AQA ENGLISH LANGUAGE
How to get good marks for AO6 for English Language writing tasks (P1Q5 and P2Q5)
This final English Language guide is focussed on AO6 — the 16 mark assessment objective for both English Language writing tasks. The mark scheme is identical for both papers, and so this guide applies to both the fiction and non-fiction paper.
Contents of this guide
What this guide is about — the two AOs for writing
The contents of this guide apply to both English Language writing questions (P1Q5 and P2Q5) since they both use the same mark scheme. There are two assessment objectives for these questions:
AO5: “Communicate clearly, effectively and imaginatively, selecting and adapting tone, style and register for different forms, purposes and audiences. Organise information and ideas, using structural and grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion of texts.” (24 marks)
AO6: “Candidates must use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.” (16 marks)
In simple terms, these descriptors mean the following:
AO5 — whole texts: How good are your characters/ideas, plot/argument, narrative voice/style, structure, cohesion and paragraphing? This is the focus of our various creative writing skills guides for these questions and we have lots of information about this.
AO6 — sentences: How accurate and well-written are the sentences in your piece of writing? This is the focus of this guide.
The six bullet points for AO6 in the AQA mark scheme
Focus of the bullet point
Example descriptor: Level 2 — Grade 5
Example descriptor:
Level 4 — Grade 8-9
1. Sentence demarcation
Sentence demarcation is mostly secure and sometimes accurate
Sentence demarcation is consistently secure and consistently accurate
2. Punctuation
Some control of a range of punctuation
Wide range of punctuation is used with a high level of accuracy
3. Sentence forms
Attempts a variety of sentence forms
Uses a full range of appropriate sentence forms for effect
4. Grammatical accuracy
Some use of Standard English with some control of agreement
Uses Standard English consistently and appropriately with secure control of complex grammatical structures
5. Spelling*
Some accurate spelling of more complex words
High level of accuracy in spelling, including ambitious vocabulary
6. Vocabulary**
Varied use of vocabulary
Extensive and ambitious use of vocabulary
Notes on the mark scheme bullet points
* This bullet point won’t be covered in this guide. Just write some stuff on a computer and see what words it flags up as spelled wrongly. Then learn those spellings. It’s not rocket science.
** This bullet point won’t be covered here either. It is harder to do vocabulary well and cannot be easily addressed here or in any single guide. You can and should learn some ambitious vocabulary to use it in your writing, but there’s no shortcut to doing this well. We do have a section of the website focussed on vocabulary learning, so that’s a good place to start. You should also read books — that’ll definitely help. We have a section of the website about that too.
What does it all mean? 4 key questions for doing well at AO6.
This assessment criteria creates the following key questions that you need to be comfortable with to do well in AO6. We’ll work through these questions in the remainder of this guide.
What is a sentence and how do you know when one starts and ends in order to “consistently” do demarcation accurately?
How do you accurately do the punctuation that students often get wrong — commas and apostrophes?
How do you use a “wide range” of punctuation?
How do you create “varied sentence forms” with “complex grammatical structures”? And how do you do this accurately with “control of agreement”?
What is a sentence and how do you know when one starts and ends? (Bullet Point 1 - “sentence demarcation”)
This first part is quite technical, but it’s important for understanding not just how to demarcate sentences, but also for understanding some of the punctuation rules to come (bullet point 2 in the mark scheme), and for understanding what it means to create “varied sentence forms” (bullet point 3 in the mark scheme). This part of the guide will lay the groundwork for all that as concisely as we can manage, though it’s a little bit complicated. We’ll keep thing as simple as we can, but there are 4 steps we need to go through.
1. Verbs are the heart of sentences
The first thing you need to get your head round is that verbs are the heart of sentences. Every sentence must have a verb, and, specifically, what is called a main verb. The main verbs in a sentence are the verbs that convey tense. So, if you change the tense of a sentence, the main verbs are the ones you need to change. The other verbs in a sentence are generally participles, which don’t convey tense (they’re what’s called non-finite). Let’s look at a quick example to make this a bit clearer:
Harriet walked through the freight yard towards the woods, hopping over the tracks and humming to herself.
