Critical Appreciation question English Literature A Level OCR

(Original post by jsg9)
Hi, I did OCR A level English Literature and dystopia was our theme too.

For the critical appreciation question, AO2 is the dominant AO. AO2 is "analyse ways which meanings are shaped in literary texts". This makes up 75% of the marks available. AO3 is worth 12.5%, AO3 being the context AO, "Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written and received". Finally, AO1 makes up the remaining 12.5%, AO1 being "Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using associated concepts and terminology, and
coherent, accurate written expression.", basically, how you are writing and structuring your critical appreciation.

You can find this information on mark schemes from past papers, and it's worth reading the examiners' reports too to see where candidates fell short and didn't quite hit the mark. Obviously, you want to be aiming for level 6 in terms of marks (26-30), so familiarise yourself with the mark descriptors for the level and the AOs.

As an overview, focus mostly on ways meanings are shaped through language, structure and form, link your points to some contextual points (but make sure they're relevant), and write coherently and in a sophisticated style (i.e. move away from the PEE paragraphs of GCSE English and develop a more advanced style). Do some research about writing critically, and read some critical appreciations of your texts (or others) to get a feel for them. One thing that helped me massively when structuring English essays and answers was the concept of a "through line". You want to have this central or focal theme running throughout your essay, essentially the main idea or argument you are presenting, and base your points around this, that's a good tip for developing your style and writing coherently to hit those AO1 marks.