Paper 2 — Writers' viewpoints
AQA GCSE English Language revision on Paper 2 — Writers' viewpoints. Aligned to the AQA GCSE English Language 8700 specification. This bank has 18 practice questions on this topic.
Sample questions (3 of 18)
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Question 1
Paper 2 Question 2 asks you to compare the two source texts'...
- A) Spelling differences
- B) Word counts
- C) Information and ideas
- D) Authors' biographies
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Answer: Information and ideas
AQA Paper 2 Section A: Q1 (4 marks, identify true statements), Q2 (8 marks, summarise differences between the texts), Q3 (12 marks, analyse language in source B), Q4 (16 marks, compare writers' viewpoints AND methods in both). Always quote from BOTH sources — quoting only one is a common loss-of-marks mistake.
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Question 2
Paper 2 sources are typically...
- A) One from the 19c
- B) Two pieces of fiction
- C) Two poems
- D) A play and a film script
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Answer: One from the 19c
Examples: Victorian travel writing alongside a modern blog post. Letters from WWI vs a modern memoir. Sources are usually around the same topic so you can compare what they reveal about it. The 19c source can be tough — old vocabulary, long sentences — but the questions test understanding + comparison, not period.
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Question 3
Q4 of Paper 2 is worth how many marks?
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Answer: 16
The standout question of Paper 2. Compare what each writer thinks about the topic AND HOW they convey those views (language, structure, tone). Use comparative connectives constantly: 'whereas', 'similarly', 'however', 'in contrast'. Quote evidence from BOTH sources for every point.
Want to test yourself on the remaining cards for this topic?
15 more questions on Paper 2 — Writers' viewpoints — plus mistakes tracking and spaced repetition across the whole English Language spec.