 When it comes to the English language paper two exam, one of the great advantages that you have is knowing the structure and the wording that each of the questions will adopt. Now when it comes to question number two of the English language paper two exam, we always should anticipate that it's going to be a comparative question where you're looking at source A, source B, and you're writing a summary either of differences or similarities between something that's thematically similar within both sources. So as you know that you're going to be writing a comparative question relating to both source A and source B, either in similarities or differences. As you already know that what I want to show you is how to craft a really perfect response and especially a perfect paragraph relating to this question. And I'm going to use the 2020 mountain exam paper as my example. This is an exam where you've got Gertrude Bell in source B. This is a Victorian author who climbs the Meiji and in source A you've got Joe Simpson, who is in Peru and he's scaling a mountain. OK, so this is the question paper in case you want to check it out. Now with this question, I want to use this as an example. However, to be honest with this grade nine paragraph and especially how to structure it, what I'd like to urge you to do is as you're looking through my explanation and how I've crafted this response, try to see how you can make it applicable to other past papers, so to other paper two question twos. OK, so the first thing you want to do is, of course, take your highlighter, look at the question and highlight the key words within the question. Now, I've taken the most important and essential part of this question and it asks write a summary, so it's always a summary question. OK, so write a summary of what you understand about the differences between the two companions, Simon and Marius, because we know the extract, that you've got the main authors and then they both have companions that are climbing and descending the mountains with them in both sources. OK, now the first thing you want to do when you're looking at the question is obviously highlight the key words because these are the key words that you need to make sure you mention and reinforce in your responses. Now, when writing the perfect paragraph, I would suggest make your life easy. Adopt the pill paragraph structure. Peel simply means point, evidence, explanation and link. You start off by linking back to the question. This is your opening point. Then you add some evidence to support your response from both source A and source B. Then you add an explanation in this case, because this is just a summary question. You don't need to include techniques. Just literally launch into what is the key differences that you're supposed to be talking about in your explanation. And of course, in this case, it's a difference in the companion, Simon and Marius, and then you simply need to link it back to the question. That's step four of the pill paragraph. And as you can see here, I have coloured the different steps within the pill paragraph in different colours. Blue for your point, red for your evidence, black for your explanation and purple for your link. So let's have a look at how to open a grade nine point relating to this question. So you can begin with saying firstly, whilst Simon seems rushed and inattentive when carrying Joe, Marius are the keyword in the question is measured in meticulous when carrying Gertrude. OK, so that's the first sentence in my opening point where I'm writing what is the difference between these two people, OK, between the two companions, Simon and Marius. One of them is really inattentive. The other is quite attentive and meticulous. And of course, hopefully you're also paying attention to my use of ambitious language and ambitious vocabulary. But I don't stop there in my point to add just an extra sentence. This may stem, this may come from the fact that Marius is her employee. This is Gertrude, yet Simon is Joe's fellow traveller. OK, so this may stem from the fact that Marius is her employee, yet Simon is Joe's fellow traveller. As you can see here in my opening point, what I've done is I've separated it into two separate points. I've started off with directly answering the question. Here's a difference between Simon, the way he is very, very careless and a bit sloppy when carrying down his companion Joe versus Marius, who's very careful and very attentive when he's, you know, helping Gertrude down the mountain. Then I proceed with a second sentence basically saying this could stem from the fact that this could be down to the fact that one of them is an employee, which is Marius. And the other is just a fellow climber. And this is Simon, right? So Simon is a fellow climber who doesn't necessarily need to worry about making money and looking after his boss. Whilst, of course, Marius has been hired by Gertrude, meaning Gertrude is his boss. So of course, he has to be careful when handling her. So that's my opening point. Let's look at how I have embedded my evidence from two sources. Remember, when you are writing comparatively about those sources, you have to make sure in your opening point, you're talking about them, but also in your evidence, you're finding two bits of evidence. So in source A, Joe is infuriated as he evidence from source A, swore Simon's character to the devil. That's my first bit of evidence from source A. However, now I'm going to embed my second bit of evidence from source B. Yet in source B, Gertrude notes that Marius pulled me up like a parcel, okay? Hopefully, as you can see in terms of comparing both sources, I'm keeping it quite consistent. In my opening point, I've talked about source A and source B. Now in my evidence, I've added a bit of evidence from source A and a bit of evidence from source B. Let's have a look at the explanation. This is where the bulk of your marks are, where you're talking about both sources and highlighting the difference between these two people. It is clear that Simon seems less asidious, which means careful than Marius. Indeed, Marius is extremely attentive to Gertrude as he carries her. It is evident that Simon's behavior stems from his position as Joe's fellow climber, yet Marius' actions reveal he must take great care of Gertrude as her employee. So in my explanation, I have made it really clear that one of them is very asidious. I'm using ambitious language and ambitious vocabulary. However, I've also then stated and reinforced the idea that actually, the reason why they're so different as companions, the reason why there's these massive differences between the two is one of them is a hired help, the other is just, you know, hanging out with his friend, they're climbing and now he's kind of helping him down, because of course we know in the extra that he has a broken leg. So let's have a look at the link back to the question. Hence, whilst Marius seems punctilious, which means careful, around his companion, Simon is less attentive. Simon is more reckless, even if Joe's leg is broken. So obviously here I'm making the note that actually, Simon is reckless because, you know, the kind of equal companion in terms of their status as companions, but actually it's interesting that he's reckless, even if his friend's leg is broken when he's helping him down the mountain. However, Marius appears careful and calculated in his action. So what I've done in my link back to the question is I've made it really, really clear what are the key differences between the two. And I've also made it really clear that it's interesting that Simon, even if his companion has a broken leg, Simon is still way less careful than Marius, who obviously has been hired to help Gertrude and he's taken his job really, really seriously. So that's really it when it comes to adopting an approach and obviously writing a four mark paragraph, right? So you want to aim in this kind of question. This is language paper two question number two. You wanna go for two of these paragraphs, okay? Two comparative paragraphs in order to secure your four eight marks. However, this is how a really good four mark paragraph looks like. You open with your point where you're talking about both sources, then you have your evidence. Make sure you talk about both sources. Then in your explanation, you develop, what does that mean within this evidence, okay? As it's a summary, you don't have to talk about technique. You leave that to question number four. However, in this case, you still have to mention what are the differences before you then link it back to the question. And that's how you write a really good grade nine response to question number two.