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GCSE

Hi,
I have my english language paper 1 aqa exam tomorrow, and i was wondering whether i should do narrative or description? any advice would be much appreciated. many thanks

Reply 1

Georgeallen

I would always recommend a combination of both. Being able to write a quality description which is long enough to access full marks is very challenging. Likewise, there is simply not enough time in this exam to create a short story. I personally would encourage you to write a narrative with a lot of description. In that description you can use all you language devices and structural techniques too. You can then drive that forward with the plot.

Reply 2

Anonymous48

Original post by Georgeallen

Thanks, what person do you think i should write in? (1st, 2nd, etc.) many thanks

Reply 3

{Moss}

Definitely agree with Georgeallen. A mix is a really nice way of pushing those marks, and evoking more feeling in the examiner to get those marks. In regard to your recent question if I may, it depends on what you're more comfortable with in my opinion: which do you have most experience with? Don't use one that you don't know that well thinking that it will help get marks, it's much better to have a more confident narrative.

Personally, I think that third person is great if you're taking a large perspective on your story. It allows you to delve into things and give the reader more knowledge, as well as making use of dramatic irony, different locations, etc., all to help build the atmosphere you want.

On the other hand, a first person narrative is good in itself for different reasons. For example, it can be useful to evoke greater feeling in the reader - in a horror, 'my heart felt like it would burst from my chest' is often much more thrilling for the reader than 'their heart felt like it would burst from their chest', as it generates a closer bond for the reader, so can get you nice marks for that strong feeling and tension.

However, that's still perfectly possible with third person, it just requires different methods: rather than the former quote, you might need to say 'they looked around in mounting horror, their breathing shallow, and yet from the darkness crept a hand that, unseen, moved to their neck'. Obviously that's just one genre, but in the end it really does depend on what you're most comfortable with, as both person's are great in different ways.

Hope that helps, and best of luck :biggrin: