Comparing Texts - Sample answer - version one
Question
Compare how the writers of Text 1 and Text 2 present their perspective and ideas about life as a writer.
Support your answer with a detailed reference to the texts. (14 marks)
Steinbeck says that the life of a writer is easy because Mark Twain used to write in bed. But you might go to sleep like his father did, so then you won’t write anything. A writer needs to have someone to look after him, like his wife. Then he can tell his story. This is a diary sort of text and is about writing and the writer.
In contrast, Stephen King is not writing a diary. He is writing advice. He thinks you need a good desk to be a writer. You should put it in the corner of the room. You also need a big room, which is spacious. He likes it when his children come to his study and he doesn’t mind if they leave rubbish behind. He tells us that he used to have quite cramped places to work in and now he doesn’t have such bad conditions, but he likes his desk to face the wall and not be in the middle of the room.
Both texts are quite long and tell the reader about writing and what writers do as well. The reader finds these details interesting.
Feedback - basic
This answer is limited because:
it’s very short and has no quotations from the text to support it
it discusses one text and then the other - the texts should be compared together throughout the answer
it summarises bits of the texts, but doesn’t analyse the writers’ methods
However, it does:
use the phrases ‘in contrast’ and ‘both texts’ to show differences between the texts
pick out some examples from the texts
mention the reader’s response
begin to think about text type for comparing the two texts
