Reading Comprehension and Functional Writing (Paper 1)
The two halves of Section II
Question A (Reading Comprehension) and Question B (Functional Writing) are each worth 50 marks and both draw on the same three texts. Allow roughly 45 minutes for each half.
Reading Comprehension
- Answer in your own words; quote only to support a point.
- Separate comprehension (what the text says), interpretation (what it implies) and style (how it is said).
- A style question needs two elements: name the technique (alliteration, anecdote, statistics, hyperbole) and comment on its effect on the reader.
- The final question usually asks you to compare or synthesise the texts; refer to at least two by name or number.
Functional Writing
- The task specifies a genre, audience and purpose. Adopt the genre's conventions: a letter needs salutation and sign-off, a speech needs direct address, an article needs a headline, a review needs a verdict.
- Match register to audience: a student assembly is not a parliamentary debate.
- Weave in specific details from the texts - figures, names, examples - rather than vague generalities.
Worked example
Question B: "Write a speech for a student assembly persuading students to volunteer in their community." Genre: persuasive speech. Audience: peers, so direct address and inclusive "we". Structure: a rhetorical question as hook, the problem, evidence from Text 2 (a statistic about isolation among older people), a brief anecdote, a counterargument ("you have no time"), then a call to action. Reasoning: the purpose is to persuade, so devices such as a triadic list belong here, and text details supply credibility.
Traps
- Copying sentences from the texts into Question B.
- Writing an essay instead of the named genre.
- Naming a technique without its effect.
- Answering only the first part of a two-part comprehension question.