This sentence has three verbs: one main verb (walked) and two present participles (hopping, humming). You can tell that “walked” is the main verb because it’s the one you would need to change if you wanted to change the tense of the sentence. At the moment it’s in the past tense; the present tense version of the sentence would be this:
Harriet walks through the freight yard towards the woods, hopping over the tracks and humming to herself.
Notice that “walked” is the only verb that changes — the two present participles stay exactly the same. That’s because “walked” is the only main verb in this sentence.
Let’s look at another few quick examples — see if you can spot the main verb (the one that conveys the tense) in each one before we explain.
Shopping is fun.
Running as fast as possible, she went to the station.
Her voice was very loud in the silence.
She had not eaten a burger like this before.
Some of these are slightly tricky. Let’s go through them quickly:
Shopping is fun. Here the main verb is …. is. So, the past tense version would be Shopping was fun. In this case the main verb is the verb ‘be’, which is one of the trickest ones to spot (see below).
Running as fast as possible, she went to the station. Here the main verb is … went. This is the past tense version of the verb ‘go’ — another tricky one to spot. In the present tense it would be: Running as fast as possible, she goes to the station. Notice that the whole sentence is the same, except for the main verb.
Her voice was very loud in the silence. Here the main verb is … was. This is ‘be’ again.
She had not eaten a burger like this before. Here the main verb is … had eaten. This one is very tricky because it’s in the past perfect tense, so there’s an auxiliary and a participle (it’s a verb phrase, technically) and because it’s negated (it’s got a “not” in the middle). There is not nearly enough room to explain this here, but you should be able to see the tensed verb is ‘had’ — that’s the one you’d change if you went to the present tense (She has not eaten a burger like this before).
If you’re thinking this is hard, don’t panic. Sometimes it is (like with example 4), but mostly it isn’t. And you don’t have to be an expert. You just need know what a main verb is. Why? Well, when it comes to identifying clauses (and therefore sentences), which is essential for correct sentence demarcation, being able to recognise the main verb (or main verbs, plural) is the key step. We’ll look at why in just a minute.
Verbs to be careful of when looking for the main verb
The two verbs that often throw people are ‘be’ and ‘go’ because they are very irregular in English, so people don’t always even realise they’re verbs. ‘Be’ has lots of irregular forms (is, are, were, etc) and ‘go’ becomes a seemingly different verb in the past tense (went). Try not to get caught out by this.
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2. Main verbs make clauses
Clauses are the core of sentences – a sentence contains one or more clauses
· Clauses need a main verb
· Where is the main verb? What is the subject of the verb?
· Is there a new subject/verb combo? If so, there’s a new clause.
3. Clauses can be joined to make compound/complex sentences
· Conjunctions – coordinating / subordinating / relative
· Colons and semi-colons
4. Where does a sentence end?
End of sentence = end of last clause that is not followed by a conjunction or a colon/semi-colon
How do you accurately do the punctuation that students often get wrong — commas and apostrophes? (Bullet Point 2 - “high level of accuracy”)
Apostrophes
Getting these right is relatively straightforward. Most of you learnt these rules at primary school, so we’ll just recap them here. The apostrophe should be used in two distinct situations: one is to show possession and the other is contraction. We’ll briefly explain both now.
1. An apostrophe is used in contractions when a word or letter(s) is missing.
For example:
Don’t go outside. (Do not)
I’ll finish my homework later. (I will)
2. An apostrophe shows possession. Use it to show that one thing belongs to another.
For example:
John’s new shoes are red.
These are the student’s books. (Several books belonging to one student.)
These are the students’ books. (Books belonging to a group of students.)
The lions’ den. (More than one lion)
Rufus’s books.
One strange case: its vs. it’s
One common and understandable area of confusion arises around the distinction between its (no apostrophe) and it’s. Because an apostrophe is used for possession, people often think that it’s (with an apostrophe) means belongs to it. This is perfectly understandable, but wrong. Its (no apostrophe) is actually a special possessive determiner, like your or his or her. It just happens to sound the same as it’s.
I gave Bernice her food.
I gave Jack his food.
I gave you your food.
I gave the lion its food.
