmosphere and detail for the Unit 2 writing task, controlling imagery, the senses and structure for effect (AO5 and AO6).

Exposition writing: explaining or informing clearly and logically for the Unit 2 writing task, organising information for a purpose and audience and writing accurately (AO5 and AO6).

Matching form, purpose and audience: adapting tone, style, register and conventions to the form, purpose and audience set in the writing tasks (AO5).

Narration writing: crafting a controlled narrative with a clear structure, viewpoint and tension for the Unit 2 writing task, written accurately (AO5 and AO6).

Rhetorical and persuasive techniques: writing to persuade in the Unit 3 task using rhetorical devices, emotive language, direct address and structure, matched to purpose and audience and written accurately (AO5 and AO6).

Technical accuracy and proofreading: using accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar and a range of vocabulary and sentence structures, and completing the proofreading task, for half the writing marks (AO6).

Analysing the printed drama extract: reading the passage closely for dialogue, stage directions and dramatic method, selecting short quotations and reaching the effect on the audience, then using the extract as a springboard to trace the idea across the whole play (AO1 and AO2).

Approaching the WJEC Literature drama text: studying a post-1914 or literary heritage play, knowing it is examined by an extract question and a whole text question, and analysing the playwright's dramatic methods rather than retelling the action (AO1 and AO2).

Analysing character and theme in drama: tracing how the playwright develops a character or a theme across the whole play through dramatic method, and arguing what the play suggests, supported by quotation from across the text (AO1 and AO2).

Using context in drama answers: relating a play to the society, period and attitudes it engages or was written in, and embedding relevant context as a clause that explains how a moment would strike its audience, rather than as bolted-on background (AO4).

Analysing dramatic method and staging: examining dialogue and subtext, stage directions (lighting, set, entrances, exits and silences), structure (act and scene shape, climaxes and dramatic irony) and stagecraft, always reaching the effect on the audience (AO2).

Writing the drama answer: structuring the extract question as close reading and the whole text question as an idea-led argument, opening from the extract where one is printed, budgeting time in proportion to the marks, using flexible quotations, reaching the effect on the audience and writing with accuracy (AO1, AO2 and AO4).

Analysing an unseen poem: reading for meaning and tone first, then working through language, form and structure to build a reading, selecting precise quotations and reaching the effect, using a transferable method rather than memorised content (AO1 and AO2).

Comparing two anthology poems: choosing a pairing that genuinely shares the named idea, comparing both poems together in every paragraph with connectives, integrating language, form and structure, and keeping coverage balanced (AO1, AO2 and AO3).

Comparing two unseen poems: reading both for meaning, finding the shared idea, then writing an idea-led comparison that treats both poems together in every paragraph with connectives, integrating language, form and structure, with no context (AO1, AO2 and AO3).

Analysing language, form and structure in poetry: examining diction and imagery, the poem's form (stanza shape, line length, rhyme and metre) and its structure (the order, turns and movement of ideas), and reaching the effect on the reader for each (AO2).

Studying the WJEC poetry anthology: knowing the set poems of Welsh Writing in English, learning each poem's central idea, tone and key methods, and grouping the poems by theme so you can pair them for the comparison task (AO1 and AO2).

Writing the poetry answer: planning comparative points before writing, structuring anthology and unseen comparisons as idea-led answers, budgeting time in proportion to the marks, quoting precisely and writing with accuracy (AO1, AO2 and AO3).

Analysing characterisation in prose: explaining how a writer presents a character through description, dialogue, action, narrative voice and other characters' views, tracing the character's development across the novel and arguing the writer's purpose (AO1 and AO2).

Analysing the printed prose extract: reading the passage closely for diction, imagery, sentence structure and narrative voice, selecting short quotations and reaching the effect, and, where the question asks, using the extract as a springboard into the whole novel (AO1 and AO2).

Approaching the WJEC Literature prose texts: knowing that you study a prose text from a different culture and a 19th century or literary heritage novel, that each is examined by an extract question and a whole text question, and that answers must analyse the writer's methods, not retell the plot (AO1 and AO2).

Exploring the themes of a prose text: identifying the novel's central ideas, tracing how the writer develops a theme across the whole text through method and motif, and arguing an interpretation of what the writer suggests, supported by quotation (AO1 and AO2).

Using social and historical context in prose answers: relating a novel to the society, period and cultural attitudes it was written in or depicts, and embedding relevant context as a clause that sharpens the analysis of a writer's choice, rather than as bolted-on background (AO4).

Writing the prose answer: structuring the extract question as close reading and the whole text question as an idea-led argument, budgeting time in proportion to the marks, using flexible memorised quotations, and writing with accuracy (AO1, AO2 and AO4).

Analysing the printed Shakespeare extract: reading the passage closely for verse, imagery and dramatic method, selecting short quotations and reaching the effect on the audience, then using the extract as a springboard to trace the idea across the whole play (AO1 and AO2).

Approaching the WJEC Shakespeare play: studying one play in full, knowing it is examined by a question that engages the whole play (often through a printed extract that opens out to the play as a whole), and analysing Shakespeare's methods rather than retelling the story (AO1 and AO2).

Analysing character and theme in Shakespeare: tracing how Shakespeare develops a character or a theme across the whole play through dramatic method and motif, and arguing what the play suggests, supported by quotation from across the text (AO1 and AO2).

Using Shakespearean context: relating the play to the beliefs, social order and theatrical conventions of Shakespeare's time, and embedding relevant context as a clause that explains how a moment would strike the original audience, rather than as bolted-on background (AO4).

Analysing Shakespeare's dramatic methods: verse and prose, soliloquy and aside, imagery and antithesis, dramatic irony and stagecraft, always moving from naming the method to explaining its effect on the audience (AO2).

Writing the Shakespeare essay: building an idea-led argument that engages the whole play, opening from the extract where one is printed, using flexible memorised quotations, reaching the effect on the audience, embedding context and writing with accuracy (AO1, AO2 and AO4).

Listening and responding: attending to others, responding appropriately to questions, feedback and contributions, and adapting your talk in the moment (AO1).

Spoken Standard English and register: choosing and sustaining an appropriate formal register, using grammatical accuracy and a range of sentence structures in speech, for half the oracy credit (AO1).

The group discussion: responding to a written or visual stimulus, contributing ideas, building on and challenging others, and sustaining spoken Standard English in interaction (AO1).

The individual researched presentation: planning and delivering a structured spoken presentation on a WJEC-set theme, sustaining spoken Standard English and an appropriate register, and responding to questions and feedback (AO1).