Using Subject Terminology Well (Edexcel IGCSE English Literature): Revision Note
Exam code: 4ET1
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 Edexcel International 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 Great Expectations.
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 students 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.
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 IGCSE English Literature?
The Edexcel International GCSE English Literature specification says that you must “understand and use appropriate literary terminology”, and the mark scheme rewards you for analysing the writer’s methods. 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 Edexcel International GCSE English Literature Paper 2 mark scheme describes answers in the higher levels as giving a “Sustained analysis” or a “Cohesive evaluation”. A term with no explanation is therefore unlikely to move your answer beyond the lower levels.
Grade 9 answers don’t need rare or complicated terms either. 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 Great Expectations:
Dickens uses a list and a simile to describe Miss Havisham.
This sentence names two methods, but it doesn’t say what either method shows about Miss Havisham, 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 Great Expectations, Pip says that Miss Havisham “had withered like the dress, and like the flowers”. The simile compares her to her wedding dress and bridal flowers, which should have been fresh on her wedding day, so her decay sounds like a direct result of that day.
The literary terms IGCSE students need most
You don’t need to learn every term. Lists of language techniques IGCSE students find online 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 IGCSE students can learn 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 Great Expectations, Pip says that Estella gives him his food “as insolently as if I were a dog in disgrace” in Chapter 8. The simile suggests that Estella sees Pip as lower than her, and that he’s ashamed of being “common”. |
Poetry | Enjambment, caesura, refrain, volta, stanza | In ‘War Photographer’, Duffy writes “Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh.” as three short sentences. The caesurae make each place sound like a separate photograph, and show how many war zones the photographer has seen. |
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 Tyger’, Blake’s speaker asks what “hammer” and what “furnace” made the tiger. 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 the creator as a blacksmith, with a ‘hammer’ and a ‘furnace’, suggests that the tiger was made with great force, which makes its creator seem as frightening as the tiger.”
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. 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 Edexcel International GCSE English Literature exam
Pearson Edexcel 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”. The specification adds that you must “understand and use appropriate literary terminology”.
The word “appropriate” matters, because it means you don’t need a term for every point. AO2 is also the most heavily weighted assessment objective in Edexcel International GCSE English Literature, at 40% of the qualification.
The Edexcel International GCSE English Literature mark scheme shows how your analysis of methods should develop through the levels:
Level | Mark scheme wording (Paper 2) |
|---|---|
Level 1 | “Minimal identification of language, form and structure” |
Level 3 | “Sound understanding of language, form and structure” |
Level 5 | “Cohesive evaluation of language, form and structure” |
The mark scheme doesn’t mention terminology by name. However, examiners say that “The use of literary terminology can help to ensure focus on AO2”, because a precise term points straight at the method you’re analysing.
This table shows how to use terminology in each part of your two exam papers:
Paper | Section | How to use terminology |
|---|---|---|
Paper 1 | Use language, form and structure terms, such as imagery and enjambment, to analyse the one printed poem | |
Paper 1 | Use form and structure terms, such as enjambment and volta, to compare the methods in both poems | |
Paper 1 | AO2 isn’t assessed, so terms earn no marks of their own. Focus on close knowledge of the novel and its context | |
Paper 2 | Use drama terms, such as soliloquy and stage directions, alongside language terms for the quotations you find in your clean copy | |
Paper 2 | Use drama terms for a Shakespeare play, or prose terms, such as narrator and pathetic fallacy, to explain how the writer shapes your view of a character or theme |
If you take the coursework route (Component 3) in place of Paper 2, both assignments assess AO2, so the same advice applies.
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Examiners point out that “You do not have to use complicated terminology to gain full marks.” In Paper 2, you’ve got a clean copy of your text in front of you, so it’s tempting to hunt for rare devices. Choose a simple, accurate term, and spend your time explaining what it shows about the question.
This works well for whole-text questions. For the June 2025 question on Macbeth’s conscience, you could write: “Shakespeare uses a rhetorical question when Macbeth asks whether ‘all great Neptune’s ocean’ could wash the blood from his hand, which suggests his conscience already tells him that his guilt will last.”
Sources
Wells, S. and Taylor, G. (eds) (2005). The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works. 2nd edn. Oxford University Press.
Priestley, J.B. (1992). An Inspector Calls. Heinemann.
Dickens, C. (2008). Great Expectations. Oxford.
Pearson Education (n.d.). Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Anthology. Issue 8. Pearson Education.
Pearson Edexcel (n.d.). International GCSE English Literature (4ET1) Specification. Issue 3. Pearson.
Pearson Edexcel (2025). International GCSE English Literature (4ET1) Paper 2 Question Paper and Mark Scheme, June 2025. Pearson.
Pearson Edexcel (2024–2025). International GCSE English Literature (4ET1) Paper 2 Examiner Reports, June 2024 and June 2025. Pearson.
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