Using Subject Terminology Well (WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature): Revision Note
Exam code: C720
Subject terminology means the technical terms for literary devices and other methods writers use, such as metaphor, soliloquy or enjambment. Using these terms accurately helps your WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature essays analyse the writer’s methods precisely, which is exactly what you need to achieve the highest marks.
This page shows you how to use terminology English Literature examiners reward, with worked examples from Macbeth, An Inspector Calls and A Christmas Carol.
What is subject terminology?
Subject terminology is the technical vocabulary for the methods writers use to create meaning. Most of the subject terminology English Literature essays need falls into three groups: language, form and structure.
Category | What it describes | Useful terms |
|---|---|---|
Language | The writer’s choice of words, phrases and images | Metaphor, simile, personification, imperative, modal verb, abstract noun |
Form | The type of text and the conventions it follows | Soliloquy, stage direction, sonnet, dramatic monologue, first-person narrator |
Structure | The order and organisation of the text, from the whole plot down to a single line | Cyclical structure, foreshadowing, dramatic irony, enjambment, caesura, refrain |
Word classes count as subject terminology too. Terms such as verb, adjective, abstract noun and modal verb are precise and easy to apply accurately, so they’re a safe choice when you’re unsure of a more specialised term. Use them selectively, though, because examiners advise you to avoid “repeatedly labelling or naming every word class”.
You’ll find a definition and an example of every term in our glossary of literary devices. This page focuses on how to use those terms well in your essays.
Why does subject terminology matter in GCSE English Literature?
The WJEC Eduqas English Literature mark scheme rewards you for analysing the writer’s methods using relevant terminology. Using terms well helps you in three ways:
It makes your analysis precise, because one term can name exactly what the writer is doing
It shows the examiner you understand how the text works, as well as what it says
It saves words, so you have more time to explain the effect of each method
However, a term only earns credit when you explain its effect on the reader or audience, and how that effect links to the writer’s ideas.
Do you get marks just for naming a technique?
Naming a technique on its own earns very little. The WJEC Eduqas mark scheme describes answers in Band 2 as able to “recognise and make simple comments on writers’ use of language, form and structure”. Answers in Band 5 “make assured reference to meanings and effects”. A term with no explanation is therefore unlikely to move your answer beyond the lower bands.
Grade 9 answers don’t need rare or complicated terms either. Examiners say they are “less impressed by the showy use of niche technical terminology”, especially when a term is used incorrectly. The strongest answers choose the right term at the right moment, and only when it helps the analysis.
How to use literary terms in an essay
Here is how to use subject terminology in an English Literature essay, in five steps:
Read the quotation and decide what effect it has on the reader or audience
Name the method, if a term helps you describe that effect precisely
Embed a short quotation that shows the method
Explain how the method creates the effect, focusing on key words
Link the effect to the writer’s ideas or purpose
Starting with the effect keeps your analysis focused on meaning. If you start with a term, it’s easy to end up hunting for devices and listing them.
For example, in Macbeth, Shakespeare gives Macbeth a soliloquy just before he kills Duncan. Macbeth asks, “Is this a dagger which I see before me”. The question shows Macbeth doubting his own senses, which suggests his mind is already disturbed by the murder he’s planning.
What is feature-spotting?
Feature-spotting means naming techniques without explaining what they do. Here is a feature-spotting sentence about A Christmas Carol:
“Dickens uses a list and a simile to describe Scrooge.”
This sentence names two methods, but it doesn’t say what either method shows about Scrooge, or why Dickens chose it. The examiner can see you know the terms, but there’s no analysis to credit.
To avoid feature-spotting, ask yourself “So what?” after every term you use. For example, in A Christmas Carol, Dickens calls Scrooge a “squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!” The long list of present participles, from “squeezing” to “clutching”, describes one grabbing action after another, which makes Scrooge’s greed sound constant and impossible to stop.
The literary terms GCSE essays need most
You don’t need to learn every term. The lists of language techniques GCSE revision sites give you can run to over a hundred devices, and many of them rarely appear in your set texts. A short list of terms you can use accurately is far more useful in the exam.
These are some of the most useful literary techniques GCSE exams reward for each type of text, with an example and its effect:
Text type | Useful terms | Example and effect |
|---|---|---|
Drama | Soliloquy, stage directions, dramatic irony, aside | In An Inspector Calls, Mr Birling calls the Titanic “unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable” in Act 1. This creates dramatic irony, because the audience knows the ship sank, so Priestley makes Birling’s confident predictions look foolish. |
Prose | Narrator, simile, pathetic fallacy, foreshadowing | In A Christmas Carol, the narrator describes Scrooge as “Hard and sharp as flint” in Stave 1. The simile suggests Scrooge is cold and unfeeling, and that he’s difficult to change. |
Poetry | Enjambment, caesura, refrain, volta, stanza | In ‘Disabled’, Owen ends the poem by repeating the question “Why don’t they come?” The repeated question shows the soldier’s helplessness, because he now depends on other people even to “put him into bed”. |
Examiner Tips and Tricks
The most useful habit you can build is to start with the effect, then name the method. Ask yourself what a quotation makes you feel, or what it shows about a character or idea. Only then decide which term describes how the writer creates that effect. This keeps every term tied to meaning, so the examiner can see why the method is significant.
