AQA ENGLISH LANGUAGE
How to get good marks for AO6 for English Language writing tasks (P1Q5 and P2Q5)
Getting the punctuation marks
This is the 2nd guide in a 3-part series focussing on AO6 — the 16 mark assessment objective for the English Language writing tasks. The mark scheme is identical for both papers, so the guides apply to fiction and non-fiction writing.
This guide is part of the English Language AO6 series:
Part 2 - Getting the punctuation marks
Reminders from part 1 — the 5 key questions
In the first guide in this series, we discussed how the assessment criteria for AO6 creates the following key questions that you need to understand to do well in AO6. We went through the first, rather complex question in that guide.
1. What is a sentence and how do you know when one starts and ends in order to “consistently” do demarcation accurately? Identify the clauses in your sentences; then check you’ve not joined any of them together with commas.
2. How do you accurately do the punctuation that students often get wrong?
3. How do you use a “wide range” of punctuation?
4. How do you create “varied sentence forms” with “complex grammatical structures” and with “control of agreement”?
5. What is “ambitious” vocabulary and how do you use it “extensive[ly]”?
In this second guide in the series we’ll cover the second and third question about punctuation.
In the third guide we’ll look at the last two questions.
Q2: How do you accurately do the punctuation that students often get wrong? (AO6 — Bullet Point 2 - “high level of accuracy”)
Aside from the the comma-splicing (joining clauses with commas) which we discussed at length in the first guide in this series, there are two problematic areas of punctuation for students that tend to be fairly obvious to markers, resulting in lost marks for punctuation accuracy in AO6. They are the use use of apostrophes and commas. We discuss both of these punctuation marks in detail in our punctuation guides, but we’ll quickly run through the rules for both now.
Apostrophes
Getting these right is relatively straightforward. Most of you learnt these rules at primary school. The apostrophe should be used in two distinct situations: one is to show contraction and the other is possession.
1. An apostrophe is used in contractions when a word or letter(s) is missing.
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.
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.
3. 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 (with an apostrophe). Because an apostrophe is used for possession, people often think that it’s means belongs to it. This is perfectly understandable but wrong. To express belongs to it you need to use its (no apostrophe), which is 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 (with an apostrophe), on the other hand, is a contraction. It always means it is. If you find this confusing, you’re not alone, but just remember: it’s always means ‘it is’. Always, 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*Knowing the rules of grammar does have it’s benefits.
*Knowing the rules of grammar does have it is benefits. NO - don’t use the apostrophe
Commas
These are much more complex than apostrophes, and it’s okay to make mistakes here: commas are legitimately difficult and somewhat subjective (see below), so mistakes are understandable. But commas are very common, and you must not forget to use them. Otherwise, you’ll definitely lose marks. On balance, you’re probably better off using too many commas rather than too few.
We’ll go through the five most common situations that you need to remember to use commas, in rough order of priority.
Situation 1: Around non-essential words and phrases that interrupt the flow of a sentence, including relative clauses
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.)
Situation 2: Fronting — when you use a sentence starter word/phrase
This is similar to 1, only it’s at the start of the sentence and the words here are generally not non-essential, though they could be. 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)
If the fronted part of the sentence is a short adverbial phrase, it is acceptable — for style purposes — to leave out the comma. This is especially common if the whole sentences is short. So: At first it was hard would be acceptable, but so would At first, it was hard. This is one of those subjective cases that we mentioned earlier.
Situation 3: Between co-ordinate clauses
A comma should be used before a coordinating conjunction if it connects two main clauses, 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. This is another one of those subjective cases that we mentioned earlier.
Situation 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.”
Situation 5: Direct address
Commas should be used whenever you include direct address not through the pronoun ‘you’. 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.
Q3: How do you use a “wide range” of punctuation? (AO6 — bullet point 2)
Of all the things in this series of guides, this one is the easiest to do, providing you can also do what we covered for the previous question. Using a “wide range” of punctuation essentially means this:
Use the common punctuation accurately: full-stops, commas, apostrophes, speech marks
Use some less common punctuation accurately: dashes and semi-colons
Don’t worry about colons: these have their place in writing, of course, but in the kind of writing you’ll be doing for your GCSE, it’s unlikely you’ll use them. Just get the basics right and make sure you include some dashes and semi-colons in your piece — they are far easier to use than colons.
We’ll go through how to use these two less common punctuation marks now.
Dashes
There are two situations in which you’re likely to want to use a dash (the long hyphen): for parenthesis and to attach a phrase or clause on to the end of another sentence.
Situation 1: For parenthesis
Parenthesis is most commonly what you do with brackets, where you add a bit of sidebar content into the middle of a sentence. There’s an example of this in the next sentence of this paragraph, where we’ve used brackets. Parenthesis can also be done with commas (see examples in the situation 1 use of commas above), but dashes are a third way to do it. They are often used when the bit in the parenthesis 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 or commas. Let’s look at two examples to make this clearer. In both cases, brackets or commas could be used, but dashes work too, and they’re better for getting AO6 marks:
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.
Situation 2: To attach a phrase or clause onto the end of a sentence
This is generally what students mean to do when they comma-splice (e.g. join sentences together with commas). They want to attach a sentence onto the end of another one, but a full-stop pause feels too long and final, so they join the sentences with commas instead. Never do that — just use a dash instead. We’ve done this several times in this guide already:
Just get the basics right and make sure you include some dashes and semi-colons in your piece — they are far easier to use than colons.
For exam purposes, you should never use brackets for parenthesis — always use dashes instead.
Never do that — use a dash instead.
You can see both of these dash-situations in the short paragraph below, which is taken from ‘The Little Friend’ by Donna Tartt. It makes excellent use of dashes!
Example of both uses of the dash in a two-sentence paragraph
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, 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, so the semi-colon works well; it conveys the connection.
When NOT to use a semi-colon
When the two clauses are not closely related, you should use a full-stop or a conjunction to join them together instead. For example:
Johnny always cleans his teeth at night. He also 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, and it allows you to potentially receive those extra AO6 marks for using a “wide range” of punctuation.
That concludes question 3, and also this guide in the series. One guide to go!
What’s coming up in the final guide in the series
In the final guide in this 3-part series we’ll look at the last two questions in our original set of five:
4. How do you create varied “sentence forms” with “complex grammatical structures” and with “control of agreement”?
5. What is “ambitious” vocabulary and how do you use it “extensive[ly]”?
We’ll also recap the 5 questions (and the answers to them) and look at one final example extract that you can use to check your understanding of everything in this series.