Comparative Study (Paper 2)
The task
Paper 2, Section II is worth 70 marks. You compare three prescribed texts under one of the comparative modes - for example Theme, Social Setting, Relationships, Cultural Context, Hero/Heroine/Villain, or Literary Genre. Questions typically have two parts: a comparative discussion and a reflective element such as "how your understanding was shaped" or a question on vision and viewpoint.
Core rules
- Compare continuously: every paragraph should hold two or three texts in view.
- Use comparative connectives: similarly, whereas, by contrast, both, unlike, a parallel.
- Balance the texts; unequal treatment is noticeable.
- Anchor each claim in a key moment, quotation or scene.
- Address the mode explicitly - it is the lens, not the topic.
- The vision-and-viewpoint part asks about the worldview each text offers, not just its themes.
Worked example
Question under Theme: "Compare how two or three texts explore isolation." Plan: paragraph one, isolation created by setting in two texts; paragraph two, isolation expressed through relationships in all three; paragraph three, the different resolutions and what they reveal. Each paragraph ends with a linking sentence that compares. A final section answers the reflective part: what the comparison revealed that a single text could not. Reasoning: the question tests comparative thinking, so a paragraph on Text 1 followed by a paragraph on Text 2 fails the mode, however accurate it is.
Traps
- Three mini-essays, one per text.
- Retelling plot and calling it comparison.
- Ignoring the reflective or vision-and-viewpoint part.
- Lopsided treatment of the third text.
- No key moments or quotations.