 Hello and welcome back to another GCSE revision lesson. Now, this lesson is yet another request by you guys. When I put up a poll asking what aspects of the English language paper one exam that you guys wanted me to look at, lots of you, over a thousand of you basically said, please Barbara, miss, please, please, please, could you go over how to answer question number three? This is the structure question where you have to look at the whole source and you are asked how the writer uses structure to interest you as a reader. Now, when it comes to question number three, I would argue that once you are clear on what structure means and what structural devices to look for, actually, it's really, really easy to rack up some really, really good marks in this part of the exam. Remember that question number three? You spend a max of 10 minutes on this question as it's worth eight marks. Try to aim to write two pill paragraph, or maybe one massive chunky paragraph where you just say what's happening at the beginning versus the end before you move on to the other parts of the exam. Now, in terms of what structure means and what examiners are seeking in this question, remember that this question tests your AO2. This is your awareness of relevant subjects terminology when it comes to structure. What does that mean? Structure means beginning, middle, and end. If you simply say the writer begins like this, this is what happens in the middle, and this is what happens in the end, you're talking about structure. Structure can also mean if it starts and ends in a similar way, so it's circular, that's a really powerful structural technique. Structure can also include, for example, if there's, you're focused in one area, so for example, let's say the protagonist or a setting at the beginning, and then there's a change of focus either in the middle or the end, that structure. If the author zooms in on one particular thing, that structure, but also structure includes things like sentence types, repetition, listing, things in really grade nine repetition techniques such as anaphora, but also if, for example, the subject is maybe withheld, right? So maybe if they start off by mentioning a subject, but we don't really know very much about them, and then later on in the text, we learn how they sound, how they look like, et cetera, that's the opposite of anaphora where something is gradually revealed, and we call this cataphoric reference, okay? That's a grade nine structural technique. Now, of course, if you're not entirely clear on what structure means, I have literally created a five minute video outlining all the language techniques and all structure techniques you can find in the language paper one exam, so please make sure you watch that video just to refresh your memory, okay? Now, when it comes to this question, what I'm going to be doing is going over how to write a model response to the structure question in the 2019 exam. So this is the question that came up in the 2019 exam, but when it comes to actually looking at my model response, don't be fixated on the actual paper. Look more at how I lay out my paragraphs. Look at how I begin. Look at how I also constantly refer to the fact that we are always entertained as readers. By the way, guys, when you read in these extracts and answering question number three, how this structure interests your readers, examiners don't actually care about your personal opinion. Even if you read the extract and you're bored to tears and you find it extremely boring, do not say, oh, me as a reader, I'm not interested. I'm really bored actually. Examiners don't care. You're always interested and you're just simply finding structural techniques that justify why you're interested, okay? So that being said, I'm going to dive into how to write a model response for this question, but make sure you think about it when I'm going over the response and how in terms of how you can apply it to other questions, okay? I use the pill paragraph structure. So I'm going to walk you guys through how to answer this question. So let's look at how to answer question number three. Now, the great thing about this question is you always know exactly how it's worded. Now, as you can see here, obviously, I have pre-prepared this question. However, what you should anticipate for the question number three is you're always going to be asked how the writer has structured the text to interest you as a reader. And remember, you are always interested as a reader. Do not say, oh, actually, I found this text really boring. You know, it set me to sleep. No, examiners don't actually care about your personal opinion. You simply just say you're interested as a reader and you find structural points and structural points are even the exam board even hints quite strongly at what structural techniques they are looking for. This first bullet point tells you what the writer focuses on at the beginning. Therefore, they've already told you, please make sure you mention beginning because it's structure. The second bullet point to ask you how the writer changes focus again, how it shifts from one point to another. You can do so by talking about what happens in the beginning versus what happens at the end. That's change of focus. Other structural features can include, as I mentioned, does it start and end in the same way? So is it circular? Do they zoom in on one particular character? That's also structure. Is there any kind of constant repetition or anaphora used focusing on one key character, that structure, but also things like repetition, listing, and so on. Okay. So with this question, unlike question number two, you're not given the source in front of you. Therefore, of course, you need to make sure you make reference back to the insert and the extract itself. This is the 2019 November paper. I'm not going to read through it. You can literally, if you haven't read it, download it from AQA's website. This paper simply just describes two people, married couple, Zoe and Jake. It starts off in silence. You've got Zoe who's at the top of the mountain. She's feeling really calm, composed. She's also really enjoying the view before her. Then as it develops, the silence suddenly gets interrupted by this snow shifting. She ignores what's going on. She still kind of tries to go skiing, but then this shift turns into a whisper than a rumble. Zoe still ignores it and then it takes her husband, Jake, coming in and telling her, look, we're in danger. Get to the side, to the side. This is when she now moves into action to try and escape this avalanche. However, by the time she does so, it's too late. And of course, they both get swept up in this avalanche and the ending ends in silence. Okay. So it starts off by talking about silence, but