Annotating
At the start of both exams, you should spend 15 minutes reading and annotating the sources. Annotating can be highlighting, underlining, circling or writing notes on the text.
Why annotate?
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Keep track of key ideas.
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Help deeper understanding.
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Encourages you to analyse, interpret and make inferences.
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Easily refer back to parts of the text.
What to annotate
You should annotate anything in the text that will help you answer the reading questions. This should be a mixture of picking out parts of the text and then writing notes about it. For example, if you underline a language or structural feature make a note of the EFFECT of it on the reader/ story.
Paper 1
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language techniques and interesting vocabulary
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mood and atmosphere
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structural features
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key plot moments
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development of characters
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your inferences about the story and characters
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links and connection between parts of the story.
Paper 2
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similarities/differences between the texts
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language techniques and interesting vocabulary
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language/structure/tone that shows writers' perspectives
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your inferences about the information
Example annotations
Further Help