It’s, on the other hand, is a contraction. It means it is. If you find this confusing, you’re not alone, but just remember: it’s ALWAYS means ‘it is’. Always, always. So, if you’re not sure if you need the apostrophe or not, just try the sentence with ‘it is’ in your mind to check if it works:
It’s raining outside.
It is raining outside. YES - use the apostrophe*I gave the lion it’s food
*I gave the lion it is food. NO - don’t use the apostrophe
Commas
These are more complex than apostrophes, and it’s okay to make the odd mistake here because commas are legitimately difficult (and somewhat subjective). But you must not forget to use them entirely, and you’re probably better off using too many commas rather than too few. We’ll go through the 5 most common places you need to remember to use commas, in rough order of priority.
1. Around non-essential words and phrases that interrupt the flow of the sentence, including relative clauses (most common)
Use commas around non-essential words and phrases, including relative clauses or adjuncts, like similes or participle phrases, which can be at the start, end or middle of the sentence. If these words are dropped, the sentence will still make sense and keep its basic meaning. This is a form of parenthesis and sometimes other punctuation can be used instead, such as brackets or dashes.
My teacher, Mr. Smith, is a great singer.
(My teacher is a great singer.)The elephant, which is massive, careened into my garden and straight through the empty hammock.
(The elephant careened into my garden and straight through the empty hammock.)She moves with gingerly concern, like a child who's been told not to spill something on herself.
(She moves with gingerly concern.)Harriet cut through the freight yard towards the woods, hopping over the tracks and humming to herself.
(Harriet cut through the freight yard towards the woods.)This is the most common use of commas and is similar to situation 2, below.
(This is the most common use of commas and is similar to situation 2.)
2. Fronting — when you use a sentence starter word/phrase
This is very similar to 1, only it’s at the start of the sentence. A comma should be used when you start a sentence with a subordinate clause, an adverbial phrase (including participle phrases) or an introductory word (called a disjunct):
While my wife floats around in zero gravity, I have to paint the new fence. (subordinate clause)
After I’d eaten my dinner, I went out to scare away the elephant. (subordinate clause)
At the first sign of trouble, elephants flee. (adverbial phrase)
However, they create even more mayhem when frightened. (disjunct)
Destroying everything in its path, the elephant ran through the small Suffolk town. (adverbial phrasing, using a participle phrase)
Honestly, it was a disaster. (disjunct)
3. Between co-ordinate clauses
A comma should be used before a coordinating conjunction if it connects two main clauses (clauses that are capable of standing alone as a sentence), called co-ordinate clauses.
Johnny wants a pet elephant, and my wife wants a wolverine.
I don’t like animals, but my opinion doesn’t count for much in this house.
If the two main clauses are very short, it is acceptable — for style purposes — to leave out the comma. So: I am a bus driver and my wife is an astronaut would be acceptable.
4. Direct speech
A comma should be used to separate direct speech from the rest of a sentence. You can read a lot more about this in our guide to direct speech.
“You need to do the washing-up while I scare off the elephant,” I told Johnny.
Johnny said, “Alright.”
5. Direct address
Commas should be used whenever you include direct address. This is when a person’s name or title is used in a sentence to actually address the person.
Well done, Sally! You got all your commas right in this exercise.
I don’t know about you, Peter, but I’m getting tired of all these references to elephants and wolverines in these examples.
This is a good point to take a break. Read the rest of the guide later.
How do you use a “wide range” of punctuation?
Of all the things in this guide, this one is the easiest to do, providing you can do what we covered in the second question (e.g. not making mistakes with the common punctuation). Using a “wide range” of punctuation essentially means this:
Use the common punctuation accurately: full-stops, commas, apostrophes, speech marks
Use the less common punctuation accurately:
Dashes
Semi-colons
Don’t worry about using colons: these have their place in writing, of course, but in the kind of writing you’ll be doing for your GCSE, colons are the least likely punctuation you’ll use, and when students try to crowbar colons into their writing, it usually does more harm than good. Just get the basics right and use dashes and semi-colons. Then you’ll be good.
We’ll go through how to use these two less common types of punctuation now.
Dashes
There are two situations in which you are likely to want to use a dash (the long hyphen): for parenthesis or to attach a phrase or clause on to the end of another sentence.
