A hundred years apart, on purpose

Look at what this paper guarantees you before you have read a word of it. ⚠️ TEXT 1 IS ALWAYS NINETEENTH-CENTURY. TEXT 2 IS ALWAYS TWENTIETH OR TWENTY-FIRST. That is not how one paper happened to turn out. It is true of every paper you will ever sit for this component, and Question 2 then asks you to find similarities across that gap. ⭐ WHICH MEANS THE EXAMINERS HAVE DELIBERATELY HANDED YOU TWO TEXTS THAT SHARE ALMOST NO VOCABULARY. Think about what a hundred and fifty years does to English. The older writer has different words for ordinary things, a different rhythm, different manners. Even where the two texts are saying precisely the same thing, they will not be saying it in the same language. ⚠️ SO HERE IS THE MISTAKE THAT WRECKS THIS QUESTION, AND IT IS NOT A CARELESS ONE. IT IS A SENSIBLE STRATEGY APPLIED TO THE WRONG TASK. A student reads Text 1, reads Text 2, and looks for words that appear in both. Finding almost none, they conclude either that there are no similarities, or that they must settle for something trivial like "both texts mention people". Both answers score very little, and both come from searching at the level of words. ⭐ THE SIMILARITY IS NEVER IN THE WORDS. IT IS IN WHAT IS BEING CLAIMED. Two writers a century apart can make the same claim about people, or about a place, or about how something feels, and share not one adjective while doing it. ⚠️ YOUR JOB IS TO FIND THE CLAIM FIRST AND THE WORDING SECOND. And there is a reason this question is worth taking seriously even though it is only six marks. Question 4, the big one, asks you to compare how the two texts present something. ⚠️ YOU CANNOT COMPARE HOW UNTIL YOU HAVE FOUND THE WHAT IN BOTH TEXTS, which is exactly the move you are about to practise.

The two texts

Two practice extracts, written for this module. Read them both before going on, and notice how little they have in common on the surface.

Tap what is true of both texts

Tap the TWO statements that both extracts support. The wording will not match the texts, so read for the claim rather than the words.

A new invention has made a long distance feel much smaller than it used to
An older relative disliked the new thing at first and has come round to it
Both writers describe the new invention as physically dangerous
Both writers complain about how much the new invention costs to use

Why the search came up empty

A student compares the two extracts and writes that there are no real similarities because the texts are about completely different things. What has gone wrong?

They have searched for matching words rather than matching claims. A railway and a video call share no vocabulary, but the two writers say strikingly similar things about them
They have not read Text 2 carefully enough, and a closer reading would reveal shared words
They are right, and the question is unfair when the texts are this different
The nineteenth-century text is too difficult to understand, so no comparison is possible

Five words the mark scheme uses

Five terms, each defined by what it is. No examples from the extracts are given here.

Match each shared claim to how the two texts word it

A journey or a distance that used to be long has become short
The writer can hardly believe what has become ordinary
Something is lost as well as gained
An older relative resisted the new thing
The resistance did not last

Two days of hard travelling in one, and a fortnight for a reply in the other
Scarcely persuading oneself it has happened in one, and having stopped finding it remarkable in the other
Being unable to fix the eye on anything in one, and a silence that cannot be shared in the other
A warning that the human frame was never intended for it in one, and a year of hating the camera in the other
Asking when the next journey is in one, and calling if the writer is ten minutes late in the other

Two that follow from the century gap

Select the TWO statements that follow from the way this question is set.

The search should be for matching claims about people or things, not for matching vocabulary
Doing this well makes the final question easier, because comparing how two texts present something requires first locating what they both say
Marks here are earned by analysing the writer's language choices in each text
If no strong similarity can be found, a very general one such as "both texts mention people" will still score well

