AQA English Language Paper 2: Non-fiction
How to answer Q4 – comparing the writers
For this question you have to compare the feelings and perspectives of the two writers in the texts. Make sure you compare the writers themselves (what they think and feel) and not the way they present things in the source. And make sure you analyse methods.
This guide is part of the English Language Paper 2 series:
Paper 2 Question 4 - comparing the writers
Contents of this guide
Overall structure and example for this question
Steps for tackling this question
Figure out the perspectives of the writers – planning step
Figure out the feelings of the writers – planning step
Highlight and annotate evidence which you can analyse – planning step
Write an introduction summarising the comparison – writing step
State how the writer of Source A feels, using embedded contextualised evidence – writing step
Explain and analyse the evidence for Source A – writing step
Compare Source B to Source A – writing step
Example response
Overall structure and example for this question
Start with a short paragraph with a conceptualised summary which compares the attitudes of the two writers.
Example introduction
In Source A, Mike Doyle, in his autobiography, recalls falling immediately in love with surfing as a young man; he admired the surfers and longed to become one himself, though this was no easy task for him. In Source B, Isabella Bird, in a letter to a friend, also recalls being impressed by the surfers she saw, but she doesn’t feel the urge to take part herself and is happy to admire them from the safety of the beach.
Then write at least 2 comparative paragraphs, working chronologically through the texts (beginning + end or beginning + middle + end, if you have time), each with the following basic structure:
A. Feelings and evidence from Source A
B. Explanation and analysis of methods in the evidence from Source A
C. Comparative feelings and evidence from Source B
D. Comparative explanation and analysis of methods in the evidence from Source B
Example comparison paragraph
[A] In Source A, Mike Doyle recalls being immediately impressed by the surfers, calling them “bronzed gods” and feeling as if he was “on the board” himself as he watched them. [B] The metaphor “bronzed gods” implies that Doyle idolised the surfers; they were superhuman, beings to be worshipped, with their suntans causing them to resemble bronze statues. Instead of being intimidated, Doyle was imaginatively transported onto their surfboards, so great was his desire to surf. [C] Isabella Bird, however, did not feel this same desire to surf herself, though she was also impressed by the surfers, who she claims rode in “majestically” on the huge waves. [D] This adverb, with its royal connotations, suggests she admired the surfers almost as much as Doyle; they were graceful and beautiful, even in this perilous situation. However, she is more aware than Doyle of the danger surfing presents. She holds her breath in “terror” (a powerful emotion) as the surfers dice with death, and she never expresses any desire to join them in the sea herself.
Steps for tackling this question
1. Figure out the perspectives of the writers – planning step
Before you look for evidence, you need to consider the perspectives of the writers: this means looking at where they stand in relation to the thing they’re describing.
Are they describing something they have personally experienced or are they describing something which affects others?
Are they describing how they felt as they experienced it, or are they looking back on it from some future point?
Are they running away from the exploding volcano, or are they watching it from 100 miles away?
Are they writing about something that happened to them yesterday or something that happened to them as a child?
Etc
This will affect how you interpret their attitudes in the next step because the writers’ perspectives may be very different in the two sources.
Examples of perspectives
Source A = looking back to own youth much later in life;
Source B = letter to a friend, written shortly afterwards about personal experience.
2. Figure out the feelings of the writers – planning step
For this step, you should focus most on how the writers personally feel about the topic, and NOT how they present the topic to the reader. This is a common mistake that students make because you’re all so used to doing this for other types of question.
Consider this example based on a newspaper opinion piece about climate change:
The writer presents climate change as something on which young people should have more say.
The writer thinks that young people should have more say on how climate change is handled.
The writer is angry that older people are the ones making the decisions about climate change; she wishes young people could have more say since they are the ones who will have to live with its consequences.
The third box shows a much clearer understanding of the writer’s attitude by including their feelings and desires. This is what you need to do for this question.
You should also consider how the perspectives of the writers might affect their feelings:
are they looking back in hindsight or describing their feelings in the moment?
do they know how things will turn out?
are they describing how they feel about something or how it feels to experience it?
etc
This will help to make your analysis more sophisticated and push you up towards the highest marks.
Examples of attitudes
Source A: loves surfing; idolises the surfers; excited by the sport; immediately wants to take part and be a surfer.
Source B: amazed by skill of surfers; horrified by the huge waves; enjoys watching them from the beach.
3. Highlight and annotate evidence which you can analyse – planning step
Once you’ve got a sense of the general attitudes and perspectives, you need to choose your evidence. You should work chronologically through each text in case the writer’s feelings change between the start and end. For example, they might have started off dreading their visit to Glastonbury, so this evidence would be good for the first paragraph, but they might have quite enjoyed the festival in the end, so this evidence would be good to use in your final paragraph. Each piece of evidence must include at least one method that you can analyse.
