It is likely, that you will have studied, or be studying, a modern prose text. This would be a book written in the latter half of the Twentieth Century, or in the Twenty-First Century. Some examples include:

Lord of the Flies, by William Golding; Animal Farm, by George Orwell; Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro; and, The Woman in Black, by Susan Hill.

There are, of course, other texts that you have studied which will depend on your syllabus.

When you study a prose text, you are thinking about a number of things, such as:

• Characters
• Themes
• Setting

You will also be considering key aspects, such as the language the writer uses, or how the story is structured (see, it’s those terms again!). In the exam, you may well be provided with an extract from your novel – and as well as write about this, you’ll need to write about other parts of the text that you won’t have in front of you. If you have studied a short story, this is likely to be provided for you, although you won’t know what it will be before the examination.

Modern and contemporary prose might deal with issues that are relevant to our lives today – or, it may well be more fantastical and imaginary. The main advice I can give you here is: know your text well. This will involve re-reading it, making notes, revising from a support guide… whatever works for you!