Paper 02
Day two of the examination is the essay day.
The examination is two and a half hours long. You are expected to answer three questions, one from each module. This means you will have only 50 minutes to plan and answer each question.
Questions 1 and 2 ask for a response in the form of an essay and each essay is expected to be 500 words long.
Question 3 may also require you to respond in an essay format. Sometimes, however, you may be asked to write a speech or create some sort of oral presentation
Each question is worth a maximum of 25 marks.
| Remember when revising for your Module 1 essay, Processing and Gathering Information, revise language strategies and techniques. In the history of the exam, students are nearly always asked to write an essay in which they discuss the above topic. |
A typical question from Module 2 may be structured in the following way.
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Accidents! Drat! Is that what they think they are? These are some of my best laid plans. It is an insult to have them labeled ‘accidents’. A drunken driver gets behind a wheel and mows down three helpless children on their way from school – how can intelligent people conclude that the result is an accident? But who said intelligence was sensible? A mob or rabble rousers scream ‘lawd di pickney dem dead now,’ but that’s exactly my intention. I feel no remorse. I chuckle when policemen try to find out the reasons for these ‘accidents’ because half the time there are no reasons outside my plotting and planning. A judge grants a license to one man to sell cigarettes and makes it legal for another to smoke them, then the smoker goes into bed and falls asleep and two hours later his entire household, including his children, are consumed in fire. Then the news reporter concludes that the fire was an accident. Isn’t that just so lame? Again the cry from the neighborhood mob, ‘lawd the pickney dem dead’, and again I’m amused. When people are careless and refuse to put things back in place or to close cupboard doors after they have opened them, when they decide to take a chance at crossing busy highways displaying ‘NO WALKING’ signs - then what happens to them cannot be considered an accident. Another thing, don’t you go blaming the devil for your carelessness, which is meaner than even he can get. Signed: Devil’s Advocate |
In an essay of no more than 500 words discuss the following:
- the narrator’s attitude to people’s concept of accidents
- factors affecting the narrator’s speech
- how a dramatic production such as a play or a video could highlight the communicative tension between the narrator and his audience