Two Texts Compared

Two Texts Compared

**Q4 (16 marks, AO3)** is Paper 2's big comparison. Two writers, one theme, and usually **opposite** opinions. Your job is to **compare** them. And not just what they think: Q4 wants how each writer's **methods** make you feel their viewpoint. This module builds that double comparison.

Text A. A tech column, 2021

Two writers on living with smartphones. First, an enthusiast: *What a time to be alive. In my pocket sits a device that would have seemed pure sorcery to my grandmother. a camera, a map, a library, a link to everyone I love. My daughter video-calls her cousins in Lagos as easily as calling downstairs. We are, for the first time in history, never truly alone. People love to moan about screens, but I say: look up from your worrying and marvel. We have built magic, and we get to hold it.*

Text B. A magazine essay, 2022

Now a very different view on the same subject: *We are the most connected generation in history, and the loneliest. Watch a train carriage: twenty people, twenty glowing rectangles, not one word exchanged. My own phone buzzes like a needy pet, and I obey. At dinner, in bed, mid-conversation with the people I claim to love. We were promised the world in our pockets. What we got was a leash. I do not want to look at another screen. I want to look at a face.*

A different kind of compare

Careful: Paper 2 asks you to compare **twice**, in different ways, and answering one with the other is the commonest way to lose the 16 marks:

Writer A's attitude

Read Text A again. Tap the phrase where the writer's **wonder** at technology is strongest.

• My daughter
• video-calls her cousins in Lagos
• as easily as calling downstairs. We are
• never truly alone
• .
• We have built magic, and we get to hold it
• .

Writer B's attitude

Now Text B. Tap the **metaphor** that shows the writer's negative view: that technology traps us.

• We were
• promised the world in our pockets
• .
• What we got was a leash
• .
• I do not want to look at another screen
• .

Name what you found

Writer A's attitude is _____: technology is a source of wonder, and he calls it magic. Writer B's is _____: technology is something that traps, and she calls it a leash. Each builds that view with a _____, but pointing in opposite directions. Noticing that is what lifts a Q4 answer from merely describing two views to genuinely _____ them.

Compare the methods too

A top Q4 does not just say the writers disagree. It shows **how** each conveys their view, side by side. Both reached for a **metaphor**, but in opposite directions: "**magic**" fills the reader with wonder, whereas "**a leash**" makes technology feel like a trap. Comparing the *methods* is where the marks climb. And the metaphors are not the only pair. Look for any method BOTH writers use, then ask what each one does differently. That question is the whole of AO3.

Both writers use a list

Text A lists "a camera, a map, a library". Text B lists "at dinner, in bed, mid-conversation". Which sentence compares those two lists the way Q4 wants?

• Writer A's list piles up the wonders held in one pocket, whereas Writer B's piles up the places the phone intrudes, so the same technique builds opposite feelings.
• Writer A uses a list of three to show how much a phone can do.
• Both writers use lists in their writing.
• Writer A's list is longer than Writer B's list.

Rank the comparisons

Here are three Q4 responses comparing the two writers. Put them in order from WEAKEST to STRONGEST.

• A: "Text A likes phones. Text B does not like phones."
• B: "Both writers feel strongly. Writer A is positive about technology and Writer B is negative."
• C: "Writer A celebrates connection as 'magic', whereas Writer B feels trapped, dismissing the phone as 'a leash'. Opposite attitudes conveyed through opposite metaphors."

What is B missing?

Response B reads: "Both writers feel strongly. Writer A is positive about technology and Writer B is negative." It is clearly better than A, but it still will not reach the top band. Why not?

• It never quotes either text, and never names a method, so there is no analysis of HOW the attitudes are built
• It fails to state what each writer's attitude is
• It only writes about one of the two texts
• It never mentions what the texts are about

Write the comparison

Q4 practice. In about 60 words, write ONE paragraph comparing how the two writers convey their DIFFERENT attitudes to technology. Follow the shape:

• state each writer's attitude, linked by a connective (whereas / in contrast)
• support each with a short quotation
• name the method each uses (metaphor, listing, tone, word choice) and its effect on the reader
• make it ONE point about BOTH texts, not two separate sentences side by side

In the exam

Q4 is worth 16 marks and tests _____. Unlike Q2, which compares the information in the two texts, Q4 compares the writers' _____ and the _____ they use to convey them. Weave BOTH texts into every point with a connective such as "whereas", and never name a method without going on to give its _____ on the reader.