1. Parenthesis
This is most commonly what you do with brackets. It’s also something that you can do with commas (see situation 1 example above). Dashes are another way to do parenthesis, usually when the bit between the dashes is too long for commas, and when brackets don’t feel right. For exam purposes, you should never use brackets for parenthesis — always use dashes instead. For example:
Slowly she walked — gazing up at the dark canopy — and she did not notice the loud buzzing of flies, which grew louder and louder until she smelled a bad smell and looked down.
A glittering green snake — not poisonous, for its head was not pointed, but unlike any snake she had ever seen — lay dead on the path ahead of her.
2. Attaching a phrase or clause onto the end of a sentence
This is generally what students mean to do when they comma-splice. They want to attached a sentence onto the end of another one and the full-stop pause feels too final, so they join them with commas. Don’t do that — use a dash instead. We’ve done this twice already in this part of the guide:
For exam purposes, you should never use brackets for parenthesis — always use dashes instead.
Don’t do that — use a dash instead.
You can see both of these situations combined in the paragraph below, taken from ‘The Little Friend’ by Donna Tartt:
Example of both uses of the dash
She broke into the sunlight and suddenly sensed that she was not alone. High in the corner of her vision, a silver flash jumped out at her — out of the sky, it seemed — and Harriet saw, with a jolt, a dark shape crawling hand over hand up the ladder of the water tower. Again, the light flashed — a metal wristwatch, glinting like a signal mirror.
Semi-colons
When to use a semi-colon
Use a semi-colon when you want to form a bond between two main clauses sentences, typically when they are related to or contrasted with one another. For example:
Johnny always cleans his teeth at night; he has very healthy gums.
In this example the relationship between cleaning his teeth and having healthy gums is strengthened by the semi-colon. The fact Johnny always cleans his teeth is clearly connected to his healthy gums.
When NOT to use a semi-colon
When the two clauses are not closely related, you should use a full-stop or a conjunction. For example:
Johnny always cleans his teeth at night. He has very neat hair.
Johnny always cleans his teeth at night, and he has very neat hair.
Here, Johnny’s teeth-cleaning routine does not need to be connected to his neat hair, so a full-stop or the conjunction ‘and’ is more appropriate than a semi-colon.
The trick with the semi-colon is working out when the statements are connected. Here are some more examples:
The ice cream van drove past my house today; the driver had green hair.
My aunt wears huge glasses; she looks like an owl.
In all of the semi-colon examples above, a full-stop could be used instead of a semi-colon to create two separate sentences, and it would still be grammatically correct. However, the semi-colon suggests a stronger bond between the statements so works best in cases like these.
Plus, it allows you to potentially receive those extra AO6 marks for using a “wide range” of punctuation.
How do you create varied “sentence forms” with “complex grammatical structures”? And how do you do this accurately with “control of agreement”? (Bullet Points 3 and 4)
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Control of agreement = don’t mix your tenses + use plural and singular forms correctly (e.g. A pack of wolves was/*were circling the camp)
Varied sentence forms = mixing clauses/phrases in varied ways
· Fronted subordinate clauses
· Embedded relative clauses
· Embedded participle phrases
Let’s look at some examples in our first extract to help you get a sense of this.
One final example extract to check your understanding
To finish this already rather long guide, we’ve included a short extract which does pretty much everything we talk about here. To test your understanding have a read through it paying special attention to each sentence.
How does it meet some of the criteria for AO6 that we’ve discussed in this guide?
Can you identify the main verb(s)?
Why is that punctuation used?
Extract from ‘The Explorers’ by Katherine Rundell
At first Fred went fast, his head down, marking the trees with an X scratched in the bark, watching his feet among the roots and fallen branches. But soon he began to slow. There was so much to look at, so much that was strange, so much that was new and vast and so very palpably alive.
The trees dripped down their branches, laden with leaves broad enough to sew into trousers. He passed a tree with a vast termite nest, as big as a bathtub, growing around it. He gave it a wide birth.
The greenness, which had seemed such a forbidding wall of colour, was not, up close, green at all, Fred thought. It was a thousand different colours — lime and emerald and moss and jade and a deep dark almost black green that made him think of sunken ships.
Fred breathed in the smell. He'd been wrong to think it was thick, he thought; it was detailed. It was a tapestry of air.