So - what is English Literature? Okay, so it’s books and poetry, plays, too – but at GCSE, you will need to:

• Study different texts, namely poetry, drama and prose. Prose – what’s that, you may be thinking? It’s the study of texts that is not poetry or drama. So, short stories and novels in English Literature.

What will you have to do?

• You will need to write about different texts you have studied – mainly focusing on a character, a theme or maybe an idea.
• You might be given an extract from a play or a novel you have studied – and then you might have to link this to other parts of the text.
• Poetry is important – from poems you have studied, perhaps from an anthology, or you might be given a poem you have not seen before and have to write about it.
• Knowing your texts well is important. Remember: GCSE English Literature examinations are closed book meaning you cannot take texts in with you (but you will be given some extracts/poems to use).
• For 2021, there will be an element of choice, meaning you won’t have to do the full amount of texts.

How will I be assessed?

There are different assessment adjectives (AOs) that are important – but they are not assessed on every question. Here goes:

Reading:

AO1: this is how well you can read, understand and respond to texts. You will need to have a critical approach and use quotations to help your response.

AO2: here, you need to focus on language, form and structure and use suitable terminology to help your response

AO3: put it into context! This is where you need to make links between texts and the time periods they were written/set in.

AO4: this is to do with sentence structure, spelling and punctuation. Okay, it is not as crucial on Literature as it is on Language but you do still need to be as accurate as possible.