Response to literary and non-literary texts, including prescribed texts
What the domain tests
This domain asks you to analyse literary and non-literary texts, including prescribed texts. Questions may cover theme, character, setting, plot, narrative voice, style, structure and the effect of language choices. You must support claims with evidence.
Core rules
- Read the question's key term: “explain”, “compare”, “how” and “why” require different kinds of answer.
- Make a clear claim, then give textual evidence and explain how the evidence supports the claim.
- Use literary terms accurately: protagonist, conflict, motif, irony, symbolism, narrator.
- For prescribed texts, know main events, character relationships and turning points, but do not retell the whole plot.
- For non-literary texts, analyse purpose, audience and tone as well as content.
- Compare texts by criterion, not by describing one text and then the other.
Worked example
Question: How does the writer make a character's refusal seem reasonable? Reasoning: First identify the refusal and the character's stated reason. Then examine the language: does the narrator use a sympathetic tone, a contrast with a foolish alternative, or another character's harsh reaction? A strong answer says: “The refusal seems reasonable because the narrator contrasts it with the elder's earlier warning, which the reader has already seen come true.” The claim is followed by evidence and explanation, not plot summary.
Traps that cost marks
- Retelling the plot instead of analysing.
- Giving an opinion without evidence.
- Using a literary term without explaining its effect.
- Ignoring the genre or the narrator's limited viewpoint.
- Comparing texts in separate blocks rather than by criterion.
- Quoting evidence without commenting on it.