OCR Component 01: Communicating Information and Ideas

Forty marks in about an hour. The marks below are OCR's; the method attached to each is RCF English's own.

The short answers: 2 marks + 2 marks

Two short questions on one text - typically give two things and explain two reasons. AO1: identifying and interpreting information and ideas.

Method. One mark per point, so give exactly the number asked for and no more. Where the question says give, a short quotation or a close paraphrase is enough; where it says explain, you must add why. Stay strictly inside the line references.

Time: about 5 minutes for both. Students routinely spend fifteen. These are four marks out of eighty.

The six-mark question: synthesis

This is the question that distinguishes Component 01 from Component 02. It asks you to synthesise information from both texts - to combine what the two say about the same thing, rather than analyse how either says it.

Method. Every sentence should contain both texts. Both writers describe crowded conditions, but where the first counts people, the second counts smells. Do not write a paragraph on Text 1 followed by a paragraph on Text 2; that is a summary of each, not a synthesis of both.

This is not the comparison question. Synthesis is about what the texts say; the eighteen-mark question later is about how they say it and how well. Confusing the two is the single most common error on this paper.

Time: about 8 minutes.

The twelve-mark question: language and structure

On one of the texts. AO2: explain, comment on and analyse how the writer uses language and structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology.

Method. Three developed paragraphs beat six thin ones. Take a short quotation, say what the choice does to the reader, then take it one step further - what it implies, or what it stops the reader from thinking. The mark scheme's top band asks for analysis rather than explanation, and the difference is that second step.

Terminology is required but not rewarded on its own. Naming a metaphor earns nothing; saying what this particular metaphor does earns the mark. Use the term, then move past it in the same sentence.

Time: about 20 minutes.

The eighteen-mark question: comparison and critical evaluation

The biggest question in Section A, and it is marked in two parts that are added together: 12 marks for AO4 (evaluate texts critically, supported by textual references) and 6 marks for AO3 (compare writers' ideas and perspectives, and how these are conveyed).

Method. Because AO4 is worth twice AO3, the bulk of the answer must be evaluation - judging how effectively each writer achieves what they set out to do - with comparison as the frame that holds it together. An answer that compares neatly but never evaluates loses twelve of the eighteen marks.

Both texts in every paragraph. Then, in each paragraph, say which writer does it better and why. That last sentence is where AO4 lives, and it is the sentence most answers leave out.

Time: about 25 minutes.

One non-fiction task from a choice of two, worth 40 marks: 24 for AO5 and 16 for AO6. About an hour, and it is worth exactly as much as the whole reading section.

OCR specifies that the task is connected to the reading theme, has a specified form, audience and purpose, and is supported by bullet points. It may ask you to describe, explain, inform, instruct, argue or persuade.

• Read the form, audience and purpose and obey all three. They are stated, not implied. A letter to a head teacher and an article for a local paper are different registers, and AO5 explicitly credits adapting tone, style and register.
• Use the bullet points as a plan. They are there for support and they map onto a sensible paragraph structure. Ignoring them wastes a free plan.
• Do not draw the layout. OCR states that presentational and visual features are not assessed. Boxes, columns, mastheads and bullet-pointed leaflets earn nothing and cost minutes.
• Protect the 16 AO6 marks. A fifth of the whole qualification is vocabulary range, sentence variety, spelling and punctuation. Leave five minutes to check sentence endings, paragraph breaks and any word you are unsure of.
• Length. Around 400 to 500 words of controlled writing beats 800 rushed ones. AO6 is easier to lose than AO5 is to gain.