Speca › Topics › GCSE English Language

What is in this bundle

• Assessment mark schemeWord, editable
• End-of-topic assessmentWord, editable
• HomeworkWord, editable
• Retrieval-practice quizzesWord, editable
• SlidesPowerPoint, editable
• Starter & exit ticketWord, editable
• WorksheetWord, editable
• Worksheet mark schemeWord, editable

What students need to be able to do

• Write a piece of non-fiction, viewpoint-driven prose (e.g. an article, a letter, a speech, an essay: the specific form is set by the task) in response to a single writing task, related in theme to the Section A reading sources but requiring entirely original writing expressing the student's own perspective, not a response about those sources.
• Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for the task's audience, purpose and form (AO5, content strand): construct a persuasive, well-argued piece using techniques appropriate to argumentative/discursive writing, for example rhetorical questions, direct address to the reader, anecdote, counter-argument, and emotive or emphatic language, always matched to the specified audience and purpose (e.g. a formal letter to an official reads very differently from an opinion piece for a magazine).
• Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion (AO5, structure strand): structure an argument with a clear line of reasoning, an opening position, developed and evidenced points, acknowledgement or rebuttal of an opposing view where appropriate, and a clear conclusion, using paragraphing, topic sentences, and cohesive devices (e.g. discourse markers signalling contrast, addition, or emphasis) to guide the reader through the argument.
• Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation (AO6): as in Paper 1's writing section, but applied to persuasive/discursive rather than creative prose, see the cross-cutting assessment-objectives-and-technical-accuracy.md reference for the full AO6 standard.

Where students go wrong

• Writing a response to or about the Section A reading sources, rather than an original piece expressing the student's own viewpoint, merely related in theme.
• Ignoring the specified audience/purpose/form (e.g. writing in an informal, chatty register for a task that specifies a formal letter to an MP), which undermines AO5's requirement to adapt tone/style/register appropriately.
• Producing a one-sided rant rather than a genuinely structured argument: the strongest responses typically acknowledge an opposing view before countering it, rather than ignoring the existence of any counter-argument.
• Treating this task as identical to Paper 1's writing task because both are worth 40 marks with the same 24/16 content/technical-accuracy split: the purpose (argue/persuade vs describe/narrate) and appropriate techniques are genuinely different, and using narrative techniques here (or argumentative techniques on Paper 1) will undermine the response's fitness for purpose.
• As with Paper 1's writing section, neglecting technical accuracy until a rushed final check, when it is worth 16 of the 40 marks here too.

How it gets asked in the exam

"'[Provocative statement].' Write an article for a broadsheet newspaper in which you explain your point of view on this statement.", "Write a letter to..., in which you argue...", "Write a speech to be given to..., in which you persuade your audience that...".

Key vocabulary

Viewpoint, argument, discursive writing, persuasive technique, rhetorical question, direct address, counter-argument, rebuttal, anecdote, emotive language, topic sentence, cohesive device, register, audience, purpose, form.

Assumed prior knowledge

• Everything in 02-paper1-writing-descriptive-narrative.md's AO5/AO6 content (particularly the technical-accuracy standard, identical across both writing sections) plus genuine argumentative/discursive writing technique, distinct from creative narrative/descriptive technique.
• Basic familiarity with common non-fiction forms (letter, article, speech, essay) and their typical conventions (e.g. a letter's opening/closing conventions, a speech's direct-address style).

How Speca scaffolds this topic

• A shared "PEEL"-style (Point, Evidence, Explain, Link) or equivalent paragraph-structuring scaffold applied consistently across practice tasks, since building a sustained, well-evidenced argument is the core new skill this section demands beyond Paper 1's writing.
• A bank of counter-argument/rebuttal sentence starters ("Some may argue that... however...") to scaffold the acknowledge-then-counter structure that distinguishes stronger responses.
• Audience/purpose/form "translation" practice, the same rough content rewritten for two different specified audiences, to make register-matching a concrete, practised skill rather than an abstract instruction.
• The same separated content/technical-accuracy practice approach recommended in 02-paper1-writing-descriptive-narrative.md, applied here with persuasive/discursive rather than creative writing as the content focus.

More GCSE English Language topics

• Paper 1, Section A: Reading a Fiction Extract8 resources
• Paper 1, Section B: Descriptive or Narrative Writing8 resources
• Paper 2, Section A: Reading Two Linked Non-Fiction Sources8 resources
• Spoken Language (Non-Exam Assessment)8 resources