Cupcakes and Kalashnikovs – Eleanor Mills (Ed.)
Read the source material which follows and answer both questions.
Text D
is from ‘The Social Aspects of Birth Control’ by Emma Goldman.
Question 2
02
Imagine that you are a journalist who writes for a Sunday newspaper and you are part of a team contributing to a series of articles on birth control. Your task is to write an article which deals with the changing attitudes to birth control in the early twentieth century. Using the ideas found in Goldman’s piece, write an article presenting the main issues.
You should give your article an appropriate headline.
You should adapt the source material, using your own words as far as possible, without using direct quotations from the original text. Your article should be approximately 300-400 words in length.
In your adaptation you should:
• use language appropriately to address purpose and audience
• write accurately and coherently, applying relevant ideas and concepts.
(25 marks)
Assessment Objective tested on this question: AO4 (25 marks)
Why has the passage been selected for use in this question?
• Interesting ideas that have relevance today
• Focus on "attitudes" and "birth control"
• To help assess candidates’ technical accuracy.
What you might expect to see in students’ answers:
• selection of material directly relating to the subject matter and to the attitudes seen (or hinted at)
• some creative use of the written form to convey the facts: be open to interesting and original ideas/approaches here
• sense of context – some stylistic features and perhaps a clear sense of using the written mode and notion of being part of a larger document
• conversion of first person narrative of source material; use of third person narrative
• convincing sense of written mode; fluency and own register adopted.
Some possible stylistic points students may use:
• appropriate use of register and tone for informative section with a range of source material to help to convey the purpose (inform) of the piece
• clearly structured piece which deals with the material in a logical fashion, not necessarily following the order of the source material
• possible use of emotive language for specific effects.
Mark Scheme – General Certificate of Education (A-level) English Language and Literature A – ELLA3 – January 2013 12
AND
Question 3
03
Write a commentary which explains the choices you made when writing your article, commenting on the following:
• how language and form have been used to suit audience and purpose
• how vocabulary and other stylistic features have been used to shape meaning and to achieve particular effects.
You should aim to write about 150 – 250 words in this commentary.
(15 marks)Aessment Objective tested on this question: AO1 (15 marks)
Some possible analytical points students may refer to:
• comment on register and tone of address
• three or four features from document commented on, eg use of lexis, informative and entertaining language, use of stylistic features, possible use of value laden adjectives
• use of third person narrative
• comment on title
• comment on structure expected for top band.
Examiner notes
