GCSE English Language Paper 2

Written Paper 1 Hour 30 Minutes

Section B

Reading Section Poems from Other Cultures: 1 hour

You will require your ANTHOLOGY for this section.
You will be asked to answer one question on Poems from Other Cultures.

You may revise ONE cluster of poems. There will be one question on a
named poem from each cluster, so you can choose to answer on the
cluster you have studied.
HOWEVER, if you have studied the poems in BOTH clusters, you will
have a choice of question. It is acceptable to compare the named poem
with one from the other cluster; in fact, you can refer to ANY of the
poems in your answer.































GCSE English Language Paper 2
Section B

Written Section : 45 minutes

WRITING TO INFORM, EXPLAIN OR DESCRIBE

You will be expected to answer ONE question from this section.

See the following information which provides examples of appropriate
phrases to begin your sentences and paragraphs for each of these skills.



INFORM

There are many kinds of If you want to then you
need to
The one I am most interested in is In order to begin, you need
to
The pleasure I find in Make sure that you
The excitement lies in Some people enjoy
By far the most interesting aspect Other kinds of

Some other features:

clear introduction
provide a context for what you are going to write
wide range of different aspects of the topic
detail
technical language, perhaps explained briefly
systematic and logical organisation
use of personal experience
use of present tense
clear links between paragraphs
unusual and interesting detail specific to the subject



EXPLAIN

Because The first thing to do is
Another reason Later on, I
Although Ultimately
Nevertheless Contrary to popular belief
The most important As a result
Above all else Consequently
Despite the fact that Inevitably

Some other features:

range of reasons
range of appropriate detail
specific examples of different kinds to support explanation
range of responses to why
range of responses to how
different points expanded and linked


DESCRIBE

It is more difficult to pick out particular words or phrases which might be
useful here, but there are a range of features characteristic of effective
descriptive writing which you could draw on:

wide range of appropriate detail
use of modifiers such as adjectives and adverbs
use of colour
use of senses: sight, touch perhaps texture, hearing, taste and
sound
emotive words and words to convey atmosphere
use of metaphor and simile
use of personification (if appropriate)
denser language than in many of the other forms
possibly use personal reactions
variation of sentence type and length
rich, varied, perhaps unusual vocabulary