Final reminders about OCR AS English Language Paper 2

1. WEDNESDAY 16TH MAY Paper 2

2. This is the paper where the mark scheme rewards you for:
• your knowledge, understanding and critical engagement with
language concepts, issues and theories (AO2) – in Section A and B
• and creativity (AO5) – in Section A only

3. EXAM - WEDNESDAY 16TH MAY – 1
HOUR & 30 MINS
Section A
500 word writing about a topical
language issue
Topics are related to language
and gender or language and
power
24 marks
40 minutes
Section B
Choose to answer on Language and
Power OR Language and Gender
Separate texts for Power and Gender
questions
Do NOT do both!
Analyse how power OR gender is
represented in a text
36 marks
50 minutes

4. WRITING ABOUT A TOPICAL
LANGUAGE ISSUE Section A

5. PAPER 2 SECTION A – 24 MARKS
NB – the stimulus quotation will change every year and the genre audience and purpose
of what you are asked to write will also change. This is an example only

6. WHAT THE EXAMINERS WANT…
AO2
Knowledge
Understanding
Critical Engagement
AO5
Elements of the Form
Register
Flair and Creativity

7. AO2 – KNOWLEDGE,
UNDERSTANDING AND CRITICAL
ENGAGEMENT.
Keep reading my Twitter feed to keep up to
date with topical examples you could use in
your own writing
Read the packs of 4 articles on some of the
gender and power topics on Moodle so you are
aware of different angles on these topics that
enable you to critically engage with alternative
viewpoints while strongly expressing your own
polemic.

8. AO5 - ELEMENTS OF THE FORM: IN
THE EXAM…If you cannot come up with a fantastic creative headline straight away, leave
a space for it and come back to it later
Same for the standfirst. This is written by the sub-editor once they have read
the journalist’s piece so it is a one sentence summary of the article and
addressed to the reader. It makes sense, therefore, to write this after you
have finished your article.
Don’t forget an image. Have you ever seen a magazine or news feature article without a
picture?
Of course, you can’t draw one in the exam but you can block out a space and indicate
what image you would select. This can be as simple as ‘photo of students sitting exams’
or ‘illustration of speech bubbles full of ‘hello’ in different languages’.
Don’t forget a caption for the image. Again, if you can’t do this immediately, leave a
space and come back to it later. 8
Headline
standfirst
image
captio
n

9. AO5 - CHOOSING THE RIGHT
REGISTER FOR THE AUDIENCE
SPECIFIED
This is another way you can raise your marks for AO5
Read carefully who the audience is meant to be
They will always be a non-linguist audience (ie people who have not
studied English Language at A Level or degree level)
So you must make sure you do not use linguistic jargon
Here’s how:

10. AO5 - FINALLY: FLAIR AND
ORIGINALITY
SOME REMINDERS
Don’t forget your persuasive rhetorical flourishes
Also… a bit of humour goes a long way
Entertain as well as inform and educate your reader
Use the linguist’s position to show you have been educated yourself
about the English Language during the course

11. LANGUAGE AND POWER
OR LANGUAGE AND
GENDER
Section B

12. PAPER 2 SECTION B – 36 MARKS

13. SECTION B – LANGUAGE AND
POWER OR LANGUAGE AND
GENDER
There will be 2 texts printed in the resource booklet. One is to use if
you choose the power question and the other is if you choose the
gender question
Make sure you use the correct text with the correct question!
Only choose one
Read both quickly; choose quickly
Annotate and COMMIT – do not change you mind and write about
the other text after 10 mins

14. POWER Representation of power
Who is powerful – the writer or the
reader?
 What type of power do they have?
 What language features reveal this power?
Who is represented as
powerful/powerless in the text?
 What type of power do they have?
 Is this in descriptions and references?
 Do we hear the ‘voices’ of both the
powerful and powerless?
 What language features in both reveal this
power?
Key concept –
REPRESENTATION
Think about POWER as you
read the text
 Does the text/writer have
influential power?
 Does the text/writer have
instrumental power?

15. GENDER How are the genders (male as well
as female) represented in the text?
 Look at how genders are described and
referred to – connotations?
 Does this conform to or challenge gender
stereotypes?
Do the genders ‘speak’ in the text?
 Is this real or represented speech?
 Does this speech conform to or challenge
gender stereotypes – genderlect theories?
Key Concept –
REPRESENTATION
Think about GENDER as you
read the text
 Is this a representation of
the genders? Does it
maintain or challenge
stereotypes of gender?
 Whose voice do we hear –
female or male? Does it
conform to or challenge
expectations about
genderlect?

16. EXAM TECHNIQUE – ONCE YOU
HAVE CHOSEN
12 mins: NOTE: Individually, read and annotate the text and decide what
to write about
Focus on who/what is being represented - binaries: powerful, powerless,
male, female?
 How?
 Language features that create this representation ?
 Who is doing the representing?
 Likely effect on the reader/audience?
 Possible purpose of the text?
 Concepts of either power or gender you can use to explain
why the language features is there

17. ESSAY PLAN
5 or 6 patterns of language (list or spider diagram) for the focus of
your paragraphs:
 Start with language features (AO1)
 Quote evidence (x3 for ‘pattern’)
 Explain how this feature reveals power (or gender)
 Link to concept/theory (AO2)
 Link to likely effect on reader/audience (AO3) and how other
contextual features have influenced choice of language or
representation
 Can you comment on the image/picture as supporting the
words?

18. TIPS FOR SUCCESS
Examiners will be looking for a response where these
3 AOs are integrated:
Potential pitfalls:
 Focusing too narrowly on single examples.
 Shoe-horning theory in to fit the data.
 Reproducing/repeating learned knowledge.
 Reproducing/repeating contextual information without
analysis.

19. DETAILS – WEDNESDAY 16TH MAY
Paper 2 – Exploring contexts - 1hr 30 mins
MORNING - 9am start
Section A – Writing about a topical language issue
24 marks
40 minutes
Section B – Representation of power OR gender (NB ONLY
ONE!)
36 marks
50 minutes

20. EXAM DAY
Best of luck!!
See you again in lessons on Thursday
17th June!
BEST OF
LUCK!!!