Does A Level English Language involve creative writing?

So I was thinking as English Language to be my 4th AS Level option. Does this subject involve creative writing? I really hated doing it at GCSE so I want to make sure before I sign up for it.

Reply 1

Rhythmical

Original post by ThomasSidney1

So I was thinking as English Language to be my 4th AS Level option. Does this subject involve creative writing? I really hated doing it at GCSE so I want to make sure before I sign up for it.

Yes it does for paper two and part of its coursework component but a lot of it is technical so creative writing only serves part of it. I recently did my AS English Language and got a B.

Reply 2

littlemix012

Original post by Rhythmical

Yes it does for paper two and part of its coursework component but a lot of it is technical so creative writing only serves part of it. I recently did my AS English Language and got a B.

Well done on your B! Do you do AQA new spec? I also did directed writing as part of paper 1

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Reply 3

Rhythmical

Original post by littlemix012

Well done on your B! Do you do AQA new spec? I also did directed writing as part of paper 1

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Why thank you! :biggrin:

was a shock to the system as everyone in my class was expected to do badly as we didn't get enough teacher support towards the exams as my teacher had some personal issues so we were allowed onto the course even with U grades. And not to mention, we were taught the old spec stuff by another teacher for a while. Yes I do AQA's new spec, reason why I passed was because I read the text book and it came in quite handy. To be fair still can't get over that I got a B, the grade boundaries were low and I assumed I had failed. What did you get, if you don't mind me asking?

Reply 4

littlemix012

Original post by Rhythmical

Why thank you! :biggrin:

Wow that's amazing that you got a B after all that! I also got a B haha but on my results sheet I couldn't see if I got a low B because the subject is reformed which is quite annoying! Especially because we've got to sit it all again next year :/

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Reply 5

Steliata

Original post by ThomasSidney1

So I was thinking as English Language to be my 4th AS Level option. Does this subject involve creative writing? I really hated doing it at GCSE so I want to make sure before I sign up for it.

Hi there, I did AS English Language this year and I'm doing the full A level in summer 2017. Assuming you're doing AQA, the AS paper 2 (if you're sitting that) has a bit where you have to write an article on an issue surrounding language. In the specimen it was about accents and dialects, in the exam it was about gender. Essentially you're writing a persuasive essay on the subject, but making it sound like it's not an essay. It's not too bad and forms a minority of what you have to do overall.

For the full A level I'm not sure what you have to do in the exam as we haven't looked at that yet, but as part of the coursework there's a bit of creative writing. You have to write a piece based on the style of an existing text, which is whatever you want. It has to be either persuasive, informative or storytelling, 750 words and accompanied by a commentary about your piece and its style model. Again, it's not a huge piece of coursework and is overshadowed slightly by the monolith that is the language investigation!

Hope this was helpful :smile: