Comparing Writers' Viewpoints
Sixteen marks, one question, and one rule that fixes most answers: never write a paragraph about only one of the two writers.
About the examples on this page
The worked comparison below uses two original sources written by RCF English. They are not AQA sources, and no AQA mark scheme wording is reproduced. RCF English is not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by AQA.
AQA's own specimen papers and mark schemes are linked on the papers page.
AQA Paper 2 Question 4 is worth 16 marks and assesses AO3: compare writers' ideas and perspectives, as well as how these are conveyed, across two or more texts. The objective has two halves - what they think and how they show it - and both are marked. It is the only question on either paper that assesses AO3.
Why most answers lose marks here
- They summarise instead of comparing. Two paragraphs describing Source A, then two describing Source B, with the word however between them. The examiner has to do the comparing.
- They compare attitudes but not methods, or methods but not attitudes. Half the objective, half the marks.
- They rank the writers. Source A is better written is not a comparison of perspectives.
- They run out of time. It is the last question in Section A and it is worth the most.
The paragraph shape that fixes it
Name the difference
Open with the point of difference itself, not with a writer. The two writers differ most in how certain they allow themselves to sound.
Writer A: attitude, then method
A short quotation, what it shows about the attitude, and how the writing conveys it.
Writer B: attitude, then method
The same, connected explicitly - where the first writer asserts, the second concedes.
Weigh them
One sentence judging the effect: which is more forceful, more convincing, more honest, and why. This is the sentence that separates the top band.
Connectives that force real comparison
- Where ... , ...
- Puts both writers in one sentence and makes the contrast structural.
- Example: Where the first writer states, the second admits.
- By contrast
- Simple, clear, and signals a genuine turn.
- Example: By contrast, the modern writer refuses the claim entirely.
- Both ... , but ...
- Useful when the attitudes agree and only the methods differ.
- Example: Both value solitude, but one commands and the other confides.
- Whereas
- Best used mid-sentence, joining two clauses of equal weight.
- Example: The 1871 writer measures thinking in miles, whereas the columnist measures it in interruptions avoided.
- This is more persuasive because
- The weighing move. Rarely used and always rewarded.
- Example: This is more persuasive because she has already conceded her case is small.
A worked comparison
Question: Compare how the two writers convey their different attitudes to what walking is worth. (The two sources are on the Paper 2 questions page and are original RCF passages, not AQA sources.)
The two writers disagree most about whether walking improves the person doing it. The 1871 writer treats it as a discipline with measurable results, claiming that "the quality of a man's thinking may be measured tolerably well by the number of miles he has walked alone". The verb "measured" is doing the persuasive work: it borrows the language of science for what is really a preference, and the calm qualifier "tolerably well" makes the claim sound cautious when it is in fact enormous. By contrast the modern writer denies any improvement at all - "I did not have profound thoughts. Mostly I thought about lunch" - and conveys her attitude through anticlimax, setting up the expectation of insight in one sentence and puncturing it in the next. Where the first writer builds authority by sounding measured, the second builds it by sounding unimpressed with herself, and hers is the more persuasive method for a modern reader precisely because she has removed the motive for exaggeration.
They also differ in what they think walking gives back. For the older writer the gain is knowledge of a place got "by the body as well as the mind", a phrase whose balanced structure quietly presents a personal belief as an established distinction. For the columnist the gain is nothing to do with knowledge; it is "a stretch of the day that nobody could book a meeting in", where the intrusion of workplace vocabulary into a description of freedom conveys exactly what she is escaping. The older writer therefore argues for walking as an addition to a life, while the younger argues for it as a subtraction from one - and the subtraction is the more vivid case, because the reader recognises the meetings.
Why this answer works
- Both writers appear in every paragraph. Neither paragraph could be split in half without collapsing.
- Attitude and method are handled together, not in separate sentences: the attitude is named, then the writing that conveys it is analysed in the same breath.
- Each paragraph ends by weighing. Hers is the more persuasive method ... precisely because is the AO3 sentence that most answers omit.
- Quotations are short. Nothing longer than a clause, all embedded, which leaves room for analysis in a 20-minute answer.
- No ranking of quality. The comparison is about perspective and method, never about which writer is better.
Practice, then check
Original RCF practice task. Using the same two sources, compare how the two writers convey their different attitudes to the opinions of other people. Three paragraphs, about 20 minutes. Then check:
- Does every paragraph contain both writers?
- Have I named an attitude before analysing any method?
- Have I used a comparative connective in every paragraph?
- Have I weighed the two writers at least once?
- Have I avoided saying that one writer is simply better?
- Have I quoted briefly enough to leave room for analysis?
Questions about the comparison question
Should I compare attitudes or methods?
Both, in the same paragraphs. AO3 asks you to compare writers' ideas and perspectives as well as how these are conveyed, so an answer that does only one of the two has met half the objective and will be capped accordingly.
How many points of comparison do I need?
Three developed points, each in its own paragraph, is a full answer for 16 marks in about 20 minutes. Two very well developed points can also reach the top band; five thin ones will not.
What if the two writers largely agree?
Then compare how they agree. Two writers can hold the same view and convey it in entirely different ways - one through anecdote and one through statistics, one warmly and one angrily - and that is a legitimate and often high-scoring comparison.
Next
Paper 2 question by question
The full Section A method, with the two sources.
Language analysis techniques
The method behind the second half of every comparison.
Planning and structuring answers
Paragraph shapes for every question.