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Word count for A2 English Literature comparative coursework

Hi, does any one know the word limit for the comparative coursework piece in A2 English Literature? I think my teacher told me 2000 as it gets added to the critical anthology piece and cannot go other 2500? Does anyone know for sure, and whether or not there is leniency for example 10 percent over or under like it has been in the past? Also this might be a silly question but is the title and bibliography included in this limit?

Hopefully someone can clear this up, thanks!

Reply 1

WhiteyBread101

Original post by VictoriaS_xoxo

What exam board is this? :smile:

The title and bibliography are not normally included in any word counts :h:

Reply 2

VictoriaS_xoxo

Hey! Im doing AQA, yeah that's what I thought too but I wasn't sure! I really hope so because I'm going to go way over as it is :smile:

Reply 3

Courtney13jg

It is definitely 2,000 words but you can go over by 10%. I am doing it too. I'm comparing Romeo and Juliet with A Thousand Splendid suns.

Reply 4

catrinakemp21

Original post by VictoriaS_xoxo

Original post by Courtney13jg

It is definitely 2,000 words but you can go over by 10%. I am doing it too. I'm comparing Romeo and Juliet with A Thousand Splendid suns.

I was told that the word count is 1500-2000 for the comparative piece and 1200-1500 for the critical anthology piece but I haven't heard anything about them being added together. Also, I don't think you can go over by 10%. I just had a look and in the examiners' report for Unit 4 they haven't mentioned word count but for the Unit 2 coursework they seem to get quite annoyed about students going over:

"Disappointingly, it is again necessary to remind schools and colleges that the upper word limit forthis unit is 1500 words for each piece of work. With the re-creative response this applies to thecombined word count of the re-creative piece and the commentary. Quotations are included in the word count. If footnotes are used to advance the argument, they should also be included in thetotal. It is expected that every piece of work will be accompanied by an accurate word count.The majority of schools and colleges had no difficultly in submitting work within these limits and thestudents’ work benefited as a result. There were, however, a number of assignments that weresubmitted this summer which were well over 1500 words in length. It cannot be over-stressed thatstudents who go over the word counts do themselves no favours whatsoever. Schools andcolleges must stress this fact to their students. Credit cannot be given for a breadth of response toa task if that breadth has only been achieved by flouting the word limits. AO1 requires a degree ofstructured argument. The criteria for Bands 5 and 6 include the phrase ‘well structured’. It is hard tosee how work which clearly exceeds the given limits can be seen as ‘well structured’ within theterms of this unit.Some schools and colleges seemed to believe that word counts operate within a 10% tolerance.No such tolerance operates."

I know that that is for AS but I would assume that the same rules apply for A2.

Reply 5

crashMATHS

Original post by VictoriaS_xoxo

No 10% tolerance applies. It is something that centres seem to invent and is just not true.

A few words (i.e. 10) over the limit is not going to be destructive, but if you are 100 words over the limit then, as the examiner reports say, how are you meeting the 'well structured' criteria that Bands 5 and 6 have?

Reply 6

VictoriaS_xoxo

Hi everyone I have spoken to my teacher today and she told me that the title and bibliography is not included in the wordcount?!
Also, my school seems to be insistent that the two coursework pieces for A2 are added together and the absolute total for both is 3500 (2000 for comparative and 1500 for critical anthology) but the examiner report disagrees so I'm still confused haha

Reply 7

The Empire Odyssey

Original post by VictoriaS_xoxo

From the AQA B Specification:

The coursework portfolio will consist of:
• A comparative study of an aspect of two textsof the candidate’s choice. This piece should be1500-2000 words.
• The application of critical ideas taken from thepre-released anthology to a text or texts of thecandidate’s own choice. This piece should be1200-1500 words.

Also the title and bibliography are never included in the word count. The word count is only the "main body" of the coursework.