Last tips for 'Aspects of Narrative'

Whatever question you are asked in the ‘Aspects of Narrative’ paper, you should always be aware of certain things about the ways in which each author tells the story. Remember that the narrative strategies of each author are really important, and that even if the question does not explicitly ask you about narrative strategy, it does expect you to discuss it as part of your response to the ‘how’ element of the questions.

Remember the Assessment Objectives

For all questions, you should be aware of the importance of expressing yourself fluently and clearly, using appropriate critical language in order to help you to analyse and support your readings of the text (AO1). Although AO1 is not formally assessed in question Aa, it is still vitally important in helping you to put your ideas across clearly to the examiner.

In those questions which ask you to focus on AO2 (Part Aa and B—NOT Ab) you should be conscious of the most important aspects of structure, form and language in your chosen texts.

For those questions which ask you to focus on AO3 (Part Ab and B—NOT Aa), you should be aware of aspects of the text that can allow you to readily engage in critical debate.

Only part Ab will demand AO4, and that context will be supplied by the question itself. In other words, answering the question properly will allow you to fulfil the assessment objectives. However, do be aware that a knowledge of context can sometimes be a very effective way into the AO3 debate

Over the next few days, I shall post a guide about some of the things that it is likely you can use in almost any answer about your set texts. You should be aware of the opportunity to use these ideas. However, BEWARE of bolt-on strategies—there is no one-size-fits-all in this paper.