WJEC ENGLISH LITERATURE

from the collection were considered and referred to in the essay. Exceptions
to this would be where a single, longer story such as The Awakening is
chosen.
2. Task-setting
Te achers should note the following:
• Tasks should allow students to address equally the relevant assessment
objectives
• Tasks should be focused on comparisons of the two chosen prose texts, with the
emphasis falling on the core text
• Tasks should offer candidates one or more readings with which to engage, or
allow candidates the opportunity to engage with critical discussion
• Tasks should allow students to consider the importance of contexts in the writing
and receiving of both core and partner text, with the emphasis falling on the core
text.
• Setting a single task for the whole group should be avoided: individual interests
should be taken account of, and students should be encouraged to formulate
their own titles, with careful monitoring by the teacher.
• It is not a requirement to nominate tasks to WJEC.
Some useful approaches might be to:
• foreground the core text in the wording of the task
• remember that the focus on the partner text should be to illuminate the core text
• use a quotation on the core text as a focus for the essay in order to give
candidates an opportunity to address AO3
• use the word ‘present’ or ‘presentation’ in order to remind candidates to treat the
texts as literary constructs
• give the students as narrow a focus as possible on the texts in order to stay within
the suggested 1500 word limit
Tasks could be set on texts by the same author, e.g. Forster's A Room with a View and
Where Angels Fear to Tread, or Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Emma.
Tasks could be set on texts from the same period or different periods by different
authors, one or both from the prescribed list of 1800-1945, e.g. Jane Eyre and Wide
Sargasso Sea, The Return of the Native and Wuthering Heights, The Remains of the Day
and A Room with A View.
Alternatively, candidates could study texts of different prose genres by the same author,
e. g. a novel and short stories by D.H. Lawrence, or short stories and travel writing by D.H.
Lawrence, or texts of different prose genres by different authors.
To ensure a firm focus on the core text, rather than an equal treatment of core and partner
texts, questions may be pointed towards a detailed discussion of the core text.
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