the silence at the beginning has the sense of promise. There's this sense of promise and everything just seems really nice and filled with silence. But by the end, this silence when Zoe and her husband are swept under, it takes on a more scary and ominous tone. So how could I approach this structure question? Of course, the first obvious thing that would occur to me is the fact that it starts with silence and ends with silence. That makes it a circular structure. So I'm definitely going to mention that. Of course, I'm also going to ensure that I literally take on the examiner's strong hint to mention and to talk about what is our attention focused in on in the beginning of the extract and how does that shift. So I'm going to juxtapose either beginning or end or beginning versus middle. So of course, when I'm juxtaposing beginning versus end or beginning versus middle, my first paragraph is going to be quite lengthy. For this question, you want to aim to write at least two pill paragraphs peel pill meaning point evidence explanation link in your explanation. This is where you're now going into why we are interested as readers before you link it back to the question. So here's my first pill paragraph. It's going to be a little bit longer because I'm going to juxtapose what goes on in the opening versus how the extract ends. So this is how you can write your first pill paragraph. Okay. So starting with my opening point. Firstly, the author successfully interests us as readers. I'm referring back to the key words in the question because they use the calm beginning to put us at ease some explicitly referring back to this bullet point. Nevertheless, as the extract draws to a close, the violent tumultuous noise grips us because we wonder if Zoe and Jake die. So here I am referring to this rumbling, the roaring. I'm basically saying it's gone from being really, really silent, nice and quiet to now being very violent and tumultuous. Tumultuous means unpredictable, scary, and so on. Okay. So opening point. Firstly, the author successfully illustrates interest us as readers because they use the calm beginning to put us at ease. Nonetheless, as the extract draws to a close, the violent tumultuous noise grips us because we wonder if Zoe and Jake die. Opening point. Here's my evidence. I'm going to juxtapose something from the start versus something from the end. At first, it was snowing, yet towards the end, there was a roaring of the avalanche. That's my evidence from the beginning versus end. I'm talking about beginning versus shift of focus. Here's my explanation. Joyce creates a stark contrast between the tranquil, which means calm and peaceful opening as opposed to the noisy ending of the extract. I'm already now juxtaposing the two. This is especially gripping for us as readers because the sudden turn of events is unexpected. So here I'm basically saying while we're interested, we are shocked that this paradise has turned into a death trap for Zoe and Jake. So here I've talked about structure beginning versus end of juxtapose the two, but then I've also made sure I tie it into why is this intriguing for us as readers? We are intrigued because we're left in a sense of shock. We're like, oh my gosh, this paradise has turned into this death trap. That's my analysis and that's where the bulk of your marks, your A02, as well as your interpretation go. So here's my link back to the question, how are we therefore interested as readers? Therefore, the writer begins the extract in a captivating way, interesting way, and the dramatic turn of events keeps us interested. The sudden shift from calmness to violence makes us terrified as we read the passage. That's my first full mark paragraph where I talk about beginning versus ending, and that's a really powerful way of describing structure. Here's my second peel paragraph where I'm going to talk about another structural feature. So again, I'm going to start off with my point evidence explanation and link. Moreover, the writer uses the silence. Now here I'm going to talk about silence at the beginning versus silence at the end as a dramatic device to keep us intrigued and interested in the extract. When you read in the extract that you're presented with in your exam, think about is there anything that's repeated throughout the extract? If it's repeated, you want to mention how this is a dramatic device that's deliberately on purpose used by the author in order to maintain your interest. Indeed, the passage begins and ends with quietness and this circular structure, powerful structure keeps us entertained. I've linked it back to while we're interested. That's my opening point. Here's my evidence. The writer repeated refers to silence. I'm talking about repetition. Joyce, and that's my evidence, right? So here I've literally used the one word evidence. Now here's my explanation. Joyce initially uses silence to depict a calm and tranquil environment. Silence in the opening of the extract has positive connotations. It has positive meanings. And we can see that this silence gives Zoe much joy. Yet this silence takes on deadly connotations by the end of the extract. Again, when you're thinking about how maybe one word is used, you can mention things like what does it connote? What meanings are attached to it? Why is that interesting for us as readers? As Zoe is overpowered by the snow, the silence suddenly becomes ominous, which means threatening. And we are frightened about her safety. Again, that is the bulk of my marks. That's my analysis. And I'm also mentioning structural technique, talking about the repetitive reference to silence and how it's at the beginning and at the end. Here's my link. Hence the writer uses this circular structure structure to keep us captivated as readers. This sudden change in atmosphere makes us keen to discover if Zoe and Jake survived. Try not to only answer with a very obvious predictable, oh, this just makes us want to read on. Say why it makes us want to read on. Okay, you can say stuff like, you know, it makes us captivated, want to know what's going to happen at the end, want to know if they survived and so on. Okay, so that's really how to approach this question. I would suggest the best way to approach question number three is if you feel like, oh, there's a bit too much to do two paragraphs, try to then do one chunky paragraph where you take something from the start, go into detail on that, talk about why it's really interesting and gripping and then something from the end, go into lots of detail and talk about why it's gripping. But if you can, try to aim to write at least two pill paragraphs in order to make sure you're securing those eight marks, but make sure you do this within 10 minutes. Thanks so much for listening.