What this question is marked for

Every question in this section is marked against a different skill, and writing the right thing for the wrong question is the most expensive mistake available in Section A because it costs time as well as marks. ⚠️ THIS QUESTION CREDITS FINDING AND COMBINING. IT DOES NOT CREDIT ANALYSING, AND IT DOES NOT CREDIT JUDGING. So do not write about why the writer chose a particular word. Do not write about the effect of a metaphor. Do not say which text you found more convincing. All three are real skills, all three are worth marks elsewhere on this paper, and all three are worth nothing here. ⭐ WHAT IS CREDITED IS A STATEMENT THAT IS TRUE OF BOTH TEXTS, WITH SOMETHING FROM EACH TO SHOW IT. ⚠️ AND THE SHAPE MATTERS AS MUCH AS THE CONTENT. A paragraph about Text 1 followed by a paragraph about Text 2 is two summaries standing next to each other, and it can be perfectly accurate while scoring poorly, because nothing in it has actually been combined. Put the shared claim in the first clause of the sentence, and the evidence from both texts after it. One sentence, doing the joining out loud, is worth more than two paragraphs that leave the joining to the examiner. Two smaller habits that protect the marks. ⚠️ KEEP THE QUOTATIONS SHORT. You are pointing at evidence, not transcribing. A few words is usually enough, and a long quotation eats the time the eighteen-mark question needs. ⚠️ AND MAKE SURE EACH POINT REALLY IS ABOUT BOTH TEXTS. If you can delete one of the two references and the sentence still makes sense, you have written about one text and mentioned the other.

Building one point out of two texts

Take the claim that both writers describe something once slow becoming fast, and build it into an answer properly. Start with the weakest version, which is what most first attempts look like. "Text 1 is about a train journey that was quick. Text 2 is about video calls which are instant." ⚠️ ACCURATE, AND WORTH VERY LITTLE. Two separate observations have been placed next to each other, and the reader has been left to do the joining. Now the same material with the join done out loud. "Both writers describe a journey or a message that used to take days being completed in hours or less." ⭐ NOTICE THAT THIS SENTENCE IS TRUE OF BOTH TEXTS AND OF NEITHER TEXT ALONE. That is what makes it a combined point rather than two summaries. Then the evidence, kept short, one piece from each. "The first writer covers in a morning what cost his father two days of hard travelling, while the second contrasts a reply that once took a fortnight with a delay now measured in milliseconds." ⚠️ LOOK AT WHAT THOSE TWO QUOTATIONS HAVE IN COMMON AS WORDS. NOTHING AT ALL. One is about a father and hard travelling; the other about a fortnight and milliseconds. ⭐ THE SIMILARITY WAS NEVER GOING TO BE FOUND BY MATCHING VOCABULARY, AND THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT. One more, more quickly, so you can see the pattern repeat. The shared claim: an older relative resisted the new thing and then came to rely on it. The evidence: an aunt who declared she would not go again and has already asked when the writer next travels, and a grandmother who hated the camera for a year and now calls if the writer is ten minutes late. ⭐ SAME MOVE, DIFFERENT CLAIM. THAT IS THE WHOLE QUESTION.

Assemble a point that earns the marks

Build a synthesis sentence about what both writers say is lost as well as gained.

Order the way to hunt for a similarity

Put the steps in order, from picking up the paper to writing a point down.

Read both texts once through for what each is claiming, not for wording
Write down two or three claims the older text makes about people or things
Ask of each claim whether the modern text says anything like it, in any words at all
For a claim that survives that test, find one short piece of evidence in each text
Write the shared claim as a single sentence, then attach the evidence from both

The synthesis run

Five questions on finding and writing cross-text similarities. Three lives.

Complete the synthesis facts

Combining material from more than one text into a single statement covering both is _____. Something a text shows to be true without stating it directly is _____. The level of formality and the kind of vocabulary a writer uses is _____. The particular skill a question is marked for, printed in the specification, is its _____.

synthesis an inference register assessment objective evidence a summary a comparison a quotation

Three answers in front of you

Three attempts at this question. In each case the mark is in the reasoning, not the verdict.

An answer reads: "Both texts mention travel and both texts mention family members." It is accurate. Why will it score poorly?
An answer devotes a paragraph to Text 1, then a paragraph to Text 2, each accurate and well quoted. The two paragraphs never refer to each other. How would you improve it?
A student says they cannot find any similarity because one text is about a train and the other is about the internet. What would you tell them?

Explain how to find a similarity worth writing

A classmate says this question is impossible because the two texts are always about different things. Write them an explanation of how to approach it.

Explain what is always true about the dates of the two texts, and why that is done deliberately
Explain why searching for words that appear in both texts will almost always fail
Explain what to search for instead, and give a worked example using the two extracts in this module
Explain the shape a point should take, and why two accurate paragraphs side by side score poorly
Explain which skills are credited by this question and which belong to other questions on the paper
Finish by explaining how doing this well makes the final, much larger question easier

Synthesis Warm-Up

Use it, the way the marks are given

What you'll cover