GCSE+Non-Fiction+and+Media+Texts

Section A of Unit 1 deals exclusively with Non-Fiction and Media Texts.
__**Click HERE for additional revision materials on Section A tasks, based on your mock exam from December.**__

One way to think of these is that whereas each of the Writing Tasks (i.e. Argue/Persuade/Advise, Analyse/Review/Comment etc.) are asking you to PRODUCE different kinds of writing, THIS part of the exam is asking you to recognise those writing styles in what someone else has written.

Whatever the questions they provide, you can guarantee you will be given two or three LONG extracts of Non-Fiction, and asked to comment on HOW and WHY they are written - and, most importantly, how they use LANGUAGE to get their point across. You might even be asked to COMPARE a couple of different extracts too.

The secret to success with this task is, as usual, practice. However, you could also do a LOT worse than spend 15 minutes each day reading some of the articles on a quality broadsheet newspaper like //The Guardian//, which will show you QUALITY non-fiction on all sorts of topics. Click on the picture to go to their website. And then click on any article that catches your eye. Read it carefully, and then ask yourself:


 * 1) What was the article about and who was it aimed at?
 * 2) How did it use language to get its point across?
 * 3) How successful was it?
 * 4) What else did you find interesting about the way it was written?

If you find the articles in //The Guardian// a bit difficult, it might be worth trying some of those in //The Newspaper//. This is a publication produced specifically for Secondary school students. It regularly highlights the major issues of the day, and presents them in a very accessible fashion. However, all the articles are also really well written, and could prove excellent practice for you too. Click on the image below to visit their site:

Here are a couple of articles from a recent edition of //The Guardian//, which we shall be looking at in class:

Try asking yourselves the questions above after you have read each of these. And remember, you should be focusing on CONTENT, LANGUAGE and STRUCTURE (and, if applicable, LAYOUT too).

You might also be asked to apply similar skills to analyse a LEAFLET instead. Here are some useful examples to study for revision:

Exemplar response

//And remember - like every essay you write - your responses need to be structured in PARAGRAPHS, and, even more importantly, you must use P.E.E. So when you are reading any such article, and you think of an interesting point about HOW or WHY it was written, make sure you can ALWAYS come up with a specific EXAMPLE - and make sure you can explain it too.



Click here to look at other students' attempt at practice questions.//