Paper 2 · GCSE English Language
Paper 2: writers’ viewpoints
Know the shape of Language Paper 2: two non-fiction sources, summary, language, comparison of viewpoints, then transactional writing.
Paper 2 is two voices and one of your own. First compare how they see the world; then write to make someone else see yours.
The important bits
What you need to know
- 1
Typical AQA Paper 2: two linked non-fiction sources (one often nineteenth-century), then a transactional writing task — letter, article, speech, essay or leaflet.
- 2
Question 1 is true/false or similar retrieval on a named source. Read the statements; do not bring in outside knowledge.
- 3
Question 2 is a summary of differences or similarities, using both sources. Infer, but keep it grounded in what is written.
- 4
Question 3 is language analysis on one source. Same method as Paper 1: method, evidence, effect, with attention to tone and rhetoric.
- 5
Question 4 is comparison of how the two writers present viewpoints. Compare ideas and methods, not the two topics in isolation.
- 6
Question 5 is transactional writing to a specified audience and purpose. Form, register and argument matter as much as ideas.
- 7
Nineteenth-century vocabulary can slow you down. Gloss it in the margin and keep moving; you are marked on viewpoint and method, not on knowing every archaism.
- 8
Timing: leave a full 45 minutes for writing. Comparison is heavy, but an unplanned letter with no paragraphs will drop the easiest marks on the paper.
Go deeper
Two sources, one comparison brain
Paper 2 punishes students who write two mini-essays, one per source, and never put them in the same sentence. Comparison language is the skill: whereas, unlike, both, more bitterly, less certain. Question 2 wants content differences — what each writer tells us about the topic — with inference. Question 4 wants how they tell us: tone, anecdote, statistics, irony, direct address. You can prepare sentence stems without predicting the texts: “Writer A presents X as… whereas Writer B…”. Then fill the blanks with short quotations. Keep the pair in view. If you spend a page on the modern article and a paragraph on the nineteenth-century letter, the comparison is lopsided and the older text’s marks are sitting unused. Annotate both inserts with the same three viewpoint labels, such as “outraged”, “amused”, “practical”, so the essay has handles.
Go deeper
Transactional writing is a real-world voice
You are not writing a story. You are writing to argue, persuade, advise or inform a named audience. A letter to a headteacher does not sound like a speech to classmates. An article can use a headline and a short opening punch; a speech can use repetition and a single anecdote. Build three clear points, each with an example, and a conclusion that asks for something specific if the purpose is persuasive. Direct address, rhetorical questions and lists of three work when they are scarce. A whole page of questions is not rhetoric. If the paper asks for a letter, use a greeting and a sign-off. Form is part of the mark for communication and organisation.
Go deeper
The older text is a viewpoint, not a translation exam
Nineteenth-century non-fiction looks dense because sentences are longer and some nouns have shifted meaning. Do not freeze. Read for attitude: is the writer proud, shocked, mocking, sentimental, coldly factual? That attitude is what Question 4 needs. A single clear quotation of outdated praise, set against a modern writer’s sarcasm, is a comparison point. Use the glosses the paper sometimes provides, and infer the rest from context. You will not be asked to define “perambulator” as a separate question. You will be asked how a writer presents travel, childhood, cities or work. If a sentence will not yield, skip it and take evidence from a sentence that will. Coverage of every paragraph is less important than a fair, comparative account of two viewpoints that a reader of your essay could recognise from the sources.
See the idea in action
Two sources on railways: a modern columnist calls a delayed commute “a daily humiliation”; an 1860s journalist calls a new line “a triumph of English energy”. Question 2 difference: one emphasises passenger misery, the other national pride. Question 4 method: the modern writer uses first-person anecdote and a belittling noun; the Victorian writer uses abstract praise and a collective “English”. Your comparison sentence must hold both.
Exam technique
Turn knowledge into marks
Before Question 4, write two headings in your plan: “A’s viewpoint + a method” and “B’s viewpoint + a method”. If a paragraph has only one source in it, add the other before you move on.
Common mistakes
Do not give these marks away
- 01
Writing about Source A at length and then adding Source B as an afterthought, so the answer never compares.
- 02
Treating Question 2 as language analysis, spotting similes instead of summarising content differences.
- 03
Ignoring audience in Question 5, so a letter to a newspaper sounds like a chat with a friend.
What is the main job of a typical Paper 2 comparison question?
ATo retell both sources in order
BTo compare how the two writers present their viewpoints, using ideas and methods
CTo say which source is factually correct
DTo write your own article on the same topic
Show the answer
To compare how the two writers present their viewpoints, using ideas and methods. The comparison question rewards paired analysis of viewpoint and method. Your own article is Question 5. Correctness of facts is not the mark scheme.
Quick questions
If this is the bit you searched
Do I need quotations in the summary question?
Use brief references rather than long copy-out. The task is to infer and condense differences or similarities, not to analyse language in depth.
What if I cannot understand the nineteenth-century source?
Read for tone and for who the writer praises or blames. Lift a short phrase you do understand and pair it with the modern source. Do not abandon the older text.
How long should the Paper 2 writing task be?
Long enough to develop three points with examples, in the right form, with a clear ending. Two well-organised pages of accurate writing will beat four pages of drift.