English Language A: All Topics

Non-fiction presents real people, events, experiences or ideas; it may still use creative language and selective narration.

Factual writing, such as memoir or travel writing, that uses crafted narrative, description or other literary techniques.

AO1: understanding and interpretation; AO2: analysis of language and structure; AO3: links and comparisons between ideas, perspectives and their presentation.

Read and understand varied texts, selecting and interpreting relevant information, ideas and perspectives.

Understand and analyse how writers use linguistic and structural devices to achieve effects.

Explore connections between writers’ ideas and perspectives, and how those are conveyed.

One previously unseen extract and one text from Part 1 of the Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Anthology.

A passage not provided for prior study, requiring interpretation and analysis using transferable reading skills.

Whole and extended, challenging non-fiction texts with complex content, structures and language, not just short snippets.

Journalism, speeches, journals and reference extracts; literary non-fiction examples include autobiography, letters, obituaries and travel writing.

The examination includes unfamiliar writing, so broader reading develops adaptability to new topics, voices, registers and structures.

Reading tests interpretation, analysis and comparison (AO1–AO3); transactional writing tests communicating for audience and purpose, and technical accuracy (AO4–AO5).

A writer selects facts, details, quotations and framing; these choices can reveal a viewpoint even when events described are real.

Information is a detail or fact conveyed; an idea is the broader point, theme or meaning the writer develops through it.

The writer’s position, outlook or way of seeing and presenting a subject.

What the writer seeks to achieve, such as informing, explaining, persuading, reflecting or entertaining.

The readership or listeners for whom the writer’s content and presentation appear designed.

The attitude communicated through choices of words, details, syntax and style, such as admiring, critical or reflective.

A level or style of language, such as formal, informal, technical or conversational, suited to context and audience.

A topic names the subject; a message identifies the claim, attitude or impression the writer wants readers to take from it.

Information or meaning directly stated by the writer rather than implied.

Meaning suggested by details, wording or context that the reader must infer.

A reasoned interpretation of what a text implies, supported by its details rather than guesswork.

A precise quotation or accurately identified detail from the passage that supports a reading.

Reading quickly for its overall subject, main idea, organisation and general argument.

Searching selectively for a particular word, fact, name, detail or relevant passage.

Reducing its key relevant points accurately and concisely, usually in one’s own words.

Restating a passage’s meaning accurately in different words without adding unsupported interpretation.

Identify the instruction, the question’s precise focus and any specified lines before selecting relevant evidence.

It pinpoints the evidence the answer interprets and leaves space to explain its significance.