AO4
What it says: “Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation.”
What it means: Use specialist terminology and key vocabulary throughout your essay to show a deep understanding of the ideas the writer is exploring. Structure your essay clearly, and spell and punctuate correctly
Commentary:
- Although AO4 on its own is only worth 4 marks, using key vocabulary and structuring your essay well will also increase your AO1 marks
- Using specialist terminology can help you create a “conceptualised response”, which is rewarded with the highest marks
- Structuring your essay into clear paragraphs with clear topic sentences will also help you gain top marks for organisation
Tick list:
- Have I included key terminology throughout my essay?
- Have I paragraphed my essay clearly?
- Have I re-read my essay to check for spelling and grammar mistakes?
Understanding the different levels
The mark scheme for English Literature has six levels, with Level 1 at the bottom, and Level 6 at the top. Examiners do not receive a list of points that need to be included for a student’s essay to achieve Level 3, say, or Level 5. Instead, the mark scheme contains different “descriptors” for each level:
- “Descriptors” are the:
- Features that a response is expected to have to achieve at each level
- This means: How well a student has responded to the question (the overall quality of the answer)
- Skills a student is expected to show to achieve each level
- This means: The specific skills needed to explore and analyse a text
- For example, the “descriptors” for a Level 1 response are:
- An attempt to answer the question (quality of answer)
- A narrative or descriptive approach (quality of answer)
- A simple analysis of the writer’s methods and context (skills shown)
- In contrast, examiners expect a lot more for a Level 6 response. The “descriptors” for Level 6 include:
- Responding to the full task with a well-structured argument (quality of answer)
- A critical, exploratory and conceptualised approach (quality of answer)
- Insightful analysis of the writer’s methods (skills shown)
- An integrated and exploratory approach to context (skills shown)
Essentially, when examiners are putting student essays into a particular level, they are just deciding how well the student has displayed the expected features and skills of each assessment objective. So, if you understand each AO, and what is required for each AO, you will know how to improve.