Technical Accuracy in Literature

The one question that marks HOW you write

Everywhere else in this qualification, the examiner marks what you say about the text. Here, on the post-1914 play or novel, they also mark the writing itself. This is the only question in the whole of 1ET0 where AO4 is assessed. AO4 asks for a range of vocabulary and sentence structures, used for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation. The essay itself - the argument, the context, the evidence - is a different job, and a different module. This one is about the marks you can win or lose without changing a single idea. And there is a complication: the exam is closed book. No text, no dictionary, nothing to check against.

What AO4 is actually looking at

Four strands, plus the two error types that cost more marks than everything else combined:

What does AO4 actually reward?

Which of these would gain you AO4 marks in this question?

• Varying your sentence structures on purpose and spelling your literary terms correctly
• Writing a longer essay, since more writing gives more chances to show ability
• Including as many quotations as you can remember from the text
• Writing neatly, in your best handwriting, with clear paragraph breaks

One word is wrong

This student sentence contains exactly one misspelling. Tap it. Be careful: three of the words highlighted are spelled correctly, and they are the ones people usually panic about.

• The
• playwrite
• uses the storm to build an
• atmosphere
• of dread, and the silence of the
• protagonist
• in Act Two
• foreshadows

Two sentences, one comma

Somewhere here, two complete sentences have been glued together with nothing but a comma. Tap the part that should have been a sentence of its own.

• The writer condemns the family for their complacency
• , they never once ask what became of the girl
• . By the final act the
• audience's sympathy
• has moved entirely, and the
• playwright
• has made his point without ever stating it.

Match each error to the fix

The words you cannot look up

Four words will almost certainly appear in your essay, and none of them can be checked in a closed exam. The person who wrote a play is a _____. The main character is the _____. A speech delivered alone on stage is a _____. The mood a scene creates is its _____. Choose the correct spelling of each, because in this question they are marked by _____.

Same point, two ways of writing it

Neither of these students knows anything the other does not. One of them is being paid for the writing as well as the idea.

Which two are technically accurate?

Select the TWO sentences with no spelling or punctuation errors.

• The storm creates an atmosphere of unease; the audience senses the collapse first.
• By the final act, the family's confidence has gone, and no one is left to admire.
• The writer shows the class system is unfair, this is shown clearly through the inspector.
• The playwrite explores it's themes through the setting, which the audience notice at once.

One sentence, four drafts

Four students make the same point. Put the versions in order, from the one that loses most AO4 marks to the one that wins them.

• "the playwrite shows the class system is bad, this is shown alot."
• "The playwright shows the class system is bad, this is shown through the inspector."
• "The playwright shows the class system is unfair; the inspector exposes it."
• "The playwright exposes an unfair class system. The inspector's questions dismantle it."

You cannot look anything up

This is the part candidates never plan for. The exam is closed book: no text, no notes, no dictionary. So accuracy is not something you produce in the exam. It is something you bring in. Build a list, and it can be short. The terms you will definitely use (playwright, protagonist, soliloquy, atmosphere, characterisation), plus the names of the three or four characters you will write about. Character names are the trap: you have read them a hundred times and written them almost never. Then keep the last four minutes free. Reread what you wrote, in this order: any comma joining two complete sentences, then the punctuation around your quotations, then those key spellings. Four minutes of checking protects more marks here than four minutes of extra writing, because this is the one question where the writing itself is marked.

Three decisions

You are in the exam, writing the post-1914 essay.

• Four minutes left. You could add another paragraph, or reread what you have written. Which protects more marks HERE?
• Rereading, you find you have written ", this is shown by" three separate times. What is the problem, and what do you do?
• Your final paragraph uses "shows" four times. You have ninety seconds. What is the best use of them?

One paragraph on your own text

Write one paragraph about the post-1914 play or novel YOU have studied, on any moment where a character changes. Everything here transfers: the accuracy is what is being practised, not the text.

• Make one clear point about the moment, with a brief piece of evidence
• Use at least two precise verbs instead of "shows"
• Include one long sentence and one deliberately short one
• Spell every literary term and character name correctly, from memory
• Then reread it once, hunting only for a comma joining two complete sentences