Examples of evidence that could be analyse
Source A:
[Start] “bronzed gods” (metaphor), “as if I already knew that feeling in my bones” (metaphor)
[End] “I … completely panicked” (verb).
Source B:
[Start] “rode in majestically” (adverb), “held my breath in terror”
[End] “is it always afternoon here, I wonder?” (rhetorical question), “enchanted shores” (adjective).
4. Write an introduction summarising the comparison – writing step
Now you are ready to write your response. Begin with a two-sentence introduction summarising your comparison of the writers’ attitudes and perspectives in each text. This is important: you are assessed on your ability to compare in this question. Try to succinctly capture the essence of the comparison, and focus on feelings.
Example introduction
In Source A, Mike Doyle, in his autobiography, recalls falling immediately in love with surfing as a young man; he admired the surfers and longed to become one himself, though this was no easy task for him. In Source B, Isabella Bird, in a letter to a friend, also recalls being impressed by the surfers she saw, but she doesn’t feel the urge to take part herself and is happy to admire them from the safety of the beach.
5. State how the writer of Source A feels, using embedded contextualised evidence – writing step
Each comparative paragraph should begin with a statement about how one of writers feels, using evidence from the text to support it. This could be a single sentence or two sentences (feelings first, then evidence), whichever feels more natural.
If possible, you should work chronologically, using evidence from the start of the texts in your first paragraph and evidence from later parts of the texts in subsequent paragraphs, though this is not essential.
Example paragraph opening with feelings and evidence
In Source A, Mike Doyle recalls being immediately impressed by the surfers, calling them “bronzed gods” and feeling as if he was “on the board” himself as he watched them.
6. Explain and analyse the evidence for Source A – writing step
There are notionally two parts to this step, though in practice they will often be done at the same time.
First, you need to elaborate on the writer’s attitude by explaining more clearly how they feel; second, you need to analyse how the methods they have used help to convey these feelings.
You might do this by describing what the technique implies about the writers’ feelings (anger, pride, admiration, etc), or by analysing how it affects the tone of the piece (apologetic, enthusiastic, outraged, solemn, thoughtful, etc) and what this tone implies about the writer’s feelings.
Do NOT mention the reader during your answer to this question: focus on the writer’s feelings.
Example analysis
The metaphor “bronzed gods” implies that Doyle idolised the surfers; they were superhuman, beings to be worshipped, with their suntans causing them to resemble bronze statues. Instead of being intimidated, Doyle was imaginatively transported onto their surfboards, so great was his desire to surf.
7. Compare Source B to Source A – writing step
Now repeat Steps 5 and 6 for Source B. You need to use related evidence from that source (e.g. evidence which is similar to or contrasts with the evidence from Source A), and you must make links back to what you wrote about Source A, using comparative connectives like ‘similarly’, ‘however’ and ‘also’, as well as comparative determiners like ‘more’ or ‘less’.
Otherwise, just follow the same rules as you did in Steps 5 and 6: focus on feelings.
Example comparative evidence and analysis
Isabella Bird, however, did not feel this same desire to surf herself, though she was also impressed by the surfers, who she claims rode in “majestically” on the huge waves. This adverb, with its royal connotations, suggests she admired the surfers almost as much as Doyle; they were graceful and beautiful, even in this perilous situation. However, she is more aware than Doyle of the danger surfing presents. She holds her breath in “terror” (a powerful emotion) as the surfers dice with death, and she never expresses any desire to join them in the sea herself.
This creates the following start to the response, which we saw at the start of this guide
In Source A, Mike Doyle, in his autobiography, recalls falling immediately in love with surfing as a young man; he admired the surfers and longed to become one himself, though this was no easy task for him. In Source B, Isabella Bird, in a letter to a friend, also recalls being impressed by the surfers she saw, but she doesn’t feel the urge to take part herself and is happy to admire them from the safety of the beach.
In Source A, Mike Doyle recalls being immediately impressed by the surfers, calling them “bronzed gods” and feeling as if he was “on the board” himself as he watched them. The metaphor “bronzed gods” implies that Doyle idolised the surfers; they were superhuman, beings to be worshipped, with their suntans causing them to resemble bronze statues. Instead of being intimidated, Doyle was imaginatively transported onto their surfboards, so great was his desire to surf. Isabella Bird, however, did not feel this same desire to surf herself, though she was also impressed by the surfers, who she claims rode in “majestically” on the huge waves. This adverb, with its royal connotations, suggests she admired the surfers almost as much as Doyle; they were graceful and beautiful, even in this perilous situation. However, she is more aware than Doyle of the danger surfing presents. She holds her breath in “terror” (a powerful emotion) as the surfers dice with death, and she never expresses any desire to join them in the sea herself.