In ‘The Schoolboy’, Blake’s speaker asks how “the bird that is born for joy” can “Sit in a cage and sing”. One precise term and one clear effect will earn you more than a list of devices. For example, you could write: “Blake’s metaphor of a caged bird suggests that school traps the child and takes away the joy he was ‘born for’.”
What does good use of terminology look like?
The table below shows the same point written three ways. Each version uses terminology more precisely and explains its effect more closely.
Version | Macbeth |
|---|---|
Weak | Shakespeare uses a rhetorical question and hyperbole when Macbeth talks about the blood on his hands. |
Better | Shakespeare uses hyperbole when Macbeth asks if “all great Neptune’s ocean” could wash the blood from his hand. This shows that he feels guilty. |
Strong | Shakespeare uses hyperbole to show the scale of Macbeth’s guilt, as Macbeth asks whether “all great Neptune’s ocean” could wash the blood from his hand. The rhetorical question expects the answer “no”, which suggests Macbeth already knows his guilt can never be washed away. |
The weak version names two terms and stops. The strong version uses each term to explain an effect, and links that effect to Macbeth’s guilt.
Version | An Inspector Calls |
|---|---|
Weak | Priestley uses a list of three in the Inspector’s final speech. |
Strong | In his final speech, the Inspector warns that people who don’t learn to look after each other will be taught “in fire and blood and anguish”. The polysyndeton slows the list down, so the audience hears each word as a separate threat. Many people in Priestley’s first audiences would have connected this warning to the two world wars. |
What are the common mistakes with literary terms?
Listing terms: naming three or four devices in one sentence leaves no room to explain any of them, so the examiner has no analysis to credit
Vague terms: writing “imagery” or “language” on its own doesn’t tell the examiner which method you mean, so your point stays general; say what kind of image it is, such as animal imagery or religious imagery
Obscure terms: rare terms used to impress are easy to misapply, and an examiner won’t give credit for a term you can’t explain
Forcing a term: claiming a technique that isn’t really in the quotation makes your argument less convincing, so only name a method you can point to in the words
What if you don’t know the name of a technique?
Describe what the writer does in plain words. Examiners give the same advice: they suggest replacing terms such as “semantic fields or lexical sets” with “simple reference to ‘words’ or ‘phrases’”. For example, in An Inspector Calls, you could write that the Inspector repeats “millions” three times to show how many people share Eva Smith’s situation. A clear description of a method, followed by its effect, still counts as analysis of the writer’s methods.
Using subject terminology in your WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature exam
WJEC Eduqas assesses your use of subject terminology through AO2, which asks you to “analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology where appropriate”.
The words “where appropriate” matter, because they mean you don’t need a term for every point. AO2 is also the joint most heavily weighted assessment objective in WJEC Eduqas GCSE English Literature, at 40% of the qualification, level with AO1.
The WJEC Eduqas mark scheme shows how your use of terminology should develop through the bands:
Band | WJEC Eduqas mark scheme wording |
|---|---|
Band 2 | “may use some relevant subject terminology”: you use a few terms that relate to the text |
Band 4 | “use apt subject terminology”: the terms you choose fit the point you’re making |
Band 5 | “use precise subject terminology in an appropriate context”: you choose the most precise term, at the right moment, to support your analysis |
This table shows how to use terminology in each part of your two exam components:
Component | Section | How to use terminology |
|---|---|---|
Use drama terms, such as soliloquy and stage directions, alongside language terms for the extract. Form terms such as blank verse, prose and rhyming couplets help too: examiners report that comments on them were “a rarity” | ||
Use form and structure terms, such as enjambment and volta, to analyse the printed poem in the first question. In the comparison question, the bullets ask you to “compare how the writers create effects, using appropriate terminology where relevant” | ||
Use terms only when they help you explain the extract and the whole text. Examiners warn against forcing terms in “either incorrectly or very tenuously”, such as claiming “a descending tricolon” | ||
Use prose terms, such as narrator and pathetic fallacy, to explain how the writer shapes your view of a character or theme | ||
Use terms to analyse the first poem in the first question, then to compare the methods in both poems in the comparison question |
Examiner Tips and Tricks
In the unseen poetry section, the comparison question asks you to compare the two poems, and it’s worth 25 marks for AO1 and AO2. One bullet asks you to compare “the poets’ choice of words, phrases and images and the effects they create”. Examiners have criticised “unhelpful references to enjambment and counting lines”, so don’t reach for a term just because it’s quick to spot.
Pick one image from each poem and compare its effect. Name the method only when it makes your point clearer. For example, you could write: “Both poets use imagery of cold. In the first poem, the frost sounds sharp and threatening, while in the second it sounds soft and peaceful, which suggests a calmer view of winter.”
Sources
Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor (eds), 2005, The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works (Second Edition), Oxford University Press
Priestley, J.B. (1992). An Inspector Calls. Heinemann.
Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. Project Gutenberg eBook #46. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46
WJEC Eduqas. GCSE English Literature Poetry Anthology (for assessment from 2027). WJEC.
WJEC Eduqas. GCSE (9–1) English Literature (C720) Specification, Version 4, August 2024. WJEC.
WJEC Eduqas. GCSE English Literature (C720) Component 1 Question Paper and Mark Scheme, June 2025, and Component 2 Question Paper, June 2025. WJEC.
WJEC Eduqas. GCSE English Literature (C720) Examiners’ Reports, Summer 2024 and Summer 2025. WJEC.
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