Dos and Don'ts in The Changing Language of Literature examination

The Opening Paragraph
DO
• Start with a brief summary
• Focus on these extracts
• Point out common features
AVOID
• General background on authors
• Setting the scene with overview of whole texts
• Prepared openings on genre and style

Identifying Ideas (section one)
DO
• Read both extracts carefully
• Clearly identify the ideas in these extracts
• Plan a balanced list so both extracts get attention
AVOID
• Over-reliance on prepared lists of expected themes and ideas
• Distorting the extracts to fit preconceived ideas

Some Ways of Presenting Ideas
DO
• Show how characters are being presented
• Explain the impact of genre, literary and linguistic devices, dialogue
• Discuss the crafting of the extract
AVOID
• Describing the content and/or re-telling the story
• Random feature-spotting
• Selection without explanation

Language Choices Conveying Attitudes and Values (section two)
DO
• Be specific about attitudes and values
• Explain the crafting of the extract and the use of connotation, irony, innuendo, suggestion
pejorative terms etc
AVOID
• Broad descriptions of characters, unlinked to these extracts
• Selection without explanation
• Leaving the examiner to draw conclusions

Changes in Language and Style Over Time (section three)
DO
• Include a range of features
• Discuss changes in style and readers? expectations
• Link information to the wording of the extracts
AVOID
• Over-dependence on examples from other parts of the texts
• Pre-digested information unlinked to the extracts
• Selection without explanation

Relating the Extracts to the Whole Text (section four)
DO
• Show knowledge of the texts, genre, style
• Identify recurring themes and point out the atypical
• Make specific references to similar instances/ideas/values
AVOID
• The over-reliance on the deficit mode: "the extract doesn't show..."
• Assertion without exemplification: "this happens a lot"

Outline Planning

It is always helpful if students have a clear idea of how to map out the whole of the exam
response without spending too much time on preparation.
The Outline Planning Grid should be useful in ensuring that all points are going to be covered. The proportion of writing for each bullet point may be different and there is no intention to be prescriptive as to the way in which candidates present their final answer.

The Question

Put the extracts briefly into context.
Draw brief conclusions about common features, signalling differences where appropriate.
Comment upon ideas in both extracts and the ways in which they are presented.
Comment upon how the writer's language choices in each extract help to reveal attitudes and
values.
Comment upon what the language of the two extracts tells us about changes in language and style
over time.
Are the ideas, attitudes and values revealed in these extracts characteristic of those to be found in
each text as a whole? Suggest a few specific examples from each text to demonstrate your points.

Writing the Response
The Opening Paragraph
A brief summary that puts the extracts into context is often very effective

Avoid prepared openings on genre and style


Identifying ideas and ways of presenting them

It is often convenient to link a discussion of ideas, with evidence about attitudes and values and changes in readers' expectations.

Many candidates underestimate the impact of changing tastes and do not always make much reference to the different effects of register.

To answer this first bullet point effectively, candidates need to show they understand the crafting of the extract.

It is essential that candidates get beyond the meaning and consider how the meaning is conveyed.

Language choices conveying attitudes and values

It is often useful to link analysis of literary and linguistic features with ideas about attitudes and values, as well as with references to the whole text.

A very good area for exploring attitudes and values is through a study of dialogue. The dialogue allows characters to demonstrate their personality. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes's own language shows how he considers himself intelligent.


A good example of changing style is literature is seen by the way in which speech is represented. The modern writer often tries to give an appearance of spontaneity, whereas lengthy exchanges in 19th century literature were accepted as part of the literary genre.

Changes in language and style over time

Unit 2 has been developed to allow candidates to study the aspect of English language associated with change. Most candidates can pick out the unfamiliar and identify the modern. Some candidates do not go any further.

The better essays will show an ability to discuss the nature of the changes that have taken place and will use some appropriate terms to describe the changes.

Relating the extracts to the whole texts

The final bullet point requires candidates to comment upon the relationship between each set extract and the whole text. In linking the ideas, attitudes and values found in the set extracts with those found in the whole texts, the best answers are likely to use exemplification and specific references to support their argument. Some credit can be given to answers that simply identify recurring ideas, attitudes and values. Likewise, those answers that identify ideas, attitudes and values found elsewhere in the text but not represented in these extracts, can be given some credit for a relevant contribution to the discussion.
Reference to the way in which characters are consistently portrayed can be helpful in this section. This point could have been strengthened by specific exemplification from other parts of the book.