The Comparative Evaluation Question (U/E) Revision

Quiz How many marks is this question worth? Should you pick up on techniques the authors have used? How many points of disagreement/agreement should you aim to make? Should you quote in your answer? Should you express your personal opinion about each passage?

Answers How many marks is this question worth? 5. Should you pick up on techniques the authors have used? No. How many points of disagreement/agreement should you aim to make? At least 3. Should you quote in your answer? Yes – but sparingly. Should you express your personal opinion about each passage? Absolutely not.

Further tips Use subtitles to specify area of agreement/disagreement. Use bullet points but they must be developed. Writing in note-form to such an extent that your meaning is hard to grasp is unacceptable. Start off with phrases like ‘passage one states that…’ / ‘passage 2 states that…’. Use small quotes to back up your point and then paraphrase in own words. Come up with at least 3 areas for at least 3 marks. Leave yourself enough time to complete this – marks can be the difference between grades.

Time to practice COMPETITIVE SPORT Consider the attitude displayed by each writer to the value of competitive sport.  Referring to important ideas in the passages, identify the key areas on which they agree. You may answer this question in continuous prose or in a series of developed bullet points. Tip: read through both passages and note down areas of agreement. It can help to summarise points made in the passages side by side. E.g. Passage 1 Passage 2

Areas of Agreement You may not have exactly the same, but you should have something similar. competitive sport can be joyful and inclusive changes to competition e.g. the ‘zone sports day’ and changing the football scores at half time, are negative and threatening to children’s growth and maturity learning how to lose and how to deal with disappointment is an important life lesson children are best learning at a young age competitive sport can be more inclusive than making no-one a loser: you appreciate the skills of others’, the joy of the race and how to support your team rather than never experiencing the “exhilaration of winning”.

THE IMPORTANCE OF READING Consider the attitude displayed by each writer to promoting the importance of reading. Referring to important ideas in the passages, identify the key areas on which they disagree. You may answer this question in continuous prose or in a series of developed bullet points.

Passage 1 (M Morpurgo) states that there is a divide in society between those who love books and those who ignore them, and that this divide is detrimental to literacy and culture; passage 2 (A. Horowitz) is not worried about who is reading what, when, and feels that ‘forcing’ children to read can be equally detrimental. passage 1 wants the benefits of reading to be promoted to all, particularly with the greater involvement of adults; however, passage 2 resents the blanket idea that reading simply ‘makes people better’, that reading is “some sort of virtue”. 1 states that we should move away from blame and focus on how to solve this problem by bringing back storytelling, reading at bedtime and letting teachers read to their pupils for pleasure; passage 2 is suspicious of too much intervention, with the example of the Bookstart scheme causing concern, as the cosy relationship between Government and publishers could lead to claims of editorial bias or collusion.