Fact or Inference?

Fact or Inference?

Welcome to **Paper 2**. Instead of one story, you get **two non-fiction texts** on the same theme. One from the **19th century**, one from **now**, and questions that test how well you handle **information**. First skills to nail: telling a **stated fact** from an **inference**, and **synthesising** both sources into one answer. Both sources ahead were written for this module. Your real exam sources will differ.

Text A: the 1861 coast

We arrived at the coast on the morning train, two hundred souls in our Sunday best. The promenade was a marvel of modern improvement, lined with bathing-machines drawn by patient horses. Ladies bathed apart from gentlemen, as decency demands, and a brass band played upon the pier. The sea air did wonders for my constitution, though a single ice cost a shilling. Daylight robbery, in my view.

Text B: the same coast, 2019

Forget the brochures. The British seaside is gloriously, defiantly the same as ever. We piled off the train, phones out, and hit the front: arcades screaming, chips vinegar-sharp in the salt air, a single deckchair costing more than the train ticket. Nobody swims much now; it's too cold, and frankly we'd rather queue for doughnuts. But something in that grey horizon still pulls you back, year after year.

Fact vs inference

**Q1 is worth 4 marks and tests AO1.** It rewards **explicit** information: what the text actually **states**. It does NOT want **inferences**, the things you cleverly work out. Save those for later questions.

Stated, or worked out?

Which of these is a fact explicitly STATED in Text A, rather than something you have to infer?

• Ladies bathed apart from gentlemen
• The writer valued proper, modest behaviour
• Victorian society was strict about the sexes mixing
• The writer disapproved of people swimming together

Find the fact

In this line from Text A, tap the phrase that states an observable **fact**, rather than the writer's opinion.

• The promenade was
• a marvel of modern improvement
• ,
• lined with bathing-machines drawn by patient horses
• . The
• sea air did wonders for my constitution
• .

Build a Q1 answer

Q1 pays only for what Text A states. Drop the right retrievals in: the party arrived on the _____, the ladies bathed _____ the gentlemen, and a single ice cost _____.

Fact, not inference

Pick the TWO statements that the texts explicitly STATE, rather than inferences you would have to work out.

• In Text A, ladies bathed apart from gentlemen
• In Text B, few people swim at the seaside now
• In Text A, the writer approved of strict social rules
• In Text B, the writer is fond of the seaside despite its faults

Q2: bringing the texts together

**Q2 is worth 8 marks and tests AO1.** It asks you to **summarise and synthesise** both texts on a given focus. **Synthesise** is the key word: **combine and compare** the two sources, don't describe them one after the other. A strong Q2 uses evidence from **both** texts in the **same point**, drawing out what is similar or different.

Build a synthesis point

Put the four moves of a strong Q2 synthesis point into order.

• Name the shared idea both texts show
• Give evidence from Text A
• Give matching or contrasting evidence from Text B
• Spell out the similarity or difference in one sentence

Why this scores badly

A student writes: "Text A describes bathing-machines and a brass band. Text B describes arcades and doughnuts." What stops this from being a Q2 synthesis?

• It never links or compares the two texts
• It uses too few quotations from each text
• It never analyses the writers' language choices
• It writes about Text A before Text B

A good synthesis point

Which sentence is a strong Q2 SYNTHESIS point, drawing on BOTH texts?

• Both writers grumble about the cost. A shilling for an ice in Text A, and an overpriced deckchair in Text B.
• Text A uses the word "promenade".
• The seaside is next to the sea.
• Text B mentions doughnuts.

Quote for the point

You are building a synthesis point about **cost**. Tap the phrase in Text B you would quote alongside Text A's shilling ice.

• We piled off the train,
• phones out
• , and hit the front:
• arcades screaming, chips vinegar-sharp in the salt air
• ,
• a single deckchair costing more than the train ticket
• .

Write the synthesis point

Write ONE synthesised Q2 point about how the two texts present the COST of a day at the seaside. Use evidence from both sources in the same point.

• Open by naming the shared idea both texts show.
• Quote Text A on what something cost, and what the traveller makes of it.
• Quote Text B on cost inside the SAME point, not in a new paragraph.
• Close by spelling out the similarity, so the two texts are combined and not just listed.
• Keep to what the texts state. Q1 habits still apply here.